The complex nature of sales should not be lost to anyone. It’s not easy, even if your teams make it look that way.
Sales, by its virtues, requires an observational approach to human nature that facilitates transactional communication.
And that’s when the sales folks target only one person, but what happens when they target multiple people from the same organization?
That’s called multi-threading. And it’s an effective strategy to capture an account and build deeper relationships.
But the thing is, many top leaders and decision-makers don’t have the time or capacity to keep talking to sales reps unless there is a clear advantage. Can multi-threading solve this, or is it just another “strategy” that is more advice and less execution?
What is multi-threading, and why is it useful?
What is multi-threading in sales?
B2B marketing and sales have faced two harsh realities.
- The vendor list- a list of pre-decided vendors that buyers choose from. Rarely does any organization enter this list a month or two before the purchase. This process can take from a year to 6 months.
- The buying committee- a group of 8-11 people who make the final purchase decision.
The basic premise of multi-threading in sales is to build relationships with this group or at least try to create a web of connections inside a single account with the hopes of influencing the buying group.
At this point, multi-threading is a prerequisite as organizational power moves away from a single decision-maker to a multi-layered process.
Why is multi-threading useful in sales?
In Salesforce’s Report, 84% of business buyers expect SDRs to act as advisors. And this is no surprise, Sales has shifted to a more consultancy role anyway.
The best sellers know the value of relationships, and that’s before any of it became common marketing knowledge. Multi-threading is an extension of this practice- for the SDRs starting out in the job, speak to your head of sales or your mentor, they’ll tell you their method, and it will resemble multi-threading.
In sales and marketing terms, they don’t just talk to influencers, champions, and CXOs but to the user who will be using the end-product and to the VP of IT, all just to understand the core problem they are facing.
This is why multi-threading is useful- it gives salespeople leverage by empowering them with a deeper understanding of their account and where the entry points may lie.
Often, with all this talk of AI, organizations and even leaders forget that a salesperson’s job is to use leverage to build relationships and convey why their solution is the best one. And that begins with understanding the account in its entirety.
How can sales reps use multi-threading to close more deals?
That is the crux of the matter. How does one do it? Well, there are two ways- one is the framework way, and the other is messy, or what it’s going to look like for you when you’re on call.
Framework for creating a multi-thread strategy- Part 1
The frameworks for selling are the same across the board-
1.) Identify if the lead is valid
When pitching a prospect, you must understand the technical viability of your lead and their hierarchy. You do this with BANT, ANNUM, NEAT, MEDDIC, and whatever method you plan on using.
Identifying the lead’s place in the food chain will ensure a smoother process and set expectations. In multi-threading, if your lead is not a decision-maker, it’s fine- the point is to build relationships with the account.
2.) Identify if the problem you solve is valid for them
Okay, this step of the framework is idealistic. You want to sell the solution, and quotas must be met. When the quotas are down, this step may seem like a massive waste of time.
But the undeniable waste lies in chasing quantity. Discerning for quality yields ROI. No one is saying don’t play the numbers game, but without quality, there is no sale. Anyway, digression aside.
Once you talk to the lead, check if they are the right fit for your organization and if they require your services. And to build a relationship, this step will need you to listen to their problems instead of running off a script. Plus, in this step, you’ll realize where your leverage is.
3.) Identify the decision-makers
With Sales Navigator, this one’s easy. It practically gives you everything you need, plus intent. But when humans are involved, a bit of personal effort goes a long way. And when the intro to a decision-maker comes from their peers or direct employees, it has a greater impact on receptivity.
4.) Research and Talking The Language
Once you have connected with the decision-maker(s), you will need to personalize your pitch for the individual and their designation. While this may seem obvious, it is not.
Speaking the language doesn’t just mean knowing what the tool does; it means researching what the tool or service does for the individual.
This includes knowing how it would benefit the decision-maker and explaining how it will do that.
For example, if you sell a cybersecurity tool that safeguards data in pockets, making it easy to retrieve and access, while making the clusters secure. Since the loss of one cluster won’t affect the entire database.
