Principles Of The Gatekeeper

1) Stick To The Script… But Be a Human and Be Relatable

Stick to the script. Stick to your Q&A talk tracks. BUT be a human and be relatable. We have the script for a reason. We’re trying to run people through a certain process and give them the necessary information to book a free in-home evaluation. We have the Q&A talk tracks to keep you on track when questions pop up so we don’t get way out of line and off track when people ask questions.

Be human and be relatable. BUT at the same time we want to be humans and be relatable. So when someone tells you about their Golden Doodle, you can go off script tom say “We see so many of those!” When you tell them about the Games and they says “HOW FUN!” you can go off script to tell them a few examples. When they tell you about their old dog and how this one they have now isn’t similar at all, you can say you understand and can relate.

The goal is to get them the info they need in a concise manner BUT also relate to them and connect with the other human on the end of the phone. Inside of Cert 3, the Eval Pro (Sales) cert, we tell people trainees the backbone of our sales program is “Make A Friend, Make A Sale”. It’s the same thing when being a Gatekeeper. Make a friend with the person on the other end of the phone. Learn about them. Learn their situation. Allay their concerns. Give them confidence and hope. Get them excited about us. We’re literally the best company in the towns we’re in. Get excited and get them excited!

2) Only Sell The Eval (Not The Training)

In the company we all have roles and responsibilities. The overall goal & mission of the company is to help families, right? Each position though is responsible for selling something to a degree. YOUR job is to sell the evaluation(only if they are a good fit) . The job of the Eval Pro is to sell the training (if they are a good fit). And the job of the Dog Pro is to sell the collars and methods and actually train the dog.

With that being said, your job is super simple. Your only job and goal is to book (sell) the evaluations to the people who want them and are qualified (yes, some people will slip through the cracks). But your main goal is to sell the eval and then your job is over. It is up to the Eval Pro to take it from there. So, hit the people with your script, book ‘em in and then let the Eval Pro do their job.

3) Give the minimum amount of info to book the training

The idea behind the script is to give prospects enough info to want to book an evaluation, but no more info than is required to book. If they ask questions, tell them the answer (using your Q&A talk track). Then move them back into the script and book them.

There is no point in voluntarily offering up info outside of the script without being asked. So please DO NOT.

4) Wasting $$$$$?

This one is tough to write about because it isn’t fun, BUT it must be said. If you are NOT using the script and Q&A talk tracks when talking to leads, you’re wasting money. We spend thousands a month on ads and agencies to run the ads for us. Between all the locations, we spend 10’s of thousands a month. If we get a lead from a form OR a call in and the script is NOT used and we lose that opportunity (that we only get ONE time) then you essentially just burned the money of the company.

Phone numbers and leads that come in from forms cost anywhere from $20-50 dollars on average (but can be up to $100). So when someone calls in and we don’t use the script, we don’t book them, we don’t do our best and they don’t book we literally hand OUR money over to the tech companies (Google, FB, Youtube, etc.) and send that money to another trainer.

A note on testing new things: We are a very innovative company and LOVE creativity, new ideas and testing new stuff. So if you have an idea you think would benefit the company, the Gatekeepers as a whole, etc. by ALL MEANS we want to try it. BUT if you try it without letting us know first, this is the equivalence of wasting money and stealing. So if you have ideas and innovations let us know, then we can test it if it’s appropriate. The reason we add this in is because we’ve had people on the call team & sales team in the past try ‘new’ things but we’ve already tested them years past. OR we’ve had people just do stuff that is not in alignment with us as a company entirely, but they don’t know this without talking to anyone and just do it anyways. So, if you have new ideas, let’s talk about it, but don’t do it without approval first.

5) People Care About Themselves

Who do people care about more? Themselves or us? Clearly the answer is themselves. People care about themselves much more than they care about us. So, listen to them first and foremost and THEN tell them about us. There’s an old saying, I saw it on the wall of my music class in 7th grade and it’s stuck with me since and the saying goes… “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

The point of adding that to this training is that people don’t care about what we can do for them until we care about them! That’s why the first point on this page is “Stick To The Script, But Be Human”. We want to let them know we care about them, ask about them, etc. before we just ramble on about how we can help them.

6) Refer Out The Ones We Absolutely 100% Can’t Help But Keep The Rest…

We can’t help all the dogs out there as much as we want to. We can’t help the aggressive ones, the ones out of the service area, the dogs who are too tiny, the ones whose parents can’t afford it, etc. which means sometimes we will have to refer them out to other trainers. It’s just part of the business. BUT we want to keep the majority of them. If they can work with us, want to work with us, can afford it, have nice dogs, live in the service area, etc. There is literally NEVER a reason to give out the info of another trainer. Period.