Susanne McInerney of RE/MAX Carriage Way is one of the most successful sales associates in Boston for a reason —she takes action! On the very first evening of my recent 3-Day Advanced Workshop in Boston, Susanne contacted and hired Michelle Thornton, the California VA interviewed in the previous month’s issue of ePOWER! NEWS.

My 3-Day Advanced Workshop is very intense and includes homework each night. During the first day a fairly thorough discussion is had on how to use Virtual Consultants (VCs) and Virtual Assistants (VAs) to grow one's business. That first evening, Susanne went way beyond the assigned homework requirements and actually interviewed and hired a Virtual Assistant in California.

And she didn't stop there (like a true top producer!) Once hired (after about an hour on the phone), she had her new VA immediately start doing work for her. This is how it went down:

1. While still on the phone immediately after hiring her, Susanne had her VA talk her through the procedure for installing GoToMyPc on her main computer;
2. Once installed, Susanne "invited" her VA to take temporary complete control over her computer;
3. Meanwhile Susanne faxed over recent transaction information to her VA;
4. Susanne then sat back and watched while her brand new VA entered the faxed transaction information into her Agent 2000 software program —essentially bringing all her files up to date on Agent 2000 in no time!

It should be noted here that while her VA was experienced in using Top Producer, she had none with Agent 2000. No matter, she picked it up in just minutes!

Susanne brought in the printouts of her VA's first night's work, blowing everyone away with the fact that not only did she hire someone that first evening, but had meaningful work done as well.

You might be wondering at this point how Susanne could hire a Virtual Assistant, whom she has never met, in just one hour when it typically takes days or weeks of interviews to find that "just right" on-site assistant. Well, believe it or not, it has everything to do with how we are "hard-wired" as human beings.

When evaluating a virtual assistant, most people limit their scrutiny and evaluating criteria to whether this person can do the job, are honest, and have a compatible style. Since you are not going to be working with them side by side, or even know what they look like in most cases, all your personal judgments that are attached to looks, body language, personal habits, etc. are filtered out.

If you think about it, in-person interviews of traditional on-site assistants consist of (unconscious or otherwise) "judgments" that go way beyond a candidates ability to get the job done effectively. When we meet people face-to-face, we simply can't help ourselves from judging them on many factors that may have nothing to do with their skill sets. This is just the way we are built and has a lot to do with our inherent need for survival (more on that in a later article).

Now you don't have to be a top producer like Susanne to hire a Virtual Assistant. Remember, you can hire one for an hour a week if you want. However, if you take action like she did and do hire a VA, you will likely become a top producer faster than you ever dreamed possible.  So, what are you waiting for? —make it so!