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I received an email from a reader who said that he sometimes gets the objection from the gatekeeper of, “I am sorry but he/she does not take outside calls, he/she only responds to emails.” He asked if there is a way to get around this, and my answer is: sometimes. Let’s start at the beginning:
First of all, my question to the sales rep who sent me this email would be, “How did the gatekeeper know you were an “outside” call,” rather than a client, prospect or friend?” The first thing a sales rep needs to do when prospecting is to use the please, please, please technique that I’ve written about earlier and to be as assumptive, yet polite, as possible. This generally eliminates 60 – 85% of the screening you’re likely to get.
If you still get the screening of, “What’s this call in regards to,” once again, you need to use the assumptive, directive approach I teach, combined with a please at the end. Something like, “Yes, please tell her it’s about her lead processing, and I’ll be happy to hold please.” This will work in most instances. Once again, you must use the openings as I recommend them to avoid the screening that occurs naturally.
If you have used both of these openings and still get the objection, “She only responds to email,” then you can try the following statements which may sometimes work:
“I have emailed in the past, and I think they may be getting stuck in her spam folder. Could you please tell her I need just a minute to confirm this please?”
OR
“I’d love to email her my information, but I’m not sure which brochure to send. Would you mind if I had just a 2 minute conversation to see what would be appropriate, please?”
OR
“And how do I reach her if I don’t hear back from my email?”
OR
“I understand, but this is important, could I speak with her supervisor, please?”
OR
“I understand she may be busy, who is her manager, please?” Then: “Could you please connect me with ________ please?”
OR
“I know what that’s like, we have a similar policy here as well. But after three email attempts, the caller is to be put through. Could you tell her I’m holding, please?”
OR
“Question for you: if I haven’t heard back from my previous emails, how would you recommend I reach her?”
OR
“If I end up not being able to reach her, who can you connect me to?”
OR
“My email is down right now, do you might putting me through for a quick question?”
OR
“Could I speak to your supervisor, please?”
OR
“What happened the last time you put someone through to her?”
OR
“I’m not allowed to email anyone I don’t already have in my data base. Do you mind letting her know I’m holding, please?”
OR
“Who can you put me through to?”
OR
“Could I have customer service, please?” (And then just go through them to be put through to your prospect)
OR
“What would you recommend is the best way to reach her by phone?”
OR
“No problem, for next time, what is her extension, please?”
These are a variety of responses you can use to get past the gatekeeper and on to your decision maker. Pick the ones that work best for your sale and your personality. If you find that you absolutely cannot get through, then try reaching out to your prospect through LinkedIn or other social media.
If you exhaust all of the above and still find you can’t get through to a prospect, then consider them disqualified for your product or service and move on. There are plenty of other deals waiting your call…