How to Use Multithreading in Sales Strategy

I'm watching salespeople leave money on the table every day. The data doesn't lie. B2B deals require 6.8 stakeholders to reach consensus. Yet most reps focus on ONE relationship. This single threading approach is why deals: = Go dark without warning = Disappear when priorities shift = Get cut first when budgets tighten = Take 2X longer to close than necessary After coaching 500+ AEs who've collectively closed $750M+ in revenue, I've found the solution hiding in plain sight. It's Account Mapping in LinkedIn Sales Navigator. But not just basic mapping. Strategic multi-threading. Here’s the play: 1. Pull up your target account in Sales Navigator 2. Click "View Account Map" (shockingly, most reps don't know this exists) 3. Identify key players in the buying committee 4. Assign roles: Decision-Maker, Champion, Influencer, User, etc. 5. Develop personalized outreach for EACH stakeholder When you deploy this strategy, something magical happens: One stakeholder goes dark? You have 5 other active relationships Technical objection arises? Your champion in Engineering addresses it internally Budget concerns surface? Your Finance contact provides insider perspective Decision-maker changes? You're already connected to their peer group Here’s a real world example: Last month, my client was working a $500K deal that seemed solid. Their single point of contact suddenly stopped responding for 3 weeks. Dead deal? Not quite. We implemented the multi-threading approach, mapped the account, and connected with 4 additional stakeholders. Turns out, their champion was on medical leave but the team was still evaluating solutions. Deal closed 40% faster than their average cycle. By the way… my favorite question to get me multi-threading from the get go? During discovery calls, I teach reps to ask: "Besides yourself, who else will be involved in evaluating this solution?" Then follow up with: "And who else might influence this decision, even indirectly?" “Who else?” Map these names immediately in Sales Navigator. Look for connections between them. Identify potential champions at EACH level of the organization. While your competition waits for ghosted emails, you're having productive conversations with multiple stakeholders. All moving toward consensus. The biggest deals CANNOT be won through a single relationship. Stop leaving commissions on the table. Start multi-threading today. Check out my Sales Navigator deep dive video (and how to use AI with it). : https://lnkd.in/gtE-FWax

"Deal's looking good. I'm in with the CMO." A colleague shared his excitement. I rolled my little eyeballs. "What?" he asked, confused. "Single-threaded deals die," I replied. Three weeks later: "CMO went on leave. Deal's stalled." I wasn't surprised. The average B2B purchase now involves 11+ stakeholders. Yet most reps are still playing the "one relationship" game. Old playbook: Find one champion. Let them "sell internally" for you. Hope for the best. Failure rate? About 80%. A recent client win taught me the better approach: Initial call with the VP of Sales. Great fit, but I asked: "Who else needs to be comfortable with this decision?" The list: - CRO (economic buyer) - IT Director (technical approval) - Sales Enablement (implementation) - 2 Regional VPs (end users) That's 6 people. Each with different: - Priorities - Objections - Questions Rather than pestering my champion to coordinate everything... I created a single digital room with: - Role-specific sections for each stakeholder - Tailored ROI calculations for the CRO - Security documentation for IT - Implementation timeline for Enablement - Quick-start guides for the Regional VPs My champion shared the link. The magic happened silently: Analytics showed the CRO viewed the ROI calculator 5 times. The IT Director spent 15 minutes on security docs. Both Regional VPs watched the training videos. I hadn't spoken to any of them directly. But they were all selling themselves. When we finally had the "decision call," everyone was already aligned. No last-minute objections. No mysterious "other stakeholders." No surprises. Here's what changed: Old approach: Pray your champion effectively represents you to people you never meet. New approach: Give every stakeholder what they need, even without direct access. Multi-threading isn't about scheduling more calls. It's about making yourself irrelevant to the process. The best deals close when stakeholders convince themselves...without you in the room. Are you still gambling on single-threaded relationships? Or building networks that sell for you? Agree?

