Getting Past the Gatekeeper, Politely
There is a genre of sales advice about "beating" the gatekeeper: pretend you are returning a call, use a first name with total confidence, act like you are expected. It works occasionally, and it costs you the company when it does not. The receptionist remembers, and receptionists talk to the person you were trying to reach.
It also misreads the job. The person answering the switchboard is not an obstacle placed there to frustrate you. They are routing calls, and they are quite good at telling a routed call from a run-around. Treat the interaction as routing and it usually goes fine.
Say who you are and why you are calling
Two sentences, no hedging. Your name, your company, the name of the person you want, and the reason in plain language. "Morning, this is Victor from Cirel. Could you put me through to Anna in operations? It is about the bookings that come in after hours."
Asking for a person by name is the single biggest lever, which is why it belongs in the list rather than in the call. If the row you are dialling does not carry a name and a role, the call starts by asking a stranger to do your research, and that is the moment most calls end. This is one of the four things a row should carry before you dial.
Vagueness reads as evasion. "I had an email exchange with someone there" invites a question you cannot answer. So does refusing to say what it is about. If your reason cannot survive being said out loud to a receptionist, it will not survive being said to the decision maker either.
Take no for an answer, then leave a door open
Sometimes the answer is no. Push once, gently, then stop: ask when a better time would be, whether there is a direct line, or whether it is better to send something in writing. Any of those three turns a dead end into a next step, and none of them costs you goodwill.
The same rules apply when the caller is a superhuman. Victor gives his name and the company, states the reason, asks for the person by name, and says plainly that he is an AI if he is asked. There is no version of this where pretending otherwise ends well, and being straight about it costs a lot less than people expect.
Curious how that lands on a real switchboard? Book a demo and listen to a few.