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HOW TO GET PAST THE GATE KEEPER WHEN PROSPECTING

Guest post by: Wayne Berry

Article Overview: 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...

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

Related Articles
  “Keys to Getting Past The Gate-Keeper In Business”
  Getting past the Gate Keeper
  Sales Prospecting Techniques - How To Use Google So You Never Have To Get Stuck At The Gatekeeper
  The Networking Trick That'll Increase Business
  Sales Prospecting

Article Tags: barrage, decision maker, dividends, gatekeeper, good question, mail, persistence, prospects, receptionist, receptionists, sales person, screening mode, secretaries, silly game, when in doubt, widgets



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