Finessing the Admin

In my last entry, I explained how to bypass the receptionist. Now I'm going to explain how to get around that other gatekeeper, the admin.

If you're transferred to the admin, the last thing you want to do is jump into your sales pitch and hope the admin is impressed enough to put you through. That's dumb because you're not only identifying yourself as a sales rep, you're signaling that you're a social peer (in the corporate sense) of the admin â€" not the admin's boss. Back to voice mail you go.

A little corporate psychology here. Admins separate people into two categories â€" those who ask questions (the riff-raff) and people who give orders (the big wigs.) If you want to be put through to the boss pronto, you want the admin to think you're in the second category. So for cryin' out loud, don't say something like: "Can I please talk to Ms. Shot?" No. Make it like this: "Put me through to Big." (Polite but firm; and use the first name.)

Half the time, you'll be put right through. The other half, you'll be asked who you are and the purpose of the call. According to cold-calling expert Andrea Sittig-Rolf, the best response here is to identify yourself, your firm, and then say the call is regarding their most important competitor.

For example, suppose you're trying to sell USB-compliant cattle prods to Oracle, and your company has sold similar devices to Microsoft. You say, "I'm Jane Doe from CattleProdsRUs; I need to talk to Big about Microsoft." Sound really serious - like you have earth-shaking competitive information. Chances are you'll be put right through.

What if your target is out of the office? Don't let the admin stick you in voice mail. Ask the best time to call back. Then do it. The admin will remember you (trust me on this) and you'll be put through.

Of course, now that you've successfully navigated the gatekeepers, you better know exactly what you're going to say. I'll get to that next.