Help with furniture sales and admin

The below are answers from the client.

What does your typical day look like?

Lots of computer work, phone calls and trips to the warehouse.

What do you hate to do that needs to get done and what would you
rather be doing? Tech stuff. Most of it gets done by our tech team but the odd things I have to do. For example updating backends of some of our dealer sites (for example Houzz). Also, research and cold calling (this can mean an array of things). This is something that should be getting done but I simply don’t have time to do so it does not get done.

What are your income-producing activities? Looking for new dealers, reaching out to different markets that could be selling our products. For example we get requests from Interior Designers but I don’t have the people power for someone to head this up.

Who is your target market, and where are they based? We sell direct to end consumers as well as B2B and work with many dealers who wholesale our products. We ship across North America. Our audience is endless. We manufacture and sell bean bag chairs (under our own brand) so our products go into homes, schools, office spaces etc. Endless opportunities with furniture.

What skillset are you looking for in your VA? They must have the below:

 – Good computer skills

 – Sales experience. Not retail sales experience but experience selling specific products.

 – Comfortable doing cold calls and good communication over the phone

 – GREAT at research

 – Outside the box thinker

 – Self motivated

 – Working in furniture sales is a plus but not necessary

 – Comfortable working on the back end of some of our dealer portals. For example updating our brand page and keywords on Houzz, Amazon etc.

What tasks do you currently need help with? See above

How much time do you currently spend on those tasks? A good chunk of it is not being done. The rest I pick away at when I have time.

What does your communication flow look like? My door is always open so I encourage anyone on my team to reach out at anytime. If they are not asking questions then I am guessing the job is not getting done or not getting done properly. I have had people who were scared of asking a stupid question therefor “guessed” and spent too much time going down the rabbit hole. That is a waste of company money. I like creative thinkers who are not scared to speak up. Anyone on my team can call text or email at anytime. If I am busy I will get back to them as soon as I can. I work in Slack with my social media people so that is another option too.

What are your expectations of the working relationship?

I expect the tasks to get done without any excuses. If they hit a wall then we can discuss this and move forward accordingly. I don’t have alot of rules as long as the job is getting done and getting done well. I look at everyone that works with me as team member. There really isn’t any hierarchy here other than I cut the cheques. If the job is getting done well then I am a reasonable and easy going person to work for. If the job isn’t getting done or there are too many excuses then it is obviously time to go. Alot of people that work with me have been with me for years. If you find the right candidate then I will always have work for them.

Do you have a timescale for the support requirements? Can you please elaborate here.

Do you prefer to communicate only during certain times of the day? Anytime is fine. If I am not available then I will get back to them. To start out we will have more meetings but as time goes on then we may only be meeting every two weeks. I will expect weekly progress reports to be emailed to me.

Do you have your own task management CRM? No

What is your (weekly / monthly) budget? Depends on how good they are. We will likely start with 4-5 hours 3 days a week.