Having trouble pitching an idea, selling a product, or connecting with the boss in charge of a group, company, or organization? You’re probably being slowed down by the gatekeepers. A good gatekeeper is worth his or her weight in gold. But there are ways around them.
In his book “The 4-Hour Work Week” author Tim Ferris discussed is tactics to improve his sales figures. While his associates would call for hours and hours during the day to try to get through and pitch to the appropriate one in charge, aka the decision makers, Tim realized that by coming in about an hour early and/or staying about an hour late, he could often reach the CEO’s directly if he managed to navigate the company directory properly.
This is a similar tactic to one that I taught when I worked for non-profit out of college. The focus was on helping students start groups on their campuses. One of the biggest roadblocks wasn’t dealing with other students rather it was dealing with administrators.
Assistant Vice-Dean of _________ Studies. Assistant Vice Dean of Student Fairs in Charge of _____. Blech.
Like the government, administration is the reason paperwork is so plentiful and why tuition is so high.
Anyway one of the things that I was taught was to wait until the bureaucrats had left for the day. Simple things like bringing a card table onto the lawn, taping a homemade sign to the front and promoting a group promoting the free market seems simple and innocent enough. Until the Vice Dean of XYZ shows up, or calls public safety. Do this at 11am or 2 in the afternoon, and students were surrounded by buruecrats who demanded to see permits, permission slips and paperwork galore. Without this, they wouldn’t be allowed to be there.
But at about 5pm a wonderous thing would happen. The success rate would skyrocket. Students could have their table and no one would bother them. And why was this? Because all the busy bodies would go home for the day. Assitant deans and deputy managers would all be gone. Students were now free to promote whatever they wanted and no harassment would take place. We simply told students “Wait until after the burueacrats with nothing better to do… leave.” And it worked.
I utilized this same mindset in 2010 during the huge tea party rally in Washington DC. I made some custom t-shirts and printed up Gadsden flags. I stuffed a suitcase full, braved public transportation and came to the rally where hundreds of thousands were gathering. I stopped, opened up my suitcase, and began to sell shirts and flags. After about 10 minutes one of the rally staff came by, told me I wasn’t allowed to sell without a permit, and I needed to be careful or else the police might arrest me. While I didn’t care about obtaining a permit, I nodded. I packed up, and walked forward, about 100 yards out of sight.
With this person gone, I unzipped the suitcase and got back to selling. About 30 minutes later another staffer came by with the same general message, but this one more insistent that I move immediately. “Right right, I got it” I responded. Packed up, walked 100 yards forward out of site, and sold again. 30 minues later, same thing (Did these organizers have a whole division dedicated to stop people from selling tshirts? My goodness)
Same thing. Anyway all I did was keep moving. Stay away from those who will tell you know and work out the way you can succeed.
People higher up in organizations often have people to help them avoid talking to others, responding to messages, etc. They have many different names, but the one I’ve used the most is “gatekeeper” The CEO has a secretary to answer his calls so he doesn’t spend five hours a day dealing with meeting requests.
I get it. I’ve done the exact same thing, especially when I’ve had an assistant or main receptionist at my job. If I took every call or visitor that came in, I’d be doing nothing but taking calls or visitors all day.
Most of the time, especially for a large company, the CEO will never answer customer service questions directly. And in fact it would be a poor business decision to do so. His time is better spent elsewhere. Call up Amazon or IBM and demand to talk to the CEO. You’ll get routed to a customer service rep, or a sales rep, or the director of some branch.
The same thing exists in politics. Call up the white house and ask to speak to the President. You probably won’t get through. Call up a Senate office and ask to reach the chief of staff or the Senator themselves. Probably not. You’ll get an intern or a legislative coordinator, maybe… but the top dogs, unlikely. It may not be out of any malice, they simply genuinely can’t speak to everyone who calls in. If they did they would be on the phone all day and not have time for other tasks.
But this does nothing for you. The intern or the secretary may pass on your message. May… But they can’t help you directly. So how do you get past the gatekeepers? Here’s my #1 secret…
Use the phrase, “I’m returning a call from…”
You’d be amazed at how often this works. And even when it doesn’t it will usually get you through to the head person’s voicemail or get you their email address.
Years ago I was attempting to reach an elected official for a possible event we were going to hold. I had reached some of his people but after more than a month I had not heard anything back. So I called his DC office. I did some quick digging, pulled up the name of the chief of staff, and was prepared when the receptionist answered. I said hello, did a very quick introduction (the less information the better) and said “I’m returning a call from ____.”
The attempt is so blatant that very few people will call you out on it. At the very least they’ll say “hold on, let me check if he’s in the office or if he’s in a meeting.” Heads up, this is also code for “let me see if they want to talk to you.”
By simply using the words “I’m returning a call from _______” you shift the emphasis of the conversation completely.
No longer is it you calling cold, blindly trying to explain who you are and hoping to made yourself sound interesting enough to make the cut. Instead it’s now on them, as the gatekeeper, not to get in the way of someone their boss already reached out to. “Oh well, if my boss already called you, and you’re returning HIS call, then obviously he wants to talk with you. Hold on one second.”
I think I’ve been “caught” maybe once or twice in a dozen years of using this. And I remember one of the times after the person I was trying to reach was connected, they asked me, “Wait did I call you?” “No” I replied, “I use that to get through to people and save wasted time by not having to explain who I am to the receptionist.” I dont know if they were completely pleased, but I recall them offering a slight laugh and saying it was clever. Anyway, I got through and got the job done.
This doesn’t work with everyone, and well trained gatekeepers are wise to this trick, (I’ve certainly trained my gatekeepers to watch for things like this) but you’d truly be amazed how often it does work, either getting you through to who you needed to speak with, or at least to a voicemail or an email address. Try it out.
