Read the Room with Rich

About Read the Room with Rich

Read the Room with Rich is a sales podcast about buyer psychology and why buyers really say yes. Host Rich Patterson brings 20+ years in sales and 14+ coaching sales teams, teaching his Buyer Coding framework: read the person, not just the pitch. Learn how to close deals, handle sales objections, stop getting ghosted, and understand the decision making behind every yes. Rich talks with the CEOs, founders, and sales leaders you actually pitch, so you get real sales training on the psychology and leadership behind B2B sales. Subscribe and leave a review.

Publisher

Rich Patterson

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Jul 2026

Latest episode

22 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Oct 2026

   The New Rules of Selling in an AI World | Leslie Venetz

   If AI writes your outreach, why should a buyer read it? Leslie Venetz, founder of The Sales Led GTM Agency, keynote speaker and author of Profit-Generating Pipeline, joins Rich fresh off opening for Tony Robbins. In this episode: - Why practice pitching matters more than ever - Call recorders: a crutch for presence, not for listening less - Earn the right: deposits before withdrawals - Curation over creation ("start on page 12") - Selling through RFPs, and doing the work with your buyer - Bot buying from bot: where it works and where it doesn't - AI, scope creep and burnout Chapters: 0:00 Trailer 0:46 Intro 2:07 Opening for Tony Robbins 6:25 Nerves and over-preparing 8:54 Have we lost practice pitching? 10:45 Call recording: crutch or tool? 15:49 Selling to overwhelmed buyers 19:12 Earn the right: curate, don't create 24:29 Live coaching: the data-request problem 34:50 Do it with them 37:44 Sellers as decision enablers 39:58 Bot buying from bot? 46:57 AI, scope creep and burnout 52:09 Analyzer vs closer 54:57 Where to find Leslie Links: - The Sales Led GTM Agency: salesledgtm.com

2. 

   4 Oct 2026

   Buyers Were Tolerating You. AI Changed That. John Barrows from JB Sales

   Sales reps who aren't using AI right now are about to get replaced by it, and John Barrows explains why only the top 20% will come out the other side.Rich Patterson sits down with John Barrows, national sales trainer, founder of JB Sales and host of Make It Happen Mondays, who has trained sales teams at Salesforce, Okta and LinkedIn. John tells the story of handing out DeWalt drills on construction sites, selling Xerox copiers to the government, growing a startup to an acquisition by Staples, and watching his training business go from $6M to zero in two months when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. Today he runs it as a founder: his own prospecting, his own negotiations, his own training.The big theme: buyers can now get more value from five minutes with ChatGPT or Claude than from a junior rep asking BANT questions. The old predictable revenue model was never customer-centric; it was just tolerated. John walks through a real inbound buying experience that went wrong at every step, the Gartner data showing most B2B buyers want a rep-free experience, and why the last mile still needs a human, as long as that human actually adds value. His answer for reps who want to land in the top 20% is simple: get curious, and use AI as Jarvis to your Iron Man.Then Rich throws hot takes at him: is work-life balance a myth, is middle management going away, is LinkedIn dead, and do cold email and cold calling still work. John also shares the moment a stranger at an event told him his podcast saved his life.If you're an AE or sales leader trying to figure out where you fit as AI reshapes B2B sales, this is the episode for you.⏱️ CHAPTERS⏱️ CHAPTERS0:00 Welcome John Barrows1:38 From Art Major To DeWalt4:25 Bottom-Up Beats Top-Down On The Job Site6:47 Selling Copiers To The Government6:59 The Startup That Staples Bought9:03 Why He Never Wanted To Be A Trainer10:12 Six Million To Zero In Two Months11:19 The Biggest Win Is Surviving13:45 Ego Versus Confidence20:20 Are Reps Less Curious Because Of AI24:25 Hot Take: Bots Buying From Bots26:43 Bad Sales Was Only Ever Tolerated27:45 The Inbound Lead That Went Nowhere32:32 Will Enterprise Buyers Trust AI33:43 What Buyers Actually Want From Reps35:27 How To Get Into The Top 20%38:23 John's Favourite AI Workflows40:20 Why Everyone Feels Behind44:37 Hot Take: Work-Life Balance Is A Myth49:56 Does Middle Management Survive51:32 Pipeline Reviews Are Not Coaching53:05 Hot Take: LinkedIn Has Become Useless56:01 Email And Cold Calling Are Not Dead56:51 Who Should Hire John59:18 Make It Happen Mondays1:01:20 The Kid Who Said You Saved My Life1:04:25 Where To Find John BarrowsConnect with John:Website: https://jbarrows.comLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/johnbarrowsPodcast: Make It Happen Mondays - https://make-it-happen-mondays.captivate.fm/Future Founder Project: https://futurefounderproject.com — sponsor a box of books and help a kid aged 5–15 start their first business.Connect with RichWebsite: https://www.buyercoding.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhitsgoals/Sponsor the show: rich@buyercoding.com

3. 

