How can you quickly determine someone's corporate e-mail address when all you have is the individual's name and company website? What technique lets you limit the search of a term or phrase to a specific website? Can one find documents online by entering a file type extension into a Google search?
Answers to these questions were forthcoming at the closing main platform session of the Million Dollar Round Table's 2014 annual meeting, held in Toronto on June 11. During a 30-minute talk, sales consultant Sam Richter reviewed for attendees — top-producing life insurance sales professionals from across the globe — helpful tips to more effectively search for information about prospective clients. The following is a recap on five of the search techniques.
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What to do
If you can't remember part of your search, use an asterisk (*) and Google will fill in the blanks. This feature is great for name searches, job titles and more.
Example
"Anderson * Associates" delivers results with the first word being Anderson, the last word being Associates, and Google will fill in words in the middle. "Vice President of * at 3m" delivers web pages where that job title exists.
What to do
Most e-mail addresses have the same back end as their company website addresses. So if you don't have someone's e-mail address, enter * then @ followed by the website address and put the entire search within quotes (e.g., "*@acme.com").
Determine the naming connection (e.g., first initial, last name, website address) and you can usually figure out anyone's email at the company. Verify e-mail addresses at http://verify-e-mail.org.
Example
"*@acmecorp.com" delivers e-mail addresses for people who work at Acme Corporation. You may not find the e-mail address of the person you want. But you'll usually find the naming convention respecting how the company does their e-mail addresses. Remember to only use this technique if you have a relationship with the person whose e-mail address you're trying to find.
What to do
Use Site: and limit your search to a specific site. This technique is great for quickly finding information on a specific company.
