Cold Calling

Getting Past Gatekeepers Without Being Sleazy

• No invented stats
• Written for UK readers
• 5 min read
• Published 19 September 2026

Most gatekeeper advice is a list of tricks: pretend you've spoken before, claim it's personal, ring at 7am to dodge the switchboard. These work occasionally and cost you the account permanently when they don't. The better approach is to treat the person answering the phone as what they are — someone doing a job, who knows the organisation better than anyone else you'll speak to that day.

Reframe the problem

A receptionist or PA is not filtering for "sales calls". They're filtering for calls that waste their colleague's time. Those aren't the same thing. If you can make it obvious in one sentence that the call is relevant and that you're not going to be difficult, you're through more often than the trickery crowd manage.

It also helps to remember that gatekeepers talk to each other and to their bosses. "That bloke who said he was returning Dan's call when he wasn't" becomes a known name. The downside of a deceptive opener isn't a failed call, it's a burnt account.

The straightforward opener

Morning — could you help me? I'm trying to work out who looks after scheduling and rotas across the two sites. I've got the wrong person twice already.

Why this works:

• "Could you help me?" is a direct request for assistance, which most people find hard to refuse and which puts them in an expert role rather than a defensive one.
• You're asking for a name, not a transfer. Lower stakes. A transfer means interrupting someone; a name costs nothing.
• Admitting you've got it wrong is honest and slightly disarming. It also explains why you're asking rather than just calling the right person.

Once you have the name, ask the second question straight away, while you've got their goodwill: "Brilliant, thank you. Is she usually around at this time, or is there a better window?" You've now got a name and a calling time, which is more than most cold callers get in a week.

Be straight when asked what it's about

You will be asked. The answer that gets you through is short, specific and honest — not vague and not a pitch.

Weak:

It's a business matter, she'll know what it's regarding.

Also weak:

We're a leading provider of workforce management solutions helping organisations optimise their scheduling and improve operational efficiency...

Better:

It's a cold call, honestly. We do rota and timesheet software and I noticed you've been hiring supervisors in Derby. I want two minutes to find out whether that's even a problem for you — if it isn't, I'll leave it.

Saying "it's a cold call" seems counterintuitive and it works surprisingly well, because the gatekeeper already knows. Confirming it rather than dancing around it marks you out as someone who isn't going to be a problem. Follow it immediately with the relevance and the small ask.

When they say no

You'll be blocked regularly. What you do next decides whether you ever get in.

"She doesn't take cold calls"

Understood, that's fair enough. Two quick things then: is email better for her, and does she actually read her own inbox or does it come through you? I'd rather send something useful than something she deletes.

This often produces a direct email address and, more valuably, information about how the person works. If the PA manages the inbox, the PA is now your route in — write to them.

"Send it to info@"

I can do. Does anyone actually read that one? No offence intended — some places it's monitored properly and some places it's a black hole. If it's the latter, who should it go to?

Asked with a bit of warmth, this gets an honest answer more often than not.

"We're not interested"

If the gatekeeper is speaking for themselves, accept it. If they're speaking on behalf of someone who hasn't heard the proposition, one gentle push is reasonable: "That's likely right. Can I just check whether she's seen anything from us, or is that your read on it? Either way I'll take the answer." Then stop. A second push makes you the caller they warn colleagues about.

Practical routes that aren't deceptive

• Find the name first. Asking for "Sarah Whitfield" rather than "whoever runs operations" changes the entire dynamic of the call. Companies House, LinkedIn and the company's own site will usually give you a name. Our guide to finding the real decision maker covers how to work out which name to ask for.
• Ask for the department, not the switchboard's favourite. "Could you put me through to the operations team?" often bypasses one layer legitimately, because you're not asking for a named senior person.
• Ring a neighbouring extension. Calling the sales team of the business you're targeting and asking who looks after X is not a trick — sales teams answer the phone and generally know the org chart. Be upfront about why you're asking.
• Use the time either side of the day. Senior people often work before and after the switchboard hours, and direct dials ring through. This isn't deception; it's just when they're available. Don't overdo it — a 7:15am call to someone who doesn't know you can land badly.
• Leave a proper voicemail if you get one. Plenty of reps hang up. A specific thirty-second message with a clear reason to call back is usually worth more than three more attempts at the switchboard — see our voicemail scripts that actually get called back.

Tactics to avoid, and why

Keep notes on the people, not just the accounts

Write down the gatekeeper's name and use it next time. "Hi Maureen, it's Steve again — you pointed me at Sarah last month and I've still not caught her, is she around?" is a fundamentally different call from a cold one. Over a year of working the same territory, being the caller reception recognises and doesn't mind is worth more than any single technique.

Where this advice runs out

Two situations where none of the above helps much. First, large organisations with a genuinely hard policy of no external sales calls — usually the public sector and big regulated firms. There, the phone is the wrong channel entirely and you should be looking at procurement portals, tenders and formal supplier routes. Second, very senior targets at large companies, where a PA's entire job is to prevent unscheduled contact; a referral or an introduction is the realistic route, not persistence.

And be honest with yourself about the frequency. If you can't get past reception at a particular account after four or five well-handled attempts, the issue usually isn't your technique — it's that the account isn't in a buying mode. Log it, move on, and come back when something has changed.

Spotted a mistake or a number we can't back up? Tell us and we'll fix it.