In this article, we will talk about the top tips on how to work with your Amazon VA on Day 1
Ever wondered what happens on your first day with your new Amazon Virtual Assistant? Do you think first impressions really matter? Today, we will talk about our top methods that will allow you to build an amazing working relationship with your Amazon VA.
Topic Rundown:
Why is it important to build open communication and support your Amazon VA on Day 1?
The most important goal of this initial call is to build a positive, lasting impact with your Amazon VA and a great working relationship.
This is also the same time wherein you should clearly define your expectations and how your VA can help you drive your business forward.
At the very start, you have to set the expectations such as the number of deals they need to source per day and the Dos and Don’ts of sourcing.
If done properly, you will see amazing results. For instance, in our Amazon Business, 1-year after an Amazon VA starts, we have virtual assistants bringing in £3,000 to £6,000 gross profit per month to the business.
I know, amazing. How? By creating a supportive environment and having open communication with your virtual assistant. For sure, in the long run, you will achieve great results
If you’re needing of an Amazon VA, we recommend you check out our VA Academy, wherein you can hire your trained VA directly from us.
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What we have seen from the VA Academy that works and doesn't
Right now, let us share with you two examples from the Academy of success and failure. Let’s call them Will and Bob and share with you how they interact with their Amazon VAs.
Let’s start with Will.
From day 1, he openly communicates with his Amazon VA.
He makes sure to spend 1 hour per day going through the deals with his Amazon VA and sets the time for questions and answers to drive improvement through learning. In return, the Amazon virtual assistant took the initiative to learn more about sourcing and how to spot good deals.
He was eventually promoted to Purchasing Manager. Needless to say, Will and his VA still work together up to this day and will have another 2 more sourcing VAs finding more deals.
What about Bob?
Bob is so busy that he rarely has time to talk with his Amazon VA.
He only spends 1 hour a week sitting down and talking about the deals that the VA has sourced. Talking, meaning he rushes through them, more like “talking at” his Amazon virtual assistant. In time, the worried VA now thinks that he might lose his job because Bob does not give him any feedback.
What the VA doesn’t know is that Bob is complaining about the Amazon VA’s poor performance but keeps it to himself. As a result, Bob ended the contract with the VA without notice
At the end of the day, what separates the two scenarios? Communication, communication, and communication. Bob does not tell the Amazon VA what he is doing wrong, or what he needs to improve on, or barely gives recommendations for him to grow and learn as an individual. The VA can sense this as Bob has not created a safe space to share honest feedback and learning through effective communication.
As a result, Bob is getting more and more frustrated because his Amazon virtual assistant is not giving him the result he wanted. If only Bob has spoken to him, it would have made all the difference and Bob could have been the same as Will.
Now, you might think I am making that up, but it is a true-to-life scenario and we see it time and time again in the VA Academy.
How to have the best first day with your Amazon VA by:
Initiate a video call
It is important for both you and your Amazon VA to see each other’s emotions and reactions during the call because this is the best way to build trust. Body language does not lie, so, it matters that you see each other as you talk. This is the foundation of building a long-lasting relationship.
Setting the right tone
The first official meeting might be an uncomfortable situation for your Amazon VA, so do not talk about work just yet. To get things flowing, introduce yourself and tell them about who you are. Talk about your family. How much coffee do you drink in a day? How many countries have you visited? Tell them personal stories to make them feel that you are relatable and, most of all, you are human just like them.
After that, you could ask them to introduce themselves. What is their nickname?
How was their weekend? Do they live with their parents or do they have kids?
When is their birthday?
Initiate questions to make them feel comfortable and to build the relationship.
Quite simply, you are trying to get your Amazon VA to start talking with you. The easiest way to do this is not to talk about work but about something you both have in common.
You are looking for that common ground.
Defining goals
After the chit-chat and when you think they are at ease, explain to them what you will be going over during this call.
To get things started, you should talk about setting goals about how they will help you drive your Amazon business.
