B2B Products/Services | Business

The Virtual Office: You Don't Have to Spend Like a Fortune 500 Company

to Sound Like One

You're ready for the American Dream. Your own business. Being your own boss. And taking charge of your own destiny. If you think that all you need to do is print up some business cards with your cell phone number, you're lucky that you found this article first.

The fact is, whatever product you want to sell or service you want to provide, every buyer of that product or service is already buying it from someone else. As the owner of your new business, 90% of your job is to convince customers to switch from other companies and buy from you. Actually, maybe getting customers is 100% of your job, because without customers you won't have a business.

But to get customers to switch, you're going to have to have to project the look and feel of an established and successful business. How do you do that on a start-up budget? The answer is a Virtual Office.

When you start your Virtual Office, you should decide on what kind of telephone number to use. First decide on what scale you're going to operate. That is, will you primarily be selling within your home city and its surrounding area, or will you be selling statewide or even countrywide?

The first rule to consider is that customers prefer to do business with local businesses. There's comfort in knowing that the company is located down the street or across town.

But another rule to remember is that customers don't like to make long distance calls. So if you want to do business outside of your local area, you should use a toll free number. Toll Free numbers have never been easier to get or less expensive than they are today.

International toll free numbers didn't catch on very well, and are very expensive. So, if you want to sell abroad, you should get a phone number or phone numbers in the country or countries in which you want to sell. Find a Virtual Office provider that has international phone numbers. They're a lot less expensive than you may think - about the same per minute cost as a US Toll Free number.

After choosing the correct phone number, you then need to consider what your callers will hear when they call it. Why are customers and prospects calling your number? The answer is almost always to talk with someone. Don't just throw them off to voice mail. Your competition won't. Ask your Virtual Office provider to add Follow-Me. That way, your calls will be transferred to your cell phone, so you can talk to callers wherever you may be. It's a terrible feeling to call back a prospective customer and hear: "No thank you. I've already hired someone else."

Another way to distinguish yourself from your competition is to include an Auto Attendant with your Virtual Office. An Auto Attendant answers your Virtual Office number with a Menu, from which your callers choose the person or department they're calling. You can even have a Dial-by-Name Directory. An Auto Attendant is very impressive to callers and they won't know that all of the extensions transfer only to you.

Voicemail is another piece of the Virtual Office. But a voicemail message should not be the end of the call. Your Virtual Office should make sure you know about the call immediately, by calling you, paging you or sending a text message. That way, you can return calls immediately.

Although you're probably using email more than ever, there is still a need for being able to send and receive faxes. Your Virtual Office will come with the ability to receive faxes on the same number. This fax email delivers your faxes to your email inbox. Your Virtual Office provider may also be able to send faxes for you through your Virtual Office number. This means you may never have to purchase another fax machine again.

There it is. For as little as fifty cents a day, you can have a complete Virtual Office, including a telephone number with advanced phone system features including Follow-Me, station to station transfer, voice mail, unified messaging and fax sending and receiving, so you can operate a world class business from your computer and cell phone.

Mark Gordon is the President of American Voice Mail. Since 1978, American Voice Mail has served over 1 Million customers from its global network that spans thousands of cities in 37 countries, making it the largest local telephone number and Virtual Office service provider in the world. Download American Voice Mail's Free Report: "The Virtual Office" 10 Phone Services Guaranteed to Get You More Customers, Make More Sales and Reduce Your Cost of Doing Business.

 

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