Rick Frishman’s Blog

Whether you’re pitching yourself in an interview or your service or product in a sales presentation, you need to be speaking to the person who can say yes. That person will inevitably have someone guarding her door and phone line. Your mission, if you choose to be successful, is to circumvent that gatekeeper.

WHAT IT MEANS: Getting past the gatekeeper is what separates the sales superstars from the rest of the pack. It takes resourcefulness, it takes persistence, and it takes a willingness to try different tactics. What works at one company may not work at another; indeed, what worked on Monday may not work on Thursday! First and foremost, you need to do the research to determine exactly whom you need to talk to at the specific company you’re targeting. Then you need to get through his or her gate.

ACTION PLAN: Here are some tips for getting past the gatekeeper:
When you call the office, treat the gatekeeper with the same respect that you would treat the potential partner. This will make them warm up to you. Sound important but courteous, for example, “Hello there, please put me through to Joe Smith.”
If you happen to know someone who knows your key decision maker, ask for permission to use his or her name. When the gatekeeper asks what your call is regarding, you can say, “His good friend Norm First asked me to call him.”
Adopt the gatekeeper. In other words, develop a relationship with him or her. Do this by engaging in a conversation whenever you call. Developing a relationship with the gatekeeper comes in handy when you’ve been unable to reach your potential partner because he or she is often out of the office.
Send a letter first. In the letter, ask the potential partner to expect your call on a certain date. This way, you can say, “He’s expecting my call” when the gatekeeper asks what your call is regarding. Another approach is to e-mail your potential partner to check if he or she has received your letter, and then ask for the best time to call him or her. In this instance, it’s likely that your potential partner will let their gatekeeper know that your phone call is expected.
If voice mail is the gatekeeper, it’s best to send in a letter first, and then follow up by leaving a voice mail message. However, if you choose not to send a letter first, then simply introduce yourself and the purpose of your call. Keep it brief, but try to pique your listener’s interest. What can you say that would make him or her curious enough to return your call or e-mail you?

EVEN BETTER: Go where—or when—the gatekeeper ain’t! Call executives during off-hours—between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning and after 5:00 in the evening. Trade shows are also a good place to gain “face time” with senior managers with less restricted access.

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Believe it or not, with practice, following up gets easier; it even gets to be routine and second nature. As you become more proficient, you’ll find that important contacts respect professionalism and prefer to deal with professionals because they know that they can usually rely upon professionals. So when you follow up in a well-planned, disciplined and timely fashion, important contacts might be more willing to deal with you.

Benefits from following up also spill over to other facets of your life. They teach you patience, understanding and diplomacy. They give you a better idea how to plan, position yourself, wait your turn and seize opportunities. Following up isn’t just persistence, although you must be persistent, it’s being considerate, respectful and wise. It’s treating people as you wish to be treated – - – just like networking.

On occasions, you’ll get lucky. Everybody will ask you to lunch, invite you to their club and introduce you to their A List members. On these lucky streaks, nothing will go wrong and you will be the toast of the town, the “flavor of the month,” the person most in demand, with whom everyone wants to be associated. Treat those times with reverence, appreciate your good fortune and realize that they’re probably just a temporary phenomena – - – special, fleeting moments.

When you’re on top, leverage your success by treating everyone well. Share your success by being magnanimous. Be kind, understanding, gracious and generous. Help whoever needs help – - – whether or not they ask, look for opportunities to help. Apply your good fortune, your moment in the sun, to give generously to others.

You must develop the ability to delegate the right task to the right person in the right way. It’s almost impossible to grow your business without it—because there’s only so much time in a day and you can increase your workload only so much.

EVEN BETTER: After the project has been completed, review the process with your delegatee. Taking this extra step allows all the people involved in the task to identify what they would repeat, modify, or change the next time around. It also lets you determine what was learned, how well the person handled the challenge, and how comfortable/competent that person might be at taking on additional responsibilities.

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There are times—perhaps more than a few—when you will feel frustrated, burned out, and downright trapped by the way things are going at work. Fortunately, most of those feelings will pass, or at least subside—but when they don’t, it may be time to move on.

WHAT IT MEANS: Gone are the days of lifetime employment with one company. Downsizing, outsourcing, and the general turbulence of today’s global economy have changed all that. It’s the Age of the Free Agent—and it means that there is no chain trapping you to your desk. Obviously, deciding to quit your current job is not something that you should do casually or impulsively, but if your day-to-day work experience has just become flat-out miserable, with no relief in sight, you’re not doing yourself any favor by staying there.

ACTION PLAN: Always have an exit strategy. Keep your resume current and your cover letter sparkling even when times are good—because you never know. Put the word out through your network that you’re looking, and gear up for an active and aggressive job search. Let your dissatisfaction motivate you toward extracting yourself from your current “career prison” ASAP. After all, in the final analysis, all jobs are temporary—and when it comes to leaving a job (or boss) you despise, change is good.

EVEN BETTER: Determine whether it’s possible to improve your job situation by trying to confront the problem—or whether it’s possible for you to engineer your own attitude adjustment. If your pain stems from a specific situation, perhaps that situation can be resolved. If it’s a whole laundry list of horrors, it’s probably time for you to plan an expeditious retreat—but walk away professionally, with a smile, a handshake, and no burned bridges. In any case, don’t lose sight of the fact that insofar as working at any job goes, you do have a choice.