This article deals with how to get past a gatekeeper by better understanding what gatekeepers are actually thinking as you walk into their office. Sales rebuttals for these situations may not be as useful as plain honesty.
Let's start by confirming what Gatekeepers are not:
1. Gatekeepers are not sad, simple-souls who can be tricked into giving you information.
2. A Gatekeeper is not an evil, teeth-gnashing villain determined to make your life miserable.
It may surprise you to know that most people placed in a gatekeeping capacity do not enjoy saying no to sales reps. But, having to deal with so many lazy and bad sales people inevitably shapes their view of the rest of us and, as a result, how they treat us.
Our goal is to treat them like the intelligent, honest and hardworking people they really are. They already know you are a sales person, your attempts to schmooze and ingratiate yourself on them is simply annoying. Worse, it plays up to all of the sales person stereotypes we dislike so much.
To put this into context how do you handle those dreaded telemarketing calls at home?
.Exactly.
Someone calling you during dinner, not listening to anything you say and reading from a script. How refreshing would it be for one of them to simply say "Hello, sorry to bother you, but I am a sales person for ABC company and I would like to try and get you to buy our new product"? Ok, so I doubt any of us are silly enough to buy something over the phone, but at least we would appreciate the candor.
The same is true with gatekeepers in those businesses we are trying to solicit.
When you walk into the reception area, the worst thing you can possible do is try to sweet-talk, or small-talk the person behind the desk. They usually have a PBX board in front of them flashing with incoming calls and the last thing they want to do is deal with you. Every second you spend talking to them they are thinking "just get to the point. I already know you are a sales person, just tell me what you want".
I think one of the best things you can do is say hello, in whatever polite manner is natural to you and then simply say "my name is Jessica Graves from INSALE and I want to bid on your consulting (or whatever industry you are in) business. Who should I discuss that with?"
The word "bid" seems to work well for three reasons:
1. That is the type of language businesses use when trying gain new customers.
2. The Gatekeepers do not want to risk being "off-hand" with a possible customer.
3. Other sales people are not as concise and you are viewed as a "breath of fresh air'.
Read more about this at http://www.integrity-sales-leadership.com
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