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Steve Wershing:
Welcome to Becoming Referable. The podcast that shows you how to become the kind of advisor people can’t stop talking about. I’m Steve Wershing. How do you find new clients? And how do you guarantee that your first interaction will be meaningful, help establish a relationship and start you down the path to converting them into a client? Our guests today will describe some of the tools and strategies you can use to, as he says, “Know more.” In fact, he’s kind of the king of know K-N-O-W more selling. Sam Richter is a hall of fame speaker, a top 15 virtual presenter that has become famous for showing people how to learn vital information about prospective clients before you meet them. Enabling you to provide value the moment you get together. We discuss strategies for using the common search engines to turn up things that you may not have realized you can know. But did you know that only five or 10% of the internet is accessible by Google?

We’ll talk about some of the other ways you can do research as well. And what role does research play in your referral strategy? When you get a referral, what preparation do you do before that person comes in? Or do you just wait for them to come and have a conversation at that point? Well, there’s a lot of value that can be had by knowing some things about that person before they show up in your office. And once you know, Sam helps us understand how to comfortably wind that into the conversation you had, increasing trust and confidence and the likelihood that they’ll want to sign on as your client.

We’ll talk about what kinds of searches are helpful and which cross over the line and can jeopardize a budding relationship. And stay through to the end because Sam provides a special offer on an intel engine he designed that leverages the power of multiple search engines. When I first saw Sam speak, I could not write fast enough to keep up with all of the great ideas he had to share. Well, luckily you’ll be able to listen to this podcast episode over and over so you won’t miss any one of them. So let’s get right to our conversation with Sam Richter.

Julie Littlechild:
Sam, I’m so happy to have you back here. Welcome to Becoming Referable.

Sam Richter:
Well, thank you. It was wonderful to get referred back to you again.

Steve Wershing:
Always great to talk with you. I can’t wait for this.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah. Well, once you’re in you can never leave. It’s Hotel California all over. But look, we really wanted to talk to you because I know you’re continuing to evolve sort of the work that you do. And I was thinking, you’re involved in so many different things, right? Including the work that you do as a speaker, which I know is a big part of your business. But as I looked at all of the work that you’re doing, it seemed to me at least, and correct me if I’m wrong, that really at the core is just this need to learn more about and to understand clients or prospects. Is that a fair characterization of the work that you do?

Sam Richter:
Yeah, and I think we can really sum it up. I don’t know the number, I should probably do a Google search on this or a better an Amazon search, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s been over a million books written about sales and relationships. I think that’s probably a safe number and it’s probably more than that. What’s crazy is, every book I’ve ever read and every video and every course I’ve taken are still based on some of the constructs, if you will, that Dale Carnegie first wrote in 1920 in How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I think it’s one of the greatest sales books of all time in relationships books. And Carnegie has a saying in there and he says, “The sweetest sound in the English language is the sound of someone’s name.”

And I’m going to modify that for today’s world, where theoretically within 20 seconds on a mobile device anybody can access every word ever written in human history. Think about that for a second. So I believe in today’s world, the sweetest sound in the English language is the sound of someone’s name based on what they care about. People are massively passionate about themselves and yet so many people go into a sales call, a prospect meeting, even an existing client meeting, and they only end up talking about themselves.

And you just mentioned I’m a professional speaker, and I’m also a best-selling author, okay. I’m humbly telling you that. Here’s the reason I’m telling you that. The reason is I still get 10 calls or emails a week saying something along the lines of, “Sam is a best-selling author have you ever thought about turning your intellectual property into a speech?” National hall of fame speaker, I know what I’m doing. Or I get the opposite, “As a professional speaker have you ever thought about writing a book?” It’s just like, come on and all you have to do is just knows… People are massively passionate about themselves. So stop talking about yourself and talk about them. And it’s amazing how you can build relationships, which then as you two know, that becomes referrals and referrals to get referrals. It’s not rocket science.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah. So if you assumed that I think most people would agree when you put it that way. Sam, I think we can agree that it’s a good idea. So is the problem that you see for advisors either that they just keep talking about themselves maybe, or that they just don’t have the information to have a different kind of conversation? Or is it both of those things?