I closed 79 deals in 2025, hitting 148% of target. Every single one was multi-threaded. (Here is how you do it) When I started as an AE, I thought one champion was enough. Find the person who loves your product, and ride it to close. That strategy killed deals. Fast. Because when my champion: - left the company - went on vacation - switched priorities - lost internal support - maybe wasn't even a champion after all The deal died with them. Now? I treat every deal like it needs multiple advocates - not just one hero. Here's how I multi-thread my opportunities: 𝟭. 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 I ask my champion: "Who else will be impacted by this decision?" Then I get introduced. No exceptions. Hard but doable. 𝟮. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 Finance cares about ROI. Operations cares about efficiency. End users care about ease of use. I speak to each one differently. 𝟯. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 "Would it make sense to loop in your finance lead for a quick pricing overview?" "Could we show your team how this integrates with their workflow?" Make it natural. Make it valuable. 𝟰. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴 If only one person is opening emails and joining calls, the deal is at risk. I use that as a signal to expand my reach. 𝟱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 I don't just talk to multiple people. I arm them with content, ROI data, and talking points to sell internally. The result: - Higher win rates - Faster deal cycles - No single point of failure My take: One thread breaks easily. Multiple threads create momentum that's hard to stop. 𝗣𝗦. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄? Btw: Join 410+ sales reps and get my free newsletter right in your inbox every Sunday: https://lnkd.in/eCi4Cx-A

We were weeks from closing a $480K deal – our biggest ever at Aligned. Then it nearly died. Twice. Two CXOs came in hot. We had NO access to them. NO time. What saved us? Something we call 'tactic'… but I now see as pure insurance 👇🏽 You know the drill… Verbal yes. Legal reviewing. What could go wrong now, right? And then – CSO & CFO get looped in. Both barely involved till that point. 48 hours later: Brutal objections. Security. Price/Value. Tool overlap. We had no direct access. No time to fix it. But then something wild happened: - Top AEs already using us shared impact data - Others added: "We can’t go back to selling without it" - RevOps pushed back on CSO demands - Two VPs used political capital: "We need a full rollout" - Champion worked with us to build tailored CSO/CFO assets 22 stakeholders. And many fought like their career depended on it. We didn’t ask them to defend us. They just did. No AE could’ve pulled that off alone. That’s when it hit me: MULTITHREADING isn’t a tactic. It’s insurance. A deal defense system. Built thread by thread. So when things break (and they will)… You’re not the only one left to save it. —— Here’s the 9-step playbook our Head of Sales now calls NON-Negotiable: 1. Early Exec-to-Exec Sponsorship Don’t wait until sh*t hits the fan. Initiate VP-VP or CXO-CXO alignment early. We send short, supportive emails without direct asks. It builds genuine trust and establishes a safety net long before we need it. 2. Identify Hidden Stakeholders Stakeholders often silently forward materials internally. By using Deal Rooms, we uncover up to 68% more stakeholders – often the real decision-makers influencing budget approvals or strategic buy-in. 3. Isolate Stakeholders 11 people on a call? You’re NOT multithreaded – it’s about quality, not volume. Our team opens separate 1:1 convos. They follow up with each person with next steps suggestions or value that ties to something they said. 4. Proactive Signal-Based Engagement When stakeholders interact with key assets in our Deal Room, we use those signals to trigger follow-ups – e.g. RevOps spends 20min on CRM integration; they might need more info, or could benefit from a dedicated session. 5. Multi-Champion Strategy Nothing beats having an army of internal champions instead of one. Whenever we see an opportunity to build champions, we do it. It derisks the deal in case someone leaves. Plus, budgets are shared, or are just easier to pass. 6. Real-time Alerts on New Stakeholders Our Deal Room sends alerts whenever there’s a new stakeholder. We then leverage this event as an opportunity for exec intros or quick alignment notes. #7-9 in the comments —— Multithreading isn’t a tactic. It’s insurance. And from speaking with 100s of sellers – widely misunderstood. So, next Tuesday @ 11am ET, we’ll break it all down LIVE. Mistakes, misconceptions, templates, theory. With the one and only Krysten Conner. Grab your spot: https://lnkd.in/dQ3Rwvaf

