""In a day and age where hiring is one of the more difficult tasks that a manager will do, it was a breath of fresh air to walk through the process with BELAY.""
— Lorraine Grier, Executive / Decision Maker
The Challenge
Clark Food Service Equipment is a specialized provider of food service equipment, supplies, design, and custom fabrication — a business built on deep industry expertise and complex client relationships. As the company grew, so did the demands on its sales team, and the strain began to show.
Lorraine Grier recognized the warning signs early. Her team was overwhelmed, morale was slipping, and the traditional hiring process felt like too much of a burden to take on.
"Frankly, our sales team was drowning. We needed help – and we needed help quickly – but we needed help from qualified people and good candidates without having to walk through that messy process."
A trusted referral pointed Lorraine toward BELAY. A family member had previously worked with BELAY as a contractor before being hired full-time, giving Lorraine confidence that the quality of talent was real. She sat down with her sales team to map out their biggest pain points and build a list of tasks a Virtual Assistant could handle — and found that virtually everything on the list was within reach.
The Solution
With a clear picture of what her team needed, Lorraine worked with BELAY to match each of her three sales associates with a dedicated Virtual Assistant. The matches — Kendra Bridwell, Julia Christie, and Ravynn Rants — were made individually, with each associate meeting the BELAY team before the pairing was finalized.
"We were able to give enough background of what we do and what we're looking for that when each one of those VAs came in, they had already met with our sales associate, they had already established some rapport there, and they were coming into it with some experience too that enabled them to get off the ground running pretty quickly."
Lorraine didn't treat the VAs as outside contractors — she integrated them fully into the Clark team. She invited Kendra, Julia, and Ravynn to virtual team meetings, equipped them through the internal IT team, and even sent them new-hire swag boxes.
"They are team members, and that's how we've wanted to treat them and talk about their positions with us. So there's buy-in on all sides."
""Each VA that we were matched with matched what we needed for the sales team member. They came in with specific backgrounds — specific character traits even — that were so on point.""
— Lorraine Grier, Executive / Decision MakerThe Impact
The results were immediate and deeply felt. Each VA proved to be such a strong match that Lorraine's sales team finally had room to breathe — and to think strategically again.
"[We're] not feeling like we're completely underwater all the time. Burnout is real, so [we're] trying to stay as far away from that as we can and still be on top of our game and productive. And I think adding VAs to the team allowed some breathing space to be able to step back a little bit and see what irons are in the fire and what needs to come next versus what absolutely has to happen right now."
The success extended beyond Clark's walls. Lorraine became such a vocal advocate that she referred her own husband — a company manager facing similar pressures — to BELAY as well. For Lorraine, the defining feature of the entire experience was how easy BELAY made what is typically an overwhelming process.
"It was a little scary at first, not having done anything like this. To have that constant communication, the single point of contact on the BELAY team, the ease of which we walked through the steps — everything has been easy."