My year in review has made it glaringly obvious my multithreading ability is nonexistent (may have happened accidentally once or twice). With that in mind doesn't seem like theres many previous posts on this in the war room. do you multithread all deals and if not how do you decide which ones require it what is your strategy for developing multiple champions without upsetting your initial one or making them fell youre going over their head do you find it actually makes a difference in win rate or just protects you from a single poc leaving and killing the deal

BigShrimpin

Account executive

Your strategy for multithreading

My year in review has made it glaringly obvious my multithreading ability is nonexistent (may have happened accidentally once or twice). With that in mind doesn't seem like theres many previous posts on this in the war room.

do you multithread all deals and if not how do you decide which ones require it
what is your strategy for developing multiple champions without upsetting your initial one or making them fell youre going over their head
do you find it actually makes a difference in win rate or just protects you from a single poc leaving and killing the deal

👑 Sales Strategy

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TheColdestColdCall

Executive

Enterprise Account Executive

One of my favorite things about running cycles is understanding the politics of the prospects. Sorry for the pending Novel.

Knowing "who's who in the zoo" is critical to the multi-threading and a great game to play, with the reward being your deal.

1. I try to multi-thread all of my deals, but mostly the ones where I know it'll be necessary. Factors may be, is this deal real (obvious), whether it is it big deal and has my point of contact is illuminated who the other stakeholders are, do they care, etc

2. This is just good people management, but listen to them intently. Is this person really your champion or just a coach? If they do not have the political influence and confidence of the EB/DM then go around them, but do it in a way that empowers your Coach to become a future Champion within the org. Try to propose ways in which you make them look good, while minimizing any risk to their reputation. One example of something incredibly easy to do, draft a note for your sales leader, or skip level to send to their EB, "Hey this is X, Sales Leader at Y, We're excited to be working with Z on improving 1,2,3 and delivering value against your A objectives. Please let me know if I can do anything." < super simple, make it real and value-based, but takes like 5 minutes to write and even shorter of the time to send.

3. I haven't done the math but intuitively I know my multi-threaded deals are more likely to close and also, SAVE if one person has an opinion that differs from the rest.

Every level of the organization cares about different things, most people have a boss or someone to report to. Even the C-suite answers to The Board. The more you can align your story and value prop to each persona, the more infinite your deal becomes in win rate, deal velocity, and risk reduction.

I do believe sometimes there is "too many cooks in the kitchen" so it's definitely not an all-or-nothing concept. You just have to know your deal well enough to know if its necessary or not.

Parting thought, AE sends a note to the EB without an intro and while I think it was the content of the message that rocked the boat, AE lost the deal because he didn't listen to his Champion and thought his Champion was Coach.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

This is an excellent summary. And you define champion and coach personas perfectly.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Great summary. I really like this:

draft a note for your sales leader, or skip level to send to their EB, "Hey this is X, Sales Leader at Y, We're excited to be working with Z on improving 1,2,3 and delivering value against your A objectives. Please let me know if I can do anything." < super simple, make it real and value-based,

pirate

Big Shot

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Very good response here

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

🔥

BigShrimpin

Catalyst

Account executive

This is great especially #2 thanks for writing this how do you differentiate a champion vs a coach?

TheColdestColdCall

Executive

Enterprise Account Executive

The way I've always defined a Champion is someone with internal influence, who will SELL on your behalf and has access to budget, or in some cases has budget themselves.

A Coach in my eyes generally lacks one of, or all three, of the traits above but the biggest one is their influence in the org. If your person doesn't have enough capital to tell people what when you're not there, you're fighting an uphill battle!

Founding BDR

Not that knowledgeable in this area either. Found some success in simply asking if anyone else apart of the org would benefit from being included in the pilot/trial.

0PercentCloseRate

Politicker

Oh boy

Bumping for interest. I have no multi-thread skills and want to learn more

saasdatass

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I always like to use this line during disco “there’s a concept I call stirring up the natives. Change is hard and not everyone might agree it’s necessary. Therefore who do we need to convince this is a good initiative?” Get your prospect to give you the lay of the land and get everyone involved. You want to build consensus but also get all the naysayers in one room and answer their questions. Go as far as asking the potential champ if it’s ok to connect with owner, Peggy from accounting or whoever else. If they think it’s ok then just send them a quick LinkedIn connect saying “hey I spoke to Joe, he’s awesome” so they know you have spoken. If the prospect doesn’t want to get anyone else involved or is sketchy about pulling in additional people then it might be a waste of time unless they lay out for you why it’s not a good idea to get others involved. Be direct and transparent with prospect that you plan to get multi threaded, because at the end of the day if it’s a serious evaluation they will give you the roadmap on how to get the deal done

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BigShrimpin

Your strategy for multithreading

10 comments

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