Sam Richter:
I think the answer is both and obviously it’s going to differ for each individual. What we found, especially in the virtual era, when you get together for someone over lunch or over coffee, as a prospect you feel the need to spend an hour with somebody, because they’re buying you coffee, they’re buying lunch. And so you can engage in small talk. But think about in our virtual world today, nobody’s going to do that. They’re going to give you a 15 minutes. And so knowing that as sellers, as advisors, we feel the need to talk about our super duper asset allocation model formula that nobody in the planet knows how to do, but us and we can get you the ETFs and insurance and… Nobody cares. They don’t care about that. But, yet that’s how we focus. Unfortunately.

Some advisors think they’re natural people and they don’t need to do any homework because they’re really good at asking questions. Well, in my opinion if you know a little bit about somebody and that’s the first words out of your mouth. I think you gain the second, most powerful word in sales and that word, the first, most powerful word in sales is obviously it’s two words, it’s I’ll buy. But the second most powerful word in sales is the word permission. And when you know something about somebody, you gain permission to ask those next questions. Let me give you an example. So Julie, we’re meeting over zoom. I’m an advisor I’ve been referred to you.

“Hi, Julie, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your family?” It’s fine. It’s not a bad question, right? But what if I said something like, “Hey, Julie. Before we dive in, I recently read that article in the local Poughkeepsie Journal about your kids getting the full scholarship to Yale. You must be so proud. Can you tell me a little bit about that?” You see the difference? All of a sudden you’re impressed. You are like, “Wow, guy did their homework.” You open up that. That brick wall that’s always there between buyer and seller starts to melt away. And you gain permission to ask those more challenging questions.

Steve Wershing:
Well, on Sam if I could reinforce that a little bit, even more than that. It’s not just starting the conversation in a way that engages them, but it’s getting the permission as you say to get the conversation in the first place. I’m sure that you like a lot of our listeners are we get voicemails all the time from wholesalers and from other folks saying, “Hey, I’d like to spend a couple minutes getting to know a little bit about your business.” And it’s like, “I don’t have time to tell you about my business.”

Sam Richter:
Exactly.

Steve Wershing:
I’ve got seven to-do lists. But if somebody called and said, “Hey, Steve.” Just like you said, “I just noticed that you accomplished this or that. And I think I have something that will help you.” Okay. Well, at least I’m going to listen to that voicemail.

Sam Richter:
Exactly. So, “Hey, Steve, I just read that article in the business journal, where you were really talking about your expansion into going into qualified plans, especially self-directed options. I threw the paper down on the floor and I knew I immediately had to contact you because I have 30 years of experience helping advisors just like you accomplish that goal.”

Steve Wershing:
Exactly, exactly. That’s right. That’s a call I would return

Julie Littlechild:
And so when you talk to advisors in particular about this Sam okay, where do you see the big gaps for them? Is it that they don’t have a plan to do the research? Is it they don’t have the tools? Is it, I mean, what do you think we need to solve for here?

Sam Richter:
Well, I think We need to make it quick. I mean, everybody thinks that Google is awesome and Google is awesome. But if I go in and type in Joe Smith, I’m going to get 80 million search results in. So people get overwhelmed. “Well is it the right Joe Smith?” Well, first off it’s a mindset. The first part is a mindset that says, “I know I’m a busy person, but I’m going to take at least three minutes.” And by the way, it shouldn’t take more than that. “I’m going to take at least three minutes to find something about this individual.”

Now, again, if you’re calling on a retired teacher, there might not be anything there. So I might find something about their city, something about their former workplace, current workplace, but something. Because I’m going to have the mindset that in every conversation, the first words out of my mouth are about the other person. And so I’m going to have that information and so how to do it. And the good news is it’s simple, but how to do it is important, how to access the information is important. Combine that with the mindset that it was going to help move that prospect further down the sales continuum. I think it’s the combination of those two, but it is a mindset. It is a mindset change. There’s no question about that.

Julie Littlechild:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Steve Wershing:
And let’s also relate it specifically to referrals if we could. Because-

Sam Richter:
Sure.

