How to Find the Right Prospect at the Right Time, with the Right Message – In Just 7 Minutes with Sam Richter

Resources/Links:

• Sales Intelligence Search Tip Sheet. Discover how to use search engines and other online resources to find the right prospects, at the right company, at the right time, with the right message: https://www.samrichter.com/searchtips

Summary

Sam Richter is an award-winning speaker and bestselling author and is considered by many to be the “father” of sales intelligence and digital reputation management. He has been named one of the world’s Top 25 Most Influential Sales Leaders and has trained tens of thousands of people around the globe.

In this episode, Sam shares how to find the right prospect at the right time, with the right message.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:27 – Sam’s ideal client: I think it’s anybody involved in sales. So, I really enjoy working with salespeople, individuals.
• 02:24 – Problem he helps solve: I think in today’s sales world, what’s kind of crazy is we have access to more information than probably at any time in history at our fingertips, right? Yet, how many times Tom do you get an email from somebody or a LinkedIn connection that’s completely irrelevant, or a sales call or even meet with somebody for coffee and they know nothing about you? So, in a crazy way, we have access to more information, but yet, most people have information overload. There’s so much stuff out there, we don’t even know where to start. So, you know, what I really teach is how to find that information quickly, the right information.
• 03:20 – Typical symptoms people experience with that problem? I think they’re overwhelmed. And they sometimes, you know, it’s a salesperson that oftentimes is feeling that you know, they’re getting a lot of rejection, they’re not connecting with people.
• 05:36 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: It’s the smiling and dialing. ‘Hey, let’s go buy a list, or let’s use one of those Robo LinkedIn things. And you know, eventually, if I send out enough messages, somebody is going to be interested. And again, mathematically, that’ll work. What I find is too often when you do that, yes, you might get lucky that somebody will interact with you, but usually, that person will be interested in lower price versus highest value.’
• 06:17 – Sam’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): Make sure you get some news articles about what’s going on in the other person’s world before you pick up the phone, before you email. It’s amazing what can happen when you just have a little piece of information. How do you do it? Simple. Go to Google type in the name of a company or a person, but usually a company. Now make sure if it’s a multi-company name, like Acme Corporation, put that name within quotation marks when you put it within quotation marks, Google will treat that as a single entity. On the results page, you’re going to get a, you’re going to see some tabs underneath the Google search form. One of them is news, click on that. Now if it’s a larger company, you’ll get a bunch of news articles. What you can do then there’s a little button on the right-hand side called tools, click on the tools button, a drop-down menu will appear. Click on the anytime drop-down menu. And you can sort your news articles by date. That helps you make sure the first words out of your mouth in any sales call, email, LinkedIn connection, is about the other person. Now there’s another website that will automate that for you a little bit. It’s called yougotthenews.com, www.you Y-O-U, got G-O-T, T-H-E, news N-E-W-S, dot com, the same type of thing. Now this one, you don’t have to put in quotation marks just type in the name of the company. On the results page you can sort your news by business news, press releases, those kinds of things. I usually default the press releases, because that’s usually a company trying to tell me what’s going on in their world.
• 07:45 – Sam’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): https://www.samrichter.com/searchtips
• 07:25 – Q:’Why this is important?’ A: It’s really understanding the other person. Because this is how we can differentiate ourselves from our competition. The good news is salespeople today are probably lazier than any time in history. So just mentioning something about what the other person cares about completely differentiates you from your competition. Allows you to build that connection, hopefully, sell more stuff.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Make sure you get some news articles about what's going on in the other person's world before you pick up the phone, before you email.” -@SamRichter Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09 Hello everyone a warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Sam Richter. Sam, a very warm welcome, good day, and where are you hanging out?

Sam Richter: 0:20 I’m in Minneapolis, Minnesota today.

Tom Poland: 0:22 Minneapolis, Minnesota. Is that where you live? Because the today part sound like you’re not there a lot or?

Sam Richter: 0:28 I travel all over so I technically my address is here but I’m probably on the road at least half the year.

