HOW TO GET PAST THE GATE KEEPER WHEN PROSPECTING

In our telephone prospecting workshops the question often comes up…"How do I get past the gatekeeper on the telephone to reach the hard to get to prospect?"

It’s a good question, because some prospects are more difficult to get to than others. So I have a few ideas for you that may help.

Just before I do though, may I make a few observations.

If a prospect is hard for you to get through to, then they are probably hard for other sales people to get through to as well. That’s good because if you can get through then you probably won’t have a lot of competition. So persistence could pay big dividends.

Some sales people don’t try very hard to get through to the decision maker. Instead they settle for someone further down the line. Someone who can’t make a decision but they will listen. That makes no sense to me, because it will be very hard to move up the line afterwards. Why speak with someone with no authority to make the decision. So when in doubt aim high.

So here are two ideas on getting through to the right person

Too many sales people call, speak to the receptionist and say something stupid like, “I’d like to speak with the person who looks after the purchasing of ‘widgets’". This usually signals to the receptionist – ‘watch-out, sales person, go into screening mode!'

Most receptionists and secretaries have been trained to screen calls, and in particular screen out sales people. So that approach will often stop a sales person dead in their tracks. You’ll face a barrage of questions like;

“Where are you calling from?”
“What do you want?”
“What are you selling?”
“Why don’t you just tell me and I’ll yell her and if she is interested she’ll call you back!”
“Why don’t you just send something by mail and if he’s interested he’ll get back to you.”

Any sales person who plays this silly game has only themself to blame for not progressing the sale.

So if you want to improve your chances of getting through


HOW TO GET PAST THE GATE KEEPER WHEN PROSPECTING - To learn more about this author, visit Wayne Berry's Website.

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Dianne Crampton Dianne Crampton is an Executive Leadership Coach and Team Building Consultant and creator of the TIGERS team development model. For the past twenty years she has helped leaders and teams achieve goals with high levels of collaboration and teamwork. Crampton is a published author. Her contribution to Working Together: Diversity As Opportunity was endorsed by Stephen Covey. She has written for trade magazines. Merrill Lynch nominated her business for Inc. Magazine’s regional small business and entrepreneurial awards. Her work with Native Americans was recognized at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1994. The TIGERS model passed two rigorous validation studies in 1992 and 1994. The TIGERS Survey is able to measure and track team development over time. Dianne is also the creator and distributor of the TIGERS Team Wheel game. This game helps groups identify behaviors that build collaborative groups and behaviors that cause conflict, morale problems, production failures, and misunderstandings. For more information, or to subscribe to TigerTracks, a free monthly leadership and team newsletter go to http://www.corevalues.com - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website

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