Steve Wershing:
…I think that’s where it gets real interesting. So you’ve been referred and I took a look at your website before we got together and I liked what I saw there. And so you’re either about to dial into the Zoom meeting or call me on the phone, or when this is all over, you’re going to be sitting in my lobby. You could just take that meeting and then start the conversation based on the referral. But there’s another way that you might approach that. Do you want to describe-

Sam Richter:
Yeah, certainly. So let’s say that Steve, you’re my prospect and you’ve been referred to me. We’ll just make up a name, Joe, who’s your golfing partner. The only thing that Joe told me is you’re pretty good guy. And you’re really above average at golf, but your short game needs a little bit of work. That’s all he told me, all right.

Steve Wershing:
What you want in an advisor. Right, exactly.

Sam Richter:
As you can tell, I did my homework. But so instead of just saying, “Hey, Steve. Your buddy Joe referred me. Would love to talk with you.” It’s the conversation is going to be more like this. It’s going to be, “Hey, Steve. Your buddy, Joe, I know your golfing partner referred me. And he told me what an awesome guy you are and what a intelligent and really amazing entrepreneur you are. So I took the Liberty of doing a little homework. I found that article in Financial Advisor Magazine about your coaching practice.” And making this up right now but, “Wow, it was really impressive. And I really love how you’ve pretty much, it appears to me, really transformed your entire business in this COVID age. And I just want to tell you how impressed I am with that. And if we have a few minutes, I’d love to learn how you did it.” You see the difference.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, yeah.

Sam Richter:
It’s just-

Steve Wershing:
And you said it quickly there, but I’d love to ask you to go back and reiterate this thing that you do, because I think it’s such a… I think that every, I think everybody should incorporate this so that they can use it as part of the portfolio of what they say to people. And you started with, “Before I meet with somebody, I do a little homework.”

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah.

Sam Richter:
… So I’ll give you the language I use. It’s a little corny so obviously modify it for all the listeners. Modify how you want to do it, but it works every time. And it goes something like this, the first part, “Hey Steve, before I meet with people, I like to do a little bit of homework. You’re a busy guy. I don’t want to waste your time.” Well, just that alone differentiated me from 90, 95, maybe 99% of the salespeople you’ve ever met with before talk to before. It was like, “Whoa, somebody did their homework.” Which again is, it’s amazing to think that nobody does their homework in a world of infinite information, but it’s true. Okay. Now here’s the thing. Even if Joe referred me to you three weeks ago, when we called to set up the zoom call or the coffee meeting, or hopefully someday the in-person lunch, you’re like, “Yeah, I’ll meet with you. Joe’s a cool dude.”

When you saw my name on your calendar for an 8:00 AM coffee this morning, what was going through your head? Was like, “Oh my God, do I seriously need to meet with this guy? I’ve got to get the dog to the vet. I’ve got to prepare for that board meeting. Oh, fine. It’s an 8:00… Financial advisor, whatever, but it’s too early to cancel.” So you show up. And if I start talking about my asset allocation models, what are the thoughts going on in your head? It’s like, “When’s this guy going to go away? I got to get to the vet. I got to get to the, what am I going to do at the board meeting?” That’s the small talk going on in your head.

Steve Wershing:
Sure.

Sam Richter:
So here’s the next magic phrase, “Steve, before I meet with people, I like to do a little bit of homework. You’re a busy guy. I don’t want to waste your time. And guess what I found?” What do you think happens 100% of the time when I say, “And guess what I found?”

Steve Wershing:
Exactly.

Sam Richter:
Whatever small talk was in your head, I just completely snapped you out of it, didn’t I?

Julie Littlechild:
All right.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah.

Sam Richter:
“Hey, I see you’re doing this really cool podcast. It’s really impressive. I listened to a few episodes. And specifically that episode with that crazy Richter guy.”

Steve Wershing:
That was life changing.

Sam Richter:
It was incredible and then I say this, “So here’s what I found…” And here’s the next magic phrase, “Can you tell me a little bit about that or some variation of it?” And then here’s the next magic tactic, be quiet. Let the other person tell you about it because they’re going to share so much information that you would never have gotten previously.

