I'm maxed out on time and can't do prospecting and auditing simultaneously. Thinking about hiring a virtual assistant to handle initial outreach - sending introductory emails, following up on leads, scheduling calls. Has anyone tried this?
Hiring a Virtual Assistant for Lead Generation
I hired a VA about 2 years ago for exactly this. She handles all my LinkedIn outreach, sends personalized emails to prospects I identify, and follows up on dormant leads. Costs me about $1,200/month (Philippines-based). She generates 4-6 qualified meetings per month, which is way more prospecting than I was doing myself.
Be really careful about the messaging. A VA who doesn't understand utility auditing can damage your reputation with clunky, generic outreach. I tried it once and the emails my VA sent were so bad that a prospect forwarded one to me saying is this really from your company? Embarrassing. You need to write all the templates yourself and train them extensively.
Good point Laura. I'd definitely write all the messaging myself. I'm really just looking for someone to execute the process - send the emails, log the responses, schedule the meetings. I don't need them to improvise.
VAs can be a game changer for scaling your practice. Tony's model is right - you provide the strategy, templates, and target lists, the VA handles execution. The key is building a system: here's the email sequence, here's when to follow up, here's when to escalate to me. Document everything so the VA can operate independently.
What platforms do you use to find VAs? I've looked at Upwork and Fiverr but the quality varies wildly.
I used OnlineJobs.ph. Interviewed about 8 candidates, gave them a test project (research 20 commercial properties in my area and draft an intro email for each), and hired the one whose emails I'd actually send. Took about 2 weeks to find the right person.