The worst way to "multi-thread" is to be single-threaded. We know that. But the second worst way? "Random acts of multi-threading." Here's why (and what to do instead) 👇 Blindly adding more people to the deal can kill it. Multi-threading is not a 'the more the merrier' strategy. Multi-threading is like baking a cake. Your goal is to add the right 'blend of people' in the right order. Wrong people? Lower win rates. Right people in the wrong order? Lower win rates. Here's exactly how to get it right: The PAPR framework. Take every influencer involved in your deal. Rank them on these aspects on a scale of 1-5: ::::: PAIN ::::: How intense (or not) is their pain for what you solve? Low? Medium? High? ::::: AUTHORITY ::::: How much authority do they (or could they) have on this deal? Low? Medium? High? ::::: PREFERENCE ::::: How highly do they prefer your solution vs. someone else's? Low? Medium? High? ::::: ROLE ::::: How involved are they in this particular decision process? Low? Medium? High? Ok. Here's an example: Let's say I have a director of sales involved in my deal. Here's how she stacks up: PAIN: Very high. AUTHORITY: High. She's not the DM, but her voice is respected. PREFERENCE: Low. She prefers a competitor. ROLE: High. Very involved in the decision process. What's your move? You can't ignore her. Her authority is too high. You'll lose. My move? Find an internal coach. Learn why she prefers the competitor. If it's non emotional (i.e. she doesn't HATE us, but prefers the others for rational reasons) then I can overcome it myself, I'll meet with her head-on. Turn a skeptic into a champion. But if she HATES us for some reason? My words may carry no influence. So I'll enlist my champion to sell on my behalf. Now. Here's where things get powerful: Take the opposite example: Let's say I have A DIFFERENT director of sales involved in my deal. Here's how he stacks up: PAIN: Very high. AUTHORITY: Low. Not respected. Coach says people don't like him. PREFERENCE: Low. He prefers a competitor to pclub.io. ROLE: Somewhat high. Involved in the decision process. What's your move? Polar opposite as before. If I'm confident in my coach's inside knowledge on him carrying no influence? I'm going to ignore him. Box him out of the deal (I'm such a meanie I know). The point of all of this? The PAPR framework eliminate random acts of multi-threading. You can see that based on how they rank, your actions will differ. That's how you dramatically boost your win rates with multi-threading. Give it a try. Go take a deal. Map out all stakeholder and influencers. Rank each one on the PAPR criteria. And watch how your deal strategy utterly transforms.

Here's the most dangerous thing you can do in creating partnerships: Rely on a single relationship to sustain it. Strong partnerships don’t rest on a single relationship. When you rely on just one champion within an organization, you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. Which is a bet you really shouldn't be taking in any business scenario. People change roles, priorities shift, and deals stall. You have to multi-thread your partnerships is essential for long-term success. Engaging multiple stakeholders, each with tailored messaging that resonates with their specific concerns and value drivers. Here’s a couple of ideas to implement multi-threading with your partners: - Start by mapping the organization. Who influences the decision? Who holds the budget? Who feels the day-to-day pain points your solution can address? In most cases, this includes operational leads (like case managers), decision-makers (like principals or executives), and budget owners (like administrators or CFOs). - Then you can tailor your messaging to their values: Operational Champions: Highlight how your solution reduces their workload and solves daily frustrations. Decision-Makers: Focus on measurable outcomes like compliance, improved metrics, or success rates. Budget Owners: Show clear ROI—how your solution saves money, reduces risk, or increases efficiency. Don't just have these conversations once, though. - Schedule regular check-ins and share updates that demonstrate progress or offer value. By staying visible across multiple touch-points, you build momentum and ensure your solution remains top of mind. Creating relationship with a single point of contact at your partner, and then stopping there is a recipe for disaster.

🔥 We’re single-threaded… and then they quit. Or got laid off. Or promoted. And just like that, our super-green, “nothing-can-go-wrong” account is suddenly on fire. Sound familiar? Cue the panic. We tell our CSMs, over and over: “You need to multi-thread. Build more relationships. Engage other stakeholders.” But here’s the kicker… we’re not actually enabling them to do it. Instead, we build these beautiful, thoughtful customer journeys—meticulously designed to drive impact for… wait for it… one person. (That’s right, our beloved champion.) Meanwhile, our CSMs are left scrambling, trying to figure out how to creatively engage other stakeholders on their own. 🚨 Oops. Big oops. 🚨 So, how do we fix it? Here’s my take: 1) Find your bright spots. Get a breakdown from your CSMs on the number of engaged contacts per account. Identify the accounts where multi-threading is actually happening. 2) Understand what works. What types of contacts are engaged? How did we keep them excited and bought in? What resources or moments created value for them? 3) Design for more than just the champion. Build journey elements specific to those other archetypes. Onboard them into the journey from day one. For existing accounts, create resources tailored to different stakeholder roles, and share them through your champion. These resources shouldn’t just be talk tracks—they should prove immediate value and help book that next call. 4) Rinse and repeat. Not every account will have every contact type. But if you define 5-6 key archetypes, you can aim to engage at least 3 in every customer. Multi-threading isn’t just a CSM responsibility. If we want it to happen, we need to stop creating one-size-fits-all journeys and start enabling our teams with the tools and resources to bring other stakeholders into the fold. Let’s stop the firefighting. Let’s build journeys that actually help.