Now this can be a simple search on someone’s LinkedIn profile. You do a search. You’ll find out that they played Division 3 college basketball. “Hey Andy, before I meet with people, I like to do a little bit of homework. You’re a busy guy. Don’t want to waste your time. Guess what I found? I saw you were the captain of that university of St. John’s basketball team. That’s really cool. I don’t run across a lot of college basketball players in my line of work here. Can you tell me a little bit about that?” And then you be quiet. People love to talk about themselves and they’re going to share a lot of information about themselves that then you can align with relevant experiences in your life. And that’s really the goal here by the way, because people buy.

If you think about it, if you could see me right now, I’m making two circles. I’m making a circle with my pinky and index finger on each hand. The one on the left hand is what is going on in your client’s world that they care about? The one on the right hand is the solutions that I provide. I’m now crossing those circles together. And there’s a little space in the middle. The only time of sale ever occurs is when those two intersect. When what your prospect cares about aligns with the solutions you provide. And if we show the other person that we care, we ask good questions, we gain permission to ask good questions, you will be able to figure that out in the conversation.

And instead of talking about asset allocation models, you quickly learn that this individual really cares about his children going to college. And he’s got two parents that he’s going to have to support because they didn’t do a very good job with their retirement planning. So, that’s what we’re going to focus on. “And oh, and by the way, I’ve helped 17 other clients with those exact same problems. So I’m going to share with you not their names, but the solutions that I did for those folks, because I’ve done it before.” That’s where this takes you.

Steve Wershing:
We’ll get back to the show in just a moment, but I wanted to make you an offer in the meantime. This is Steve Wershing from Becoming Referable. With everything that’s changed over the past year, your clients’ needs and priorities have changed as well. How has their outlook changed their goals? What do they think of what you’ve done well during this trying time and what can be improved? A virtual client advisory board will give you those insights and more. Our proprietary system will teach you who to invite to your board, how to invite them, the best questions to put on the agenda. We’ll facilitate the meeting and give you five deliverables. Just send me a note, steve@theclientdrivenpractice.com and put Cab that’s C-A-B in the subject line. And I’ll send you my free report. Seven tips on making your virtual client advisory board a success. Ask us about our virtual wine tastings too. Send me a note at steve@theclientdrivenpractice.com and put C-A-B in the subject line.

Julie Littlechild:
I find that some of this language you’ve used is so important to me because the, I mean, just again, Steve, I think you were kind of pointing this out. The fact that you just said, “Hey, I did some research,” because that doesn’t sound stalkerish and weird, right? It’s not like, “Hey Sam. So I saw you’re a basketball coach.”

Sam Richter:
“Hey, I was looking at your Instagram photos. Nice.”

Julie Littlechild:
“I was following you this weekend and I couldn’t help but notice.” So, I do think there’s just some nuance here that feels really, really comfortable. And you mentioned going on LinkedIn, which I think it’s going to provide some information, but if somebody wanted to dig a little deeper, is there certain information that you think is really important for an advisor to find in advance of that meeting or ideally find?

Sam Richter:
Sure. Yeah. So one that I always, especially when you’re calling on high net worth individuals, and there’s a number of websites for this, you can Google political donations. But go find where the person’s donated politically. Most of your clients probably haven’t been the higher net worth. They, they are, the more likely that they’ve donated politically. Why is that important? Because, sometimes knowing what not to say is maybe more important than knowing what to say. Especially in today’s environment. I’ll also do things like put somebody’s name in quotes. When you put somebody’s name in quotes, in a Google search, you’re telling Google that the words must be treated like an individual entity. Otherwise, if I type in Joe Smith, I’ll get every website in the world with the word Joe in it. And every website in the world with the word Smith. So I’ll pull up results from Joe Anderson and Sally Smith. But Joe Smith within quotes.

And then I’m going to put in donation or in all upper case, a space before and after the “or” when you do that the words that come after the “or” you’re telling the search engine, give me this or that. So I might do Joe Smith within quotes donation or donor or annual report put annual report in quotes, just try different phrases. What I’m looking for is to see where you’ve donated money or time to a nonprofit organization, a religious institution or an educational institution. Why? Because I instantly know your core values and what’s important to you and your family based on where you donated. Now again, something that’s really important. You never find information and state it as fact. Because, you could be wrong. “Hey, I really appreciate that you donated to the Animal Humane Society.” “Oh, I get that all the other all the time. That’s the other Joe Smith.”

