Ian's Forbes Article on Gatekeepers
Ian's Video on Gatekeepers
Dave 00:00
And I was going to share one thing that I've participated in a call a week or two ago, and I actually share the deck with a lot of my colleagues, it was around cold calling he'll through one of our industry associations, I don't want you to think I'm cheating on me or anything. So it's all good. Yeah. But it was really about positioning, cold calling, and what I really liked about it, and it was a couple of references in there to things of, you know, when you're calling and you may be getting an administrator, or you may get someone that you're trying to reach out to someone, they that you introduce yourself. And you, you start the conversation by saying, I'm hoping that you could help me.
Ian Altman 00:43
And that, that's the same thing. I agree, I agree completely,
Dave 00:46
because it kind of drives credibility in it, and it puts them in a position of authority. And I'm looking to schedule a meeting with Steve Jones. And I want to make sure that the information I have is relevant to your organization. And, you know, to me, that really is short and sweet. And it kind of gets somebody picking up the phone and going okay, well, this person values my opinion, and is now thought that, you know, I could provide some good key input. Yeah. It was a great segue.
Ian Altman 01:17
That's that's great stuff there. In fact, we will, we'll share with everybody a link, I forget whether I put whether that's an article I did on Forbes or or Inc. years ago, which was that the gist of it was his gatekeeper, Friend or Foe? Yeah. And the idea was that notion what you have to think about, and the reason why this works is the person in that admin role. Fundamentally, if you ask them, what's your job, not as a salesperson, but if you're a friend of theirs, and said, What's your job, they would say, Well, I help this person to this and I help this person to like they're there in the mode of I help other people grow. And what happens all day long is people try to do an end around around them or manipulate them. And basically, they try to assume that they have no position of authority or power. And instead, what you do is you say, Kathleen just posted this, the link to the article for for people to look at, because it gives some specific examples. And the idea is that you're now empowering them by saying, Hey, I wonder if you could help me know, I'm trying to reach out to someone. So here are the top two or three problems. If they don't have an interest in it. I don't want to take up their time. If they do people tell us we can really help you. But I know that you're probably responsible for protecting their time. Do you think that's even worth talking to them about? And oftentimes what happens is they'll say, Oh, yeah, totally. Thank you know what, let me let me put you on their calendar. And it's like, now you're teed up. And it's like, oh, my system thought that this would be worthwhile. Yeah. And so that that notion of cold calling and empowering that person, instead of, you know, I used to I used to in my prior business, I would give people cold calling, where they would get my assistant and say, I'm calling I'm calling from his, his son's school. And that's the way they would get through and the person's like, well, I want to get through to you. And I would say, Okay, so the way you got through to me was by lying to somebody on my team and lying to me, and creating anxiety over a situation, what makes you think we would ever do business together? It's like, now that you started on that path, it's, it's not gonna improve from here.
Dave 03:35
Yeah, you know, another thing get real quick, that I thought was a really a great point was we were talking about LinkedIn and all social media sites was was looking at the content, looking to see a lot of cases whether or not they were posting for an internal position. And you could use that as a segue into Hey, I understand that you are, you're soliciting for new food and beverage director. But I just wanted to let you know that, you know, not only do we have a lot of connections in the industry, but we also provide the services. So that was another great connection point.
Ian Altman 04:08
I thought, yeah, that's, that's great. So, so touching on that, and you may even say, Hey, I see your I see your posting for this, you might even say, a lot of people reach out to us, because either they're, you know, when they're in transition, they're looking for somebody new, they want to make sure that you're getting the right stuff. They also come to us because since we work with so many different people in the industry, oftentimes, when they get to a position where they need somebody new, we're almost like a recruiter for them, but they don't pay us for that. And so we're happy to introduce you to other people. If I can be of help, let me know. And it's like, okay, that's great. And you could say, I saw that you were posting, or you could be silent about that. But either way, it's seeing what's going on meaning for some businesses, for example, if you're somebody selling office equipment, when someone says, Hey, next month we're opening a new office. That's a pretty good entry. cater, that those people are going to need stuff. If they say, oh, we're expanding into the southeast, for our restaurants, that's an indication that there's an opportunity for you in a policy changes, things like that, definitely things to look at. So those are those are great piece of advice, Dave.
