A virtual assistant can take much of the groundwork around a B2B sale, and your sellers can keep the conversations and the pricing. DesertVA’s sales support role covers prospect research, outreach list building, CRM pipeline updates, appointment setting and follow-up sequences.
The reason to do it is time. Salesforce’s sixth State of Sales report, based on a double-anonymous survey of 5,500 sales professionals in 27 countries between March and April 2024, found that reps report spending 70% of their time on non-selling tasks such as administrative work and meeting preparation. It is a self-reported survey of sales professionals across many countries, so measure your own team before relying on it.
Why this is on the table now
Hiring is hard. In ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 72% of employers worldwide reported difficulty filling open roles.
That fits DesertVA’s stated mission, on our About page: to give companies real operational capacity through trained, fully managed virtual assistants, without the cost and delay of hiring locally.
Do the sum for your own team
Ask each seller to log one normal week in 30-minute blocks: selling, CRM updates, scheduling, internal reports, chasing. Then work out what the non-selling hours cost.
- Monthly cost of the seller, divided by their working hours in a month, gives the cost of an hour.
- That hourly cost, multiplied by weekly admin hours and by 4.33 (52 weeks divided by 12 months), gives the monthly cost of the admin.
As an illustration, take a seller who costs AED 30,000 a month all in and works 160 hours. An hour costs AED 187.50. Six hours of admin a week is about 26 hours a month, so roughly AED 4,900 of seller time goes on it. Those figures are made up to show the arithmetic. Put yours in.
DesertVA charges a monthly subscription, quoted per role after scoping, with no published rate card, so get the quote before you decide. Then compare the two numbers, and ask what the freed time could earn.
What to hand over, task by task
The tasks marked “Assistant” below are ones DesertVA lists for its sales support role. The rest is our recommendation.
| Work | Suggested owner | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Prospect research and list building | Assistant | Give written criteria, and review the first batch yourself. |
| Updating the pipeline in the CRM | Assistant | Agree which fields must be complete and what “current” means. |
| Booking meetings, confirmations and reminders | Assistant | DesertVA’s appointment setting covers calendar coordination, confirmation calls and emails, and reminder sequences. |
| Follow-up sequences after meetings | Assistant | Approve the wording yourself at first. |
| Replies from interested prospects | Seller | The assistant can book the call, but the conversation is yours. |
| Pricing, discounts and contract terms | Seller | These carry your accountability. |
Invoicing sits with a different role. DesertVA’s bookkeeping support page lists creating invoices, logging expenses, tracking receipts and basic reconciliation.
How to hand it over
1. Start with one process. Prospect research or CRM updates are a sensible first choice, because you can check the output against your own criteria.
2. Write down what finished looks like. Which fields, what naming, two examples of a good record and one bad one. Our guide to tasks worth delegating first covers how to describe a task so someone else can repeat it.
3. Name the reviewer. Someone on your side needs time to review the work daily at the start. If nobody has it, wait until somebody does.
4. Review everything for two weeks, then sample. Move to spot checks when the errors you find are rare and small.
5. Add the next process when the first one runs without you. Scoping the role clearly at the start also helps the hiring step, which our hiring guide walks through.
Where AI tools fit
DesertVA assistants use AI tools in their day-to-day work, according to our home page. We suggest a person checks anything AI produces before it reaches a customer. For the wider question of when software alone is enough, see our guide to virtual assistant vs AI agent.
Protect the pipeline data
Your CRM holds customer data, so decide what the assistant needs to see and grant nothing beyond it. Our FAQ describes the same approach: an assistant works inside the accounts and tools you grant and nothing beyond them, so you set the boundary and can narrow or revoke it at any point. If you operate in the UAE, our data protection guide covers the legal side of an assistant working from outside the country. The managed vs marketplace comparison sets out who employs the assistant in each model.
When this is not the right move
- Your CRM is empty or inconsistent. Settle what a complete record looks like first, or the assistant will reproduce the mess.
- You need a senior closer. Negotiation stays with your sellers.
- A task needs a professional license. Ask the issuing authority who may carry it out.
- Nobody has time to review the first two weeks. Wait until somebody does.
Where DesertVA fits
We run the managed model. We source, screen and evaluate candidates, you interview and choose, and the assistant starts supporting your business within days while we handle management, payroll and ongoing support. Most clients have a working assistant within two weeks, as our home page puts it. We scope each role and quote afterwards, and if the scoping shows that a software tool or a local employee suits you better, we will say so.
If you want to talk it through, book a free capacity assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Can a virtual assistant make cold calls for my sales team?
The sales support page lists prospect research, outreach list building, CRM pipeline updates, appointment setting and follow-up sequences, and the appointment setting description includes confirmation calls and emails. It does not list outbound sales calling, so agree that when the role is scoped. Calls that sell or negotiate belong to your sellers.
Will an assistant work in my CRM?
CRM pipeline updates are part of the sales support role. Tell us which CRM you use when the role is scoped.
How many hours do I need?
Start from the time log. The weekly admin hours you counted are the starting number. According to our FAQ, capacity is agreed per role, and hours can be added or reduced as your workload changes.
How fast can an assistant start?
Most clients have a working assistant within two weeks, according to our home page.
Is hiring a junior sales coordinator a better option?
For work that needs someone in the room, a local hire is the option. For work that can be done remotely, compare costs. If you are in the UAE, our cost guide works through the permit, visa, insurance and gratuity costs of a local employee line by line, and the employee vs freelancer vs virtual assistant guide explains the employer obligations.
Sources and methodology
Researched and written: October 2026. Next review due: April 2027.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| Sixth State of Sales report: 5,500 sales professionals, 27 countries, fielded 8 March to 18 April 2024, double-anonymous; reps report spending 70% of their time on non-selling tasks such as administrative work and meeting preparation. | Salesforce, 25 July 2024: Sales teams using AI 1.3x more likely to see revenue increase |
| 72% of employers worldwide report difficulty filling open roles (2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, more than 39,000 employers in 41 countries). | People Matters Middle East, 26 February 2026, reporting the ManpowerGroup survey: UAE employers struggle to hire as AI skills top demand |
| Scope of the sales support role, including appointment setting. | DesertVA sales support |
| Invoicing and bookkeeping scope. | DesertVA bookkeeping support |
| Mission statement. | DesertVA About page |
| AI tools used day to day; four-step process; working assistant within two weeks. | DesertVA home page |
| Access control; capacity agreed per role and hours added or reduced as workload changes. | DesertVA FAQ |
| Monthly subscription quoted per role after scoping. | DesertVA employee vs freelancer guide |
The 4.33 conversion is 52 weeks divided by 12 months, the same one used in our cost guide. The salary, hours and admin hours in the worked example are illustrations, not data. The task split, handover steps and monthly checks are our recommendations, not published research. Nothing in this article is legal or financial advice.