Salespeople hate gatekeepers, and for good reason. The gatekeeper is there to keep the (seemingly) endless stream of salespeople from wasting the time of the business owners and other decision makers.Which makes it much harder for the salesperson to get in and do his job.

But what if the gatekeepers do their jobs too well and keep away the people who can help move your business forward?

I was meeting with a contact the other day, and she told me an interesting story about a salesperson and a gatekeeper. The salesperson was introducing himself to the gatekeeper who said, “No, we have no interest in what you are selling.”

The business owner happened through the room at that moment and stopped to say, “Actually, dealing with that problem is on my list for today. I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

This could have been trouble. The salesperson would have lost the opportunity to present his service to a willing audience, and the business owner might have missed an opportunity to address an issue in her business.

Now, as a business owner, obviously you don’t want to talk to every salesperson who walks in the door, so your gatekeeper does serve an important function. How do you ensure that you meet the people who might be able to help you and avoid the people who can’t?

Communication. Keep your gatekeeper in the loop on some of the high level challenges you are facing. No, you don’t have to mention that payroll might be tight this month, but if you’re swearing at your long distance service, make sure your gatekeeper knows that.

Perhaps you could give him or her a list at the beginning of each month of services you are interested in exploring. Train your gatekeeper to ask a few key questions to learn a bit about a salesperson and what is being offered.

Want to really motivate them to do a good job? If you save money by hiring someone the gatekeeper vetted, give your gatekeeper a bonus, perhaps a percentage of the money you saved. Think your gatekeeper will do a good job keeping out the riff raff and letting the good ones through? I think so!

Anyone else have good gatekeeper stories to share?

I was critiquing a short story last week, and the author was overloading me with info dumps. That’s where an author stops the action to give us all the background information he or she has painstakingly researched or invented.

I realized that it reminded me of some people I’ve met at networking events. I’m sure you’ve encountered them too. They are the ones who can’t shut up and make our eyes glaze over with tedious details of their services.

Authors shouldn’t do and neither should networkers.

“But,” you say. “I’ve just got to tell people this stuff. Or they won’t be able to understand how to refer me.”

Fair enough. I’ll grant that your audience needs a certain amount of information to be interested in hiring or referring you. So, follow the same advice I give authors who tend to info dump.

Give it to us in small bites, interspersed throughout the story, or, in your case, the networking conversation. Tell us some stories. Most of what you need people to know can be communicated most effectively through a story. Stories will engage us and make us ask questions. Tease us a bit. Keep the best part until the end. Make us ask “So what happened?”

These are the same techniques used by good authors to keep us reading their stories. Or buying the next book in the series.

So if you’re not sure how to maintain an engaging conversation at a networking event, go read a something by your favorite author. See what techniques he or she uses to keep you interested. Take those ideas and incorporate them into your next conversation.

And then come back here and tell us how it worked for you!