Steps to Multi-threading in Sales Successfully

Photo by Jonathan Francisca on Unsplash

I like to compare prospecting to cleaning. Sticking to a single point of contact is what I call “feather-duster prospecting”. Why? Because you’re just doing surface-level cleaning and actually just spreading the dust everywhere.

Multi-threading, if done right, is the “Dyson prospecting” — A deep clean that gets to all corners and picks up all the dust. (I don’t work for Dyson by the way).

What is multi-threading?

Multi-threading is a term you’ll be hearing about a lot in sales, if you haven’t already. But what is it?

There are many definitions out there, but at the core of it, it’s not depending on a single point of contact in order to close a deal or prospect into an account. It’s the process of connecting with multiple stakeholders or decision-makers at the same time in order to ensure the deal goes through.

Why is it important?

Pretty simply it’s the sales equivalent of making sure you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Let’s talk through an example…

You‘ve been working with the VP of Engineering for the past 5 months on one of the biggest potential deals of the quarter. You know their pain points inside and out, you know the buying process, and you’ve got verbal commit. You send out the contract, radio silence for a week, and then you get an email bounce back — they’ve resigned. Uh oh!

The one deal you were banking on is out of the picture because you relied on a single person. Now you’ve got to play catch up and scramble to figure out who you can continue the conversation with and start building a relationship with. Those 5 months are down the drain.

High level steps to multi-threading

1. Know your ICP (ideal customer profile) — identify which roles are typically involved in the buying process.
2. Understand your buyer’s buying process — Who would feel left out if they weren’t included? What’s the buying process? Who needs to sign off?
3. Map it out — Whether in your CRM or in a spreadsheet, map out everyone who needs to be involved and what role they play.
4. Understand what everyone cares about — Each stakeholder has a different goal. Understand and communicate accordingly.
5. Keep everyone in the loop — Not everyone needs to be in each of your meetings, but make sure everyone is aware of progress and updates.
6. Close — Closing isn’t just about closing the deal. You have to close each meeting. What are the next steps on their end/your end?

That’s it! Keep on the lookout for more in-depth look on each of these steps in upcoming blog posts.