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I was a street kid growing up. In my late teens I started a marketing job over the telephone. Today at 34 I own my own call center and have found the biggest hurdle all marketers face is getting past the gatekeeper.

This article is the wisdom I have found and proven to be a Success over and over.

GATEKEEPER SALES PROCESS
A Proven Sales Method by Hundreds of Telemarketers

Introduction
This document has been designed based on a working outbound call centre which generates thousands of appointments per month in a very saturated market. All information has been tried and tested and is responsible for a business that started in a bedroom and now supports a 400 square metre building packed with telemarketers. Follow the steps below and you can have similar success.

Through the experience of building our team we have identified that there are two Sales Processes when cold calling. The first relates to the Gatekeeper (secretary) and the second relates to the decision maker. Too often Lead Generators or Telemarketers assume that because a certain step (generally Rapport Building) has been completed with the Gatekeeper that it mystically transfers from the Gatekeeper to the Decision Maker. This is completely illogical however a common practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

STEP 1: INTRODUCING YOURSELF 3

STEP 2: RAPPORT BUILDING 5

STEP 3: CLOSE 6

GATEKEEPER SCENARIO – EXAMPLE 7

SUMMARY 8

RECOMMENDATIONS 9

Step 1: Introducing Yourself

You must always without fail use your full name when approaching a Gatekeeper. They are trained to ask questions and probe you to identify whether their employer would want to speak with you. Generally if a product can be tele-marketed it generally already is and quite frequently which causes several calls per day to the same company from multiple suppliers.
There a few reasons why you need to use a full name. I have found through 14 years of Telemarketing that when you use a full name it deflates the first question secretaries ask which interrupts the general pattern they are used to. Gatekeepers also follow a specific process and it is important to break it before they start with their standard questioning. In many cases the secretary will not probe any further as they do not like leaving their comfort zone or regular pattern. Once they are in question mode they don’t stop until they know everything. This does not mean that they will not ask further questions however it is a good start.
When you only use your first name a number of issues arise. How many John’s, Michael’s and Jenny’s are in the world. The history of Telemarketing as not been a good one, prospects/customers have been mislead and lied to and potentially lost money on information provided by telemaketers. There is zero credibility when only using your first name and zero chance of a prospect/customer tracking you down in a medium to large size business. There is an immediate defense mechanism in people when there is no reason to trust what a stranger is telling you.
You must never reveal where you are calling from in your opening statement and preferably not at all through the Gatekeeper Sales Process however if asked it is important not to alienate them so you should answer.
Gatekeepers don’t always know the real objection of why their employer doesn’t wish to speak with you so you cannot overcome the secretary’s reason for not putting you through. The employer has commonly instructed no calls of your nature should be put through. No secretary will risk their job simply based on your objection handlers. The best method of getting through is avoiding the objection in the first place.
You must also capture the secretary’s name and use it. Even though the secretary has given you their name it supports the familiarity you are portraying as they don’t know if you already had their name prior to them mentioning it.
When dealing with the Gatekeeper so many telemarketers and managers feel that the utmost professional approach is the way to go. My experience has taught me that this is rarely the case. You must mirror the customer and breakdown the professional side as if you come across as the professional the gatekeeper will mirror you and focus on their professionalism. This promotes the asking of questions and their process being followed to a tea which as demonstrated earlier in this document raises a number of issues i.e. finding out what your call is regarding. When you are passionate about your service or product or the person who owns the service is listening to your call we generally go into professional mode and fail. The product or service has nothing to do with your conversation with the
gatekeeper, getting past them determines if you are successful. You must always be polite and not unprofessional eg. Don’t use profanity or offensive tones and language.

