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10 FEDA News & Views The same information he was getting from the receptionist could be found online, if he put in the work. That was the start of everything. Everything being his mastery of sales intelligence (SI), and the workshops and keynotes linked to the birth of his com- pany, SBR Worldwide/Know More. He's also developed three search engines, including YouGotTheNews, and shares resources and techniques via his online "Know More University." All of it is designed to help salespeople and other professionals effectively navigate the Web, and come to the table with more than just a few incidentals plucked from a homepage. That's what Richter sees as one of the chinks in the armor of the tra- ditional salesperson, a failure to master the Fourth R—research—in the era of buyer's intelligence. The one-liner he gives when asked to expound on the Internet's role in Sales Intelligence expert Sam Richter has become accustomed to people call- ing him the "Google Guy." Ever seen what he can do with a plus sign and a few quote marks in one of his seminars? The compliment fi ts, yet Richter says everyone is way off base. Instead, he pre- fers to think of his slice-and-dice method of information gathering as a nod to the father of selfl essness, Dale Carnegie, and characterizes himself as a modern-day disciple. "What I do is less about fi nding infor- mation and more about showing the other person they're important," says Richter, a self-proclaimed introvert who spun his propensity to divert attention in the other direction into a surefi re method of fi nding out as much as pos- sible about a potential client, and then using it to connect in a meaningful way. "How to Win Friends and Infl uence People is still the best book I ever read," he says, "and all I'm saying is that you can accelerate that process by using the right technology to fi nd the right piece of information." Uncharacteristic of others in his fi eld, the former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and motivational speaker was never in sales—as in not groomed in the profession. "I would love to tell you that I was some brilliant salesperson but the reality was I was too nervous to talk in meetings," says Richter. "When I started to advance in my career, to the point where I actually had to meet with the customer, I was terrifi ed. This was long before the Internet, so I didn't have the advantage of going online. Instead, I would talk with the receptionist and say, 'Hey, tell me a little bit about your boss, tell me a little bit about your company, tell me a bit about some of the things that are important to you.' What I found was that if I knew something about the other person and asked good questions, then I could be quiet and let the other person talk. And when you talk about the other person fi rst, you gain permis- sion to ask the next more in-depth ques- tion." Fast forward to the ingenuity of Larry Page and Sergy Brin, the founders of Google. Google's success was the spring- board Richter used to make his own leap into the rabbit hole of cyber sleuthing. Historically, salespeople and other professionals are taught the importance of the 3Rs but the Fourth R—research—is what differentiates one business from the next, says best-selling author Sam Richter. By Stacy Ward, Managing Editor stacy@feda.com If you look at the world we live in, it's full of commodities. A failure to distinguish yourself from competitors increases your chance of being in the 'maybe pile,' meaning in the buyer's mind, everyone sells the same stuff at the same price. So who are they going to buy from? They're going to do business with the person they like. That's the essence of sales intelligence, building relationships.