The CISO may love the idea, and the CTO and CIO may agree. But the CFO and CMO might object and say this will create data silos. And then you can explain why the tool is not siloed but has a virtual copy that consolidates the data. Or something like that. And that the clusters are actually not silos but rather pockets that make searching for particular insight easier.
The pitch will change because the questions change accordingly.
5.) Maintaining the Relationships.
Here’s where a lot of multi-threading falls apart. Remember, these are leaders from the same account, and that means they are discussing the sales process. And the way sales are conducted is a reflection of the organization.
These people will have to be nurtured without feeling as if they’re transactional. That is implied, but good selling involves a bit of vulnerability with leverage. It could be something as small as a gesture of goodwill or helping them understand the market better for their context.
And for each multi-thread, you must provide a unique value. After all, any good seller acts like an account director and not an SDR. It’s almost built that way.
But beyond using email and social media to nurture, it’s the way you nurture the prospects. One really nifty way is to provide insights. Not case studies but insights into their own market, and what if the solution is yours?
Well, isn’t that just the bonus on top?
Framework for creating a multi-thread strategy- Part mess
The framework above does have a lot of mess. But there are a few things a salesperson should know, and that happens on a call.
1.) Forget the pitch.
Keep the pitchforks down, C-suites. I don’t mean slander your organization, but SDRs need to understand that the pitch exists to help them understand the buyer in the initial stages- that means the first month.
To understand what the top management wants and what the buyer needs. When you’re on-call, you must ask questions and listen to what your buyers want. Because who wants to listen to a script for the sake of selling?
Would you?
2.) Active Listening.
Apologies for making you face this one. It’s something every SDR might have heard at least once in their career. Be an active listener and get the sale.
But where this deviates is in the understanding. Active listening, the way Carl Rogers intended, was a corporate tool for leaders to understand their employees. It involves foregoing the sell for a moment.
But why? Because it presents a leverage. Talk to any human being for too long, and they give out some of their ideas and plans. And when building a professional relationship with multiple people in an account, when they know who you are, it makes for easier conversation and facilitates the exchange of knowledge.
Active listening is a tool that uncovers intent by asking the right questions, and these questions are not BANT. What can someone do to help the buyers, and do they even want the help in the first place?
But if you rush in with the questions. You’ve lost them.
3.) Comms.
There’s an industry anecdote that says if you don’t reply to an email within the hour, you lose the buyer. Now you’re going to be dealing with multiple buyers who know each other and know you’re talking to them.
How does this play out? Either you club them all in an email (not recommended, but no method, if executed correctly, is bad) or send them personalized messages from the SDR handling these decision-makers.
And here, many SDRs will have to check if the anecdote is true because they’re bound to miss some. And objections will arise. Buyers are human, and they will contact you if they have doubts.
4.) The Decision-Makers and the Sell.
There’s an intentional flaw in everything written so far. Why did anyone assume the call went forward idealistically?
What if no decision-maker spoke, or even if they did, the SDR did not know what to do. That’s a crucial problem gap, and it’s persistent. In Salesforce’s report, 74% of buyers felt the interactions were transactional.
Of course it is! But they expect consultancy.
The answer to the question is: If you don’t listen, they don’t want to buy. And the only way of increasing your chances of influencing the buyers is by showing the SDRs and CSOs care about the problem, and then also showing buyers a better way forward.
How does one do that?
By building relationships that aren’t a corporate façade.
Multi-threading in sales is the norm. Not the outlier.
Building genuinely authentic relationships has always been the best way to sell. Insurance, cars, watches, gadgets, tech, and cloud, all the best salespeople talk to multiple people.
When selling a car, a person would talk to the buyer and her husband. When selling gadgets, they speak to a person and their friend accompanying them.
When selling cloud, they speak to the CSO, CEO, CFO, and VPs.
Selling is multifaceted and messy. And that’s the way it’s always been.
