Exploring Whether Virtual Assistants Can Boost Sales Performance
Tags: virtualassistant, ai, sales
Published: 2024-03-18 06:23:42

Articles in publications like Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Entrepreneur have covered companies using virtual assistants (VAs) to support sales teams. While we cannot guarantee results for any business, their in-depth reporting provides useful case studies and best practices for consideration.

**What Sales Duties Do Articles Document Virtual Assistants Providing?** 

According to HBR, some companies have utilized VAs for supplementary sales tasks like scheduling calls, processing orders, finding contact information, data entry, customer service inquiries, and analyzing performance data. For example, one company profiled increased productivity by over 20% by passing those responsibilities to VAs. Their sales reps could then focus time on high-value work like cold calling, lead nurturing, and negotiating deals. While individual outcomes vary, this case exemplifies how strategically leveraging VAs may free up internal capacity.

Forbes shared another company that applied VAs to respond to common pre-sales customer queries. By promptly handling general questions about products, purchases, shipping, returns, and account issues, their VAs enabled sales reps to concentrate time on revenue-driving relationships. This demonstrates how VAs can provide administrative assistance to support the sales journey rather than necessarily close deals directly themselves.  

Entrepreneur also cited research that small businesses utilizing chatbot VAs for customer questions saw over 30% higher conversion rates. As online shopping has increased, promptly resolving common inquiries to drive sales has become vital. Offloading that workload may better empower in-person sales teams.

**Summarized Best Practices for Implementation  **

Articles consistently emphasize clearly documenting processes and expectations when onboarding any VA. They also encourage maintaining open communication channels so VAs can surface clarifying questions. Treating them like integrated team members, rather than just transient contractors promotes cooperation.

Forbes also underscores closely tracking the specific metrics and work of sales VAs from the start. While hoping for seamless success, establishing accountability ensures visibility into the customer interactions happening on the company’s behalf. Paired with thorough training, such monitoring reduces risk when applying VAs to impact revenue generation.

**Potential Benefits Explored in Coverage**

If able to effectively integrate VAs, businesses may see increased flexibility and potential cost differentiation based on media projections. Because VAs have lower overhead than traditional hires, they may offer over 30% compensation savings in some models per Forbes estimates. Their scalability also allows seamless growth into sales spikes or busy seasons without committed headcount expansion and HR paperwork.

Of course, financial impacts would vary individually based on the provider engagement model and workload balance chosen. But analysts across top outlets project material savings and efficiency gains are achievable when delegating administrative and supplemental sales tasks to VAs. The increased capacity for revenue-focused activities may also drive higher total conversion results.

**Steps to Consider When Exploring Application **

While not universally one-size-fits-all, common guidance for exploring sales VAs includes:

1. Set clear goals and metrics for VA success, tied directly to sales objectives like lead response times, calls made per day, or customer satisfaction scores.

2. Audit current workload to identify administrative and supplementary tasks to delegate to VAs, freeing up sales team capacity for high-dollar activities.  

3. Onboard and train VAs thoroughly on company sales processes before deploying them to interact with leads and customers. 

4. Actively monitor initial workload and performance with transparent tracking and open communication channels. 

5. Quantify impact over time based on key performance indicators, refining responsibilities as needed to optimize differentiated results.

**Conclusion**

Exploring the integration of virtual assistants into sales workflows, whether for administrative delegate or [customer insights](https://www.dialpad.com/blog/customer-insights/) collection, requires research on providers and careful planning tailored to individual business contexts. But analyzing articles on companies finding smart VA application improved results provides useful benchmarks.