When pursuing big companies, most sellers want to ensure that decision makers know all about the full range of products, services, or solutions that they provide.

Proudly, they brag:

• “We offer a full breadth of services.”
• “We provide our clients with one-stop shopping.”
• “We can handle all your _____ needs.”

These killer phrases are detrimental to their sales objective and actually create massive roadblocks for them. But they don’t want to believe me.

Marketing has convinced them that these words are exactly what prospects want to hear—that prospects will be impressed with their vast capabilities which differentiate them from everyone else in the market.

And, truth be told, they’re scared. By sharing every detail of their offering, they’re hoping that something—one thing—will interest the decision maker and a purchase decision will be imminent.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

If You’re Everything, You’re Nothing

Corporate decision makers today don’t want to deal with the “jack of all trades.” Instead, they much prefer dealing with experts who really understand their business, marketplace, and needs.

Plus, when you dump your entire offering on them, you’re not connecting with any urgent or compelling business need. With no focus, there’s nothing there for your prospective clients to grab on to.

Finally, by pitching your entire offering, you’re setting yourself up as a self-serving salesperson who is only interested in winning a new revenue source.

To be successful getting into big companies today, you need a foot-in-the-door strategy that revolves around only one subset of your entire offering.

How I Learned This Lesson

Years ago, I discovered that it was much easier to get into large organizations if I focused on a very specific business problem which I knew I could positively impact—new product launches.

Many companies do a terrible job preparing their field sales organization to sell the new products or services they’re introducing. As a result, sales revenue typically lags far behind projections.

My targeted customers clearly had an immediate, urgent need for help. The success or failure of a new offering is highly visible in the company. If the new product flopped, everyone knew about it. Careers were at stake. Windows of opportunity would be lost, market share could erode, and the lifetime profitability of the product was seriously diminished.

Despite the fact that I was capable of doing training on a wide range of sales skills, I chose to focus my “getting in” strategy on helping salespeople be successful at launch.

In my early meetings with the corporate decision makers, I never confused my message by sharing the entire breadth of my services. The focus of our discussion was always on their product launch issues. Once I had a successful project under my belt, I let my clients know how I could help them in other ways.

Uncovering Your Foot-in-the-Door Strategy

How can you pick the one service you should sell to win first-time business? Try these approaches:

1. Let your customers tell you.Look at your existing customers to see if there is any similarity between how you got your first contract with these accounts. Did you start out tackling a specific type of problem or opportunity? If so, what was it?        

2. Find the white spaces.Search for areas that your prospect’s current supplier or service provider might have overlooked. There are always gaps in their offerings. Check out competitive websites to look for possible shortfalls. Think about areas of their business they don’t stress.
3. Be willing to take the crumbs.You don’t want to position yourself head-to-head against an incumbent. Unless they’re really screwing up, it’s too hard to dislodge them. Go after a small piece of business first, prove your value, and then expand.        

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As far as I’m concerned, phrases like “one-stop shopping” are a bunch of worthless tripe that makes you sound like a cheesy salesperson. The more you try to be all things to all people, the less likely anyone wants to work with your company. It’s time to figure out your own best foot-in-the-door strategy and start using it. Now!

It wasn’t so hard to skate by when all ships were buoyed, when everyone was flush with cash. You didn’t have to work so hard to show you were the best. Or at least better than others. You just had to be good enough to take a big enough piece of the pie to get by.

Not any more (though, honestly, that’s never been my approach anyway).

When money gets tighter, people get pickier. Which means, if want to continue to not only survive, but thrive, you’re going to need to dig a bit more deeply into the differentiation well and publicly showcase why you are the woman, man or business that people should be handing their money over to.

Perfect example. Walking down the block looking for a place to grab lunch with my wife on a weekday, we passed 7 or 8 restaurants and every single one was close to being empty. Then we poked our heads into the local pub. We’d never been there before. And, it was packed.

Not because people were drinking their troubles away. They were all sitting and eating. And, 75% were moms in their 30s and 40s. Whaaa?

It wasn’t long until we figured out what was going on. This little pub had figured out a way to shine, while all the restaurants around them stumbled. Along with their standard menu, we were each given a long, 6 inch wide piece of paper and a red pen.

On the paper were about 50 different options for chopped salad mix-ins. We each sat choosing our salad items and, a few minutes later, two giant finely-chopped salads arrived at our table. We dove in, couldn’t finish either and reveled about how we never about this hidden salad gem before. But, clearly others had.

Since then, this little grill has become our go-to place for taking out, ordering in and the occasional dinner with friends, family style.

Because … they get it.

People are looking for value more than at any other time in decades. And, if you can’t strongly differentiate yourself, you and your business become fungible … replaceable … interchangeable.

And, that’s an awful place to be in a down economy.

So, how will you differentiate and showcase your unique value in 2009?

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About the Author: Jonathan Fields is a former hedge-fund lawyer turned serial lifestyle entrepreneur, copywriter, Internet and direct marketer, speaker and writer. You can find him blogging on entrepreneurship and lifestyles at [1] Awake At The Wheel, crafting high-impact copy for clients at [2] Vibe Creative or training people to become entrepreneurs and career renegades at Career Renegade. His next book, also called Career Renegade, is due out from Random House/Broadway Books In January 2009.