At our monthly NCAE meeting Monday night, our guest speaker was Anne Sandler of PIZZAZZ Communications. She spoke to us about how we could each develop our USP – Unique Selling Proposition. Anne explains that your USP is your ultimate benefit statement. It should be one line and stated in about 7 seconds.

To develop your USP, write down who your customers are and what their needs are. Then write down your services and what you do to fulfill your client’s needs. Then what’s in it for your client? How do your services benefit them? Then you can take that to write down your Unique Selling Proposition.

Here at Chief Virtual Officer, our USP is: “I help my clients go from employee to entrepreneur.”

Tomorrow is the day! We’re launching our monthly group coaching calls.

Join us for April’s Group Coaching conference call on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 11:00 am PST. We have arranged our schedule for a 60-minute call. If we need to stay on the call for 90-minutes, we’ve left our schedule open to accommodate that so you get all your questions answered.

All who register will receive by email after the call:

• John Jantsch’s 17-page report 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success
• Bonus Tips: Grow Your Business as a Chief Virtual Officer, a 10-page report

Win a copy of the book, Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch! Each attendee during the live call will be entered into a drawing and the winner will be announced at the end of the call.

On this call you will learn:

• Basic concepts of permission marketing
• Dos and Don’ts of marketing your virtual assistant services
• The importance of marketing by networking
• and more…

Register for the call. Only $20!

Everyone wants more business. We want more prospects to become clients and buy from us. We attend networking events hoping to find good leads. As we meet new people, we tend to come right out and ask, ‘do you want to buy from me?’ Do you like it when someone approaches you at a networking meeting and tells you all about how they can help you but never asks you about your business? Of course not! This is a great way to turn off prospects.

Instead of approaching people at networking events with the idea of pushing your business, attend with the thought of getting to know other people and their business. You start to develop relationships that build to a point where you can know what the other person actually needs and if they need your services.

We’ll talk about this in greater detail in our group coaching calls in May. Learn more at the Chief Virtual Officer website.

Everyone I’ve talked to recently says they need help refining their marketing message. They want prospects to pay attention and aren’t sure why they aren’t attracting their ideal client.

Your marketing messages should be clear and full of value. If all you do is say, ‘hire me’, your message is vague and does not offer your prospects any reason to find your services valuable.

Examine each marketing message your create and include these 4 items:

1. Your ideal client should find your messages appealing
2. Describe the challenge your prospects are facing
3. Describe the solution you will provide
4. Include a story of how you’ve helped someone else

Once your prospects can see that you are talking to them, understand their challenges, can provide a workable solution and can back it up with a story of how you’ve helped someone else, they are much more likely to pay attention and ask you how you can help them.

The virtual assistant (VA) industry is rapidly growing. I had an opportunity recently to meet several new and aspiring VAs. Since my husband has been a web designer since the 90′s, I’m always interested to see how other VAs structure their website. In the process of review several VA sites, I noted several ways that they could be improved.

I’ve made some recommendations to a few and received positive feedback. Here are some of the recommendations I’ve made:

“Since you and I and many service providers don’t have actual product, our service and business is us as individuals. You are your business and in order for people to trust you enough to give you their business, they need to get to know you as a person. For that reason I highly recommend that you re-word your content so that it’s coming from you as an individual and doesn’t seem to be coming from some larger, impersonal group of people. Sometimes we VAs think that we need to look bigger than we really are. However, I’ve found that more people respond when they know they are dealing with an individual. As the business has grown, my clients and prospects know I have a team to back me up so that I’m not actually doing all the work and being overloaded. Yet they still know me as an individual.

“Another aspect of your prospects and clients getting to know you as a person and feeling a greater sense of trust is visual. I have found more response when prospects can ‘see’ my face, my photo. Most have commented that they turn away from service providers who do not put their photo on their website. It makes them wondering what you’re trying to hide. It doesn’t have to be done professionally and cost a lot of money. In fact my daughter does photography and could probably get a great ‘business casual’ photo of you if you don’t already have one. Again, I strongly recommend you put your photo on your website as it creates a stronger connection and feeling of trust.

“I noticed you don’t have specific rates listed. There’s a lot of various opinions on this matter. So here’s mine. In our businesses we have found that posting specific rates increases a prospect’s trust and their willingness to contact us. Personally if a website doesn’t post their rates, I’ll go find another one that does. I don’t want to be surprised after having done all the work to find a provider that meets all my expectations but then I have to call to find out their rates are just impossible.

“And one last thing. Since your business is specific to a particular industry, build on that. Your web content should very clearly state who your ideal client is. The services you offer should indicate that very clearly. A little bit of rewriting of your web content, particularly on your services page, would help you define your niche market more clearly.”

The responses I’ve received include:

“Thank you for taking the time to review my website. I really appreciate it and will absolutely be taking your advice.”

“I did make the changes you suggested. “

“Thanks for the suggestion and comments about my website.  I already updated the figure you mentioned.”

6 Tips for Improving Your VA Website

1. Get professional help to build or update your website. If you already know how to create a professional-looking website, that’s great! But if you don’t and are trying to build a site for the first time with tools you are not familiar with, you’re likely to end up with an amateurish-looking website. Do your research and get references from the web designer.
2. Write your web copy to reflect who you are. Write about yourself using ‘I’ and ‘my’. You are a service provider and as such need to sell yourself. You need to develop a trusting relationship with your prospective client. This can only happen if they can learn more about you, who you are, what you like. Write about yourself, why you chose to be a VA, a bit about what you enjoy doing. This helps your prospect get to know you, feel comfortable and come to trust you.
3. Use your photo. There will be a stronger connection and feeling of trust if a client can at least see your photo since you may never meet in person.
4. Be consistent. You need a consistent look on your website, on each page, and in your navigation. Otherwise your visitor may get confused or at least feel disconnected as they navigate through your website. This includes using the same color theme and basic layout on each page.
5. Provide valuable content. Don’t just copy every other VA’s site with “What’s a VA?” or “List of Services”. Create information that’s specific to your target so they’ll be educated and know that you’re the right person for them.
6. Post your rates. Some VAs don’t post specific rates and only refer to vague discounts. Don’t surprise your prospects with your rates when they contact you. Let them know up front what to expect. Make sure to calculate an appropriate rate. You may want to speak to a business coach or another experienced VA to find out how to determine an appropriate rate.

Please let me know what you think of these tips. Do you agree or disagree? Why?