How do you get past the secretary when trying to reach a prospective client?

Part of it is in your attitude. You have to stop looking at them as brick walls and start looking at them as opportunites. Try calling early morning, over lunch hour, or after hours, most secretaries are gone. If you ever receive the secretaries voicemail, hit 0 and ask for your prospect by name. Use a firm tone when asking for your prospect, Teisha Yetman calling for Joe Davis. Expect to get through and be persistent!

We train our team to consider admins their prospect. Shift. You are now building your rapport with them to get passed along. That's your sales goal.

If you portray professionalism, respect for their role, and honesty, it goes a long way. Their job is not just to protect their decision maker from every cold call, but to let the ones through that make sense.

Best disarming technique--know your prospect before you dial. Referral references from LinkedIn. Background knowledge. Admins want warm calls, not cold calls.

The only way to get through is to compell them to let you through.

Give the secretary a compelling reason to connect you with the prospect, one that will make him/her feel like it is the right thing to do. To do this, offer content or ideas that are meaningful and helpful to both the prospect and recognized as such by the secretary, and that will elicit a need for further discussion. Sure easier said than done, yes, but with enough homework, you'll have something that the prospect values.

I think you're using the wrong approach. Treat connecting with the executive assistant as if you are talking to the decision maker. You can even ask for her help on how best to reach Mr. Big. After all, he or she deals with him everyday.

One technique that works well is to ask permission to sent assistant an email. If he or she likes it, it is shared with Mr. Big.

You don't need a "trick of the trade." You need to better leverage your relationships.

Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
http://www.findnewcustomers.net

Ahh, getting past the admin.

First some rules:

1. If you can't get past admin, you can't sell to the c-suite
2. Admins are often more powerful than their bosses (true)
3. If you mess with the admin, you are finished

Tips:
1. People will help people they like.
2.Always be very polite. Don't be bossy or demanding.
3. Be upfront about what you are trying to do. They will smell a liar from far away.
4. Say his/her name back to her. Show respect.
5. Ask them for their help. "Sherri, I am hoping you can help me"
6. Ask for their help part II: I'd like the opportunity to speak to Mr. so and so". Alot of sales reps say "Ill call back later" - guess who is going to answer. Announce your intentions, but ask her to help you.
7. You actually have to sell her sometimes. That's ok, do it.
8. If she refers you, thank him/her. Get the person's full name, title, and direct dial before you go. Send her an email politely thanking him/her.

Be careful how you leverage (or if you leverage) the person's name. Can sound condescending or cheesey, especially if coming from male to female.

hate to be contrarian folks,but imho we can't get 'past' a gatekeeper. she is in control! and it's her job to find the people who will be an asset to the boss, or who will waste his/her time, and know the difference... allowing the right folks access and getting rid of the 'time wasters.'

how does a gatekeeper choose to let you in? how will she know you're going to be an asset? that, to me, is the real question.

i use my decision facilitation model to help gatekeepers determine if i'm worthy: i always treat them as if they are the decision makers and ask them the same Facilitative Questions as i do the prospect (for my offering, i start with, "How are you currently adding new sales skills to the ones you are already offering your sales folks?"

i have gotten huge pieces of business from gatekeepers - secretaries AND receptionists. after all, they have the prospect's ear. they know what's going on in the company and with his/her vendors, business issues, etc.

also, i make sure she has time to speak (is this a good time to speak? this is a sales call) and knows who i am and why i'm calling without being condescending and disrespectful. after all, she's my first prospect who i need to 'close', right?

if you can remember that it's this person's job to choose you - or not - and help her discover why you'd be an asset (i do this by using my Buying Facilitation(R) model on her immediately --- and having a good solution is not a reason for her to choose you cuz she hears from folks like you hourly), you don't need to get past her.

Hi Teisha,

There's a lot of great information here, and I think everyone's got some similar ideas. I'll go out on a limb and throw out some tricks for you, though.

1. Try calling your prospect really early in the day or very late in the afternoon. The hope here is that the admin is not around and the prospect will answer his/her phone on their own.

2. Try calling your prospect at lunch time (during their timezone). Again, the hope is that the admin is not at their desk and the prospect might be.

3. Get referred in. Talk with someone else in the organization and get referred to the prospect. That way, you've got a lead in to the person you want to talk with, and generally (and I stress "generally"), a referral goes a long way with admins.

Those are a couple of basic ideas, and probably ones you already use.

I think it's important to stress the idea that the other's have mentioned, in that it is critical to see the admin as someone that you want to speak with. Often times, they're more in the know than the prospect that you want to talk with.

Good luck!

Some of the replies here are a bit vague, something you can't afford to be when talking a secretary because as soon as they label you a schmoozer you're finished. Being polite is not usually a good solution neither is giving too much credence to the receptionist / PAs opinion. In the first place you loose urgency and credibility, in the second you're likely to simply end up accepting her principle that it's her job to simply not put any callers through to the President and politely bowing out of the process.

Without giving too much away you have to enough faith in your project that it really is important enough for the decision maker to give it their time. Because if you're trying to bluff your way through the defence you be read as exactly that: A bluffer. Keeping bluffers out is one of the major tasks reception will feel responsible for and the slightest whiff of it will receive a concrete NO.