Introduction

One of the biggest mistakes reps make when trying to close a deal is failing to multithread. Multithreading, the act of engaging multiple stakeholders at once, often makes the difference between a deal fizzling out and a deal closing. 

Why? Because 63% of B2B deals involve at least 4 decision makers, and this number can double, triple, or even quadruple in enterprise sales.

Engaging one stakeholder is like trying to win a team sport with only one player on the field. You’re outnumbered, vulnerable, and unable to anticipate what will come next. Multithreading enables you to future-proof your deals and increases your chances of success because it allows you to build deeper relationships with more people at the target company. This keeps all relevant stakeholders aligned with your solution, and working toward the same goal. 

In this article, we’ll discuss why traditional sales approaches often fall short, the power of multithreading, and how to implement multithreading effectively. 

Why Traditional Sales Approaches Struggle

Here’s a common sales scenario: You identify a potential lead or an inbound contact comes in, and you begin the discovery process. You learn about the prospect’s pain points, guide them through a demo, create a proposal, and pitch why your solution can help them solve their problem.

As you near the finish line, your attempts to reach out go unanswered. And here’s the kicker: Your contact isn’t ignoring you because it doesn’t make business sense to move forward or because your solution won’t help them. They aren’t answering you because they’ve changed companies.

Frustrated, you end up back at square one, having to identify a new point of contact (POC) and start the process all over again. In many cases, you lose the deal altogether.

Although this isn’t ideal, it happens every day in the B2B sales cycle. Situations like these highlight why traditional approaches to sales often fall short. And this is only one of several negative outcomes that can happen. Perhaps your POC doesn’t leave the company, but gets blocked by other decision makers (that you didn’t know about or have never spoken with). Or maybe your POC is too busy with other priorities and can’t give your proposal the attention it needs.

Whatever the case may be, if you want to create deal security, you have to cast a wider net — which means engaging multiple stakeholders from the get-go. By doing so, you mitigate the risk of losing momentum, gather insights from different perspectives, and build a coalition of supporters within the organization.

The Power of Multithreading

Multithreading is a powerful strategy that reduces reliance on individual decision makers. By involving several people within the target company, the sales process becomes more resilient to disruptions and enables you to maintain a robust pipeline that’s less vulnerable to unforeseen changes.

The benefits of multithreading:

• Increased win rates: According to industry research, multithreading can increase win rates by up to 5x. This dramatic improvement stems from the broader and deeper relationships built across the organization, which help to mitigate the risk associated with depending on a single point of contact. When multiple stakeholders are engaged, the likelihood of internal advocacy and support for your solution grows, creating a more favorable environment for closing the deal.
• Larger deal sizes: Deals resulting from multithreaded engagement tend to be 34% larger than those involving a single point of contact. This increase in deal size is attributed to the thorough exploration and holistic understanding of customer needs. When your solution is customized to each stakeholder’s specific needs, it is perceived as more relevant, impactful, and valuable. By addressing the concerns and priorities of various stakeholders, you demonstrate a comprehensive value proposition that resonates across the entire organization.
• Resilience to change: Multithreading ensures that your sales process is more resilient to changes within the target company. If a key contact leaves or becomes disengaged, other stakeholders who are already invested in your solution can help maintain momentum and keep the deal moving forward. This resilience is critical in maintaining a stable and predictable sales pipeline.
• Improved customer understanding: Engaging multiple stakeholders allows you to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the customer’s needs and challenges. Each stakeholder provides unique insights that contribute to a more detailed picture of the organization’s pain points and priorities. This deeper understanding enables you to craft a solution that addresses the needs of the entire organization, rather than just one individual or department.
• Stronger relationships: Building relationships with multiple stakeholders helps to establish a network of advocates within the target organization. These advocates can champion your solution, provide valuable feedback, and help navigate internal politics and objections. Stronger relationships lead to greater trust and credibility, which are essential for long-term success and customer retention.

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 When you’re multithreading, you’re not playing a game of telephone. You can address each stakeholder's needs, concerns, and pain points individually, thereby mitigating the chances of your single POC miscommunicating your solution’s capabilities. This is important because direct communication with various stakeholders ensures that your message is accurately conveyed and understood. 

Even if each stakeholder has different priorities and perspectives (which is likely to happen), as long as they’re all aligned with your solution, the collective decision making process becomes smoother and more cohesive. This alignment is essential in shortening the sales cycle and reducing friction at different stages of the sales process.

How to Multithread Effectively 

Now that you know why traditional sales approaches struggle and understand the benefits of multithreading, let’s dive into how to multithread effectively. After all, we're not just here to hand you a fish, but to teach you how to fish.

In this section, we’ll guide you through the essentials of multithreading. You’ll learn what a stakeholder map is and why you need to create one. We’ll explain how to develop target messaging that resonates. For revenue leaders, we’ll cover how to equip your reps with the skills and resources needed to engage different stakeholders effectively. Finally, we’ll delve into what deal execution platforms are and how they can help manage multithreaded communication to ensure a cohesive experience for all stakeholders. 

