Transcript
Intro:
Hi, everyone. I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Teams podcast, where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate, and keep together highly effective sales teams…teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits.
Along the journey, we also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive you is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So, if you're an ambitious Sales Leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, Stronger Sales Teams is right where you need to be.
Ben Wright:
Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered sales teams. Well, the world’s changing. There are so many opportunities for sales teams in particular to be doing things a lot smarter than they were in the past. So today I have someone that I have no doubt is smarter than me on the podcast, or certainly smarter than me in her area of expertise. Her name’s Carmen Williams. Carmen is the founder of Global Teams, which is essentially an expert business, right. I like calling businesses expert businesses because it means that they’re really good at what they do. But it’s an expert business in helping leaders, sales leaders in particular, unlock their team’s potential by getting rid of all that admin clutter and all those non-revenue generating activities that so many sales teams find themselves doing. So, Carmen works predominantly with sales managers across lots of industries. We’ve had a few chats about some of the industries she’s working with today. At scale, they have a team of over a hundred people that are in their business that’s all about implementing dedicated virtual assistant support. So, the aim here is to help sales reps, anyone in sales teams focus on revenue generating activities, right? Those things that really matter. Building relationships, having good conversations, closing deals rather than admin. So, Carmen’s got years and years of experience doing what she does. She’s got a very nice down to earth style. But I will say if you’re listening to audio, have a look at the video because she’s got one of the loudest jumpers we’ve ever had on the Stronger Sales Teams podcast. For me, she knows how to work out what’s getting in the way of sales teams actually nailing results, practical strategies, all right, things that need to happen to be able to make sure you can do what you need to do without all that admin clutter. So, Carmen, welcome to the Stronger Sales Teams podcast. Great to have you here today.
Carmen Williams:
Great to be here, Ben.
Ben Wright:
So, can you tell us before we get into what we’re going to talk about today, what do you do and what makes you really enjoy it?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, it’s a good question, Ben. So, I support business owners to get really great team members within their business who just happen to be located in a different country. In my case, it’s in the Philippines and South Africa. And so, what I love to do, Ben, is I love to talk to them about the processes in their business. And to go, okay, well, which part could we get someone remotely to do? And then what impact would that have on your business? Can we get you that ROI that, you know, everyone’s after? And so, what that means, Ben, is I get to ask heaps of questions about all different businesses and I learn lots of things about how different businesses function. And that just gets me really excited.
Ben Wright:
Good. We can hear it in your voice. And I will say you do like having those conversations because you hit me up on, I think it was a direct message on LinkedIn as to where you connected with me. And look, I get hit up for, for podcast guest spots, I would get at least half a dozen a week. I’ve got space for one or fortnight. So, there’s lots of no’s in there. But tell me about what you did. Tell me about that excitement. Said, hey, let’s do this. Okay, so we’re going to talk about how we can, as sales leaders or business leaders who are carrying the sales function, the sales load, right? Find ways that either ourselves, if we’re carrying the bag, or our teams can spend more time to their customers. That’s our job today. So, let’s start right, like, let’s rip that band aid off and start right at the heart of it. What are the typical types of things that you see virtual assistants do to help sales teams spend more time with customers?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, so it’s a really good question, Ben. Just before this podcast, I’ve watched one of your videos on LinkedIn about talking about the sales process and refining it. And the first step is your time to respond to lead. And I think that’s a really good place to start with what a virtual assistant can do. So, for example, in my business, I, I have got the amazing Jonathan helping me with my time to lead. So, he’s in my emails, he’s in my LinkedIn, he’s in my Facebook, he’s in every other account I have, and he is detecting the leads, sussing them out, working out whether they are leads or whether they just want to ask me out or whatever. And then if they’re a lead, he responds to them.
Now, occasionally there might be a lead where he’s like, I don’t know how to respond to this one, Carmen. And he’ll send me a screenshot in Slack. But what it means is I can be on a podcast with you, and I know that Jonathan is on the ball so that when I jump off, if there’s something I need to see, he’ll show me. Otherwise, it’ll just be in my diary. So that’s an example in my business how, like, the time to respond to the lead is shortened because I’ve got the amazing Jonathan helping me.
