Getting Past Gatekeepers

The same thing holds for cases when you are talking to a secretary, or what some people derisively refer to as a gatekeeper. Frankly, we love gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are our friends. Getting past gatekeepers is a little more complicated than getting past voice mail or getting past your opening with the decision maker, but it's not harder. There are just more steps involved.

Let's start with the case where the gatekeeper is a true executive assistant or secretary. The first thing you have to remember when you're talking to an executive secretary is that she has but one job. Her job is to help her boss do his job. That means arranging his flights, typing his letters, ordering flowers for his wife's birthday, and making sure that he gets where he's going on time. That means that she is, at least partly, responsible for his calendar. If he allows her to set appointments for him, then it is assumed that she knows how to make certain business judgments for him, such as screening vendors and other people that might want to meet with him. She may do this proactively (i.e. where she knows in advance what his decision criteria are without having to confer with him,) or she may need to act as an intermediary when you call, telling him what you want, and passing along his instructions not to give you the appointment.

Whether the executive secretary is authorized to grant the appointments or not, the solution is the same as if you were talking to the decision maker himself. The solution is, as we described earlier, to build value. That's right. You run a sales call at the executive assistant, and sell her on the idea of putting you through (if she can't book the appointment herself,) or scheduling it (if she can,) based on the very same value proposition that was in your IBS. That means you do an opening, including a strong IBS, you explain the purpose of the call, and you ask questions that are designed to uncover needs and build value.

This may seem to be an odd thing to do at first, but it will make sense to you if you've ever had an executive assistant. It will also make sense when you abandon the idea of there being a lone "decision maker," and accept that the idea that the only people there are in the prospect world are "decision influencers." And your job is to align them all to your cause, including the secretary.

The executive secretary is nothing more, and nothing less, than any other decision influencer. And what do we do with decision influencers? We persuade them to do what we want them to do by building value. We'll get more into how to do that in a moment, but if you find yourself talking to a gatekeeper/secretary, the first thing that should go through your mind is that you have to sell to her. That is, as soon as you realize that you are connected to an executive secretary, accept that you are on a sales call. You're not trying to blow past somebody.

So then the question is: What are you selling her? Are you selling her on the idea of putting you through to her boss? Are you selling her on granting the appointment? Or are you selling her the product? Simply put, you are selling her on the appointment on the same basis – the value proposition – on which you would sell any other decision influencer.

Regardless of what you're selling her, though, the rule of thumb is that you can't go wrong if you use the same IBS with the secretary that you would use with the executive, and you run the same call at her that you would run at him, too. She can always say something like "Wow, that's just way above my pay grade, and I can't deal with it," but if you've uncovered needs and built value, more likely she will say "that's something we have to get you and my boss to talk about together." And now you're working as a team to get the two of you together, in which case you can't fail to get in, and get the sale.

The other caseto consider is where the gatekeeper has no real responsibility, or interest in helping the executive do his job, or helping you do yours. She's just a passive player, someone who answers the phones but can't get him to take the call. In this case, it's almost more important to sell her on helping you. Now, to be sure, she may not be able to help you get the decision maker on the phone. But she certainly can help you get someone on the phone – hopefully someone who can get you to the decision maker (in which case you'll be in the executive secretary situation above). So you should sell her on doing just that. Convince her to help you get someone on the phone who's not sitting at the front desk.

The classic solution, in a case like this, is to ask her for help. Saying something like, "I'm trying to get Mr. Jones on the phone, but I keep getting routed to his voice mail," is likely to get a response like "Well, that's all I can do," and you'll just end up back in "voice mail hell." But if you ask her if she can help you find someone in his department to whom you can talk, or help you find anyone in any other department who has responsibility for the function to whom she can route you, then you have a chance. Some fraction of people will respond simply to a request for help.

Now, you may say that she has no interest in doing this, that her job is to route people, especially salespeople, into voice mail. She may not even work for the company; she may be a shared employee of the facility. She may be busy doing her nails, or writing the Great American Novel, for all you know. What do you do then?