Getting Past the Gatekeeper

How do you get past the gatekeeper?  There are three basic rules.  But before we get to those three rules, there’s something you must understand: who is the gatekeeper?

Traditionally, the gatekeeper has been a secretary, receptionist or some other live person.  Although these roles still exists, the majority of the gatekeepers today are not people.  Modern gatekeepers are voice mail and caller i.d.

Something else you need to know is that there is no clear-cut technique for getting past the gatekeeper.  I’ll share with you two stories of two clients who have very strict rules around returning calls.

First, we have the owner of a large telecom company.  His rule is that he will not return a call from a vendor until they’ve left three messages.  Why?  He wants to see tenacity, follow-through and he wants to see somebody who’s hungry.

The second client - a division leader for a consulting company - had a different rule.  He says, “If I see your caller i.d. come up, and you do not leave a message, you will never get a call back.  Furthermore, if you do leave a message, and then I see your caller i.d. show up before I’ve had a chance to return the call, you will never get a call back.  I will return my calls on my terms, not yours.”

The old technique was to call before 9AM and call after 5PM and never leave a message.  Well, that wouldn’t work for either of these two prospects.

You see, there is no clear-cut, one-size-fits-all technique.  But you do have some basic principles available to you:

1) Know your outcome. The outcome of getting past the gatekeeper is nothing more than getting past the gatekeeper.  It’s not to sell your product.  It’s not to do anything but get past the gatekeeper, by whatever means necessary.
2) The gatekeeper is your friend. This gets to mindset.  You have to have a belief system around getting past the gatekeeper.  Some of the best people around this look at it as a game or a challenge as opposed to a necessary evil or some other disempowering belief.
3) Less is more. The most effective voice message to get a call back is very short and very powerful.  I say, “Hey, this is Jason.  Got a couple questions for you.  Call me at _____.”  You’re not mentioning company name.  You’re not mentioning intention.  But because your objective is to get past the gatekeeper, this approach is going to get you past the gatekeeper more than any.  Is that going to irritate some people?  Yes!  But there is no one-size-fits-all.

If you follow these basic principles, you will have more of your phone messages returned, and you will get past more gatekeepers.