So you all know that the concept of Virtual Assistants “partnering” with clients and "partners for success" originated with me and the AssistU VTP, right? If you didn’t, you do now. I’ve been teaching these concepts for nearly 13 years, and partnering is one of the fundamentals of my work.
But for those of you who aren’t AssistU-trained and picked the concept up from other VAs, there’s a piece of the bigger picture that I want to make sure you get. It’s this Bit O’Moxie:
Sounds a lot like some of what you give to them, yes? Well, it needs to come back to you, too! You deserve it, and it makes sense, doesn’t it, that if you’re going to put time, energy, commitment, and focus behind someone else’s success, you deserve to have the same done for you.
Without this giving back piece, what you have isn’t a partnership in any real sense. Instead, you have a transactional relationship where you work, and the client pays. It’s no different, really, than the relationships people have with other vendors they use regularly, like the dry cleaner, or massage therapist. These relationships happen as needed. And although the same vendor is usually chosen for a single type of work (people go to the same dry cleaner, and the same massage therapist, for example), the “transaction” is around exchanging work for money. The client doesn’t give anything else to the vendor. The client doesn’t help the vendor in any real way (other than by being a customer).
If that’s really what you have in your relationships with your clients, and it works for you, that’s ok—and don’t kid yourself that you’re working in partnership. You’re simply not.
Do you really want transactional relationships, or partnerships, with your clients?
But for those of you who aren’t AssistU-trained and picked the concept up from other VAs, there’s a piece of the bigger picture that I want to make sure you get. It’s this Bit O’Moxie:
In order for it to be a genuine partnership, your clients must give to you, as well.That giving can come in the form of referrals, of giving you full and complete access to all the intellectual capital and resources they have at their disposal, in showing up and caring about how your business is doing, in making great suggestions for ways you might move your business forward, in keeping you and your business top-of-mind all the time, and of being whatever help they can be.
Sounds a lot like some of what you give to them, yes? Well, it needs to come back to you, too! You deserve it, and it makes sense, doesn’t it, that if you’re going to put time, energy, commitment, and focus behind someone else’s success, you deserve to have the same done for you.
Without this giving back piece, what you have isn’t a partnership in any real sense. Instead, you have a transactional relationship where you work, and the client pays. It’s no different, really, than the relationships people have with other vendors they use regularly, like the dry cleaner, or massage therapist. These relationships happen as needed. And although the same vendor is usually chosen for a single type of work (people go to the same dry cleaner, and the same massage therapist, for example), the “transaction” is around exchanging work for money. The client doesn’t give anything else to the vendor. The client doesn’t help the vendor in any real way (other than by being a customer).
If that’s really what you have in your relationships with your clients, and it works for you, that’s ok—and don’t kid yourself that you’re working in partnership. You’re simply not.
Do you really want transactional relationships, or partnerships, with your clients?
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