No-

Steve Wershing:
Right. Exactly.

Sam Richter:
I was doing a little bit of homework and guess what I found? I was looking around. I’m not sure that it’s you, but are you the big donor to the annual fund at the Humane Society? Well, when you ask a good question, you’re going to go to get an answer. “No, that’s not me. I donate to the American red cross.” Great. What did I just learn? That you donate to the American red cross. The other thing that’s really key Julie is, and this is really important. Sometimes you’re going to find information that’s just not appropriate to share. Right. “Hey, congratulations on the second divorce and the third bankruptcy [crosstalk 00:21:43] this time.

But let me ask you when you know, this has happened to both of you. I can guarantee it. When you know something about another person and they don’t know that you know it, how does it make you feel? Confident. And for some reason, I don’t know the physics behind it, but there are electrons that flow between people’s brains and it’s happening right now, even across this internet. When you are confident about yourself, the other person picks up on that. People like to do business with people who they like, who they trust. And that confidence, those little things really add up to the big things. And so just because you have the information doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to use it, and you don’t have to state facts, use it to ask questions.

Julie Littlechild:
So you’re going to look for donor information. You’re going to look on their LinkedIn profile to see what you can see. Are there any other specific things that you would, like that tactic of looking at donor? I think that’s great because it does tell you something, anything else along those lines?

Sam Richter:
Well, I’m sure I’m certainly going to look at their Facebook page. Now Facebook’s got a horrible search engine, so it’s not… Again, if you’re looking for Joe Smith in Peoria, it’s not going to work because even in Peoria, there’s probably 10 Joe Smiths. Not if you’re looking for Joe Buffetnick it’ll probably work. But I’m going to look at someone’s Facebook page. I’m also going to look at there’s a website, full transparency. It’s one I developed because Google news misses a lot. It’s called yougotthenews.com Y-O-U-G-O-T-T-H-E-N-E-W-S, yougotthenews.com and I can search for articles on people.

Now where I’m also going to go, because searching for information on people can sometimes be a little bit creepy as you brought up. I’m also going to if they’re an executive at a company or even if they just a work at a company, it works just as well finding company information. “Hey, before I meet with people, I do a little homework and guess what I found? Well, congratulations saw that your company’s expanding. Can you tell me a little bit about that? And what’s it mean for you?” Hey, guess what I found? I saw your company just one United Way Volunteer of the year. That’s amazing. Were you involved in that in any way?” So, company information is also pretty good.

Julie Littlechild:
If someone is referred, do you also recommend this is the low touch version of what you’re talking about. But do you also recommend asking a couple of key questions from the person making the referral in a way that-

Sam Richter:
That’s wonderful.

Julie Littlechild:
…sort of uncovers that kind of stuff?

Sam Richter:
Well, I think it’s going to be similar value based questions. So obviously we’ll ask the demographic questions. Of course, what’s the person do for a living? Where do they work? Are they married? Do they have a family? And then some of the psychographic questions will be things like, again, do they have a political affiliation? Are they, are they strong politically? Should I avoid some conversations? What’s important? What’s important to Steve? “Hey, I’m going to be meeting with Julie. What are some of the things, is there anything I shouldn’t say or anything I should avoid? Or is there anything she’s really passionate about that I…?” And I might even say, “Hey, before I meet…” I might even say this to the person who, so let’s say, Steve, you are going to refer me to Julie.

I might say, “Hey, Steve, before I meet with Julie, I’m going to do a little homework on her. I want to make sure I know what she cares about. Is there anything you think I should look for?” “Yes. That’s a great, I’m so glad you asked. Julie was an alternate on the 1980 US Olympic Gymnastics team. Go find an article on that and mention it.”

Julie Littlechild:
True.

Steve Wershing:[crosstalk 00:25:32] did your homework already.

Sam Richter:
I thought well, Julie, it was gymnastics. And I think you were on the bobsleigh team in the Winter Olympics.

Julie Littlechild:
Clearly.

Sam Richter:
But we didn’t do the Olympics back in ’80s. So.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah.

Steve Wershing:
So, we’ve been talking Sam about prospects and referrals. Is there a way that this relates to existing clients?