   17 Sept 2026

   Stop playing small in sales! Larry Long Junior.

   Larry Long Jr joins Read the Room to explain why sales reps are missing quota in 2026 — and what the good ones do differently. Sales motivation without the fluff: AI-proof selling, goal setting that gets results, and the five-tool rep model. Rich Patterson sits down with international speaker, sales coach and author Larry Long Jr. for a conversation about what has actually changed in B2B selling. Buyers now research with AI before they ever take a call, which means value props and product pitches buy you nothing — access, insight and genuine care are what earn the meeting. Larry breaks down the five-tool sales rep model, why he thinks SMART goals are dumb, how accountability is a form of love, and the time-management fight every remote seller has with themselves. He also shares the question that changed his life six years ago, and the layoff that turned a side hobby into an international speaking career. If you lead a sales team, there is a straight answer in here on when to bring in an outside voice — and why your own stops landing eventually. ⏱️ CHAPTERS Chapters 0:00 The Question That Made Him Cry 0:35 21 Days Speaking Across Europe 5:06 Introvert Or Extrovert In Sales 7:55 Stop Being A Me Monster 10:50 Why Sales Reps Are Missing Quota 14:11 The Five-Tool Sales Rep Model 16:43 Time Management And Lazy You 20:25 Relationships Versus Real Pushback 23:29 From 150 Cold Calls To Paid Keynotes 28:24 Hot Take: AI Bots Buying From Bots 30:03 Do Sales Middle Managers Survive 33:35 Hustle Culture Versus Rest 36:25 One Percent Better And The Bamboo Farmer 38:37 Why SMART Goals Are Dumb 40:34 What Do You Want Specifically 48:03 When Founders Should Bring In A Sales Coach 50:02 Where To Find Larry Long Jr

4. 

   27 Aug 2026

   There's people killing your deals. Here's how you find them

   Learning how to find the decision maker in a deal is the difference between a close and a no-decision - and most reps never see the person who killed it. Rachit Kataria, co-founder of Centralize, has just raised $15,000,000 led by NEA. In this episode he explains why the people ending your deals are almost never the people you're talking to, and how to find them before they decide without you. The pattern he found building Centralize: it isn't what was said on the call or in the email that predicts a close — it's the from-field. Are you talking to a CRO, a manager, or an IC? You can have ten names on the account, call yourself multi-threaded, and have nobody on the map who can sign anything. Rachit's fix is an AI org chart that shows who's missing rather than who you already know - less a map than a routing engine, closer to Waze than to a CRM. Then Rich turns it around and asks him how he buys. Rachit doesn't answer cold calls, doesn't see cold emails, and doesn't read your case study. What does work: his own reps. If someone he trusts brings him a tool, the conversation happens. That's the whole route in - and it's the same route your buyers are using on you. They also discuss handing off founder-led sales without losing the founder effect, going from AE to exec sponsor overnight, why relationships become the moat once AI commoditises everything else, and the strat seller who rolled Centralize out wall-to-wall at his old company before joining the team. If you've got a deal sitting at 90% and a champion who's gone quiet, this is the episode for you. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 The People You Never Met Are Deciding 1:59 Inside the $15,000,000 Series A 2:25 Why AI Cannot Commoditise Relationships 5:48 The Pivot That Created Centralize 7:15 The From-Field Insight That Predicts Deals 9:26 The AI Org Chart, Explained Simply 12:12 Why Relationships Become the Moat 14:41 Building a Sales Team After the Raise 18:48 The Champion Who Became an Employee 24:40 How This Buyer Decides What to Buy 25:48 Why He Will Not Answer Your Cold Call 30:47 Bottoms-Up Beats Every Exec Email 33:07 The Redundancy Test Before He Signs 40:22 Where to Find Rachit and Centralize Connect with Rachit: Try Centralize free: https://www.usecentralize.com/ Follow Rachit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachitkataria/ Connect with Rich Website: https://www.buyercoding.com (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUmh2NzhySUlRRkFXd1pwaDdEMTBibXxBR3JiS2FtQzk0YVptOGJmZEZuWjdKdEo2OG55UEJkbndUb2pfM1o4eU9qdm5VbFJnRGtKV2txRUNfVHlSektFaS04TWRnbnlfdC1xc2t2b1RudG4tcVVSSFJ0a3FPRmdEVzJH&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buyercoding.com%2F&v=P-fQTNi51Aw)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhitsgoals/Sponsor the show: rich@buyercoding.com

5. 

