Dan Astriedas

Sales Represantive

How to get past the gatekeeper in home improvement niche? (for SMMA)

I'm having a hard time getting past the gatekeeper in home improvement niche. Do you have any suggestions on how to start the conversation better?

When asking for the owner, you can be straightforward by saying: 'Can you put me through John?' or 'John, please?'

The most challenging part for me is when they ask: 'What is this regarding?

I know that I should not pitch the gatekeeper,but when I say it is personal ,it sounds sus and .(Obviously tonality plays the huge role)

thanks in advance!

🔎 Prospecting

👑 Sales Strategy

📞 Cold Calling

22 comments

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HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

So, contractors can be finicky creatures. The best thing to do is to show up in person honestly. These home improvement places might have a store front or show room, and if you can’t meet with someone they might have some business cards at the front desk you can grab, that might be your best way to a direct line. This way you can chat with the gatekeeper face to face.
For gatekeepers I always liked asking for help, I would say something like “yes I’m trying to find the best person to talk to regarding ‘insert subject’ and I am having a hard time getting a hold of ‘your contact’ is that something you can help me with?” Sometimes if you ask for a cell phone or email they will give it to you. The idea is to make them your friend, they never get any attention so it goes a long way to give them some.
If I ever brought something like donuts or cookies into a customer I would always leave some for the secretary, goes a long way trust me.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Love the advice from the voice of success.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Thank you for this piece of advice. I never worked in this sector, so it's always good to learn about the other side.

Sales Represantive

I cannot meet them in person as I am calling USA businesses.
95 % of the time I have the owner's name, so I really don't see the point of asking who is responsible for XYZ.
What do you think in my case?
Thanks for your time !

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

So trying to call only without a Personal connection construction or home improvement companies, that could be very difficult for you. These types of people (typically) in my experience prefer to see people in person. But I could be wrong.

I am sure you have names. You were asking how to get past the gate keeper. The idea is to try and involve them so they help you not hinder you.

Sales Represantive

Got you MAN, appreciate your time and explanatioN!

champchamp

Arsonist

Certified Savage

The point of that question is to get the chance to extend the conversation and build some rapport. It has worked for me in the past.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

How does your best rep do it? Also, aren’t contractor direct numbers easy to find?

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

They aren’t always published have to know them or have contact with them first to get direct lines or cell phones sometimes

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Fair enough

BDM

I always tought they would be easy to find

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Finding an office number? Easy. Finding contact specifically for an owner in the construction space? Not always as easy

Retired Sales Professional

In my opinion, the responses are all solid advice. Ask the gatekeeper to point in the right direction because you have a proposal that can save the company money at the same token earn them a ROI within this amount of months or year by increasing their revenue by X amount. If this doesn't work ask them would they like, "the Red pill or the Blue pill."

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

There is so much freaking leverage in the last line of this.

TheHypnotist

Executive

Sales Manager

"I'm trying to get a hold of John, he's not in is he?"

"Is he expecting your call?"
"He BETTER BE!"

"Does he know what this is regarding?
"He better!"

"what is this regarding?"
"It's about my wife"

When they patch the call through to John you then say "Hey John, my wife said I should give you a call because I've been helping a lot of home improvement business owners like yourself with X Y Z problem....."

You need to sound like someone who knows John, NOT like a sales person. YOU ask the questions, you don't answer them (note the first phrase above). The person asking the questions has control over the conversation. If you let the gatekeeper ask the questions and you are answering them, then you have handed them the authority.

Sales Represantive

very interesting dude,did you try to use it?

TheHypnotist

Executive

Sales Manager

Yes. I don’t normally have to resort to this, and it felt very uncomfortable but it gets me past the gatekeeper. Be careful to have an “out” when you get through so you don’t look like an outright liar.
Another one I came up with but have not had the gaul to use was “it’s about the test results”.

Sales Represantive

What is the continuation of the way with "it's about test results"?

TheHypnotist

Executive

Sales Manager

make it up.... "we're testing which of the following problems are the most commonly experienced amongst [insert job title] in your industry" then hit them with the three most common problems you solve for that ICP.Be creative, think of crazy shit to say, have fun, prospecting doesn't have to be torture.

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

🐺

I like Jeremy Miner's approach, I have found it to work before "hey I was wondering if you could help point me the direction, I called your company because I noticed there might be some problems with XYZ, and my company does ABC, do you know who I can talk to that would be in charge of this." Not exactly how it goes, but you get the idea.

Sales Represantive

But what if I have owner's name?

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

🐺

They don’t know that also what if the owner isn’t the only one that makes decision

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Dan Astriedas

How to get past the gatekeeper in home improvement niche? (for SMMA)

22 comments

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