Ben Wright:
I really like that one. When we talk about time to contact leads, so many businesses just get drowned in admin or they’re not near wherever that lead source is coming in from that they just don’t get back to them quickly enough. I worked with a business recently. All we did was increase speed to contact lead and increase speed to quote, and their close rates went up by 65%. Unbelievable. Just from two little changes. Right? And for me, the gold standard is two hours or less. I don’t care if you’re B2B. B2C. Right. If you can be on the spot, even better. But if you can’t get two leads within two hours, you’re missing a trick. So really like that. Cool. What other types of things do you see virtual assistants doing for sales leaders and their teams?
Carmen Williams:
So, I think what I’d love to do is flip the question on the head. Instead of going, well, what can they do? It’s like, well, what do your sales leaders not want to do now, Ben, I do most of the new sales in my business, and I’m tipping you do as well for your business. And what I’ve learned about salespeople, and there might be the odd exception out there, but for 99% of people listening, what I’ve learned about salespeople is we like having conversations, we like building relationships, we like having the chat. But everything else in between, like, it just. I just feel like spewing updating the CRM, you know, sending out that reminder, like, I just don’t want to do it. So, it’s identifying the lead. It’s potentially, in my case, booking them into my calendar. After a conversation, just say, I don’t close it. And Ben says he needs to go talk to someone. And he’ll get back to me in a week. Then Jonathan knows that in a week plus one day he’s going to send a follow up sequence to Ben. And so, there’s like everything around the sales process that doesn’t require a conversation. That’s what you could get support with.
Ben Wright:
And there’s lots of that. Touch points globally have gone up so much. Do you have any idea what touch points to close deals were before COVID Anyone who knows me well will be rolling their eyes right now. But do you have any idea? Have you done any study on this?
Carmen Williams:
I heard that it was like eight, but I suspect it’s more now.
Ben Wright:
Yep. So pre-Covid it was 5 to 6, so pretty close. Post-Covid went up to 12 to 13. And now the latest data I’ve seen is 17 plus. Now, of course this is going to be. You need to take it with a grain of salt. Right. Because it’s different for different businesses. But essentially what those statistics are saying is that customers are doing more research on businesses and brands before they make decisions. And in my book that’s because they just have so much more data available to them. There are so many more ways. If you’re looking at just me as a sales consultant, a strategist, for example, you can find me on a podcast, you can find me on social media, you can find me through my website, you can find me through a blog. You can find me in lots and lots. The list goes on. So, customers are doing their own research a lot more. And for us as salespeople, we need to be able to influence that or steer that in the right direction. So instead of customers finding out themselves, we’re sending them opportunities to do a demo, opportunities to go and do a webinar, opportunities to look at brochures, to listen to, case studies, to deal with someone who has worked with us. Right. We could go on and on and on.
So, for me, we need to be really working that speed of comfort with our business as quickly as we can and as early as possible in the sales process. So, where we can get some support to do the admin task for us, I’m definitely in for that. What about if we look the other way and say what are some of the common mistakes that we’re seeing virtual assistants make or the areas you need to be really focused on to make sure that they’re not reducing your chances of getting sales? I don’t know. It’s a real worry out there.
Carmen Williams:
Yeah. I think it’s really around how you Scope the role. So, I get so many business owners coming to me going, I just want someone to get me leads. I’m like, what do you mean you just want someone to get your leads? Like, what does it like, how do you get leads in your business at the moment? Like, oh, I don’t know. Okay, well, how about you work out a way and then once you’ve got away, then let’s look at your process and see if there’s components that can be done by someone else. So, I think people just wishing that this person is just going to solve all their problems for them. That’s the problem when you just, you know, I just want, you know, someone to give me leads. I just want someone to do cold calling. It’s like, well, you need a whole process, you need a list, you need a. Like, there’s just so much. And so, if you haven’t got your processes right, talk to Ben because he’ll get you sorted and then you can look at getting someone to do components of your processes. So, it’s just people just hoping that someone’s going to magically solve their problems.
Ben Wright:
Yeah. Okay. Thanks for the little plug there. Anything, any other types of mistakes that I’ve heard you talk about? 4 types of common mistakes around virtual assistants. I agree with you, by the way. For me, virtual assistants are not the ones to be generating new leads. They’re the ones to be handling all that work that goes around it. Yeah, you’ve spoken about four of those. Have we hit all of them on the head already?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, so I think there’s a few other common ones. So, it’s also around getting a team member and then not talking to them. Like this sounds ridiculous, but it happens more than we think. And so, when you have a team member start with you, it takes time and energy for them to learn your processes, for them to learn the context of your business. Even if they’ve done the same function in another business, like how it happens in your business might differ. And then even if you’re not delegating to them and they’ve got the processes, you still need to form a relationship with them because you want them to stay with you in the long term. And so, it’s when people stop talking to their virtual assistants that things, you know, start to go wrong.
