Is your gatekeeper a "Deceptionist"?

One of the trickiest things for a salesperson is getting past the gatekeeper. Also known as a receptionist this person can be helpful or harmful. The harmful receptionist is better referred to as a Deceptionist. The deceptionist is the gatekeeper that filters all calls going to a particular executive or to the company as a whole. A good Deceptionist seems to be a great asset to the person they are serving by keeping down the number of calls, which equate to interruptions.

Not every gatekeeper is a deceptionist. The term refers only to gatekeepers that lie or openly deceive. Administrative Assistants that provide honest information are building relationships. These are the ones that will provide information such as “I’m really sorry, but we do not take phone solicitations” instead of “you can leave a voice mail message” (knowing it will never be returned).

However, a “Deceptionist” can be very bad for business as they forget they play a key role in marketing and customer service. If you have a deceptionist here are three ways, they could be harming your business:

They forget the salesperson may also be a customer.

They harm the organization’s reputation.

Salespeople provide negative word of mouth advertising to them.

A Bizerm? is a new word, typically a contraction or morphing of other words which paints a word picture related to something

About the author:

Rick Weaver has half a century’s experience in leadership development in retailing. He founded Max Impact Corporation, a leadership and business development consultancy company in 2002. His major accomplishments include working himself from stock clerk to director at a Fortune 50 retail chain and building a $40MM+ construction company in under 5 years. Today he works as an Executive Search Consultant matching management talent with the job culture for which they are uniquely wired.