The Wrath of the GateKeeper

“Gentlemen, before people start filing in for your presentation, I just wanted to let you know, ….off the record…., that there is absolutely no way in hell that you are going to earn our business. So good luck.”

So yeah…..weeks worth of phone calls, hours of internal meetings, and thousands of dollars in travel expense were rendered worthless in one sentence.

And this was before we even got started.

So what happened?

In our team’s collective “group think”, our system was so new, so cutting edge, it was obvious that anyone who witnessed a demonstration would cast away all doubts and reason and immediately hurl purchase orders in our direction with the velocity of Brett Favre. Naturally, we took pity on those ignorant fools who refused to recognize our incredible potential and instead relied on mundane criteria such as an established client base, financial stability, or a clear, concise value statement.

When we encountered one of the “unenlightened” in a project at a mid-western company, we did the logical thing, and went above their head.

How many sales books have you read that state that you should get away from the gate keeper as quickly as possible? Do whatever it takes, go around, under, above, whatever, the gatekeeper is there to keep from making your money….blah, blah, blah. What these books fail to mention is that the GateKeeper does not go away. In fact, a good many times they serve as a critical resource for the Executive Sponsor.

What happened to our team was that the Project Manager was in charge of determining which vendors they would review. The PM politely told us thanks, but no thanks. So we called the PM’s boss, the Executive Sponsor, and explained why we should be included in the evaluation. In that process we may have called into question the PM’s level of competence in this area, either intentionally or unintentionally. The Executive agreed that we should be included and sent an email to the PM with the instructions of allowing us to come in for a demonstration.

The thing that we wished we had known before this got started was that the Exec trusted the PM on all technical decisions. While it was the Exec’s name on the Purchase Order, it was really the PM’s decision that determined which vendor was put on that purchase order.

This holds true at all levels. No one has the title of “Real Decision Maker” on their business cards, so you really don’t know who has the hidden vote that determines if you succeed or fail until the final outcome has been reached.

The best advice when you encounter a gate keeper thats not really digging your grove? Be polite and professional and ask questions, such as:

• Are you finding that all of the vendor’s solutions are almost too similar to evaluate? A lot of times they are and you can score major points if you have a weighted matrix, a blank RFP, or even a white paper that would help them separate the wheat from the chaff.

• Will you have to do an ROI or Cost Justification Analysis? Most of the time the answer is yes, and if you could send them something that could save them hours of work, you are moving in the right direction.

Remember, as Sales Warriors, we run marathons, not sprints. You may lose or not be invited to today’s project, so work for the tomorrow’s.