Getting Around The Gatekeeper - Tactical Recruiting

Part 1 : Part 2

Recruiters, for as long as recruiting has been around, have had to contend with gatekeepers.  How they tactically execute getting around or through the gatekeeper is often a source of heated discussion and debate in the sourcing and recruiting community.  What should you say to get around the gatekeeper without being deceitful? How much information should you reveal to the gatekeeper? How should you introduce yourself to the passive candidate when you call? What is ethical in sourcing and what isn't?

I want to focus on two very important aspects of great recruiting: how to get around a gatekeeper without rusing and, once you get to the prospect or candidate, how you define the purpose of your call and then execute the art of recruiting (blog post to come).

This will be about tactics; a practical teaching session that shares and provides some details from one of the many recruiter training modules Bearing Fruit Consulting provides to our clients.  These are things a recruiter can execute immediately. During my 12 or so years of recruiting and recruiting leadership I have learned a variety of tactics from some of the best-known names in the recruiting industry. Names like Sullivan, Radin, Leffkowitz, Adler, etc., read like a who's who of recruiting consultants and teachers who have shaped my execution, teaching, and leading in the recruiting industry and subsequently shaped the recruiting strategy, tactics and training programs we deliver to our clients.   

The tactics and techniques I teach to my teams and clients are the result of 14 years of recruiting experience getting real world measurable results and what the aforementioned recruiting industry thought leaders have taught me and many others.  Much of what I executed successfully as a recruiter, and now teach as a leader, was learned from Peter Leffkowitz in my early days of staffing and executive search. Those of you who have attended any of his seminars or training will recognize much in this article.

A Hypothetical Situation

You are conducting a search for a director of marketing or VP of marketing. If you're a really great recruiter, you have competitive intelligence on a few candidates who you know are high performers. One of those high performers is a senior-level marketing professional at one of your competitors named Barbara Smith. You are now ready to make the call.

Given the senior-level scope of your search, there's a high degree of likelihood you'll encounter your targeted prospects executive secretary or administrative support; the dreaded gatekeeper. Damn the man!

Want To Know How To Get Around a Gatekeeper? Hang Out With One

The first thing you need to do is get to know someone who has been a gatekeeper. Just about every organization has at least one gatekeeper or someone working in the company who did it in a prior life. Ask them how they did it. Understand how they were trained and what scripts they use. Listen to them apply their craft. Incidentally, hiring former gatekeepers to be recruiters is a very sound recruiting strategy.

In order to get around the gatekeeper, it is critical to know the script almost all gatekeepers employ. Gatekeepers are taught to answer the phone in a very specific way, and the script pattern they use is designed to get as much information from the caller in order to make a decision about who to let through and who to block. Great gatekeepers are trained to block everyone unless they make a compelling argument for why they should be let through or the person they support has specifically indicated a caller should be let through.

Before we talk about how to design the call and get by the gatekeeper, we need to look at a typical recruiting call and the common script pattern a gatekeeper will likely use during their interaction with you the recruiter. As part of the call examination we need to look at how most recruiters, especially those in the corporate recruiting world, script their end of the call. Most third party recruiters (TPR) are usually much better at this, though you wouldn't know it by the voice mails and calls I have received from some of them recently.

The background now set, let's "listen in" on our hypothetical call:

Gatekeeper: Good morning; Barbara Smith's office.
Recruiter: Good morning; Barbara please.
Gatekeeper: May I tell her who is calling?
Recruiter: Of course. This is Michael Homula calling.
Gatekeeper: What company are you with Mr. Homula?
Recruiter: Bearing Fruit Consulting.
Gatekeeper: And the nature of your call?
Recruiter: Choke, gasp, uhhh, mmmm, aaahhh...

Read that exchange three more times. No, really, please read that exchange 3 more times before you move on.  It is important to imprint this gatekeeper-recruiter give-and-take into your brain. It's a dance, and you have to know the movements of the dance in order to effectively dance with your partner (the gatekeeper) and get around them.  The gatekeeper script pattern outlined in this example is how the vast majority of them are trained to execute their craft of blocking you. It's effective and often works very well. In order to know how to execute this call the right way, we have to first look at how it is done wrong. So, don't read ahead. Stop right now and go back and read the exchange three more times, paying careful attention to the word patterns, the order and the rhythm of the call.

