Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about how to prove you can do what you say you can do.
Today’s Quote: A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain new experience, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a new brand. – Tom Peters
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Before a client signs on the dotted line, they may ask you for some kind of proof that you can, in fact, do what you say you can do.
I have talked to lots of VAs who seem to get offended by this.
Often because the request comes in the form of asking for references or for a resume.
They stick their nose up and say they don’t want to do those things because they are not an employee.
I talked in last episode about what exactly we are asking of our clients when we ask them to invest in our services.
The monetary exchange can be substantial. Never, ever take that for granted.
They are paying you a lot of money to help them. We need to always recognize that.
Sometimes they aren’t quite confident that we are the right ones for the work.
Whether a client is paying you $500, $1000 or more every month, multiply that by 12 to get a sense of their financial commitment to you.
They need to feel like they are making the right decision, and if that hasn’t come from your discovery call then they are well within their rights to ask you for more ‘stuff’ to back up your claims that you can do what you say can do.
Or, in some cases, they might ask for proof before they even talk to you. like in a job posting.
First things first, relax. Don’t get offended. It’s okay!
Let’s talk about the kinds of things clients might ask for and how to handle them:
Portfolio
When someone asks you for a portfolio it doesn’t sound too bad.
If you provide graphics or video services a portfolio is probably a pretty simple and normal request.
When someone needs creativity or branded content or even just good writing or copy, don’t be surprised if they ask you to show them some of your work.
I have heard of VAs that provide other types of services who also get asked for a portfolio though.
In these cases I think the client is still referring to samples of your work.
It can be helpful to have sample documents or spreadsheets that you have created available to share with potential clients.
When I was going after really high level clients I had sample documents, spreadsheets, spreadsheets, web pages and email templates that I had worked on or created.
Of course I took any client sensitive info out of them, and you should too. But you an do that and just quickly do a save as a new file and you are set to go.
Sometimes clients just want to see samples, and that’s an easy way to do it. I had some clients never ask me for a thing,and others want lots of proof.
If you want to work with the client, make the effort to show them what they want to see so they can say yes.
Not all clients will take our word for it that we can do great stuff. That’s totally okay.
Work Samples
What about other kinds of work samples?
Like writing, or video?
That’s a really easy one, even though a lot of VAs ask me how to do it.
If those are your service offerings, be your first client, or at least A client of yours.
Do the stuff for yourself.
I always say, if you create websites, yours better be a good one.
If you write blog posts, yours better be good.
If you provide social media services, your social media better sing.
If you are a Pinterest VA… you get the picture.
If you do SEO, your own better be working.
If you provide video editing and you cant show the work you do for someone else, you must do your own.
You may never get asked for work samples, but it goes a long way when people check you out to see work that they need.
I always tell you that I Google everyone I connect with,and I do.
Your clients do too.
They will be looking for your expertise online even if they don’t ask you for it.
But if they do, ask them specifically what they are looking for and then show them samples.
Dont just send them a link to your website, post links to specific pages or posts and tell them why that particular sample is relevant to what they need.
When I was running online conferences for my clients I used to do their registration pages, sales pages, speaker pages, schedule pages, and emails.
Once the events were over, we took the conference pages down so I couldn’t point anyone to them.
But you better believe I took screenshots to share samples of my work later on. Simple.
References
This is another really contentious issue with some VAs.
We tell our clients that we will keep their work confidential… and a lot of VAs think that means that they can’t tell anyone who they are working with.
That’s not always true though.
Yes, some clients will not want you to tell people you are working with them. I don’t understand that, honestly, but it happens.
Most of my clients didn’t mind me sharing the fact that we were working together (yes, I asked them). So I put a partners page on my website and I put their name, job title or company name, and a link to their website. If I had an affiliate links k for their services, I used that.
And I told them that if anyone contacted them about working with me to say nice things!
It made it really easy to show people who I worked with.
I still kept their client work confidential of course, but the fact that we were working together did not need to be a secret.
For the ones who did not want me to tell people, I didn’t. Easy. But it sure wasn’t everyone.
That’s a super easy was to give references.
Another way is via testimonials. Asking people you have worked with to give you a testimonial is a great way to get social proof.
My favourite place to get testimonials still is LinkedIn but I’m not very good at asking people for them.
Instead I rely on social media posts and other written compliments for my testimonials.
I had a colleague who asked everyone to give him a Google review after working with him.
Where you keep yours is up to you, hut definitely start collecting them so you can have them when you need them.
Of course references are references. Some people still want 2 or 3, like we used to put on our resume.
Don’t get mad if someone asks you for references. I generally find it’s the VAs who don’t have clients yet that struggle with this.
But what it comes down to is that the client didn’t get enough confidence that you can do the work, so they need some more convincing.
Or sometimes with references they feel confident that you have the skills, but they are looking to talk to someone about how you communicate, or what it’s like to work with you. Either way, it’s a good thing. It’s just another step in their hiring process.
A) work on your discovery call so they are convinced and don’t need anyone else to tell them, and B) find 2 or 3 names that you can pass on, because you know others might ask.
And now, as usual, let’s reflect back on the amazing quote that I shared with you at the top of the episode from Tom Peters:
A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain new experience, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as anew brand.
I just love this quote because it really drives home the message that I want to share with you today.
Your career is a portfolio of projects. What I take that to mean is that your body of work comes from everything you have done in your work life. It is built by the new skills you have learned, whether those are through formal education or on the job type training and experience. It is built on your experience – we get better at everything the more we do it. It is built on your capabilities – what can you do now that you could never do before? It is built on your colleagues and clients, the people that you choose to spend your time with it – these are the people that might provide references for you. And it is built on your brand. Who are you in business? What is it that you want people to know about what you can help them with, and who you are, and what it’s like to work with you?
All of these things – portfolio, work samples and references and testimonials, they all come from what that quote shares.
Don’t think of these things as a hassle – be proud of them. Put them together for people and gush about yourself (or let others do it). Show them your best work, your best personality, and the clients will be beating down your door before you know it!
There you have it.
The bottom line is that clients are well within their rights to ask for proof that you can do what you say you can do.
They may ask for that in a variety of ways. They may even ask you for a resume. If they do, don’t fret, just send them a proposal instead and explain that since you are a contractor you don’t have a resume but you can send them a proposal that outlines your services and specialties etc.
If someone asks you for one of the things I’ve talked about in this episode, just send it to them. Or get clarification about what they are looking for and further discuss it, or see how you might be able to accommodate their request.
Like I said, if they are asking it’s because they want to work with you and they just need a little more convincing.
So do it!
I’m going to leave it here for this episode. Thanks so much for listening, I’ll see you next time!
Do You Need Help?
If you need help showcasing your expertise and your VA business, get in touch with me. I’m here to help. It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
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