Ben Wright:
Yeah. Right. And would that mean then getting the most out of your virtual assistants means treating them like any other staff member, spending time with them? Water cooler conversations, which clearly aren’t by the water cooler. They’re over the phone or over video. And any other ways you have ideas around getting the most out of your virtual assistants?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, so there’s, you know, all sorts of things. So, there’s the, you know, share gratitude. Hey, you know, John, I really appreciated you being timely on that. And this is the impact it had. So, make the person feel part of the team. You know, depending on the structure of your sales team, they might come to some of your sales meetings so that they can feel like they’re part of it. Then working remotely is quite isolating. And so, you might have structures to. And games that people can play and opportunities for people to come together and have a conversation. I know with my team, the people that are like, live in the same city, we get them together every now and again to. To meet in person. And so, I’ve never used the word family in my business. Like, you know, we’re a big family. But that’s what my virtual assistants use when, you know, they say it feels like a family. And, you know, you know, I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to retain great people.
Ben Wright:
Yeah, having people feel valued is so important in any business you work with. So, speaking really, really out loud, Right. Running directly into the storm here, my personal experience was I definitely had a mindset challenge around using virtual resources. And look, I should say I’ve been using virtual resources. What are we, 20, 25? I would be, gee, I’d be six or eight years at least, probably closer to eight years that have been using virtual resources for. So, I know them pretty well. But I certainly in the early days had a mindset challenge that said a couple of things. Number one is how do we make sure they’re actually doing their work? And number two is I’m just not confident that they’re going to do it as well as an onshore team, because we can train them, because we can bring them into our culture and so forth. Have you experienced businesses that have those same mindset challenges and what have you been able to do about it?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, so I really do think that those mindset challenges are real. And I think there are some complexities with virtual work, but also cultural differences as well. And so, what I really like to do is work with business owners to help them understand the background the virtual assistants probably come from, like the cultural background. And so, I think once you understand that maybe in the past, showing initiative, they got knocked on the head when they showed initiative. If you understand that, then the business owners, I can work with them around strategies to encourage the virtual assistant to show initiative. But the business owners are then more understanding and more can be more patient around, you know, nurturing that that change. And so, what I find is when I work with business owners, often they come to me because they’ve tried it before and it didn’t work them themselves. But if that business owner takes any ownership over or it didn’t work and then they, then they say something they did that contributed to it not working, I’m like, right, I can work with you. And I don’t need a business owner to be perfect. I just need someone to take ownership to go, okay, I understand that how I am has an impact on the results of my virtual team. And so, once they are aware of that, then I can support them to change their approach to get better results.
Ben Wright:
Okay, how about if they have that initial mindset that says I’m just not sure they’re going to be able to do a good enough job for us, how do you work through that?
Carmen Williams:
So, I really look at the scope of the role and so if you design the role appropriately, the team members in the Philippines are going to be as good and let’s face it, probably better at the detail admin stuff than your salespeople who want to be talking on the phone. And so that’s what people usually find. But the problem comes when they don’t design the roles well. So, they’re like, I want someone who’s detail orientated and likes repetitive work, but also wants to get on the phone and qualify this lead. It’s like, that’s not the same person, dude.
Ben Wright:
No doubt it’s hard to find both. So, do you end up seeing that virtual assistant roles will often get split up? You’ll have one person do the detail and one person do the customer facing front of house stuff.
Carmen Williams:
So usually what we find is people start with the detail orientated team members and then once they get success in that space, because that’s a really low hanging fruit, like that’s easy to implement. It doesn’t take a long time. Like you can get a lot of bang for your buck and time get doing that. Once that’s in place, then they get addicted. Because that’s what happens when, when people get good support, they become addicted and they’re like, oh, what else can we do? Then we have a discussion of okay, well what sort of other functions could we get support with? And you know, if it’s someone on the phone, is it someone in the Philippines or is it someone in South Africa? What’s the phone conversation? Because people who do sales just go, oh, you just call the person and work out if they’re a real lead. Yeah, well, there’s like a million steps in that, dude. So, we need to break it down for our team member, because sometimes we’re, as salespeople, we’re not aware of our own genius.
