Hire a sales virtual assistant for research, follow-up and CRM.
A sales virtual assistant is a remote assistant who does the work around your sales conversations: building prospect lists, researching accounts, sending and tracking outreach, answering new leads, booking meetings, keeping the CRM current and chasing follow-ups. You or your closer run the calls and set the prices; the assistant makes sure nobody in the pipeline is forgotten. To hire a sales virtual assistant well, decide first whether the job is research, written outreach or phone work, because each one needs a different test.
Below: how big the candidate pool is, which kinds of sales work and which tools candidates list, what to hand over at each pipeline stage and what to keep, what 40 to 160 hours a month costs next to a Latin American staffing firm and a US provider, hourly pay versus bonuses and commission, a trial task, a sample job post and how to share your CRM and inbox safely.
2,848 DonutJobs profiles describe sales or lead generation work, and 55% of them name lead generation. 425 include a recorded voice sample you can play before a call, as of Oct 2026.
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How big is the sales and lead generation talent pool?
2,848 DonutJobs profiles describe sales work: lead generation, appointment setting, cold calling, business development or a sales job title in their skills, headline or work history. 913 of them (32%) have also finished the internet, English and typing checks, and 425 have recorded a voice sample.
2,848
profiles describe sales or lead generation work
skills, headline or past job titles
913
have internet, English and typing scores
32% of the segment
425
include a recorded voice sample
14% of the segment; listen before any phone role
80%
median English score in the segment
1,106 tests; whole pool 73%
35 WPM
median typing speed in the segment
1,279 tests; whole pool 31 WPM
$5
median asking rate an hour
384 recent sales profiles
DonutJobs data, as of Oct 2026. The segment is every profile whose skill tags, headline or past job titles mention sales, lead generation, appointment setting, cold calling, telemarketing, SDR, BDR, business development, closers or setters; self-reported, not verified. The checks are optional, and the English score is the percent correct on an in-app multiple-choice test. Asking rates come from profiles created on or after 25 Aug 2026 with a rate from $1 to $100.
Written English is above the pool. Sales candidates score a median 80% on the English test against 73% for all candidates, and 75% of their tests reach 70% or more. That is the score to filter on for outreach emails, LinkedIn messages and lead replies, where the prospect reads every word.
Proof for phone work is rarer. Only 14% of sales profiles carry a voice sample (425 people). A written test says nothing about pace, clarity or warmth on a call, so for any role that includes calling, shortlist the candidates who recorded a sample and ask the others to send one before the interview.
What kind of sales work have candidates done?
Lead generation is the common ground: 55% of sales profiles name it. Appointment setting appears on 16% and cold calling or telemarketing on 5%, while SDR, BDR and closer titles are rare. The pool is deep for research, outreach and follow-up, and thinner for live selling on the phone.
What should you hand to a sales virtual assistant, and what should you keep?
Hand over the repeatable work on both sides of the sales conversation: finding and researching prospects, first-touch outreach from templates you approved, fast replies to new leads, booking, CRM updates and follow-up. Keep pricing, negotiation and the closing call until the assistant has earned them. The table goes through the pipeline stage by stage.
| Pipeline stage | Hand to the assistant | Keep, or approve first | How to check the work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finding prospects | Build lists that match your ideal customer profile from the sources you name, with a source link on every row | The definition of a good-fit customer, and the accounts nobody may contact | Spot-check 20 rows a week: right company, right person, working email |
| Research before outreach | Add one usable fact per prospect: a trigger event, a tool they use, a recent post | Which facts are worth mentioning and which are too personal | Read ten research notes and ask whether you would open an email built on them |
| First-touch outreach | Send emails and LinkedIn messages from approved templates, in batch sizes you set | The offer, the claims and anything about price | Reply rate and positive reply rate per template, every week |
| New inbound leads | Answer form fills and chat leads within minutes during the shift, ask the qualifying questions and route each lead | The qualifying rules and who counts as a hot lead | Median time to first reply, and the share of leads with every question answered |
| Booking | Offer times, send the invite, confirm the day before and rebook no-shows | Your calendar rules: which slots, how long, how many a day | Show-up rate of booked meetings |
| CRM upkeep | Log every touch, move deal stages, merge duplicates and fill missing fields the same day | Stage definitions and required fields | A weekly list of open deals with no next step |
| Follow-up | Chase proposals, unanswered quotes and old leads on a fixed schedule until they answer or opt out | When to stop, and any discount | Deals revived, and none left untouched past the schedule |
| The sales call itself | Write a one-page brief before each call and send the recap after it | Discovery, pricing, negotiation and the close | Your own close rate on meetings the assistant booked |
One lane first. Research, written outreach and phone work are three different skills. Pick the lane that is costing you the most deals, hire and test for that one, and add the next lane once the first runs without you.
Which sales tools do candidates already know?
