Getting Around The Gatekeeper - The Grizzled Veteran Technique

Part 1 : Part 2

Yesterday, we talked about the basics of getting around the gatekeeper.  Today we want to give you a technique to help you get around the most saavy and experienced gatekeeper - the wiley, battle tested grizzled veteran of gatekeepring.  Even if you use the script interrupt technique we discussed yesterday, sometimes getting through can be very difficult, especially when dealing with a great gatekeeper (who, by the way, you should recruit).

The conversation with this person often goes more like what follows, though please note that I am using a number of interactions I have had over the years with gatekeepers to create a general response here. Most keepers will use nicer terminology than this, but the substance of the message is legitimately the same.

Gatekeeper: Good morning; Barbara Smith's office.
Recruiter: Good morning; who am I speaking to?
Gatekeeper: This is Jim.
Recruiter: Jim, good morning, this is Michael Homula calling for Barbara.
Gatekeeper: Mr. Homula, unless I know the purpose of your call, I won't transfer you to Ms. Smith. Is that clear?
Recruiter: Ugh, ummm, choke, cough...

The key here is to not get confrontational with this gatekeeper. Lying, rusing or deceit is not really the best choice either, and can be illegal. This is what works best, based on what I've have learned from years of experience and training by the leaders mentioned above:

Recruiter: Jim, I appreciate why you're asking that question. You see, my call involves a high degree of sensitivity and confidentiality. I believe that needs to start with Barbara. Once I speak with her, if she feels the sensitive information I have can include you then all of us can be involved in the communication. I just think we need to let her make that decision. Until Barbara makes that decision, the sensitive nature of my call means I should speak with her first.

The gatekeeper, knowing that their director of marketing probably deals with a lot of sensitive information, is likely going to transfer me to Barbara Smith or to her voicemail. There isn't a gatekeeper in the world that wants be responsible for a sensitive and confidential situation not getting through. If Jim the gatekeeper puts me on hold to announce my call to Barbara, he will inform her that the nature of the call is sensitive and confidential, which will create a degree of wonder and urgency for Barbara.

Recruiting Is Sensitive and Confidential

The recruiting ethics police out there may want to argue that by declaring my call to be "sensitive" and "confidential" rather than revealing my identity as a recruiter calling to offer Barbara a better opportunity is scandalous, unethical, or even illegal. To that I query back in advance, what can be more sensitive or confidential than a recruiting call?

Barbara — someone I know to be a high-performing director of marketing — is entitled to learn about other opportunities that may be better than her current situation. Barbara also has a right for any conversation she has with me, or any other recruiter for that matter, to be handled with a high degree of sensitivity and confidentiality. Once I speak with Barbara, she can decide whether or not to continue speaking with me.

Barbara is also the only one who gets to decide if she would like to share the nature of our conversations with anyone else, including her current employer. Her company does not have the right to make that decision for her and certainly neither does her gatekeeper. The days of indentured servitude ended long ago in this country and only the talent I am trying to reach gets to make decisions about their future.

Stay tuned for a future tactical training discussion which deals specifically with the actual recruiting call. Too many recruiters make the recruiting call ill prepared.