How to Engage with Gatekeepers

Here’s a Quick Tip on engaging with gatekeepers. Forget the sly attempts to bypass the gatekeeper. Instead, plan as if you expect a gatekeeper to answer. Remember the gatekeeper’s role is (i) to assist the principal so the principal can do their job and (ii) to keep away individuals who can’t assist the principal in doing their job.

So, your job is to demonstrate to the gatekeeper that you can help the principal do their job. That task requires that you actually know their job and aren’t a cold caller dialing for dollars.

Decide in advance what you intend to say to the gatekeeper to demonstrate that you can help the principal do their job. Assume, for example, that you’re phoning a prospective enterprise client to gauge their interest in a group business development training course subscription from Clientis. Expect to get the gatekeeper.

Your agenda is twofold. First, confirm that you’re calling the right person—that is the decision maker for technology or professional development purchases. Second, connect your offering to the principal’s to-do-list. Here’s a typical exchange.

You: “Hi, I’m Amy Smith from Clientis Technologies. Is Mr. Bossman the appropriate contact for an education technology offering?”

GK: “Yes, but he’s on a call right now.”

You: “I see. Maybe you can help. It’s my understanding that Mr. Bossman is tasked with ensuring that your in-house business development team has the tools to succeed in the marketplace. I’d like to email you our catalog and then follow-up in a couple of days to see if it makes sense for Mr. Bossman and I to schedule a call. Would that be okay?”

If your firm is so well known that you don’t need to send marketing materials, all the better. Just have your gatekeeper call their gatekeeper to set up a call on a specific topic such as the new regulations that the agency just proposed or the article you read in the WSJ that spurred an idea you think might work for his company.

Gatekeepers are just a fact of business life. Don’t avoid them. Work with them.