If we're multi-threading to increase our Closed Won, we're thinking too small. Multi-threading isn't primarily for us as sellers. It's to DE-RISK the deal for our Buyer. For Buyers, multi-threading is the difference between 1 VP asking their CFO for budget vs 3 VPs, 6 Directors & 20 end users advocating for a solution. "Strength in numbers" is real. The more consensus in the Buying org The less risk there is for our Champions. And this is why multi-threaded deals have a higher win rate. Champions will put proposals forward when other folks back them up. CFOs say yes more often when all their direct reports agree on how to solve a problem. So, how do we communicate this advantage to our Buyers - So that they start multi-threading the deal themselves vs pushing back? Social proof. This can sound like --> "Last year when we were working with Mimecast, their VP of Ops (Gar) knew he'd have a much stronger business case if he included the VPs of Sales and Marketing in the evaluation. On your team, would it make the most sense to bring in your VP of Sales/Stephanie and your VP of Marketing/DeWayne? Or would a different VP be better in this case?" It's also very powerful to summarize these social proof stories on a slide. When I do this, the slide includes: 1)Past buyer name, title & LinkedIn profile pic 2) Problem they were trying to solve (1 sentence) 3) Who they looped in & how they solved the problem with our solution When Buyers see WIIFM, they don't resist an effort to multi-thread. They welcome it. Or lead it.

“Just because you CC’d three stakeholders doesn’t mean you’re multithreaded.” I was reviewing a stalled enterprise deal with a team in Johannesburg. The CRM looked healthy — multiple contacts from different departments logged, emails tracked, even a few meetings booked with adjacent stakeholders. But nothing was moving. We called the champion. He said: “I shared the proposal with finance, but I’m not sure what they thought. Haven’t heard back.” That’s when it hit us: Access was not the issue. Alignment was. ✅ Here’s the difference: – Access means multiple people are involved – Alignment means those people agree on value, urgency, and fit Multithreading isn’t about getting everyone on your calls. It’s about understanding what each stakeholder needs, fears, and prioritizes — and building trust separately with each of them. In this case: – Finance had concerns about switching costs – IT wanted to know about integrations – Ops didn’t want another platform to manage But none of that had been addressed because we treated multithreading like a contact sport, not a strategy. ✅ What we changed: – Mapped each stakeholder’s priorities and blockers – Customized follow-up messages and content for each persona – Crafted responses for possible objections for each persona – Asked our champion who was resisting, not just who was copied 🎯 The behavioral traps: – Vanity Metrics: More contacts ≠ more momentum – False Consensus: Multiple replies can hide silent dissent – Delegation Bias: Assuming your champion is managing alignment behind the scenes Real multithreading is uncomfortable. It forces us to build more relationships, uncover more objections, and personalize more communication. But it’s also how enterprise deals actually close. 📌 If your deal depends on one person forwarding your proposal, you’re one reorg away from dead pipeline. 📥 Follow me for more insights. Repost if this resonated.

Back at AWS, I led a team that closed 21 seven-figure deals. What did all those deals have in common? These were the deals with the most stakeholders involved. Internally and externally. Here’s what people get wrong about multi-threading: It’s not 1 rep scrambling to involve as many people as possible in the buying company. That’s chaos. It’s about the right people from your company connecting with the right people at the prospect’s company. Think of it like football. You don’t see the quarterback trying to take on the entire opposing team by himself. That’s a quick way to get tackled. Instead, you see him orchestrating. Playing many on many. Passing the ball to the right player, making sure everyone knows their role, and creating an unstoppable team effort. That’s what multi-threading should feel like—a team sport, not a tennis match where 1 AE is hitting the ball back and forth with 1 person at the buying company, or worse, playing 1-on-5, taking on the entire buying committee solo. The rep’s job is to quarterback. To orchestrate the game. Here’s how to do it well: 1/ Map out key players early. Not just the decision-maker, but every influencer, evaluator, and end-user who can impact the deal. 2/ Involve your internal experts. This isn’t a one-man show. You’ve got a whole team—solutions architects, customer success, exec sponsors—who can build credibility and trust faster than any one person alone. 3. Make it frictionless for reps to involve stakeholders internally. Create a streamlined process so they can quickly bring in the right people. Reps shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to connect the dots—make it frictionless. 4. Communicate clearly between all threads. Keep everyone in the loop. Share what’s happening across departments and roles to ensure no one is left in the dark. TAKEAWAY: The most successful deals I’ve been a part of didn’t hinge on one person. They were a team effort from day one. Make sure your sales org is playing a team sport, not a solo game.