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Back in the olden times (ca. 2025 and before), when we talked about gatekeepers in sales, we were referring to some kindly (or not) human working the front desk at a prospect you were pursuing.
In person and on the phone, their job was to keep the riffraff out.
That included you.
They’d nod toward the octagon “NO SOLICITING” sticker, scrunch their nose at your frayed business card, and deny access.
Well, there’s a new gatekeeper in town—a digital bouncer, in fact—and if you haven’t run into this yet, you will.
Last year, Apple introduced Call Screening with iOS 26.
Here’s how it works.
You call a prospect and their iPhone identifies you as an unknown caller. Before the phone rings, the digital bouncer steps in and asks you to provide your name and reason for calling.
Your response appears on your prospect’s phone.
They decide whether you’re worth answering.
In coaching hundreds of LBM sales reps over the past year, I can confirm the most common response is the factually correct and universally boring:
“Uh, this is John Doe calling from Elgin Lumber.”
Your prospect then decides whether to speak with you.
Mostly, they don’t.
Given the billions of robocalls fired off annually and millions of thoughtless salespeople dialing for dollars, we shouldn’t be surprised prospects are hiring help to quiet the noise.
But the bad news is the good news: With so many bad salespeople traipsing about, it’s easier than ever to stand out.
The Timeless 3 Questions
Forever and always, humans instinctively want answers to three questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you want?
- Why should I care?
Which is why “Uh, this is John Doe calling from Elgin Lumber” isn’t particularly useful to you—or your prospect.
So how can we improve it?
ONE: Use Humor
My go-to response to the bouncer is this:
“I’m calling Kent because I’m his best friend in the whole wide world.”
| Sometimes, if I’m feeling froggy, I’ll even say bestest. Hell, sometimes I even say it in Spanish. If humor isn’t your thing, that’s okay, because you can . . . TWO: Open a Curiosity Gap “We’re supplying two of your competitors in the Springfield market with interior doors. Both recently switched because of this new trend. Thought you’d want to know about it.” Or you can leverage our most popular Professional Sales Field Manual course . . . THREE: Use the RRI Framework Cite a Referral. Prove you’ve done your Research. Share an Insight. “Bobby over at TKG suggested I call about the window package you’ve been struggling with. I visited Lot 77 at Hampshire Farms, saw exactly what was happening, and have a few ideas to solve it.” But if you don’t love any of those, you can just . . . FOUR: Be Specific, Candid, and Relevant “I’m calling about the unnecessary material and labor involved in your cornice assembly on the Sterling model. It’s a lot of things but mostly overbuilt. One specific question will tell us whether you can save a couple hundred bucks on each home.” |
| If you’ve been in sales for a while, you probably learned how to work with human gatekeepers—be likable, enlist them in your cause, and give them a reason to let you through. Those skills are timeless. But you’re not going to sweet-talk this bouncer. So, ignore the question it asks literally: “Record your name and reason for calling.” Instead, answer the question your prospect is actually asking: Why should I pick up? Make ’em laugh. Make ’em curious. Make ’em think. Make ’em feel something. Anything but bored. The bouncer will ask the question. Have an answer worth opening the door for. Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next week. |
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