Sam Richter:
Yeah, I think it is because again, we oftentimes will meet with our existing clients, what twice a year. And we think as advisors that we’re doing the big favor. We’re going to do our annual client review. And you know what a lot of clients call that? A sales call. Because what do you do in that annual client review? “Hey, I’ve got a new annuity for you. This is a great fit.” Or, “I know last time we got together, we talked about long-term care policy. I’ve got one for you.” And then it, hopefully it’s not that bad, but you should absolutely be looking up information on your existing clients, but even deeper on your existing clients. Look for information on their kids. Look for something and frankly, you can even set up a Google alert on your clients. I recommend everybody does that, google.com/alerts on their company, on their client’s kids.

If you’ve got a thousand clients, you’re not going to do this on everybody, but we all have what is it that the 80 20 rule, the 20% of your top clients do this because you should be reaching out to those people. Anytime something goes on in their life. “Hey, I saw that Junior scored three goals to send the soccer team to the state tournament. You must be so proud.” Drop them a note. The other thing that’s so important for clients. And I think this is the huge missed opportunity. We all hear this, that there’s I think we’re just at the beginning of the greatest transfer of wealth in world history.

And I think advisors think all the time that, “Oh yeah, when, when my client dies, I’m naturally going to get the new business from the kids.” No, you’re not. Because guess what? Those kids already have their own advisor because you’ve done a crap job of building a relationship with them over the past few years. You should be doing this kind of homework on the kids, especially as they’re entering adulthood and getting, “Hey, Steve, I’ve been working with your parents for years. I’m sure you’ve heard my name. And they are so proud of you. Before I met with you, I did a little bit of homework and I just can’t believe some of the businesses that you’ve built. It’s such an honor to meet with you.” So don’t forget the children of your clients. Because it’s not automatic that you’re going to be capturing those assets when your clients move on. Yeah.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah. Now I know you mentioned one of the tools that you created, but you have a new tool out right?

Sam Richter:
Yeah, I created a program it’s called the Intel Engine. The Sales Intel Engine. And what it is… Let me tell you what it’s not. It’s not some super secret database. It’s not some silver bullet. What it is, is just a tool that allows you to search Google and other engines way faster than you can do on your own and helps you find information you probably didn’t know existed. The easiest way to describe the Intel Engine, imagine if you could fly over to Google headquarters. And you get a meeting with Larry Page, the co-founder of Google. And you say, “Larry, Google’s pretty awesome, great movie reviews, wonderful restaurants, but you know as a financial advisor, there’s only 40 things I care about. Could you just tell your engineers to build a search engine just for those 40 things?

Well, that’s ridiculous, but that’s what the Intel Engine is. So the website is Intel, I-N-T-E-L, and then engine spelled a little weird. I-N-T-E-L-N-G-I-N.com/advisor. And what it does is it’s really a Google search built for financial advisors. So it’ll help you find money in motion activity. What is that? New executives, individuals who have recently been promoted, people who are thinking of retiring based on their college graduation date.

It will help you find qualified plans. Qualified plans with self-directed options. So you can go in and work with, instead of having to get 20 people, invite a 1000 to get 20 people in the back of the steakhouse, knowing that 15 of them are just there for the free steak. Hopefully you get five meetings and one client. How about if you make 10 phone calls to CFOs at companies that just launched a self-directed option, you’re going to go in and do a lunch and learn with all 50 of their employees. And the company is going to pay you to work with those employees on their 401(k) plan. And if you do a good job, you’re going to gather the assets from all those employees. It helps you find those. It’s got new search engines list building tools in there helps you find email addresses. It’s really, really powerful. And it’s built for advisors again, Intel Engine ngin.com, intelngin.com/advisor.

Julie Littlechild:
So if, if I was looking for executives on the move and that sort of thing, it would help me find those individuals. And then is it also sort of drilling down into some of the things we’ve just talked about? And-

Sam Richter:
Yes, it does.

Julie Littlechild:
…but then you need to research those people and such.