   10 Aug 2026

   Throw Away Your Buyer Personas And Do This Instead

   Buyer psychology in sales beats buyer personas every time — and this episode breaks down exactly why deals stall when you sell to a job title instead of a decision style. Rich Patterson walks through Buyer Coding: the five buyer types, the discovery questions that reveal them, and how to remove decision risk before a contract ever hits the table. Most sellers were trained to believe a CFO cares about cost and a CEO cares about vision. After 20+ years in sales and 14 in sales leadership, Rich found that a person's title has almost nothing to do with how they make large buying decisions. How they decide comes from somewhere else entirely — how they were raised, how they were burned, the rooms they've been in. In this episode you'll learn the five buyer codes (Analyzer, Closer, Defender, Validator, Visionary), the thought-provoking discovery questions that make a buyer hand you their tell, how to bubble up decision risk early instead of discovering it in legal, and how to build the decision confidence that stops buyers ghosting you or staying with the incumbent. You don't need more leads. You need to convert the ones you already have. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 🔗 Learn the framework: https://www.buyercoding.com 🔗 Book the Decision-Centric Selling workshop — send Rich a DM 🔗 Sponsor the show: rich@buyercoding.com Don't just read your prospect. Read the room. #BuyerCoding #B2BSales #SalesPsychology Chapters 0:00 Why Buyer Coding Was Built 1:36 You Don't Need More Leads 2:05 The Persona Model Is Wrong 3:52 Where A Buying Decision Actually Comes From 5:36 The Five Buyer Codes 6:30 The Discovery Question That Reveals The Tell 7:41 Decision Risk Questions 9:06 The Mistake Reps Make With Head Trash 9:59 How Modern Buyers Show Up Now 10:54 Building Decision Confidence 12:09 When It's Finally Time For A Contract 13:56 Have Sales Changed Or Have Buyers Changed 15:19 Trust In You vs Trust In Themselves

6. 

   29 Jul 2026

   The Sales Channel Everyone sleeps on with Stephen Oommen

   Stephen Oommen did close to 1 million cold calls — yet 98% of his revenue came from warm referrals. This is the warm referrals vs cold calling conversation most sales reps never have. Ex Microsoft and Outreach, Stephen breaks down the b2b sales strategy and sales psychology behind getting walked into the room instead of dialling into it. In this episode of Read The Room, Rich Patterson sits down with Stephen Oommen — speaker, revenue strategist and author of the upcoming book The Referral Effect — to unpack why referral selling beats cold outbound on the deals that matter, what 'commission breath' is and how to kill it, and the one-word answer he'd give his younger self about building a career that compounds. If you want to know how to get referrals in sales without a website or a stack of marketing collateral, start here. ⏱️ CHAPTERS #WarmReferrals #B2BSales #SalesPsychology Chapters 0:00 Intro 2:42 The Hardest Thing About Selling Yourself 5:12 Why Analyzers Overthink Every Deal 13:57 The One-Word Answer: Money 14:34 Killing 'Commission Breath' 24:00 Referrals Are A Channel, Not Luck 38:00 Writing The Referral Effect 48:00 Why He Has No Website 51:10 Reading The Buyer Behind The Tech Connect with Stephen: Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenoommen Website - https://stephenoommen.com/ Episode Links 🔗 Learn Buyer Coding: https://www.buyercoding.com 📩 Book the Decision-Centric Selling workshop — DM Rich - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhitsgoals

7. 

   13 Jul 2026

   Has this ever happened to you?

   Ever walked out of a sales call sure you crushed it, then got ghosted a week later? Rich has too. That question, why smart buyers make the decisions they make, is what Read the Room is all about. In this intro episode, host Rich Patterson lays out what this show is and why he built it. After 20+ years in sales and 14+ coaching teams, he stopped trying to understand the company and started understanding the person, because companies don't make decisions, people do. That obsession became Buyer Coding, the framework he now teaches and trains. This is a sales podcast, but not the usual one. It's about buyer psychology, decision making, leadership, marketing, and why deals really stall or close. Rich sits down with the CEOs, founders, and sales leaders you actually pitch, so you learn how they think, what keeps them from saying yes, and what makes them respond. If you sell, lead, or just love figuring out how people make decisions, hit subscribe. This is just the beginning. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Why Deals Get Ghosted After You Win 01:15 Meet Rich Patterson: 20 Years in Sales 02:45 Why Buyers Changed But Sales Training Didn't 04:30 What Is Buyer Coding 06:00 Why People, Not Companies, Make the Buying Decision 07:45 The Patterns That Stop Deals From Stalling 09:15 More Than a Sales Podcast: Psychology and Leadership 11:00 The Guests: CEOs, Founders and Sales Leaders 12:30 Subscribe and Connect With Rich WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: Why deals get ghosted after you thought you won Why buyers changed but sales training didn't What Buyer Coding is and why it works Why people, not companies, make the buying decision CONNECT WITH RICH: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhitsgoals/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033z2rQY4v8ZQxhvX6Ntd7 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/read-the-room-with-rich/id1896931156 Subscribe for new episodes on sales, buyer psychology, and how to read the room. #SalesPodcast #BuyerPsychology #B2BSales #SalesTraining #BuyerCoding #ReadTheRoom #SalesLeadership #DecisionMaking

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.