Andy Herrington

By Andy Herrington

There are so many new and innovative ideas for sales reps to navigate through – and all of them take a whole lot of time. I hear the same thing all the time: how can I have a social media presence, a quality website, design my flyers, write ads, enhance my SEO and ensure my CRM is up-to-date, all while trying to buy and sell homes? Finding focus can be tough. Many sales reps are trapped by an “I can do it all myself” mindset. You do not have to do this business all on your own even if you do not want to build or be on a team.

An average sales rep earns $100+ per hour. So spending your time on tasks that can be easily delegated is harming your bottom line. Spend your time on the higher dollar-producing activities and the tasks you most enjoy. The simple solution is to hire an assistant, but assistants (either full- or part-time) are a costly solution. “What will I have them do? Who will train them? Must I pay taxes and benefits?” So many questions and without good answers, the position is never filled.

The solution is hiring a virtual assistant (VA). This is a person who is somewhere else in the world (no office space needed), who contracts themselves out to one or more companies to fill a role via the Internet. A few of the benefits to hiring a VA include:

* They are contractors, not staff. The government is not involved, costs are determined up front and are billed accordingly.

* You can have a bunch of VA experts working for you for less cost than one on-site staff member.

* VAs cost-effectively free up your time so you can focus on the activities you love.

I’m sure you are asking, how do I find one and keep track of what they are doing? There are numerous companies that will help you find a VA and they all have daily logs so you can see what they were working on all day.

There are companies who find and train VAs specifically for real estate. These are the best because they understand the industry and they prepare the VA for the tasks you require help with. Some even provide coaching for both you and the VA to help make the initial transition smooth and seamless. If you have never had a VA before, this is the best plan for you.

According to Kei San Paolo, the founder of Virtual Workforce Solutions, the best tasks to initially assign to virtual assistants are “routine work that already have a system in place that you can easily check if they are done correctly. As you gain confidence with your virtual assistant, you can start delegating more challenging tasks.” While some companies think that VAs cannot build systems, San Paolo says the very best ones can and do all the time. Some areas you might consider using a VA for:

* Administrative support. Use VAs to help with inputting and enhancing leads, running your CRM and ensuring that your pre- and post-listing and deal processes all happen properly.

* Marketing support. Use VAs to help with updating your social media, design and create flyers, post your listings to Kijiji, Craigslist, SEO, PPC, Local Google traffic and so much more.

* Sales support. Some VA services offer highly trained phone specialists. Use a phone specialist to help you stay caught up with new leads, follow-up calls and past client calls.

For all of these options, it is best to already have a CRM solution in place for the VA to work from, as well as having an instant messaging service like MSN or Google to aid in instant communication.

If you feel that too much of your time is being spent on the tasks that you hate, the solution is to recruit the services of a VA. You will see the benefits quickly in your pocket and in the smile on your face!

Virtual Workforce Solutions (www.virtualworkforcesolutions.com) is one of the only companies to offer all of the above services. I don’t work for this company, but I use their services and refer business to them.

Additional virtual assistant companies include Odesk.com, Fiverr.com, Elance.com and Guru.com.

Andy Herrington is a real estate salesperson who was a high producing phone specialist prior to becoming a real estate coach and inspirational speaker. He is the founder of Powerhouse Coaching Inc. and the author of the book Powerhouse Dialing. www.powerhousecoaching.ca