How to hire an inside sales assistant who saves you 8 hours a day

It is not a secret that having an inside sales assistant can help founders, managers and executives save time. Still, few know how to actually do it well. 

First of all, many scale-ups are trying to save costs, and as a result, leaders spend their valuable time on tasks that they shouldn’t do themselves.

Secondly, leaders of bigger companies have the resources but they have no clue how to optimize their relationships with their inside sales assistants and motivate them to excel.

Currently, we have 7 full-time sales & marketing project managers who are serving over 100 clients. We are still capable of saving 8 hours per day for each of them. There are a few very important lessons that we have learned over the last 2 years.  

1. It all starts with taking a closer look in the mirror

It is a false assumption that any high performing assistant can be an asset to any founder or manager. You both have to match in workstyle and preferences.

Do you prefer to have 2 meetings per day with long preparation time in between? Or are you somebody that likes to have one day per week back-to-back meetings? Is your tone of voice formal or informal? Are you very strict or rather more flexible? Do you prefer to receive notifications once a day or continuously during the day?

2. Work smart, structured and automate as much as possible, together.

A lot of daily tasks are repetitive and there are so many smart tools available to automate most of these same tasks. Make sure that your assistant knows how to use them and supports you on how to use them. It starts with knowing all about key combinations and goes as far as automating feedback emails. The biggest advantage of automation is, besides of course getting rid of repetitive tasks, that administration is done automatically as well. While giving the cue for an automotive task, your CRM tool is filled at the same time.

3. Find someone that can handle chaotic situations.

Even though it is essential to work highly structured together, it is even more important that your assistant can deal with all the unexpected situations that arise on your busy day. You are not able to communicate in a highly structured way and together you need to translate this chaos into balance. Also ‘one word’ should be enough and therefore the understanding of each other is essential to be able to be strong together. 

4. Your inside sales assistant should be motivated to be the best in class.

I would not say it’s the most important, but for sure it’s an essential factor to be motivated in being the best of yourself and the best in class. If you want something, you will find a way to do it. If you know how to do it, you still need to be motivated to do it in the best possible way. If you have the feeling that your personal assistant will go all the way for you, you can start being the best of yourself as well. And maybe, just maybe, you will both be best in class ??