If you're working on a prospect and having trouble getting past a gatekeeper, consider switching your role.
A client of mine who's in manufacturing walked into a company he'd never been to before. When he attempted to talk to a specific level of decision maker, the receptionist immediately became difficult to deal with. She acted like nobody had ever walked into the office before and asked to see someone.
A couple months later, my client went back. This time, he took a different approach. Since his company partners with other manufacturers in multiple capacities, he switched his role.
Approaching the receptionist, he said, "Hi there! I've talked to you guys in the past. Is there any chance I can talk to someone about what your capabilities are now, and see if there's any opportunity for us to do work together?"
The reaction was completely different than last time. The receptionist's face lit up! "Well, let me go see if I can find somebody," she said.
She quickly got up, went back behind closed doors for a moment, then came back out with someone. He introduced himself, then invited my client back.
"Come on back. Let me show you some things we're working on."
He ended up sharing with my client some of the larger companies they were working with, and the amount of business they do with those clients each year. Then they began to talk about work they could potentially do together.
Can you see what a difference it made when he switched roles? When he first approached the gatekeeper, she immediately shut him down. Very likely, nothing he could have said at that point would have gotten him face time with anyone.
On the other hand, when he reversed the roles, she was more than happy to spend two minutes going to find someone. And once my client was past the gatekeeper, he was able to have a real conversation with someone.
The biggest reason gatekeepers exist is to keep us from wasting their team's time. But if we can switch roles, we can have real conversations with the right people, and quickly evaluate if we would be wasting their time or not.