71% of sales profiles list Zoom, 22% list Calendly and 18% list HubSpot, the most common CRM in the segment. Salesforce appears on 4%, and only 15 profiles list a prospecting database such as Apollo or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Expect to teach your prospecting stack, and use the trial to test spreadsheet and CRM discipline instead.
Post your sales role free, filter applicants by English score and typing speed, then play their voice samples.
What does a sales virtual assistant cost a month?
Hired directly, sales candidates on DonutJobs ask a median $5 an hour (384 recent profiles), so 80 hours a month costs about $400 and full time (160 hours) about $800 before any bonus or commission. The Latin American staffing firm Virtual Latinos lists full-time sales assistants at $2,100 to $3,200 a month, and a US-based assistant from Time Etc costs $1,480 for 40 hours a month.
| Route | How the price works | 40 hours a month | 80 hours a month | 160 hours a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct hire, 25th percentile asking rate | $3 an hour base, paid by you to the assistant | about $120/mo | about $240/mo | about $480/mo |
| Direct hire, median asking rate | $5 an hour base, paid by you to the assistant | about $200/mo | about $400/mo | about $800/mo |
| Direct hire, top tenth of asking rates | $8 an hour or more | about $320/mo | about $640/mo | about $1,280/mo |
| DonutJobs platform fee (direct hire) | Free plan (1 job, up to 10 applications), or $99/mo (from $55/mo on a 6-month term). No per-hire fee; wages and commission go straight from you to the assistant | $0 to $99/mo | $0 to $99/mo | $0 to $99/mo |
| DonutJobs managed assistant | Flat monthly fee; DonutJobs sources, contracts, pays and supervises the assistant | Not offered | $629/mo for 80 hours | $899/mo for 160 hours |
| Latin American staffing firm (Virtual Latinos) | Monthly price for a full-time sales assistant (160 hours); part-time is offered but not priced | Not published | Not published | $2,100 to $2,400/mo (starter tier), $2,600 to $3,200/mo (professional tier) |
| US-based assistant (Time Etc) | Monthly hour plans at $36 to $39 an hour | $1,480/mo | Custom plan (60 hours is $2,160) | Custom plan |
What the higher prices buy. Virtual Latinos recruits in Latin America and describes its professional tier as three to five or more years in sales support or business development. Time Etc’s assistants are US-based. A direct hire costs the least per hour; you write the playbook, run the trial and review the numbers yourself.
Budget for tools and data separately. CRM seats, a prospecting database, a sending domain and a phone line are your accounts and your cost, on top of the assistant’s hours.
Pay above the median for the phone. Only 14% of sales profiles have a voice sample, so proven callers are scarcer than proven researchers. Offer more than $5 an hour for one, or add a bonus for each meeting that takes place, and put both numbers in the post.
Hourly, per meeting or commission: how should you pay a sales assistant?
Pay an hourly base for every hour worked, then add a bonus for the result the assistant controls: a meeting that takes place, not a deal that closes. Commission on revenue suits people who close, and an assistant who researches, books and follows up cannot decide how your call ends. Candidates here know the model: 58% of hourly job posts on DonutJobs add commission to the base rate.
| Pay model | How it works | Fits when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly only | One rate for every hour worked | The work is research, CRM upkeep and follow-up, with no direct line to revenue | Nothing rewards speed or quality, so review the numbers every week |
| Hourly plus a bonus per meeting held | The base rate, plus a fixed amount for each qualified meeting that takes place | The assistant books meetings by email, LinkedIn or phone | Write down what "qualified" and "held" mean, or you will pay for no-shows and poor fits |
| Hourly plus commission | The base rate, plus a percentage of revenue from deals the assistant sourced or closed | The assistant runs the whole sale for a simple, low-priced offer | Long sales cycles delay the payout; agree what happens to open deals when the work ends |
| Commission only | No base; a percentage of closed revenue | Rarely. Some experienced closers with warm leads accept it | Unpaid research and admin hours, and people who leave before the first payout. Avoid it for assistant work |
Pay on time and show the math. Whichever model you choose, send a statement with each payout: hours, meetings held, deals counted and the rate applied. DonutJobs does not handle wages, so you pay the assistant directly and keep the records yourself.
How to hire a sales virtual assistant in 4 steps
Choose the lane, filter on the score that matches it, run a paid trial on real prospects, then widen access as the numbers hold.
Would you rather not run the hire yourself? Managed virtual assistants puts the sourcing, contract and supervision with DonutJobs. Is the job mostly answering customers, not winning them? See customer support virtual assistants.
Sample job post for a sales virtual assistant
Name the lane, the tools, the weekly numbers and the pay model. Replace everything in square brackets.
Sales Virtual Assistant, lead generation and follow-up (remote, [25] hours a week)
About us. [Company] sells [bookkeeping software] to [US dental practices]. Our two account executives run about [20] demos a week and need a full, clean pipeline.