Rapport Building Step

Telemarketing is not all doom and gloom and deception. If you learn the art of Rapport Building your success rate will sky rocket. There is no better tool to breakdown the fact that you are imposing yourself on the Gatekeeper and attempted to get to their employer.
Gatekeepers receive multiple calls a day sometimes an hour. There would be nothing more frustrating than dealing with Telemarketing calls when you have other duties to perform. The second a Gatekeeper identifies you’re calling to Sell or Promote something they become defensive as it is there job on the line.
It is vital to identify something familiar to the Gatekeeper within the first few seconds of the call. You can do this by looking at the general population, what does every person like? You may use the weekend as a rapport building statement however this is not enough. You may start with your introduction following a polite how are you? It is difficult for Gatekeepers not to respond with return how are you? as you may be a customer or important person to their employer. When they do this you can say “it’s Hump Day, Wednesday is already here and the week is all downhill from here. This works extremely well as they generally giggle and they are receiving a call that is very different to the majority that they receive. It is always much nicer when an enthusiastic, friendly and funny voice is on the line as opposed to a dry boring informative voice. You must engage the Gatekeeper, follow on with “I think I’ll be having a couple of red wines tonight it has been a long week. Are you ready for a few reds when you get home tonight?” If they don’t drink red wine ask them what there poison is. The more too and fro you can do with them the more of a relationship you form. If their first impression of you is a good one you will receive an automatic trust from them.
If the Gatekeeper continues to converse don’t be afraid to keep going. Never cut them off and ensure you finish the conversation. Don’t drag it out, control the call but pick your moment. The moment is generally the first whole one to two second gap without speaking when neither person has asked a question. Your next question should be the Gatekeeper close.

Close Step

You must have an implication that the decision maker is familiar with you but never lie. You can do this by sounding familiar with the Decision Maker eg. You can ask if the person (by first name only) is at his/her desk or ask if “that trouble maker (by first name) is floating around the office”. This provides a connotation of familiarity especially if they are the owner or manager as the personality build of these individuals requires people skills, an aspect of flair and generally trouble making as they can get away with more and it is often used when attempting to motivate.
If the person isn’t available you must always strengthen your next call. Ask when they think he/she would be available and the best time to call. Don’t ask them to tell them you called because they will feel the need to ask further questions as they will have to physically speak with their employer and they know that they will ask what it is regarding. The next time you call they will know your calling to sell or promote something and won’t put you through.
Always leave on a good note when the Decision Maker is not available. Remember Gatekeepers have a job to do to and it is not personal.

Gatekeeper Scenario Example

Hi Jenny, Joe Smith here, how are you?

Good thanks – how are you?

Its’ Hump Day, Wednesday is already here and the week is all downhill now. I’ve got to say I am in need of a couple of red wines tonight? How about yourself?

Oh, I don’t think I would ever say no to a red

A women after my own heart, I am a Cab Merlot man myself, let me guess you are a Shiraz girl aren’t you?

You know I don’t mind Shiraz but to be honest I like most reds.

Excellent to hear, say is Joe at his desk?

Summary

This document is the Gatekeeper Process only. Some aspects of this process are similar to the decision maker process however many key areas differ. Using this exact approach on a decision maker will probably not work as you need to be 100% upfront and credible to expect a sale without any or little buyer remorse.
If you use these techniques when dealing with Gatekeepers you will succeed in your cold calling efforts. You must always remain flexible with all approaches as no one approach will work on every prospect. We have chosen this process as it has an extremely high success rate.
This document has been written as an internal training document and also made available to the business world as an EBook due to its proven success rate.

For more EBooks relating to the Sales Process please visit – www.helpcoldcall.com

Recommendations

Like anything that we do we must follow a process.
Whether you are a doctor who needs to follow a process to perform their duties e.g. Introduce, Build Rapport, Ask Questions, Diagnose and Treat or an pilot who needs to draw up a flight plan, organize fuel, start the plane, raise landing gear on take-off, lower landing gear on decent and land the plane we must all follow a process or we will generally fail.
Can you imagine a pilot or doctor not doing these things?
Cold Calling and Sales are the same, if you miss a step for whatever reason you will fail more often then not. You may not crash a plane or miss diagnose however your employer may terminate you if you are not successful which can be just as tragic depending on your lifestyle.
Do whatever it takes to motivate yourself to follow each step, keep in mind the consequences if you don’t follow the steps and work out which is worse, following the process or not being employed.
There is only one answer you should conclude.
Good Luck and happy selling!