In the example above, our recruiter (played by me) did a few things right but a lot wrong. One thing the recruiter did do right was disarm the gatekeeper and build rapport by using her first name. Assuming you could actually "hear" this call, you would also know the recruiter mirrored their vocal pattern after the gatekeepers. In this example, I sounded like I belonged on the call. The call has to be delivered with confidence. As the "intruder" in this situation, you have to sound like you belong on the call. Too many recruiters feel some sort of guilt about making this call and therefore they sound guilty in their tone of voice.

Using the proper tone and inflection, and using first names, sends a message to the gatekeeper — you should know me and I should be connected to Barbara.  This is one of the reasons I advocate and teach recruiters to stand while making recruiting calls.  The physiology of standing provides a life and confidence level to the tone of a recruiters voice.  Some gatekeepers, especially in larger companies, may assume you work for their company (that you are an internal employee) or you are an approved vendor, and will pass you right along. Just think about how many employees or vendors there can be in some organizations. Executing this simple yet effective tactic may get you everything you need.

Even though there were a few good points during this call, there was still a lot wrong. Namely, the gatekeeper got the recruiter off script and stuck them with a tough question: "What is the nature of your call?" This is a tough question for recruiters to answer and is often where the call ends or goes sideways. Many recruiters immediately begin to lie or employ some deceitful tactic to get put through. But that is not necessary.

Try this exchange and technique on for size:

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.

Did you see that? Did you see what I just did? What I did was employ a technique that Peter Leffkowitz calls pattern or script interrupt.

Telling Jim, he gatekeeper, my name before he asked for it changes who is in control of the conversation.  Most gatekeepers have a script pattern they work from; there is a rhythm and flow to it, just like a recruiter's script. Most of these script patterns include a component of asking for the identity of the caller, the company they represent, and the nature of the call. These key questions happen early in the call "dance" and help the gatekeeper to fulfill their purpose. That purpose is to gain control of the conversation, determine the calls level of importance, how valid the call is, gather information about the caller, and then block the caller if they are undesirable.

By interrupting this script pattern, the recruiter now owns the flow of the conversation; the gatekeeper is pushed sideways and out of rhythm and becomes distracted from his script and its subsequent purpose. The result is that the recruiter improves the odds of getting through to the suspect/prospect/candidate.

In other words, what I did as a recruiter in this example is change the pattern of how my information goes into the gatekeeper, which in turn knocks her off of her routine or script pattern. I have changed the texture of the call, as well as who controls it. In a very real sense, we have humanized the call and humanized the gatekeeper. Instead of dealing with Jim's script, I am now dealing with Jim the person. Now that I have wrestled away control of how the information goes in and the texture of the call, it is now just two people who see each other as humans and not scripts. The playing field is now leveled.

I know you are thinking that is a great technique but what if the gatekeeper is a seasoned veteran with 20+ years of experience blocking and tackling for their organization.  They have skills and techniques you haven't addressed.  Tomorrow we will talk a little bit about how to get around the grizzled veteran gatekeeper. 

Comments

[Jim Altman]

I agree 100% that getting the gatekeeper off his/her game and putting yourself in control is the key.

My best antidote with a good gatekeeper is how I was able to talk to her about helping her family member find a job in return for inside info.

Psychologically speaking, you need to understand that they are usually underpaid, overworked, and use their position to reject people as a passive aggressive method to release stress. On this note always show professional respect and exploit their need for appreciation.

[Michael Homula]

Thanks for reading and commenting Jim. You employ a technique I call the checking account tactic. That is that you deposit something into the relationship in order to withdraw something.

You also make an excellent point about understanding the psyche of the gatekeeper and their possible socio-economic status within an organization then leveraging that knowledge. Great comments! I look forward to hearing from you more in the future.