Today’s REI Classroom Lesson
John Martinez explains the best positions for your virtual assistants. Besides administrative work, they can be fantastic at screening calls with a script you’ve provided, for example.
REI Classroom Summary
It’s important to train each virtual assistant well and provide detailed tasks for them. Repetitive tasks that follow a set of guidelines are sometimes best left to the virtual assistants, leaving you to focus on growing your business.
Listen to this REI Classroom Lesson
Real Estate Investing Classroom Show Transcripts:
Mike: Welcome back to the flipnerd.com REI Classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.
John: Hi, this is John Martinez with Midwest Revenue Group. This is REI Classroom. Today, I want to talk about where virtual assistants can best be leveraged in your sales process.
Mike: This show is sponsored by passiverental.com.
John: So especially this last one or two years, virtual assistants have been really leveraged in the REI industry for all kinds of things from answering phone calls, returning leads, scraping data off of multiple websites, and just doing basic admin tasks. So nowadays, we’re seeing more and more virtual assistants inserted somewhere into the sales process, taking on some kind of a sales role. So there are specific roles that they’re really better equipped to handle than others so if you want to get the best results out of your virtual assistants and you want to leverage that asset or that resource the best you can, there are a couple specific places where you really want to focus.
Now, it’s important to know a couple of things about virtual assistants. I work with a lot, I train tons of them so I’ve been able to pick up on a lot of different cues and, really, see a lot of different . . . pick up on a lot of different patterns. So what I see with virtual assistants is this: The more complex the phone call, the poorer results you’re going to get. You want to keep them in very simple roles.
So here’s what I mean by that. virtual assistants are absolutely fantastic at outbound calls to uncover leads. Calls where you’re calling a list or Zillow leads, or just some type of contact where the conversation is basically, “Hi, this is my name, this is the company I represent. Do you have any interest at all in hearing an offer on your home? We’re looking to buy properties in the area.” It’s short, it’s sweet. The rebuttals can also be short and sweet, “Hey, are you sure? It only takes a second and, then, if you ever sell, you’ll know exactly what we pay for your house.” So the conversation is short and sweet, the rebuttals are simple and easy, there are not very many variations. That, they can learn and do very well.
What VAs do better than almost anyone else I’ve seen, and I’ve worked with a lot of call centers and phone people, they will stick to a script. That’s their greatest strength and their greatest weakness, okay? If it’s not written in the script, we have terrible times. If it’s written in the script and we can write basic sales process into the script, no matter what it says, they will read it word for word. So simplicity is the key there. Those outbound calls are really where you gain a lot of leverage because it’ll cover a lot of ground very, very quickly.
Now, that’s not to say that virtual assistants can’t be used in a more complex role. We’ve seen some virtual assistants who really excel. Now, the more complicated that call is, though, the more training you have to put in. So whereas state-side call centers and telemarketers, you might train them for a number of hours or weeks, sometimes it takes two to three times as long to train a virtual assistant to do the same thing because you have to train them to pick up on certain social cues, there are some language barriers you have to cross, it just takes a little bit more time. The capacity is there, they can learn, it just takes a little more time. So where I see virtual assistants best leveraged in the sales process is outside calls, prospecting for new leads.
My name’s John Martinez. Midwest Revenue Group is my company. You can find it at midwestrev.com, and this has been REI Classroom.
Mike: passiverental.com is your source for turnkey done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit passiverental.com to learn how to purchase cash flowing, professionally managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today and get started by visiting passiverental.com.
Please note, the views and the opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of flipnerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of flipnerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at flipnerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at flipnerd.com/shows or simple search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
John: Hi, this is John Martinez with Midwest Revenue Group. This is REI Classroom. Today, I want to talk about where virtual assistants can best be leveraged in your sales process.
Mike: This show is sponsored by passiverental.com.
John: So especially this last one or two years, virtual assistants have been really leveraged in the REI industry for all kinds of things from answering phone calls, returning leads, scraping data off of multiple websites, and just doing basic admin tasks. So nowadays, we’re seeing more and more virtual assistants inserted somewhere into the sales process, taking on some kind of a sales role. So there are specific roles that they’re really better equipped to handle than others so if you want to get the best results out of your virtual assistants and you want to leverage that asset or that resource the best you can, there are a couple specific places where you really want to focus.
Now, it’s important to know a couple of things about virtual assistants. I work with a lot, I train tons of them so I’ve been able to pick up on a lot of different cues and, really, see a lot of different . . . pick up on a lot of different patterns. So what I see with virtual assistants is this: The more complex the phone call, the poorer results you’re going to get. You want to keep them in very simple roles.
So here’s what I mean by that. virtual assistants are absolutely fantastic at outbound calls to uncover leads. Calls where you’re calling a list or Zillow leads, or just some type of contact where the conversation is basically, “Hi, this is my name, this is the company I represent. Do you have any interest at all in hearing an offer on your home? We’re looking to buy properties in the area.” It’s short, it’s sweet. The rebuttals can also be short and sweet, “Hey, are you sure? It only takes a second and, then, if you ever sell, you’ll know exactly what we pay for your house.” So the conversation is short and sweet, the rebuttals are simple and easy, there are not very many variations. That, they can learn and do very well.
What VAs do better than almost anyone else I’ve seen, and I’ve worked with a lot of call centers and phone people, they will stick to a script. That’s their greatest strength and their greatest weakness, okay? If it’s not written in the script, we have terrible times. If it’s written in the script and we can write basic sales process into the script, no matter what it says, they will read it word for word. So simplicity is the key there. Those outbound calls are really where you gain a lot of leverage because it’ll cover a lot of ground very, very quickly.
Now, that’s not to say that virtual assistants can’t be used in a more complex role. We’ve seen some virtual assistants who really excel. Now, the more complicated that call is, though, the more training you have to put in. So whereas state-side call centers and telemarketers, you might train them for a number of hours or weeks, sometimes it takes two to three times as long to train a virtual assistant to do the same thing because you have to train them to pick up on certain social cues, there are some language barriers you have to cross, it just takes a little bit more time. The capacity is there, they can learn, it just takes a little more time. So where I see virtual assistants best leveraged in the sales process is outside calls, prospecting for new leads.
My name’s John Martinez. Midwest Revenue Group is my company. You can find it at midwestrev.com, and this has been REI Classroom.
Mike: passiverental.com is your source for turnkey done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit passiverental.com to learn how to purchase cash flowing, professionally managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today and get started by visiting passiverental.com.
Please note, the views and the opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of flipnerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of flipnerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at flipnerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at flipnerd.com/shows or simple search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
