Coffee's for Closers

10Getting Past the Gatekeepers

‘If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy’.

—Dale Carnegie

If you have seen the film ‘Boiler Room’, you would have learned that the ‘gatekeeper’ is the person on reception whose role entails stopping cold callers getting through.

Most salespeople are under the impression they must speak to them in a certain way, normally with no respect, and that will get past them. This could not be further from the truth. The first thing to do is to treat them like a human being, and ask for their help. They'll normally, not always, respond positively. Here is an example of this:

GATEKEEPER:

Good morning.

SALESMAN:

Good morning, my name is Tony Morris from the TMI, who am I speaking with please?

GATEKEEPER:

Michelle.

SALESMAN:

Hi Michelle, as I said my name is Tony and I really hope you can help. I train and develop sales teams, and the person I normally speak to in a business of your size is the head of learning and development. Who do you recommend would be the best person to speak to about that, Michelle?

I cannot guarantee a result, as it depends on certain factors – the person, how busy they are and what they have been told to say by their company (although the more charming you can be, the more likely they are to bend the rules slightly). Remember to record Michelle's name in your CRM system or whatever you use to record information, so when you call back and she answers you can remember to say, ‘Good ...