Here are some of the things you might have in place before engaging an Account Manager
- Business plan – or at least a rough guide on what you want to achieve over the next year
- Marketing Plan – running alongside your business plan, what are your marketing plans and budget to ensure you have strategies for business growth
- Effective communication process – knowing the way that you work and how you would like to communicate with your staff…
- CRM for database management
- Online project management system
- Business number that can be diverted to a landline so that we can answer your calls
- Procedures Manual or Operations Manual for your current processes
- Any other staff within your business
So now you have decided you are going to run a seminar series to attract new clients to your business. Key objectives are to educate your potential clients on the services you offer and deliver key strategies they can use to grow their own business.
Here are some of the things you should think about before deciding if it is worthwhile to go ahead with the event:
- Who is your target market? Think about where they are located, what their concerns are within their business, what limits their group?
- Develop key objectives to offer solutions for these clients and write the marketing spiel to attract clients to events.
- Review budgetry requirements for the individual event and series. List all of the expenses and costs to discover how many people you need to attend the event to make a small profit.
- Include: venue, catering, parking, staff, location, time to put the seminar series together, time to develop workbooks and presentations.
- Online and Offline Marketing – marketing and promotional material, signage, booking procedures (on or offline ticketing systems), processing payments, forms, certificates etc…
Gosh the list is never ending, but really make sure you include everything so that you get a good idea of the cost of the event and whether it really is worthwhile to go ahead.
- Employ a team of Virtual Phone Answering Receptionists who are dedicated to your business, offered customised answering for all calls…
- Managing payments – if you have ongoing products and payments that need to be made or processed your Virtual Assistant can do this remotely for you.
- Warehousing – as well as sending out packages/letters and then following up with an email confirmation – this type of service is seen as excellent customer service
- Utilise the Virtual Assistant to be the constant customer contact person – following up on any enquiries, changes in appointments, queries on services etc
- Manage your Inbox – have your Virtual Assistant answer emails for you so that they can manage your inbox and ensure all enquiries are being followed up
- Updating of your website – the Virtual Assistant can upload new articles or content and keep all files up to date
- Database management – looking after all your customers and clients by keeping accurate records
- Marketing – utilise a Virtual Administrator to assist in marketing your business through email campaigns, newsletters, mailouts, follow up to orders etc
- Event Management – using on online ticketing systems speeds up the process for managing events, clients, customers, and orders
- Virtual Administration Services – an office manager can manage all administration for your business virtually so that the perception of your business is one of a team and not a sole trader managing all aspects of the business
Are you productive?
Do you tick off your lists at the end of each day or are you always adding to that list?
Do you get sidetracked easily and off task doing all the easy things first….? Perhaps you need to talk to us to ask how we can increase your productivity and time management… Call us on 9271 8222 to find out more…
To grow your business you need to be able to look at the business as a whole, dividing the business up into segments and reviewing the tasks that are imperative to the business but could be done by someone else rather than yourself.
- List the administration tasks that take up your time on a daily and weekly basis – the VA can usually offer some solutions to streamline some of your processes to ensure better use of time.
- Arrange for someone else to manage your appointments and diary
- Set up a policy and procedures manual for your business – this is imperative if you would like to have your business run in a smooth and efficient manner
- Utilise the VA to be the constant customer contact person – following up on any enquiries, changes in appointments, queries on services etc
- Create marketing timeframes – review your marketing strategies and utilise the VA to upload articles to your website, blogs, ezines, forums etc. Social networking is time consuming and your VA can assist in how best to use this type of marketing
- Managing payments – if you have ongoing products and payments that need to be made or processed your VA can do this remotely for you. As well as sending out packages/letters and then following up with an email confirmation – this type of service is seen as excellent customer service
- Research – so important for keeping on top of the latest trends, products or services, it is very time consuming and your VA can do this research for you in a timely manner. Also researching other cost saving techniques for processes eg. Purchasing supplies, equipment etc
- Marketing strategies – if you consistently write articles, white papers or send out press releases your VA can assist in getting these out to the appropriate sources
- Instigating, writing, editing and producing newsletters for your clients – either hard copy of through an email campaign program
- Website development – use your VA to manage enquiries, purchasing products, updating articles and content and keeping all information up to date
