{"id":2572,"date":"2022-11-14T22:36:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T22:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesexcellenc.wpengine.com\/selling-past-the-executive-assistant\/"},"modified":"2022-11-16T13:06:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T13:06:16","slug":"selling-past-the-executive-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesexcellence.com\/selling-past-the-executive-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling Past the Executive Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a question we hear from just about everybody who\u2019s responsible for outbound business development \u2013 for reaching out to customers as opposed to just responding to inbound leads and inquiries. How do you sell past the executive assistant?<\/strong> How do you get past the gatekeeper, the person who is responsible for intercepting our call or reading our email before someone else gets a chance to read it? This is an area where we can definitely accomplish some things if we think more clearly about what\u2019s going on here. We need to think about that role of an executive assistant. It would be too simplistic to assume that their job is to block out the entire world, that they don\u2019t want to let anybody through or talk to anybody. That\u2019s not true. What\u2019s more common is that they\u2019ve been asked to block out anybody who is irrelevant. But when they find somebody that is relevant, they should put them through immediately. The point is that we should recognize that their primary goal isn\u2019t to block you, it\u2019s to find out if you have something of value to add, whether or not you have something to contribute. If you want to sell past the executive assistant:1. Approach the executive directly.<\/strong> This is a valid approach that works well in many situations. If you\u2019ve got their direct contact information or can get it, reach out to them directly; at least give it a try. I\u2019ve seen a lot of sales people have success in the last few years with leveraging LinkedIn. There\u2019s a study that shows if you take the same message that you would send via email and you instead send it by LinkedIn InMail, they\u2019re three times more likely to respond to the LinkedIn message than they are to email. They\u2019re going to get notified in the same email inbox that you would send to directly, but when it comes through LinkedIn they\u2019re more likely to pay attention. Figure out a way to reach out to them directly to the avoid the executive assistant altogether.2. Call at time the assistant isn\u2019t there.<\/strong> Call early in the morning, try 8:00am, before the assistant is even there. This can be a very effective technique. I\u2019ve had great success, especially reaching senior executives early in the morning because they tend to come in earlier and start their day before the majority of other people are in the office. If you call at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning\u2014use your own judgment here, if you don\u2019t want to call that early you don\u2019t have to\u2014sometimes they\u2019ll pick up their own phone and you can talk to them without having to go through an assistant. Another great time to reach them is after hours, 5:00 or 5:30pm and I\u2019ve spoken with executives as late as 6:30pm. Again, use your judgment as to what you think is the right thing to do, but you can reach people before and after hours. Don\u2019t forget the lunch hour, which can be an excellent time to get through when someone isn\u2019t necessarily screening calls. Sometimes the primary assistant is on a lunch break and a substitute is there screening calls and they\u2019re not quite as good as screening them as the primary assistant. That can be a good time to reach people directly.3. Work with the assistant to gain access.<\/strong> This is usually a better option than trying to go around the assistant, and I take this advice from an assistant herself. Frequently, when we do a workshop on selling to executives, we\u2019ll bring in an assistant from the company we\u2019re working with to talk to the salespeople about what it\u2019s like to be an executive assistant. In a workshop I did a few years ago this woman said, \u201cThe biggest thing is that I\u2019m sick of salespeople trying to trick me. They try to make me think they\u2019re an old college roommate, an army buddy, or an old pal so I\u2019ll put them through. Just tell me the truth. If you can explain to me why you should get time with my boss, then I\u2019ll make sure you get time with my boss.\u201d And that leads me to my next suggestion.4. Sell to the assistant.<\/strong> If you want to sell past the assistant, the best way to do it is to sell to the assistant. Present to them the same presentation with the same approach you would if you got their boss on the phone. Prepare the same four things you may have heard me mention before:<\/p>\n