5 Steps to Getting Past the Gatekeeper

From our experience at Vouris as experts in the sales space, we know a particular struggle as old as time itself:

The Sales Representative vs The Gatekeeper.

Okay, so maybe that’s a little dramatic, but getting repeatedly stonewalled by gatekeepers is a real issue that salespeople face, and it can get incredibly frustrating.

There’s a key problem with how many teams prepare their representatives for gatekeeper conversations:

→ They give them a basic cold call script with loose pointers about handling gatekeepers.

But if you boil it down to blindly relying on a standard cold call script…the gatekeeper is going to win.

That’s because their script is quite literally built to handle your team’s script.

So, what do you do?

Here’s our approach:

Define your order of objectives.‍

1. Get transferred to the decision maker.

This is the number one priority. Without reaching the decision maker, you’ll just be wasting your time and won’t be able to have a productive conversation.

2. Get a time to call back to reach the decision maker.

You should always ask for a better time to call back if you aren’t redirected to the decision maker right away. Leaving a message with the gatekeeper may result in your message being lost in translation, or never being delivered at all.

3. Ask qualification questions.

These questions tell you whether the person who answered your call is qualified to use your tool. These questions help you get more context to determine your next steps.

4. Ask discovery questions.

These questions are used in the conversation in order to position your product as the tool for them. These questions are only useful if the gatekeeper knows the answers.

5. Use a script

Always be one step ahead of your gatekeeper by preparing a script beforehand. Luckily, we’ve got you covered in this department.

Use a script that’s designed specifically to handle gatekeepers. Like this one:​​​

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Gatekeepers’ scripts are usually designed to quickly take control of conversations and funnel callers into a couple of categorical brush-offs.

So, how do you get past that?

The magic of the script above is subtle, but very powerful - it’s all about the tone and keeping conversational control.

In the intro, you’re asking for the decision and introducing yourself like a friend.

When the gatekeeper starts to run through their script/initial questions, your next level is to regain control by asking specific questions.

Remember, these are your objectives (in order):

• Get transferred to the decision maker.
• Get a time to call back to reach the decision maker.
• Ask qualification questions.
• Ask discovery questions
• Use a script

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