The other day I was asked the following question, "How far should I go, and to what lengths should I try to get past an impenetrable screen"? I couldn't help but think about the wolf hopelessly trying to huff and puff and blow down a brick house...

For starters, if you’ve attended any of my seminars, then you’ll understand what ‘attention filtering’ is, and that the secretary screen is a ‘human attention filter’ charged with the responsibility for making sure that people in general do not ‘steal’ their bosses attention.

Drawing a comparison to the story about the Three Little Pigs, I compare some secretary screens to ‘houses’ made of straw, while others are made of sticks, and then there are those secretary screens that are impenetrable ‘brick houses’. Huff and puff all you want, but you're not getting in by the hair of your chinny chin chin.

With a little effort, like building rapport with admins and secretaries, you can push over a ‘straw house’ secretary screen rather easily and get your call put through. Secretary screens that are 'houses' made of sticks will require a bit more finesse on your part, and you may have to hang in there a bit longer to work your call dialogue to get past the screen and into their bosses office, or onto their phone.

The ‘brick wall’ secretary screen is another situation altogether, and poses much more of a challenge, and will require much more courage and dilligence on your part.

The first order of business is to recognize the ‘brick wall’screen very quickly, and then make that split second decision as to how you’re going to handle things. For example, based upon a sense of feeling and common sense, how much persistence are you going to apply to try and work your way past the ‘brickwall’ secretary screen? What scripted dialogue will you use? Based upon the reception of the secretary screen, how high is the ‘brick wall’? Does it make sense to try and climb over it, go around it, or somehow dig underneath it? Then you must quickly decide when it finally makes sense to give up, and move on to the next sales call. Your decision also depends upon the price you’re willing to pay in exchange for some tough rejection. Whatever you decide, my only suggestion is that you try and have a little fun at it, and don’t take the secretary screen too personally. 

To give you a working example, in this attached ‘secretary talk’ recording of mine, you will hear me doing battle with a ‘brick wall’ secretary screen. It should become obvious to you right away that I’m in for a challenge, but I decide to have some fun with it anyway. The most important thing to remember about dealing with any secretary screen is to keep your cool, keep your head in the game, and don’t get defensive. Hang in there and assert yourself, but at the same time try not to be too pushy and obnoxious. It’s a fine line to draw, but as this recorded call demonstrates being nice and making the secretary screen laugh can help you deal with the process. 

As you listen to this recorded call I had with a secretary screen you may find that you may disagree with my process, and the way I handled the call.That’s all right. Nobody’s perfect, and I accept constructive criticism. However,what I want you to pay particular attention to is how the call ended. As you will hear for yourself, despite the ‘brick wall’ that stood in my way, both the secretary and I walked away from our phone conversation with our dignities intact. No one got hurt. She had her job to do, and I had mine.