Ben Wright:
Yeah, I’ve certainly seen a lot of brilliant salespeople who do it well, but when you ask them to write down how they do it well, they tend to stumble. Okay, so you mentioned South Africa there. So South Africa, Philippines, Vietnam. Still the same places for hotspots, for virtual resources, or is something changing?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, so I. For many, many years, I had my team exclusively in the Philippines. And I had someone ask me at the start, like, why did you start with the Philippines? And I’m like, well, I just started there and it worked. So, I just continued. I haven’t tried Vietnam, but. And the reason we went to South Africa is because we had our Australian account manager, you know, leave. She got married and she wanted to study, you know, study Indian medicine. And we just couldn’t hire in Australia. And so, to solve our own problem, we went to South Africa. And then once we went to South Africa, we’re like, oh, my goodness, there are so many amazing people here doing all sorts of really cool roles, including sales. And so, then we got support in our business, and then we’ve been able to help other people. And so we, most of our roles, we feel, are supportive roles for sales teams, but we have actually got some BDM roles who work independently within some of our small business clients.
Ben Wright:
Okay, so thank you. And I’m certainly hearing more about Africa, South Africa as a place to be sourcing virtual staff. Absolutely. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it. Okay, so if you’re wanting to start on your journey of taking some admin off your team and putting it over into virtual assistants, how would you start? Where would you take the first step from?
Carmen Williams:
I think you’d probably have a chat to your team about the things that they hate doing or the things that they’re really bad at, like where they’re like, oh, just keep on forgetting to update this or whatever and get a list of the admin things and then go, okay. Is it reasonable to be able to expect one person to be able to do this? Probably the answer is yes. And then. Then you go, okay, well, what. How does this person need to work? Because our salespeople, we love people who are animated and want to have a chat and all that stuff. But you Know what? Your detail admin person is probably not that affable, outgoing person that we’re attracted to. So, you need a higher force the role. So, you want that detail organized doer who’s consistent and, you know, likes ticking things off and likes process to be able to do that admin role.
Ben Wright:
Okay, so get your tasks listed down, design the scope of the role carefully and then hire someone that’s going to be able to do that role. Keeping in mind that detailed people are generally not as strong at the front of house comms and front of house comms people certainly in my experience aren’t generally as strong as the administrative. It’s rare to be able to same in sales. It’s rare to be able to find a really good farmer and a really good hunter in the same skill set.
Ben Wright:
Okay, great. All right. We’ve covered lots of things. Any other last bits of advice for sales leaders when it comes to getting set up to outsource some of their tasks?
Carmen Williams:
So, I think if you do have some of the mindset challenges, like, that’s fine. When I start getting support in a new area of my business, I get nervous as well because I’ve got all those challenges that come up for me. But the thing is, it’s working for other people. It’s working for so many other people. And if you don’t get it working for you, you’re going to be behind the eight ball. And so, I really think it’s worthwhile trying it even, you know, messing it up a little bit or, you know, getting support to get it right because I just see that there’s no other way.
Ben Wright:
Yeah. Okay, great. So, it sounds like just get started. I mean that’s, that really is the piece around done is better than perfect. Progress over perfection. We could go on and on, but just making sure you move things forward one bit at a time is the way to improve that 1% every day. And we know those numbers are really impactful long term. Okay, great. Thank you. Carmen Williams from Global Teams. Where can people find you if they’d like to get in touch?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah. Globalteams.com.au.
Ben Wright:
Easy, easiest way social media, anything like that?
Carmen Williams:
Yeah, I’m on all social media as well. LinkedIn, Facebook.
Ben Wright:
Excellent. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for today, Carmen. We’ve had a good look at offshoring of resources, what we can do to get our sales teams focusing more on our customers. So, I really, really appreciated your time. Hopefully we’ll have you back again one day and we can hear when offshoring changes again. In 12 months’ time and when we layering in AI and all those wonderful things we’ll get an update from you.
So, everyone else please keep living in a world of possibility and you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve. Bye for now.
Less Admin More Selling with Carmen Williams
