How to get past the gatekeeper in sales
An assistant isn't a lock to pick. They're the person who decides what's worth their executive's week, and the fastest way past them is a name they recognize.
By Jerry Feng, Growth at Happenstance. Updated August 28, 2026.
The short version
The reliable way past a gatekeeper is a person, not a script: someone the buyer already trusts, ideally inside the buyer's own company, who says your name before you do. Scripts are for the calls where no such person exists. On those calls, treat the assistant as the executive's judgment rather than an obstacle, say who you are and what this is about in one sentence, and ask to be routed rather than let through.
The job the gatekeeper is doing
An executive assistant is measured on whether their executive's week goes well. Putting a call through and blocking one are both judgment calls with their credibility attached. The tactics that work are the ones that make the assistant look right for routing you.
That is also why a name is the strongest signal you can offer. In RAIN Group's study of 488 buyers responsible for $4.2 billion in purchases, 57% named “provider was referred to me by someone inside my company” as a factor in whether they connect with a seller, ahead of having heard of the company and well ahead of being dissatisfied with their current supplier (2017). An internal referral is the cheapest thing to put in front of somebody deciding whether you are worth twenty minutes.
Most gatekeeper problems are network problems. If somebody the buyer already works with says your name first, there is no gate to get past. If nobody does, you are asking a stranger to spend their judgment on you, which needs a script.
Doing this with Happenstance
Whether anyone can vouch for you decides the call, and by hand it means opening LinkedIn for one name, your inbox for another and asking two colleagues if they know anyone at the account. Happenstance searches your own network instead: connect Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, then ask “Who do I know at Northwind?” in plain English. Each result shows the path in, whether it runs direct, through a friend, or through a group, and which account the connection came from, so you can tell a real relationship from a name you once had in a signature.
Put your whole sales team in a group and the same question searches everyone's network at once, which is where the useful answers usually are. Happenstance is free. The free plan is the whole product, with usage limits on chat and web searches beyond your network. Pro raises the limits: unlimited web searches and results, higher chat limits, and CSV export.
Happenstance for sales covers the rest of it, and account mapping is the same search run across a target list rather than one company.
What to say on the call
One sentence of context, then a routing question. The assistant can answer the second without consulting anyone, which is what gets it answered.
The routing script
Nothing in it claims a prior relationship or hides what the call is about, and the only request is for a name.
The email to send the assistant
Most of the time the phone call ends with “send me something”. This is the something. It's addressed to the assistant rather than forwarded at them, it asks a routing question rather than for a meeting, and it can be answered in one line.
Asking the assistant to route you
Subject: Who owns [demand forecasting] at [Northwind]?
The last line is the one that gets you the answer. People route requests they believe won't come back.
If nothing comes back, send one follow-up in the same thread after five working days, with something in it that wasn't there before: a result from a company like theirs, a piece of news about their market, a date that has moved. Then stop and put the account back in the pile for a quarter. The version of this that never works is the same email resent with “bumping this to the top of your inbox” on top, which tells the reader that nothing has changed except your quota.
What Happenstance can see
Email is read as headers only. Message content and attachments never reach our servers. Yes. Your connections are searchable only by you, the friends you accept, and the groups you join, and sharing is always mutual. Your public profile shows a constellation of named people you know by default, which you can turn off anytime. We never share, sell, or use your data to train AI models. Happenstance is SOC 2 certified and DTI Trust Level 2; the full list of what is stored and for how long is on the security page.
Frequently asked questions
What's a gatekeeper in sales?
Anyone whose job includes deciding what reaches an executive: an executive assistant, a chief of staff, a receptionist, an office manager, or these days a shared inbox that a team triages. They aren't screening you personally. They're protecting a calendar that's already full, using rules their executive gave them.
What do you say to a gatekeeper?
Your name, your company, and the reason for the call in one sentence, before you're asked for any of it. Then a question they can answer: whether this belongs to the person you named, or to someone else. Sellers who open with a question about routing get further than sellers who open with a request for time.
Should you lie to a gatekeeper to get through?
No, and the tactics that recommend it are the reason this advice dates so badly. Claiming a prior relationship, implying you were told to call, or refusing to say what it is about all work once and cost you the account. Assistants talk to each other and keep notes, and the executive hears about the call that started with a lie.
Is it better to call before 8am to avoid the gatekeeper?
Calling early or late does sometimes put you through to the executive directly, because assistants keep normal hours. It's a way of reaching someone who hasn't agreed to hear from you, which is a worse position than being routed by the person who manages their week. Use the hours trick to reach people who have already said yes to a call and gone quiet.
How do I get a decision maker's direct number?
Data vendors sell direct dials, and they work often enough to be a real product. The cheaper route is to ask someone who already has it: a colleague who used to work there, a customer who shares a board member, a friend two desks away from the buyer. A number handed over with a reason attached converts better than a number bought in bulk.
Do gatekeeper scripts still work?
The parts that treat the assistant as a colleague do. The parts built on misdirection stopped working when caller ID, shared inboxes and searchable calendars made every call traceable. Keep the structure, which is one sentence of context and one question about routing, and drop the theater.
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