Hi All,

I was wondering what kind of tasks could a VA perform for a sales rep or an account exec? A few things I thought of were possibly advertising campaigns, travel arrangements, and maybe contact management. Does anyone have ideas or suggestions for others? Anyone have these guys as clients?

Thanks for the feedback!

My one client is Sales Manager for the North East region and what I handle for him primarily are his travel arrangements, emails, calendar, returning calls to clients when needed, PowerPoint presentations, general correspondence, and other little personal things like ordering flowers for his wife etc.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

Thanks, for the feedback! I was thinking of targeting this group but I just wasn't sure all that they do. I'm sure they have in-office support for a lot of tasks. How do you keep costs down when you do mailings for him (that's if he's not local)? If he needs you do to something on company letterhead, how do you coordinate it?

I also, check voicemail and send detailed e-mail to his Blackberry, schedule appointments, travel arrangements. I have a template of my clients letterhead on my computer for when I need to send letters with letterhead.
All postage costs is invoiced back to him as well.

I also have access to the client letterhead files (I keep them stored in a document library online) and usually printing and delivery is set up online with a FedEx/Kinko's unless the client already has a preferred printing company.

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Quote:

I have a template of my clients letterhead on my computer for when I need to send letters with letterhead. All postage costs is invoiced back to him as well.

This is how I do it as well. And yes many companies have in house staff to handle this. I ended up partnering up with him 3 yrs ago after his company downsized and threw these tasks at their sales staff to handle. He expenses me!

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

All great suggestions! I used to work as an in-house Assistant for four Advertising Account Executives, and I did a lot of internet research to find new sales prospects. Then I would call the prospects to get current contact information so that the Account Execs could mail sales letters (which I typed, mail merged, assembled, and mailed) to the appropriate person. I also created and maintained detailed Excel spreadsheets to help the Account Execs keep track of sales leads or upcoming deadlines (for contract renewals, reserving advertising space, etc.). There are a lot of services you could provide from the comfort of your own home to help make a busy Sales Executive's life much easier!

With all the downsizing and outsourcing that's happening more and more, this sounds like a great avenue for you to pursue. Good luck!

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"

Originally Posted by tamm7

I did a lot of internet research to find new sales prospects.

Thanks, Tamm! This is an area I'd need to research more on not only to help a client but my own business as well. I don't have a clue as to where to prospect for clients. Where could I start to find more information on this. Would the proper search term be "prospecting" or "online prospecting?"

Thanks!!

They need a lot of help with sales and marketing projects! I spent quite a few years working in a sales and marketing environment, here are some ideas (some may already be mentioned):

*Mailings
*Appointment scheduling/confirming
*Calendar management
*Email assistance
*Competitive research
*Keeping an eye on the news and sending the client any interesting stories etc.
*Lead management / tickler file
*Sending thank you cards after meetings
*Create / manage database
*Mail out correspondence / brochures

Hope that helps!

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

Originally Posted by rhonmanning

Thanks, Tamm! This is an area I'd need to research more on not only to help a client but my own business as well. I don't have a clue as to where to prospect for clients. Where could I start to find more information on this. Would the proper search term be "prospecting" or "online prospecting?" Thanks!!

As far as internet research for clients, it would depend on who your client's prospective customers are. For example, the Account Execs that I worked with sold advertising into three different publications, one of which was a local wedding magazine. So I would use online yellow pages to search for various wedding-related companies, like florists, bridal gown stores, etc. Or I would use various search engines (I must admit that Google is my fave) to search for the same types of companies within my local area.

Hope that helps!

__________________
Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"