Sam Richter:
Yeah, there’s a button in there that allows you to type in someone’s name. And again, if their name’s Joe Buffetnick, it’ll be much more accurate than Joe Smith, but it’ll pull up their LinkedIn page, their Facebook page, non-profit donations, charitable donations, news articles. And in the people search area, there’s an advanced search and where you can go in and let’s say that you’re in Rotary, right? And you want to reach out to other people that are in Rotary. Let’s say your best customer profile is chief executive officers. You can go in there and you could say, find me chief executive officers in Rochester, New York, who are members of Rotary. And instantly in less than two seconds, it will pull up a list of people who meet that profile. It’ll pull up a list of their LinkedIn profiles. So you can click.

It takes you right to their LinkedIn page. You can connect with them on LinkedIn, which is going to be probably five times, 10 times more effective than sending them a blind email or a blind call. And it really… And now again, instead of saying, “Hi, my name is Sam. I’m a financial advisor. I’d like to link with you. I’d like to connect with you.” It’s, “Hey, my name is Sam. I’m a financial advisor. I see that you’re a member of the Rochester, New York Rotary. I’m a member of the White Plains, New York Rotary. I love connecting with fellow Rotarians.” You think you’re going to get a response? Absolutely.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah.

Julie Littlechild:
Right. It’s so much more. Like I say, I am so tired of getting outreaches on LinkedIn that are all about… They’re so vague, right? “Oh, I see that you’ve had incredible success.” And it’s just like, “No, you haven’t.” It’s not specific to me. But-

Sam Richter:
I give you an example. Yeah. So I’ll use my daughter as an example. And she used it to network with people, but you could be a… Same thing would work with an advisor. So my daughter graduates last May. Number one in her class, she won the Student of the Year at the University of Missouri Marketing. She wants to get in fashion marketing in New York. If she’d graduated in August of last year, she would have had her pick of jobs May of last year. Good luck, worst job market in history. So her advisor tells her to go into LinkedIn, find chief executive officers or chief marketing officers at fashion companies in New York. Link with them, see if they’ll give you an informational interview. I don’t know how many she sent out, but I know it was more than 50.

And you know how many responses she got back the grand total of zero. Now she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority. So I said, “Maddie, just log into the Intel Engine. Do me this favor.” She thinks I’m nuts. I’m a dork. I said, “Just trust me on this one. Go in there in the city. I want you to type in New York in the job title field, typing chief in the industry field type in fashion. And then the other field type in Zeta Tau Alpha.”

Within three seconds, she pulls up a list of probably 30 chief executives, chief marketing officers of fashion companies in New York who are all members of Zeta Tau Alpha. Now, when she reaches out it’s, “Hi, I’m Maddie Richter, recent graduate. But I’m one of your sisters from Zeta Tau Alpha. I was hoping I could get on the phone with you for 10 minutes and do an informational interview.” I don’t know the exact number. I think she sent out four, guess how many responses she got back?

Julie Littlechild:
More than zero?

Sam Richter:
Four. She got back four.

Julie Littlechild:
That’s awesome.

Sam Richter:
They all accepted because everything we’re talking about comes down to one word and that word is relevant. She was relevant to what the other person cared about.

Julie Littlechild:
Well, absolutely. This is such great information. I really appreciate it. Sam, you’ve given us a couple of websites. We’ll put all of this in the show notes, but if anybody wants to learn more about your work broadly, where’s the best place to go?

Sam Richter:
Well, let’s see if you could type my name into Google. And if I don’t show up number one, two, three, four, 50, and 60, don’t listen to anything I have to say. [crosstalk 00:34:55] The way to do it. Website is simple at Sam Richter or for financial advisors. We like to call it Rich Ter because we will make you rich. No, I’m kidding. Sam Richter, R-I-C-H-T-E-R.com. samrichter.com.

Julie Littlechild:
That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for being here.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, Sam. This is such great stuff for advisors. Thank you so much for joining us again.

Sam Richter:
Well thank you for the honor and you both do amazing work in the financial advisory community. Keep it up in your we’re all changing lives.

Julie Littlechild:
Thanks so much.

Steve Wershing:
Thanks.

Julie Littlechild:
Hi, it’s Julie again. It was great to have you with us on Becoming Referable. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please do us a favor and rate us on iTunes. It really does help. You can get all the links, show notes and other tidbits from these episodes at becomingreferable.com. You can also get our free report, Three referral myths that limit your growth, and connect with our blogs and other resources. Thanks so much for joining us.