Dave 00:00
And I was going to share one thing that I've participated in a call a week or two ago, and I actually share the deck with a lot of my colleagues, it was around cold calling he'll through one of our industry associations, I don't want you to think I'm cheating on me or anything. So it's all good. Yeah. But it was really about positioning, cold calling, and what I really liked about it, and it was a couple of references in there to things of, you know, when you're calling and you may be getting an administrator, or you may get someone that you're trying to reach out to someone, they that you introduce yourself. And you, you start the conversation by saying, I'm hoping that you could help me.
Ian Altman 00:43
And that, that's the same thing. I agree, I agree completely,
Dave 00:46
because it kind of drives credibility in it, and it puts them in a position of authority. And I'm looking to schedule a meeting with Steve Jones. And I want to make sure that the information I have is relevant to your organization. And, you know, to me, that really is short and sweet. And it kind of gets somebody picking up the phone and going okay, well, this person values my opinion, and is now thought that, you know, I could provide some good key input. Yeah. It was a great segue.
Ian Altman 01:17
That's that's great stuff there. In fact, we will, we'll share with everybody a link, I forget whether I put whether that's an article I did on Forbes or or Inc. years ago, which was that the gist of it was his gatekeeper, Friend or Foe? Yeah. And the idea was that notion what you have to think about, and the reason why this works is the person in that admin role. Fundamentally, if you ask them, what's your job, not as a salesperson, but if you're a friend of theirs, and said, What's your job, they would say, Well, I help this person to this and I help this person to like they're there in the mode of I help other people grow. And what happens all day long is people try to do an end around around them or manipulate them. And basically, they try to assume that they have no position of authority or power. And instead, what you do is you say, Kathleen just posted this, the link to the article for for people to look at, because it gives some specific examples. And the idea is that you're now empowering them by saying, Hey, I wonder if you could help me know, I'm trying to reach out to someone. So here are the top two or three problems. If they don't have an interest in it. I don't want to take up their time. If they do people tell us we can really help you. But I know that you're probably responsible for protecting their time. Do you think that's even worth talking to them about? And oftentimes what happens is they'll say, Oh, yeah, totally. Thank you know what, let me let me put you on their calendar. And it's like, now you're teed up. And it's like, oh, my system thought that this would be worthwhile. Yeah. And so that that notion of cold calling and empowering that person, instead of, you know, I used to I used to in my prior business, I would give people cold calling, where they would get my assistant and say, I'm calling I'm calling from his, his son's school. And that's the way they would get through and the person's like, well, I want to get through to you. And I would say, Okay, so the way you got through to me was by lying to somebody on my team and lying to me, and creating anxiety over a situation, what makes you think we would ever do business together? It's like, now that you started on that path, it's, it's not gonna improve from here.
Dave 03:35
Yeah, you know, another thing get real quick, that I thought was a really a great point was we were talking about LinkedIn and all social media sites was was looking at the content, looking to see a lot of cases whether or not they were posting for an internal position. And you could use that as a segue into Hey, I understand that you are, you're soliciting for new food and beverage director. But I just wanted to let you know that, you know, not only do we have a lot of connections in the industry, but we also provide the services. So that was another great connection point.
Ian Altman 04:08
I thought, yeah, that's, that's great. So, so touching on that, and you may even say, Hey, I see your I see your posting for this, you might even say, a lot of people reach out to us, because either they're, you know, when they're in transition, they're looking for somebody new, they want to make sure that you're getting the right stuff. They also come to us because since we work with so many different people in the industry, oftentimes, when they get to a position where they need somebody new, we're almost like a recruiter for them, but they don't pay us for that. And so we're happy to introduce you to other people. If I can be of help, let me know. And it's like, okay, that's great. And you could say, I saw that you were posting, or you could be silent about that. But either way, it's seeing what's going on meaning for some businesses, for example, if you're somebody selling office equipment, when someone says, Hey, next month we're opening a new office. That's a pretty good entry. cater, that those people are going to need stuff. If they say, oh, we're expanding into the southeast, for our restaurants, that's an indication that there's an opportunity for you in a policy changes, things like that, definitely things to look at. So those are those are great piece of advice, Dave.
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