Cold Calling Techniques: Bypass the Gatekeeper

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 12:04pm by Justin Brooke in Bootstrapping

A bootstrapper often has to rely on cold calling to get business, and cold callers have an arch nemesis called the “gatekeeper.” This is usually a secretary, receptionist, or anyone at the front desk answering calls. This person’s job is to stop sales calls from getting to the people that matter most when selling a product/service. It doesn’t matter if you invented cars that drive themselves and do your laundry at the same time, that gatekeeper is not going to let you through to the decision makers.

You need to have a strategy before you sit down for your calls. After all if you spend 2 hours calling and all you did was have 100 gatekeepers right your name and phone number on a yellow sticky note. Then your sale per call ratio is going to plummet!

One strategy that has been effective in the past is called, “The Handy-Man.” With this technique you never ask for the decision maker upfront. You’re going to turn on your stealth mode and slide right by the gatekeeper. To top it off s/he is going to help you do this! First the script and then we’ll come back to the philosophy and mechanics.

The Pitch:

Gatekeeper: Good morning, this is Lucy with abc business, how may I help you?
You: Hey Lucy, real quick what was the handy man’s name again?
Gatekeeper: You mean John?
You: JOHN!!! Yeah that’s the guy. I need to speak to him!
Gatekeeper: Ok who is this?
You: Oh it’s Bob at xyz store; I needed to speak with John real quick.
Gatekeeper: Ok, I’ll page him, hold on.

John (Handyman): Hello?
You: Hey boss what’s been goin’ on?
John: Huh? Who is this?
You: It’s Bob! But I think I have the wrong guy, what’s the GM/OM/Owner’s name again?
John: You mean Steve, upstairs?
You: That’s right STEVE! Man it has been one of them days. I don’t know how I got to you…Can you patch me through?
John: Sure, hold on.

Steve (decision maker): Hello, this is Steve.
You: Pitch away my friend!…Don’t say that last part!

The Mechanics:
Throughout the whole process you need to have a friendly tone of voice and the confidence of someone who calls this place daily. If you can manage that, then 90% of the time you will slide right past the trained gatekeeper. You end up speaking to John Doe, the mechanic/shop foreman/custodian who doesn’t like talking on the phone or having responsibility for a missed call to the boss!

When you call have in mind the type of guy you are going to ask for, handy man is just for demonstration purposes. For example, hotels have maintenance guys, offices have IT guys, and warehouses have a shop foreman. When in doubt just act confused to his title and say “you know the guy in charge of all the maintenance.” The gatekeeper will get slightly frustrated because now you have broken their rhythm, but will almost always help you find this mysterious guy you are asking about.

Troubleshooting:
This script is just a script, sometimes it may play out a little different. Some common problems will be the gatekeeper won’t say their name when answering the phone, or the “handy man” will not or cannot transfer the call. Always be thinking fast, pretend it’s a reconnaissance mission. If the handy man for some reason cannot transfer your call, at least you now have a name to one of the decision makers. Call back in a few hours try another guy/lady and say, “oops, I was supposed to be transferred to Steve, how’d I get here?” The point is to get past that gatekeeper, and while you’re on the inside gather all the intel you can.

Tips:

• If they have one of those automated systems press 0, 99% of the time it is the default to speak to a human.
• Listen for the gatekeeper’s name and use it
• Use familiarity in your voice
• Be in total control almost annoyed that they are slowing you down. “Act as if” you call there everyday.
• If they have one of those automated systems, then most likely there is a database of names and maybe even titles. Play around in the database, hop onto whoever’s desk you like and try them out.

Now that you are armed for warfare, grab some leads, pad of paper, a pen, and pick up the phone. You should always be tracking your numbers when cold calling to find out what works best. Keep notes of how many calls (dials), messages, pitches, and sales. Good luck, be persistant, and may the force be with you!

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