Define the results. Your Amazon VA is still fresh out of the VA Academy and although they had one week of training sourcing and reading Keepa graphs, there is still a lot to learn about you and your Amazon business. At this point, they are nervous and scared. By defining what they will be able to use their time more efficiently toward those goals.
We do this by reaffirming our criteria, metrics, and tools. To use that can now be able to measure that VA by. For instance, if you tell your Amazon VA that in the initial weeks, they should look for deals that have £3 Profit, 30% ROI, and 5 Sales per month.
Setting expectations
After defining the goals, you now have to set expectations. This is basically to discuss how you are going to manage them day to day. Discussing how you will treat them during work will take away some of their anxiety. For instance, if you are just a person who speaks frankly, let them know this. Most Amazon virtual assistants are located thousands of miles from you and will have a different culture from what you may have.
Now, talking about culture. New Amazon VAs from the Philippines will generally say yes to anything you ask, regardless of whether or not they can do it. To put it simply, they want to make you happy. Now, a good example would be to ask them to find 10 deals on day one and they will say yes. Then mostly fail and feel awful because they did not achieve the 10 deals on that day.
So, what we suggest is that whilst we want to talk about results and the number of deals that we want them to find. In the first few weeks, you should focus on the actions that the Amazon VA needs to take. After a few successful weeks of taking the correct actions, you can move away from telling your VA what actions to take, to now talking about what targets to achieve. This supports your VA because your VA now understands what they need to do daily. First, the actions, confirm that, and then we move on to the results to aim toward those actions.
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Aligning schedules
To monitor their progress, you should also set a specific time per week to sit down and talk with them. Make sure to spend at least 1 hour per day going through everything that has happened. Ask them what their struggles were and how you could help them. Create an open and honest learning environment. You should be talking 50% of the time and they should be talking 50% of the time as well.
After setting the stages, you can now start the deal review process with your Amazon VA.
Here is an example of one of our VA on what we did on her first day.
After the analysis of the deal, have a rundown of what you have discussed during the call. And before ending the call, summarize what you have gone through in the last hour. This is to remind them about the important things they should remember. Still promote interaction by asking them what they plan to do the next day besides working or sourcing for online arbitrage deals. This is to make them feel that they should maintain a work-life balance which is very important not only for you but also for them.
Top Tips
- Talk out loud. Your Amazon VA cannot read minds; make sure to voice out every detail that could help them
- Always be positive and Celebrate success. Instead of focusing on the negative details, look on the positive side. Emphasize what they have done well to reinforce that behavior. This will also make them feel empowered which will result in them taking the initiative to improve their work further.
- Create a learning environment. Your Amazon virtual assistant has come straight out of the VA Academy and even with a week’s training, it will not be enough. Do not assume that they know everything or that they have the same level of skills and analysis that you have. Assure them that you are building a learning environment as you go through the process with them. Don’t expect results for the first week. Think of them as just finishing a degree at a University. They have learned a lot but now they need to put it into practice.
- Ask open questions. An effective way to initiate interaction is to ask them questions that will stimulate their critical thinking. This also goes for you; encourage them to ask you questions, which makes them feel comfortable and valued. This will clear up any confusion and clarify things both for you and them.
- And lastly, make them feel like family and make it a great place to work.
What are you going to do with your Amazon VA on your first day?
15 Top FBA Tasks to Outsource to Amazon Virtual Assistants
Get my 15 Top FBA tasks to outsource to Amazon Virtual Assistants that I have used to grow my own 7 figure business
These 15 Top FBA Tasks to Outsource to Amazon Virtual Assistants are based on my own experience of running an Amazon Arbitrage business. I have taken the key tasks that make the biggest impact on my business and put them into this list to help you in your business.
- My Top 100 UK list that I use
- See the most profitable suppliers for me
- This is regularly updated based on my actual result
- Find the suppliers who built my 7 figure business
- Understand which suppliers we are still buying from
- Do your own analysis on the suppliers