Hours and pay. [9 am to 2 pm US Central], Monday to Friday. [$5] an hour plus [$10] for every qualified demo that takes place, paid twice a month by [Wise]. The final round is a paid trial task.
What you will do, and what you need:
- Build and research prospect lists from [LinkedIn and state dental association directories], [150] new contacts a week
- Send first-touch emails and LinkedIn messages from our templates and log every reply in [HubSpot]
- Answer new demo requests within [10] minutes during your shift and book them into [Calendly]
- Confirm demos the day before and rebook no-shows
- Chase open proposals on our follow-up schedule and flag deals with no next step
- An English score of 70% or more on your DonutJobs checks, and a recorded voice sample on your profile
To apply, find one dental practice in [Texas] that would be a good fit for us and write the first email you would send them, in under 90 words. Tell us where you found them.
Share your CRM, inbox and prospect data safely
A sales assistant works inside your customer list, your inbox and your company name. Give named seats with the smallest role that does the job, keep every account in the business’s ownership, and make sure you can switch access off in minutes.
- CRM: a named seat, not your login. Create a user for the assistant with rights to add and edit contacts and deals. Leave bulk export, bulk delete, billing and user management switched off.
- Email: a mailbox the business owns. Send outreach from a company mailbox or alias made for it, with delegated access where your mail provider supports that. For cold email in volume, many teams use a separate sending domain so that spam complaints do not hurt the main one.
- LinkedIn and other personal profiles. A personal profile belongs to one person. Read the platform’s terms before anyone else works inside yours; the safer split is that the assistant researches and drafts, and you send.
- Prospect data stays in your systems. Lists live in your CRM or shared drive, not in the assistant’s personal files. Say so in the contract, together with confidentiality and what happens to the data when the work ends.
- Outreach rules are yours to set. Cold email, calls and texts are regulated differently from country to country, and the sender is responsible. Put opt-out handling, do-not-contact lists and calling hours in the playbook.
- Offboarding in one sitting. Keep a list of every seat, mailbox and shared folder you granted, so that removing access on the last day takes minutes.
General practice, not legal advice. Check the current terms of each tool and the outreach rules of the countries you sell into.
Sales virtual assistant FAQ
What does a sales virtual assistant do?
A sales virtual assistant does the repeatable work around your sales conversations: building and researching prospect lists, sending first-touch emails and LinkedIn messages from approved templates, answering new leads, booking and confirming meetings, updating the CRM and chasing follow-ups. You or your closer run the calls and set the prices; the assistant keeps every lead moving to its next step.
How much does a sales virtual assistant cost?
On DonutJobs, sales candidates ask a median $5 an hour and the 25th percentile asks $3 (384 recent profiles, Oct 2026), so 80 hours a month costs about $400 before bonuses. Virtual Latinos lists full-time sales assistants from $2,100 a month, and Time Etc charges $1,480 for 40 hours with a US-based assistant (both checked Oct 2026).
What is the difference between a sales virtual assistant and an SDR?
A sales development rep (SDR) owns a quota of qualified meetings and spends most of the day in live conversations with prospects. A sales virtual assistant supports the pipeline: research, list building, templated outreach, booking, CRM updates and follow-up. Many small teams start with an assistant and move them toward SDR work once they book meetings reliably.
Can a sales virtual assistant make cold calls?
Some can, but screen for it separately. On DonutJobs, 5% of sales profiles name cold calling or telemarketing and 14% have a recorded voice sample (Oct 2026). Play the sample, run a short role-play call in the trial, and look at the internet speed on the profile for call quality before you put anyone on the phone.
Should I pay a sales virtual assistant commission?
Pay an hourly base first, then add a bonus for results the assistant controls, such as each qualified meeting that takes place. Commission on closed revenue fits people who run the whole sale. Commission-only pay rarely works for assistant roles, because research, CRM updates and follow-up are hours of work that produce no direct sale.
Which tools should a sales virtual assistant know?
A CRM, a spreadsheet, a booking tool and video calls cover most of the job. On DonutJobs, 71% of sales profiles list Zoom, 22% list Calendly and 18% list HubSpot (Oct 2026). Only 15 of 2,848 profiles list a prospecting database such as Apollo or LinkedIn Sales Navigator, so plan to teach yours in the first week.
How do I test a sales virtual assistant before hiring?
Run a paid trial on real work. Ask for 25 prospects that match your customer profile, each with a source link and a research note, plus three first-touch emails, all logged in your sheet or CRM. For phone roles, add a ten-minute role-play call. Compare accuracy, writing and the questions each candidate asked.
Keep every lead moving
without chasing them yourself.
Post the role free, filter applicants by English score and typing speed, play their voice samples, test your top picks on a paid trial, and pay your assistant yourself. DonutJobs takes nothing from the wage or the commission.
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