The William Shatner character, egocentric Denny Crain, exudes confidence, although he shows signs of frailty in private moments when in public or in the court room, although a bit off the wall at times conveys why, well, why he’s, DENNY CRAIN!

Believe it or not, want to or not this is the type of confidence that is needed to get past the gatekeepers and to get the movers and shakers to listen to you.

Let me give an example. I used to say something like this when calling a prospect…

“Hello, this is Rick Allen, is Mr. Smith in?”

“What is this in regards to?”

“Well, I wanted to talk with him about an idea I had for a …”

“I’m sorry he’s in a meeting right now, can I have him call you back?”

And you know the rest of the story. There are lots of skeletons setting at desks, still waiting for that call back.

Demonstrating pure confidence or some may call it by several other body parts or functions, you can by pass a lot of road blocks and stand a much better chance of getting to the person who can really decide on things, the real head honcho.

You wouldn’t find Denny Crain or probably Bill Shatner himself approaching a prospect in such a milk toast, hey I’m selling something altitude.

Instead it would go something like this…

“Hi, Shirley? RICK ALLEN, is Bob around?”

“Yes he is.”

“Let me speak to him for a moment.”

Hi, Bob Smith? RICK ALLEN! We haven’t meet yet, but I have a way to put $10,0000 in your bank account in sixty days, interested? …

Know that several things have happened in a matter of seconds. I’ll hit the highlights.

First off you disarmed Shirley the gatekeeper, by calling her by name, everyone loves to hear their name, DENNY CRAIN! Right?

Second you have forcefully said your name with unshakable confidence, that you can move mountains and part seas.

Third you act like and sound like you know Bob Smith personally, although at no time have you said or even really implied that you know him. It’s all in the tone that you convey.

By expressing the confidence that I’m talking about, Shirley is not going to question what you’re calling about, after all it must be important, and you sound so important.

When you get Bob Smith (using the full name), his mind is indexing at a mile a second, Rick Allen? Rick Allen? Where do I know Rick Allen from, Rotary, the Chamber, that cocktail party the other night? Then you stop indexing by saying you’ve not meet “yet” and quickly give your reason for calling, in this case to meet with him for fifteen minutes to show how you can put $10,000 in his bank account in sixty days.

This brings me to the last extremely important point. You must truly have something of importance to say to him or her, and you must say it quickly. You must truly believe what you’re saying is 100% true; in this case I can put $10,000 in his pocket. To call and say I’d like to get-together and kick around a few ideas will not get you the time of day. You must be precise and crisp.

Don’t think this works? This same approach (not by me) has gotten past the gatekeepers of Bill Gates and Michael Eisner it has worked for me most recently to get past the gatekeepers regarding fund raising programs.

“Hi, Bob, I have some money for your group, can we talk a minute?”

“Sure!” are 100% of the replies I got out of about twenty calls.

Keep in mind these were to people who did not know me at that point and who I was cold calling.

A line I got from Dave Risely, a few years back, that I still use today is this, when the prospect comes on the line I’ll say…

“Is this the underpaid and overworked Chris?”

Always a pause and a … “yea” or “You sure got that right!”

I just defused Chris, made em laugh and short circuited their thought pattern, because it’s not what they expected to hear.

Boy, did I feel uncomfortable when I first started using this, then I realized the power and wisdom behind it. Remember the only difference between successful people and the rest, is that successful people are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

Keep in mind not all situations of course call for this, most do, but not all. Here’s one last tip for now, I truly have a million of them.

Join them in the middle of the conversation. Huh?

It goes something like this…

“Bob Smith, RICK ALLEN! Say I was taking a look at your business Bob and I realized I could easily add ten grand to your bottom line. How about if we get together for fifteen minutes, so I can tell you what I found?”

Sure beats the heck out of “The reason I’m calling you Mr. Smith is…” doesn’t it?