Tom Poland: 0:33 You do a lot of public speaking, right?

Sam Richter: 0:35 Yeah. All over the world. Yes.

Tom Poland: 0:36 Yeah. So yeah, a lot of traveling. Okay, cool. Sam, thanks for being here. For those of you who don’t know Sam, he’s an award-winning speaker and best-selling author and is considered by many to be the father of sales intelligence, which is very interesting. And also, digital reputation management. In fact, we’ve been talking a fair bit about the digital world. He’s been named one of the world’s top 25 influential sales leaders and has trained literally 10s of thousands of people around the globe. So, this is going to be a pretty value-packed seven minutes. Folks, the title today is “How to Find the Right Prospect at the Right Time with the Right Message”, and Sam is going to show us how to do that in just seven minutes. Sam, our time starts now. Question number one is, who is your ideal client?

Sam Richter: 1:27 Well, I think it’s anybody involved in sales. So, I really enjoy working with salespeople, individuals. Individuals who are really motivated to providing value in real, instead of selling based on the lowest price, really selling based on having a relationship. And so, what I teach, a lot of people will call me kind of a modern-day Dale Carnegie, where it’s all about understanding the other person what he or she cares about. My twist on it is how do you use the free internet, the tools we use every day like Google and social media to find a lot of the answers to the questions before we even walk in the room.

Tom Poland: 2:03 Brilliant. Head sales intelligence, I presume?

Sam Richter: 2:06 Yes.

Tom Poland: 2:07 Right.

Sam Richter: 2:08 Sales intelligence is just a fancy way of saying how to ethically spy on people, I guess.

Tom Poland: 2:12 Right. And with the internet these days, it’s so much easier to do that.

Sam Richter: 2:16 It is. Yeah.

Tom Poland: 2:17 And ethically as you say. So, question number two, six minutes left. How would you describe the problem that you solve?

Sam Richter: 2:24 Well, I think in today’s sales world, what’s kind of crazy is we have access to more information than probably at any time in history at our fingertips, right? Yet, how many times Tom do you get an email from somebody or a LinkedIn connection that’s completely irrelevant, or a sales call or even meet with somebody for coffee and they know nothing about you? So, in a crazy way, we have access to more information, but yet, most people have information overload. There’s so much stuff out there, we don’t even know where to start. So, you know, what I really teach is how to find that information quickly, the right information.

Tom Poland: 2:59 And if it’s there, as you say, why wouldn’t you? And also, it helps to, perhaps remind me not to be so egocentric but to actually focus on the other person.

Sam Richter: 3:08 Exactly. Yup.

Tom Poland: 3:09 Thank you for that. Just over five minutes left. What would you say are some of the typical symptoms that people experience who have not got sales intelligence? What’s going on in their sales life?

Sam Richter: 3:20 Well, first of all, I think they’re overwhelmed. And they sometimes, you know, it’s a salesperson that oftentimes is feeling that you know, they’re getting a lot of rejection, they’re not connecting with people. No one’s returning my emails, no one’s returning my voicemails. I’ve reached out in LinkedIn, no one’s returning it. Now I have to turn to these auto robots that are sending out you know, LinkedIn messages that are completely irrelevant. And it starts going down this spiral versus Hey, let’s get back to what sales is really meant to be. If you think of what sales really is, it’s understanding the other person. What’s going on in their world and can my company, can my solution, help that other person achieve their goals a little faster? Well, a little bit more efficiently, a little bit more profitably, that in the end, they might be able to do on their own. How can I provide value? How can I make that happen? So, I think that’s really what it’s all about, it’s bringing us back to the true essence of the sales. Sales is not a numbers game. It’s not opening up the phonebook and smiling and dialing and calling everybody in there, that will work mathematically, but it’s not very fun and very effective. So, I like to again, let’s bring back the relationship, how do we help the other person?

Tom Poland: 4:28 And I guess having done your sales intelligence, if you figure out this person is not a prospect, then rather than bombard them with irrelevant offers, you move on and find someone who is, I presume?