Creating a Stakeholder Map

A stakeholder map is a visual representation of all the key players within your target company. It outlines their roles, responsibilities, influence levels, and relationships to one another. Creating a stakeholder map helps you identify who you need to engage with and how to approach each person, which is the first step to effectively multithreading.

To create a stakeholder map, start by gathering information about the company’s organizational structure. Look for details on departments, key functions, and reporting lines. This information can often be found on the company’s website, LinkedIn profiles, or through direct conversations with your initial POC.

Once you have a basic understanding of the organization, categorize stakeholders into different tiers based on their influence and decision making power. Here’s a simple framework to help you get started:

1. Decision makers: These are the key individuals who have the final say in purchasing decisions. They are typically C-level executives or department heads.
2. Influencers: These people influence the decision making process but do not have the final say. They can include managers, team leads, and subject matter experts.
3. Other stakeholders: These are end-users or support staff who may not have direct influence over the decision but can provide valuable insights into the daily operations and pain points of the organization.

Developing Targeted Messaging

Once you have your stakeholder map, the next step is to develop targeted messaging for each stakeholder. This involves understanding the specific needs, pain points, and priorities of each person and crafting messages that resonate with them individually.

To develop targeted messaging, you need to: 

• Research stakeholder roles: Research each stakeholder’s role within the organization. What are their primary responsibilities? What are their goals and objectives? Understanding their roles helps you frame your solution in a way that aligns with their daily challenges and long-term goals.
• Identify their pain points: Go beyond their job titles and dig deeper into their unique pain points and needs. This requires a combination of research and direct communication. Ask probing questions during your discovery calls to uncover their specific challenges. 
• Personalize your outreach: Use the insights gathered to craft personalized messages for each stakeholder. Highlight how your solution addresses their specific pain points and contributes to their goals. If you want to develop meaningful engagement, avoid generic pitches. Focus on adding value and personalizing your messages so they demonstrate you understand the stakeholder’s needs. 
• Determine their preferred communication method: Different people prefer different methods of communication. Some of your stakeholders may respond better to emails, while others prefer text messages, phone calls, or in-person meetings. Get to know the preferences of these individuals, and tailor your outreach strategy accordingly.

Using these insights, you can customize your outreach communication to resonate with each individual stakeholder, leading to more productive interactions. 

Equipping Reps for Effective Engagement

While research and personalized outreach are essential, they’ll only take your reps so far without the proper training and tools. To equip your reps for effective engagement, you’ll want to invest in skill-building activities such as how to: 

• Ask probing questions
• Practice active listening
• Build meaningful relationships

These skills can be built in a variety of ways, including via role-playing exercises, training workshops, and continuous learning activities. The key is to create a no-judgment zone where reps feel safe to practice and hone these skills.  

In addition to training programs, there are resources you can equip your reps with to be more efficient and organized in their outreach. These include CRM systems like Salesforce or Hubspot, sales enablement tools like HighSpot, and relevant case studies, white papers, articles that help build credibility and position your organization as a leader in your industry. 

*Pro-tip: Make sure these resources are readily accessible and regularly updated. This way, your reps always have access to the latest information at their fingertips. 

Also, encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing. Schedule regular team meetings to help reps learn from each other’s experiences — especially the successes and mistakes. These insights can be used to create a “best practices” playbook for multithreading within your organization. 

Utilizing Deal Execution Platforms

A deal execution platform is a digital tool that focuses on the execution of business deals. Deal execution platforms go beyond collaboration and manage the entire sales cycle, including onboarding processes. These platforms provide teams with the tools they need to be successful — from account planning and mutual action plans to closing deals and onboarding customers. 

During the sales process, deal execution platforms outline the business case so buyers and sellers can focus on the organization’s goals and challenges, rather than merely showcasing features and functionality. This helps businesses make more informed decisions about whether to move forward with a new product or service, and also ensures the seller’s organization is bringing in clients that are an ideal fit. 

When using a deal execution platform to manage multithreaded communication, start by building out your stakeholder map within the platform. As mentioned earlier, your stakeholder map outlines who you need to reach out to, and when you input this information into the deal execution platform, it will help you prioritize your outreach efforts. 

Once you have your stakeholder map in place, use the platform’s communication tools to customize outreach for each individual. Include information such as key messages you want to touch on, relevant talking points, and follow-up actions. 

Throughout this process, you can monitor and track your engagement. This will help you stay organized and track your progress. It will also enable you to identify any gaps in communication so you can adjust your outreach strategy accordingly. 

By using a deal execution platform to manage multithreaded communication, you provide a cohesive experience for all stakeholders that feels organized and timely. This helps build trust in your organization, and solution offering, which ultimately translates into more revenue. 

Conclusion

The main takeaway? If you want to close 5x more deals, master the art of multithreading. 

Engage multiple stakeholders to build deeper, more resilient relationships. This way, if anything changes within the organization or wider market (which it will), your deal doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Create a stakeholder map, develop targeted messaging, and equip your reps with the training, tools, and resources necessary to be successful. Utilize deal execution platforms to streamline and manage multithreaded communication, and you’ll set yourself and your team up for sustainable success in an ever-changing environment.