The Gate Keeper Friend or Foe?

OK, I need to address this whole situation with what every salesperson refers to as “the gate keeper”.

First, what is a gate keeper? Webster defines the gatekeeper as “a person who controls access.”

Please, understand a few concepts. The gate keeper in a company is generally the office manager, secretary, or a random employee that answers the phone. In my Tenure with sales, I have come across many people who do their job efficiently and effectively. The majority of business whether big corporations or small business owners generally have a front desk person or secretary that takes calls. Their job is to filter calls. Mainly solicitations that seem to be useless or a waste of time for that particular company. {For any salesperson who does not do their research on a particular company or vertical please stop making calls and selling. Either learn to do your homework or find a different job.}

Secretaries, office managers, and front desk personnel are a companies first line of defense against being annoyed by salespeople all day long. Therefore, their job is to defend the Castle if you will. However, what many salespeople forget is that they are also human beings, but they can also play a significant role in the company. They can be the spouse or child of the owner. They can be the confidant that the owner or the decision maker turns to in order to gather intel on a specific salesperson or product. They may be the person that has researched the information for your next sale. The point that I’m trying to make is that we have been taught to get around the gatekeeper and that is the wrong kind of thinking. Here’s why.

I was working for zep chemicals as an account manager way back when. I called on an account that read in the notes. This customer is not reachable, and the secretary is mean and will not let anyone through to speak with the decision maker. In the notes was the lady’s name. For the sake of anonymity, we will call her Rose and the owner Joe. So, I made the phone call and asked directly for Rose and I just so turned out that Rose picked up the phone. I said Rose, my name is Robert and I’m with Zep. Would it be ok If I ask you a few questions?

Rose sighed and said, “I got 1 Minute what do you want?”

“Well, there used to be a Joe that worked there, and he purchased chemicals from us back about 10 years ago and I was trying to figure out what we did wrong as a company.”

“Robert, I appreciate you asking. Joe is still the owner of the company, and he hates talking to sales guys due to the fact that he is super busy. I’ll tell you what I appreciate that you called, But I need to pick up my son (we will call him Mark) Mark, so you have a good day. Rose hung up the phone.

What most salespeople would see as a failure and would never call back, I did not. I learned that she has a son named Mark and he is young enough to be in school. I learned that Joe owns the company still and he is potentially the decision maker. The next day I called back around 10:30am as apposed to 2:30 in the afternoon and asked for Rose directly. The first question I asked was how her son was doing and that got Rose talking. He just started football and he went in for his yearly physical yesterday and he was a freshman in high school. About 15mins into the conversation about her son I complemented on the fact that she was a good mother and rotated the conversation to the company and asked how she came to work with the company. After another 15 mins on her background about the company (I took notes by the way.) I thanked her for her time and let her know I would be in touch. A week later I called her back and asked about her son. We spoke on the phone for about 10-15 mins laughed, joked, and had a good time. I did this for 2 more weeks, calling her once a week. Learning more about the company. What they like, what they don’t like, some of the issues they were having, and always asked about how her son Mark was progressing. On week 3 she hit me with a curve ball and said I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to warm me up so I will let you talk with Joe.

“There is some truth to that Rose, However, I also enjoy talking with you. With the amount of knowledge, you know about the company are you sure you don’t own the company?” I said

“Robert, I appreciate that, but I don’t own the company, that’s Joe department, but he refuses to talk with salespeople, he can’t stand them and frankly they waste his time.”

“I completely understand, Honestly, that’s the last thing I want to do. Let me ask you are you in a contract with anyone?”

‘No.”

“OK, if you’re having issues getting the oil off the floor and cleaning off the concrete, can I send you an email on a solution with the dilution ratios? (And walked her through the process) This way you can look over the information and I’ll reach out next week and you can let me know if I would be wasting Joe’s time?

“OK, that sounds great”

Most people see that as a blow off and in some cases, they are right, and it will happen. So, before we got to next week, I got a phone call, and it wasn’t Rose it was Joe. His response was “Rose begged me to call you and said that you may have a solution to our problem” I walked him through the solution that I explained to Rose while on the phone with her and gave him the price and he bought. At the end of the conversation, I asked him “Joe, if you don’t like talking with salespeople why did you call me?” I will never forget his response. “Robert, honestly I can’t stand talking to salespeople, because they know nothing about my company, and they push products on me I don’t need. So, I have my wife vet them and make sure they are good salespeople, and they can actually help us out. Most importantly I want to know it they will treat her with the same respect that they treat me with. Which seems to be very hard, but you did it, because she really likes you.” Joe was one of my biggest customers.

In this case Rose “the gatekeeper” turned out to be the owner’s wife and had significant influence in the decision-making process. So ask yourself: gatekeeper… friend or foe?