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-We don’t drive a car if we don’t know the meaning of road signs.
-We don’t try to fix a refrigerator without knowing how it works.
-We don’t read if we don’t know the alphabets.
-We don’t live if we don’t eat and drink.

Did you ever stop and think that, from the beginning of time, there have been laws set in motion that automatically bring their results when we act in relation to them? Same thing applies to being successfulin doing something that you really wanted to do, whether it is fixing something, driving a car, taking a test, or taking care of your health.

Well, even if you don’t want to succeed, applying these laws to whatever you wanted to do, will get you to succeed in doing it. They are known as “laws of success. You apply these laws in all aspects of life and you will succeed in EVERTHING. It does not matter in what aspect of life you use them, using them in general lead you to success.

So lets start our journey to success!

laws of success are:

1.Law of Desire.
2.Law of Belief.
3.Law of Positive attitude.
4.Law of Persistence.
5.Law of Goal getting.

All five laws are really self explained. Allow me to collaborate a little on each one.

-Law of Desire:
Desire is a challenge that cannot be easily stopped. If you really want something BADLY, or HOPE for it to happen, you WILL get it. This force is your “passion” to succeed and excel. Desire overcomes obstacles to success. No matter what stands in the way, it is movable.

-Law of Belief:
Anything you believe to be possible, it will be your reality. Our subconscious mind works in mysterious ways. Dreams and reality is all the same when it comes to our subconscious mind.

Whatever picture you will think about, will drive your actions to create that exact emotion. Once you believe that you can achieve a goal, than your subconscious mind will AUTOMATICALLY drive your behavior to created that goal.
As Dr. Murphy said: “Every thought is a cause, and every condition is an effect.”

-Law of Positive attitude:
Attitude is everything. The way you see things around you, will lead you to a positive or a negative attitude. Positive attitude leads to optimism. Our performance depends on how we think.

Just be optimistic and listen to yourself. Make sure you have enough sleep since sleep is vital for our brain to function properly. Put things in perspective and take brakes in what ever you wanted to do.

-Law of Persistence:
When you keep on trying, you will succeed. Do not quit at your first attempt. It is hard sometimes, just say “I can do it”, and remember to listen to yourself. Just to back that up, here are some role model success stories:

Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got
financing for his dream of creating the “Happiest Place on
Earth”.

Colonel Sanders spent two years driving across the United
States looking for restaurants to buy his chicken recipe. He
was turned down 1,009 times! How successful is Kentucky Fried Chicken today?

Edison found more then 1000 ways for the light bulb NOT to
work before he found the only way it WORKS.

-Goal settings:
You cannot achieve anything without setting goals for it. It is the motivation to have the willingness to succeed in anything you do. Goals is a very powerful tool to success.

Now that you are aware of these laws of success, there is no reason for you to not be successful in anything you do. Making money online is something you should want to be successful in, especially with today’s downfall economy.

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You achieve success when you meet a stretch goal overcoming problems, failures, and difficulties by conscious effort and by application of your capabilities, resources and methods.

Clarify What You Really Want

Succeeding requires a strong intention to succeed. “How to” is secondary. Get inspired first. If you really want something you’ll invent amazing ways to achieve it.

The Power of Passion

To be successful, you must have a clear compelling vision of what you want from life. Your vision performs both a directional and a motivational function. The purpose of your coherent vision of a desirable future is to focus you on those things you could do now to bring that future state about.

Be Different and Make a Difference!

Choose Success

Failure never “happens”, it’s your choice. If you believe that failure is not a choice, you’ll never fail. Test new ideas, learn from what works, and what doesn’t, and then apply these lessons to your next experiment, test or idea. Keep doing this until you get results you are satisfied with.

Don’t give up when things go wrong. Every costly lesson is going to result in exponentially greater success in the long term. Seek out the positive in every bad situation and ask, “What can I learn from this? How can do it again more intelligently?”

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