We are not ‘just secretaries’

Had an interesting conversation with a prospective client today.  They were despairing that they couldn’t find good telemarketers and had spent extensive time doing some research to find the right people.

I spent some time asking questions. Seems they only want to pay sub-contractor’s rates and not full rates.  I explained to them that an agency might pay the rate they wanted to pay to one of their workers but they would charge the client considerably more.   The client agreed on that point.

I told them we have experienced professional telemarketers on our team but they wouldn’t accept sub-contractors rates – they would want full professional rates. And then came the response ‘but they’re just secretaries, aren’t they?’

I told this person that although my business name is “A Clayton’s Secretary” the team has expanded far beyond mainly secretarial roles and we have professionals in all fields. That included telemarketers.

I can say, though, that this did get my back up.  ‘just secretaries’.  Even in my days as a corporate secretary I was seen as being more than ‘just office staff’ and my role held a lot of responsibility to it, and I was paid accordingly. It was a role that required me to make decisions in the absence of the boss and protect him/her from being bothered with things that may have been trivial. It’s not since my junior days that I’ve been considered or called ‘just’ by anyone.

The Virtual Assistant industry provides many different types of virtual support today – all of it professional:  transcription, telemarketing, bookkeeping, web design, research, word processing and so on.  I know that many think that this is a role that ‘just anyone’ can do, but if that was the case the industry wouldn’t exist because ‘just anyone’ would be doing all of what we do.

If you’re looking for a professional then feel free to contact my network or any VA network for that matter. But if you’re looking for ‘just anyone’ better go off to any of the freelance job sites so you can pay low fees to ‘just anyone’.