When I started my company, Order Solutions, which became scaled to become the #1 restaurant call center for the large restaurant chains and had clients like Denny’s, Famous Dave’s, O’Charley’s, City BBQ, Outback Steakhouse, Papa Murphy’s, and tons of other large brands. I learned first hand what happens if you don’t come into a meeting prepared.

Once I made this shift and started really researching my prospects and doing my homework prior to prospecting, or presenting to them on a sales call we started winning huge deals and our revenue exploded.

Now I want to share 5 steps that can help you win big clients and help you position yourself as an expert.

Step #1 You want to Determine Their Awareness Level:

This means you understand if they’ve used a product or service like yours before. So if you get a meeting on the calendar you need to email or call the person who agreed to meet with you and tell them that you're doing some prep for your meeting and want to know if they are brand new to using your type of solution. This is so important because based on the answer to this you want to tailor your pitch differently. There is a big difference between selling to a prospect that has used your type of product or service before and had an experience with it compared to a prospect that is brand new to it.

If they’re brand new you want to use very simple language and metaphors to help them understand the problem you solve and how you solve it. If they have used a solution like yours before you want to lean into what makes you different and why is it going to be a better experience with your solution.

In either an email or a call if they say they’ve used one of your competitors before, ask them quickly what they liked and didn’t like about them.

This is going to give you ammo to use on your actual sales call. They might say something well: it was the price, or the training. This is where you want to listen closely and write down exactly what they say. Because this will be gold for your sales presentation later to make them believe your solution is much better than competitors. And by getting the answers in advance it allows you to really think strategically and creatively on how to find an angle to explain why you’re different and better around those pain points.

Now let’s move on

step #2 Do Profile Research:

Check out all of the LinkedIn profiles of every attendee on the calendar invite. Get an understanding from their LinkedIn of their role, challenges, goals and and the KPIs that are important to them.

Step #3 Send A Personal Note To Connect:

Ahead of your call, send them a personalized note to connect on LinkedIn and give them a genuine compliment and show them that you’ve done your homework. This sounds simple but will do three things for you . Number one you’ll be able to post content and they will see it in their LinkedIn feed forever. So even though they don’t buy it’s kind of like free advertising in the future but to your dream clients. Number two you open a direct line of communication with them to follow up. And number three it will pre-frame them to like you before you actually meet on the zoom or call.

Step #4 Tailor Your Presentation To Their Awareness Level:

Start building out your presentation but tailor or repurpose it to their awareness level. Meaning again if they’ve used other solutions before or if this is the first time they’ve explored a solution like yours.

For those brand new to your concept, you want to focus on the ROI of using your solution. Your presentation should educate them on their problem, explain the impact it has on their customers, employees, and bottom line. Now if they’ve used one of your competitors before you don’t need to go into the same things as if they were brand new and your presentation should focus more on what makes you different. For example in my own company Order Solutions we’d compete against AI companies and the way we win deals over them was by positioning ourselves as the company that focused on human connection. That’s one thing that made us different.

So think about what makes you different? It could be the way you deliver your product, it could be the way you describe it, anything.

Step #5 Position Against your Competitors:

Differentiate yourself by spotlighting your unique proposition. It's so important to explain why you’re the best and explain the reason why. This could be how you price, deliver your product or service, you’re on-boarding process, or what you specialize in.

So hopefully you found this helpful and give you some ideas to use right now.

And if you want more help actually implementing this I’ve created a free cheat sheet that walks you through in more detail for enterprise selling prep. Just click the link below to get free instant access. ">

Do you want to land big clients for your business? I’m talking about landing logos that build up your credibility and where if you can land just even one of them it can be like rocket fuel for your business.

This is called enterprise sales. And this type of selling is a lot more consultative than just transactional.

Now the key to winning these big clients all starts in your preparation.

As Sun Tzu says, "Every war is won before it's ever fought." The same applies to enterprise sales.

When I started my company, Order Solutions, which became scaled to become the #1 restaurant call center for the large restaurant chains and had clients like Denny’s, Famous Dave’s, O’Charley’s, City BBQ, Outback Steakhouse, Papa Murphy’s, and tons of other large brands. I learned first hand what happens if you don’t come into a meeting prepared.

Once I made this shift and started really researching my prospects and doing my homework prior to prospecting, or presenting to them on a sales call we started winning huge deals and our revenue exploded.

Now I want to share 5 steps that can help you win big clients and help you position yourself as an expert.

Step #1 You want to Determine Their Awareness Level:

This means you understand if they’ve used a product or service like yours before. So if you get a meeting on the calendar you need to email or call the person who agreed to meet with you and tell them that you're doing some prep for your meeting and want to know if they are brand new to using your type of solution. This is so important because based on the answer to this you want to tailor your pitch differently. There is a big difference between selling to a prospect that has used your type of product or service before and had an experience with it compared to a prospect that is brand new to it.

If they’re brand new you want to use very simple language and metaphors to help them understand the problem you solve and how you solve it. If they have used a solution like yours before you want to lean into what makes you different and why is it going to be a better experience with your solution.

In either an email or a call if they say they’ve used one of your competitors before, ask them quickly what they liked and didn’t like about them.

This is going to give you ammo to use on your actual sales call. They might say something well: it was the price, or the training. This is where you want to listen closely and write down exactly what they say. Because this will be gold for your sales presentation later to make them believe your solution is much better than competitors. And by getting the answers in advance it allows you to really think strategically and creatively on how to find an angle to explain why you’re different and better around those pain points.

Now let’s move on

step #2 Do Profile Research:

Check out all of the LinkedIn profiles of every attendee on the calendar invite. Get an understanding from their LinkedIn of their role, challenges, goals and and the KPIs that are important to them.

Step #3 Send A Personal Note To Connect:

Ahead of your call, send them a personalized note to connect on LinkedIn and give them a genuine compliment and show them that you’ve done your homework. This sounds simple but will do three things for you . Number one you’ll be able to post content and they will see it in their LinkedIn feed forever. So even though they don’t buy it’s kind of like free advertising in the future but to your dream clients. Number two you open a direct line of communication with them to follow up. And number three it will pre-frame them to like you before you actually meet on the zoom or call.

Step #4 Tailor Your Presentation To Their Awareness Level:

Start building out your presentation but tailor or repurpose it to their awareness level. Meaning again if they’ve used other solutions before or if this is the first time they’ve explored a solution like yours.

For those brand new to your concept, you want to focus on the ROI of using your solution. Your presentation should educate them on their problem, explain the impact it has on their customers, employees, and bottom line. Now if they’ve used one of your competitors before you don’t need to go into the same things as if they were brand new and your presentation should focus more on what makes you different. For example in my own company Order Solutions we’d compete against AI companies and the way we win deals over them was by positioning ourselves as the company that focused on human connection. That’s one thing that made us different.

So think about what makes you different? It could be the way you deliver your product, it could be the way you describe it, anything.

Step #5 Position Against your Competitors:

Differentiate yourself by spotlighting your unique proposition. It's so important to explain why you’re the best and explain the reason why. This could be how you price, deliver your product or service, you’re on-boarding process, or what you specialize in.

So hopefully you found this helpful and give you some ideas to use right now.

And if you want more help actually implementing this I’ve created a free cheat sheet that walks you through in more detail for enterprise selling prep. Just click the link below to get free instant access.