Gatekeeper’s will destroy your confidence, Cold Call Marketing Techniques.
As most of you know I’m a major Sales and Marketing buff! I know selling your products or services isn’t always easy but I have a few tips for you to be more successful. If you have your own sales team you might want to use or share these techniques with them as well. The Gatekeeper is also known as the Administrative Secretary. She or he gets this nickname because they will decide if you get to the person your calling or simply hit the invisible wall they have up.
I do approximately 35 – 50 sales calls a day to large North American Apparel companies and let me tell you I have had my fair share of mean and bitchy gatekeepers. Sometimes the most annoying part is the absolute ignorance they show to me. They will say the company isn’t interested even if they don’t know what I’m talking or calling about. In this case when you get upset or frustrated you should be taking a step back and asking yourself a few questions.
Should I be calling and asking to speak with a different contact?
Sometimes you’re simply asking for the wrong contact. In my personal experience I always ask to speak with the President or CEO but sometimes it’s really not the right person. Depending on what your selling you can probably ask for a specific department. Human Resources, IT, Accounting, Marketing, etc,, use your common sense!
Is your approach to aggressive and obtrusive?
Maybe you’re asking the secretary and a very aggressive way and this could put her/him into a foul mood. This is the last thing you want when making sales calls. You should be as nice as possible to the admin secretary seeing she/he is the key to you speaking or selling anything to this company.
Is the admin secretary slow and slightly uneducated?
The last thing you want to do is make the gatekeeper unhappy because she/he seems or appears to be dumb. Try and keep things very basic with the secretary in order to increase your chances of properly communicating your sales pitch. Don’t be a slow talker you don’t want to insult her/him by assuming they are infact dumb. People know when you down talk them so be very careful.
I failed and the secretary hates me, what do I do now?
Move on to your next call and leave that specific account alone for a week or two. By not calling back you will allow the admin secretary time to forget all about you and your company. The next time you call back try and make the secretary fell like she/he’s making the management decision. Ask the secretary who they think you should speak with. Allow them to feel like their in control of what you’re doing or who you will be taking with.
I know working in the sales industry and simply doing cold call sales and marketing can be a pain in the ass. But if you dedicate yourself to improving your style and end result you have the potential of becoming very successful.
I hope these tips help you keep or improve your job and if you have any other suggestions don’t hesitate to add them!
Simply leave a comment and I’ll approve it!