Sam Richter: 4:38 Absolutely. And that’s the whole concept of what we call sales triggers. What’s going on in the other person’s world, the sales trigger, a simple sales trigger would be, hey, this is Sam, can I come out and give you a free estimate for a new roof? You’re probably going to delete hang up, go away. But if you just had a hailstorm, and now there’s water leaking into your kitchen. Five minutes later, and I call you Hey, this is Sam from Sam’s Roofing I’d love to come out and give you a free estimate. Well, now I’m your new best friend, right?

Tom Poland: 5:03 Come on out. Yeah.

Sam Richter:> 5:04 Exactly. And so, what are some sales triggers that go on with your prospects? So, for example, a lot of companies, it might be a new, a new executive hire, a merger or an acquisition, a company’s moving their locations. What’s going on in the other person’s world where they might actually be interested in hearing your solution? How do you identify those? And then how do you find the right person and then call with information that’s relevant to them?

Tom Poland: 5:29 Thank you. Two minutes, 45 seconds left. Question number four, what are some of the common mistakes that people make when they’re trying to solve this lack of sales intelligence?

Sam Richter: 5:38 Well, I think it’s just again, what we talked about earlier, it’s the smiling and dialing. Hey, let’s go buy a list, or let’s use one of those Robo LinkedIn things. And you know, eventually, if I send out enough messages, somebody is going to be interested. And again, mathematically, that’ll work. What I find is too often when you do that, yes, you might get lucky that somebody will interact with you, but usually, that person will be interested in lower price versus the highest value.

Tom Poland: 6:03 And you completely do position the power of your brand. So, thank you for that. Two minutes left Question number five, one valuable free action that someone could take. Just one thing they could do that will help them a little bit, not going to solve the problem. They probably need sales intelligence for that. But one thing that they can move forward with?

Sam Richter: 6:19 Absolutely, I’ll give you two things because they’re really pretty related. Make sure you get some news articles about what’s going on in the other person’s world before you pick up the phone, before you email. It’s amazing what can happen when you just have a little piece of information. How do you do it? Simple. Go to Google type in the name of a company or a person, but usually a company. Now make sure if it’s a multi-company name, like Acme Corporation, put that name within quotation marks when you put it within quotation marks, Google will treat that as a single entity. On the results page, you’re going to get a, you’re going to see some tabs underneath the Google search form. One of them is news, click on that. Now if it’s a larger company, you’ll get a bunch of news articles. What you can do then there’s a little button on the right-hand side called tools, click on the Tools button, a drop-down menu will appear. Click on the anytime drop-down menu. And you can sort your news articles by date. That helps you make sure the first words out of your mouth in any sales call, email, LinkedIn connection, is about the other person. Now there’s another website that will automate that for you a little bit. It’s called yougotthenews.com, www.you Y-O-U, got G-O-T, T-H-E, news N-E-W-S, dot com, same type of thing. Now this one, you don’t have to put in quotation marks just type in the name of the company. On the results page you can sort your news by business news, press releases, those kinds of things. I usually default the press releases, because that’s usually a company trying to tell me what’s going on in their world.

Tom Poland: 7:45 30 seconds left. Super. Thank you, 30 seconds left. Two questions, one I’m going to answer for you because I took too long earlier on. One valuable free resource, folks, go to samrichter, R-I-C-T, sorry, R-I-C-H-T-E-R dot com/searchtips. Let’s give you 30 seconds because I stole sometime earlier. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t, Sam?

Sam Richter: 8:05 Why this is important? And I think the reason it’s important is again, we talked about that a little bit, but it’s really understanding the other person. Because this is how we can differentiate ourselves from our competition. The good news is salespeople today are probably lazier than at any time in history. So just mentioning something about what the other person cares about completely differentiates you from your competition. Allows you to build that connection, hopefully, sells more stuff.

Tom Poland: 8:32 Sam Richter, thank you so much for your time.

Sam Richter: 8:34 Thank you very much.

Tom Poland: 8:35 Cheers.

Tom Poland: 8:37 Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.