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How to get to the decision makers when contacting local businesses
I’m currently running a marketing agency and tend to be able to sell my pitch once I get to a business owner or decision maker. But it’s not easy to do.
There’s always a gatekeeper in the way. Personal assistant or Receptionist generally.
I get a lot of “the owner isn’t currently available” or “the owner is not present right now” and you know it’s not always true.
I try to work around this by providing my information and asking the gatekeeper to pass my details on to the owner, but 90% of the time they either don’t or because you haven’t met face to face with the owner yourself, they throw the details in the bin once they receive them.
How do I get through them?
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4 Replies
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You need to keep in mind that the gatekeeper is just doing their job. They’re supposed to screen out pesky sales people so the business owners can focus on running their companies.
In their mind, sales offers rarely match with a company’s needs, so you need to prove that your motivations line up.
Take the time to get to know the company, strike up a conversation with the gatekeeper to become familiar with them, and then explore points of entry for your service. Discover what problems the company has and then offer a solution.
Get them to speak first and listen, instead of pushing your pitch.
You also need a strong online presence. Once they get to know you, they WILL check out out, before forwarding your information on to the business owner.
They want to look good, and will pass your information on if it will make them look good too. But if they’re not confident on you, they won’t put their job on the line.
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Listen and then offer a solution instead of mouthing off a script is great advice. Your online presence idea is definitely something I need to work on. Give myself a better online facade. Thank you.
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Actually, you’ve got it wrong. Quite often they are the decision maker, and the owner is just the final approval. Instead of disregarding them and wanting to go up the chain, they’re the people you should be focusing your time on.
If you convince them, the business owner’s will trust their decision. It’s a lot easier than trying to convince the owners yourself as a stranger.
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Wow, I never thought of it this way and you’re absolutely right. The GateKeeper does provide a say and make the initial decision. Instead of rushing to the boss, I will give them the attention they deserve. Getting them on my side will make things so much easier.
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