What people get wrong about gatekeepers

Gatekeepers are among the most misunderstood third parties there are. Don’t get me wrong: the people who use gatekeepers to do their screening certainly see the value of having a gatekeeper. It’s the people on the other side (those trying to get through the gate) who don’t quite get it! They incorrectly think of the gatekeeper as someone whose primary job is to keep people out. And because of this incorrect impression, they resent the gatekeeper and fail to treat the gatekeeper as the potential ally that the gatekeeper can and wants to be.

Gatekeepers aim not to reject per se, but rather to accept discerningly.

The myth of the gatekeeper

I can see why this wrong impression is so prevalent. After all, it really is much easier to get rejected by a gatekeeper than to be accepted, but this is true whenever someone is being selective. Take the example of the literary agent, one of the most common gatekeepers in publishing. Most literary agents reject far more pitches (book proposals) than they accept. So if you’re an author (the one doing the pitching), you’re more likely to get rejected than to get accepted. That’s just the reality of the publishing industry: some pitches get greenlit, but many more get turned down or ignored. Even if you know that the odds are against you, you might still easily come away with the impression that the gatekeepers (the agents) are just out to reject you.

But of course that’s not true; the truth is that literary agents never make money just by rejecting authors’ pitches. The only way a legitimate literary agent makes any money is by accepting the right pitch—meaning the proposal that the agent’s buyers (the publishers) will like enough to actually bid on. In fact, the best way for a literary agent to make a name for herself is by discovering an unknown author who becomes a bestseller. Literary agents very much want to say Yes to these authors!

Not only that, but seeing gatekeepers as villains trying to keep authors out for no good reason presumes a kind of conspiracy among the gatekeepers, in which they’re somehow colluding against talented newcomers. In reality, of course, gatekeepers compete against one another. If one gatekeeper rejects you despite good reasons to accept you, the gatekeeper risks giving up an opportunity to a rival gatekeeper.

So a literary agent has every incentive to accept pitches, even to actively solicit and help develop pitches, as long as it’s the right pitch. Therefore, in their role as gatekeepers, literary agents aim not to reject per se, but rather to accept discerningly. The rejection is just a necessary byproduct of this discernment. And this is true not just of literary agents but of gatekeepers in general, from art gallerists and venture capitalists to college admissions officers and bank loan officers.

Why must gatekeepers reject?

Maybe you’re thinking: if gatekeepers only make money by letting people in, why must they reject anyone? There’s an obvious answer and a less obvious one. The obvious reason is scarce resources: a gallerist has only so much wall space, a college has only so many slots in the freshman class, and a venture capitalist has only so much money to invest. Similarly, a literary agent has only so much time to spend helping clients, so she’d be doing a disservice to existing clients to take on too many new ones. So even for capacity reasons alone, gatekeepers have to pick and choose.

The less obvious reason? Reputation. All gatekeepers are serving what I call the Certifier role. Serving the Certifier requires not only separating the wheat from the chaff but also bringing buyers only the wheat. Therefore, gatekeepers build their reputation with buyers for providing only high quality; conversely, the less discerning they are, the more they harm their reputation in the eyes of their buyers. That’s why gatekeepers have to remain discerning even if they were to have infinite capacity.

How a discerning gatekeeper helps you when you’re the seller

Okay, so you see how a discerning gatekeeper helps buyers: gatekeeper’s ability to play the Certifier role is why buyers turn to gatekeepers in the first place. But how does that discerning gatekeeping help you as the seller? Aren’t you better off without the gatekeeper?

Well, no—not if you’re a quality seller. As a quality seller, you are the “wheat,” so you should want to be separated from the chaff. Someone who’s got the goods is much better off being given the Certifier’s stamp of approval, being ushered through the gate. Without the effective gatekeeper, the ultimate buyer (who can’t spend as much time separating wheat from chaff) is overwhelmed, and is much more likely to make poor choices than the gatekeeper is. Even though gatekeepers aren’t perfect, either, your odds are better going through a gatekeeper—assuming you’ve really got the goods. And if you’re all that, the gatekeeper will be happy to usher you in. This is why I say that the gatekeeper is a potential ally. Here's the paradoxical truth: whether you're a buyer or a seller, your best gatekeeper is the one who’s most discerning.

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About the Author

Marina Krakovsky is the author of The Middleman Economy: How Brokers, Agents, Dealers, and Everyday Matchmakers Create Value and Profit (Palgrave Macmillan). She is also co-author, with economist Kay-Yut Chen, of Secrets of the Moneylab: How Behavioral Economics Can Improve Your Business (Portfolio/Penguin). In her writing, speaking, and consulting, her main focus is on the practical application of ideas from psychology and economics. Her articles and essays have appeared in Discover, the New York Times Magazine, Scientific American and Scientific American Mind, O (The Oprah Magazine), Psychology Today, Slate, FastCompany, the Washington Post, Wired, and more.