getting past the gatekeepers...

We own a small service business designing and managing digital signage to the hospitality industry. We market to upscale sports bars, restaurants, and small local chains. We have been very successful in selling to the owners of such places, when we can get to them. The problem is getting to them. They are typically very busy people, and it's hit or miss if they are on premises at any given time, and they typically have some very aggressive gatekeepers defending them. Managers usually. We market entirely person to person. Sometimes we'll call first to get a name or possibly make an appointment, more often we just walk in and ask to speak to the owner. On a number of occasions we've been lucky, the owner was right there and we made the elevator pitch, got the appointment then or later, and made the sale.



The problem is at other times we're going back four, five six times to try to get past the gatekeepers. We really need to cut this down, it's too slow and expensive. Part of the problem is we are in all honesty a rather stodgy old married couple who really don't hang out at bars, and never really have so we don't know the culture and aren't likely to make any contacts socially. Any thoughts on how to bypass the gatekeepers and get to the decisions makers faster? Or how to market it differently? We don't need a huge volume of sales as it's an ongoing service model, but a steady flow to create growth. It's tough because these people are already very heavily marketed, and although what we offer is totally unique it's gets lost in the shuffle.