Who should look after your database: a virtual assistant, a consultant, an agency or a monthly service?

Question 1

What do a VA, a CRM consultant, an agency and a monthly service actually do?

Accepted Answer

A virtual assistant, or VA, is a freelance or agency assistant paid by the hour or on a monthly retainer, who carries out the tasks you set: adding contacts, updating records, removing bounced emails. A CRM consultant designs how a CRM should work, moves data into it and trains the people who will use it, usually as a project with an end date. A marketing agency takes on a wider job, such as campaigns, automated emails and reporting, and treats the contact list as one part of that. A monthly service such as Fully Sealed looks after the contacts a firm already has, in its own CRM, LinkedIn and email; Fully Sealed works with trainers, consultants and small expert firms. The first month is a tidy-up, and the records are then kept right every week. Each month a twelve-page report called the leak check lists where the records are losing work and the people to contact, most urgent first.

Question 2

What does a VA, a CRM consultant, an agency or a monthly service cost in the UK?

Accepted Answer

In the UK a virtual assistant typically costs £25 to £40 an hour, and a specialist, including one who builds CRM systems, £45 to £60 or more an hour. A CRM consultant costs about £463 a day; a consultant-led CRM set-up for a small business costs £1,000 to £3,000, and ongoing support £150 to £400 a month. None of the sources checked for this page gives an agency price, and Fully Sealed does not publish its fee. UK virtual assistants charge £25 to £40 an hour, with a median of £30, and about £300 a month for a 10-hour retainer; specialists, including those who build CRM systems and automations, charge £45 to £60 or more an hour. The median UK day rate for a CRM consultant was £463 in the six months to 4 October 2026; a consultant-led CRM set-up for a small business typically costs £1,000 to £3,000, and ongoing support £150 to £400 a month. A marketing agency’s price depends on how much of your marketing it runs. Fully Sealed charges more for the first month, the tidy-up, then a fixed monthly fee for the rest of a twelve-month minimum, then month by month; the fee is not published, and the first look is free.

Question 3

Who keeps your contacts right once the first clean-up is done?

Accepted Answer

Once the first clean-up is done, the contacts stay right only if someone is still being paid to look after them. A CRM consultant’s project usually ends when the system is set up, though some consultants also sell ongoing support, which SME Software Help puts at £150 to £400 a month. A virtual assistant keeps the contacts right for as long as the retainer runs and someone tells the assistant what to check. A marketing agency keeps them right only if looking after the list is part of what it was hired to do. The difference with a monthly service such as Fully Sealed is who decides what to check: it finds the leaks itself each month. It keeps job titles and organisations true to LinkedIn, honours every unsubscribe, checks every month whether your emails are landing, and turns what it finds into dated to-dos in your own CRM. In one client’s CRM, every point in his September 2026 report became a dated to-do on the right person: 90 of them.

Question 4

Who can work inside our own CRM and LinkedIn without taking them over?

Accepted Answer

A virtual assistant, a CRM consultant, an agency or a monthly service can each work inside a firm’s own CRM and LinkedIn, if given access and asked to work to the firm’s rules. The questions to ask before you hand anything over are where your data will be kept, who decides each change, and what happens to your records when the work ends. Fully Sealed works inside the client’s own CRM, LinkedIn and email, and the client decides what it sees. Nothing changes without the client’s yes, and the corrections and to-dos are made in the client’s own CRM, so they stay there when the work ends. Its promise is on its front page: “You hold the keys. We fix the leaks.”

Question 5

When is a VA, a CRM consultant, an agency or a monthly service the wrong choice?

Accepted Answer

A virtual assistant is the wrong choice when nobody has decided the rules, because most judgement calls (is this the same person, has she moved, should he still get emails) come back to you. A CRM consultant is the wrong choice when the CRM itself works and the problem is that nobody keeps the contacts in it up to date. A marketing agency is the wrong choice when all you need is your existing contacts kept right, because you pay for a wider job than the one you have. Fully Sealed is the wrong choice when you want new leads bought in rather than your own contacts worked, when you are about to move to a new CRM and need it designed first, when someone in your firm already keeps the list right every month, or when you do not want to commit to twelve months.

Option	Typical UK cost	Where the figure comes from
Virtual assistant	UK virtual assistants charge £25 to £40 an hour, with a median of £30, and about £300 a month for a 10-hour retainer; specialists, including those who build CRM systems and automations, charge £45 to £60 or more an hour.	Side Hustle Finder’s survey of nine UK VA firms’ published prices, reviewed 31 August 2026.
CRM consultant	The median UK day rate for a CRM consultant was £463 in the six months to 4 October 2026; a consultant-led CRM set-up for a small business typically costs £1,000 to £3,000, and ongoing support £150 to £400 a month.	IT Jobs Watch, from 18 quoted rates, and SME Software Help’s guide of 22 August 2026.
Marketing agency	A marketing agency’s price depends on how much of your marketing it runs.	None of the sources checked for this page gives an agency price.
Fully Sealed	Fully Sealed charges more for the first month, the tidy-up, then a fixed monthly fee for the rest of a twelve-month minimum, then month by month; the fee is not published, and the first look is free.	Fully Sealed’s own terms.