BlackVNeck

Mid Market Account Executive

How do you multi-thread in your job?

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I'm in Chris Orlob's P Club, taking their multi-threading class. I'm looking to hear from other SaaS slingers how they multi-thread.

A bit about me: I sell mostly to midsize companies (250-1,000 employees). We sell a tool that's mostly owned by marketing but sometimes sales adds their input and then of course we always have some other departments get involved during procurement (IT, finance, etc.). Our sales cycle is ~45 days and the average deal size is $6K so we're having between 1-3 meetings with them.

The single technique that I've had the most success with so far is getting single threaded with everyone. Trying to follow-up after a call with each person that was there, make sure they as an individual are not going to be a blocker, get them any resources they need. This has been great.

The one that's giving me mixed results so far is multi threading with Executives. I've had directors tell me which VP or which CXO is going to be the approver so then I send that executive a note, tell them I will keep them looped in, etc. I've gotten explicitly positive feedback for doing this, I've also explicitly had my wrist slapped for going over my champion's head. Most of the time the exec opens the email and never responds so no real data on if it impacted the deal at all.

The one technique that's honestly the most confusing and unintuitive to me is multi-threading with end users. I don't get it. The end users have no power in most deals. They likely have no insight. Why would I do this? For example, if a Gong AE were to contact me, and be like "Hey your company is looking at us. Wanted to loop you in" I would find that so strange and it'd negatively impact my view of them. I'm clearly not involved in this decision. Nothing my higher-ups said or anything on my LinkedIn would indicate that I'm involved in this decision.

How do you multi-thread? What works? What doesn't work? Please share some context on your segment, average deal size, etc.

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

😎 Sales Skills

8

17 comments

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Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

6

Director of Revenue

Going above your champion's head without them making an intro feels like a quick way to lose a champion. If they told you who else is involved in the process, just ask them if you can get a meeting setup to present and get them up to speed.

Discounting the end user is a pretty rookie move. They might not have the power to cut a PO for a new tool, but they have ALL the insight on why their current tool sucks because they're using it every day. A trusted end user can absolutely help influence the final decision as well.

The exec only cares about how this tool affects his profit margin, what its going to cost, and what the ROI is. The user can tell you how much time and energy their team spends dealing with the issues of their current tool. You get the opportunity to tell them how much their day-to-day is going to improved thanks to your tool AND you now get to leverage that info when you get in front of the exec.

'Mr. CFO, as it stands, your team spends 37 hours per week between 6 people, dealing with this issue from your current solution. On average these people make $25/hour in this industry, meaning by switching to my tool, you'll be saving almost $48k a year AND give more time back to your people to work on more revenue generating tasks."

Chris Orlob gets on my nerves as it feels like he's never spent a day hard selling in his life, and preaches sales 101 stuff like he just came up with it. The guy was a Gong in it's prime, when there was no competition, and a racoon high on LSD could have hit quota. Go look at other gong reps today. THey had the same "im gods gift to sales" attitude, but now that they've got competition, they're talking about how hard it is to hit their numbers.

/rant

unclespacejam

Politicker

3

ur dad’s brother

Couldn’t agree more with this take. You gotta be careful who you’re taking advice from. Chris is the quintessential example of someone who was a “rAinMaKEr” during the ZIRP-fueled hey-day of Gong. Now he’s spreading the gospel of the most basic ass sales training and charging a fuckin arm and a leg for shit you can get for free online. Generally it’s safe to assume the following math:

If {insert LI sales influencer} doesn’t sell for a real org anymore + now suddenly selling X sales course, then assume they are full of shit

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

I've seen this guy around but didn't realize he was Gong.

NEXT

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

You seem to be successfully multi-threading already. I'm questioning why you are taking a course.
What I see as missing, and maybe it's implicit in your follow up with attendees, is connecting within other departments or divisions.
-If your business users are in marketing, and you are selling a tech solution, are you also reaching out to IT?
-If you're speaking to one division, are there other divisions that either touch your solution or could use your solution? Are they using something else (a competitor) today? Will that put an incumbent in your way? Will this best be an enterprise sale (therefore better to connect into other departments) or is this best a divisional toe in the door (and you still make inroads w/other divisions for future growth)?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

3

☕️

How’s it feel to waste money?

BlackVNeck

Good Citizen

1

Mid Market Account Executive

lol I swear some of you get so triggered by sales influencers. You have anything to contribute to the conversation on multi threading or is this all ya got?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

I do, but I also dislike Chris for reasons beyond him being an “influencer”.

For what my team sells, multi-threading is crucial. However, we do it in a way that is permission based by our main champion/buyer. The reason being is that we know our service is less sticky unless multiple teams get involved in the delivery.

I usually have them do the work. Being 2-3 other stakeholders into the email thread and get them to at least one meeting in the discovery process. Makes them feel accountable for the sales cycle being effective, and helps us identify who is going to be the main consumer of services and/or the other POCs we will need to serve.

When it comes to prospecting I often go as high as possible on the org chart and then as low as possible. This way I am not pissing off an exec by going to their next step on the chart to double their efforts. I have a DM and a worker bee to feed me useful tidbits on how to best break through.

1

If you watched the Trent Dressel cold call practice offered in Pclub you would see how bad most of his courses are aside from the AE discovery. Luckily didn't spend a dime, and the company paid for it, but was shocked how he could put something on there that horrible
Context: Trent does a roleplay with puppets. I wish i was joking.

lowhangersalesbanger

Executive

2

Account Executive

Going after end users can work to get a champion if depending on who the DM is and the size of the company. I wouldn't reach out to them if I was already talking to the DM or an exec.

BlackVNeck

Good Citizen

1

Mid Market Account Executive

Yeah I know some people try to prospect end users and work their way up the org chart to power.
You’re saying if you already had a decision maker involved in the sales cycle you wouldn’t reach out to end users

lowhangersalesbanger

Executive

0

Account Executive

Yeah. Exactly. If it can help sell I will have the dm invite end users to a demo so they can weigh in. But that is if the dm cares what the team thinks (more often than not they don’t)

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Call on the highest ranking person you can and then leverage that conversation with their subordinates

NoToBANT

Catalyst

2

Senior Account Executive

You lost me at Chris Orlob

Then you lost me further when you said you pay for his p-club

Then you lost me further when you said you’re ACV is $6k

Here’s my thoughts on mutli-threading
- if you’ve built a champion, don’t go over or under his/her head; it’s a sure fire way to lose your champion
- if it’s a massive org with many divisions who can benefit; do it and do it good but get permission to use your champs name
- if you’re selling a product for $6k, chances are, you probably don’t need to multi-thread; most middle-managers have this level of discretionary budget

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

At least you went anon here.

Start at the top of the org.

BlackVNeck

Good Citizen

1

Mid Market Account Executive

“Start at the top”
Care to elaborate?

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

Tbh multi threading for something that costs $6k doesn’t really make any fucking sense.

You’re likely getting wrist slapped because the VP+ involved in the sign off doesn’t give a fuck about what you’re selling. Tough truth but it’s the truth.

You’re better staying tight with your champions/ influencers and leaning on them to do the internal work of engaging their execs to sign on the dotted line

Kinda weird honestly that this small of a purchase would ever be on the radar of VP+ anyways. I think multithreading into that level with this ACV is totally unnecessary unless your champion explicitly says so

unclespacejam

Politicker

3

ur dad’s brother

Also Chris Orlob is a creepy lizard person

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