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Hi Community members, 

 

By now, I’m sure the vast majority of us have heard of the term multi-threading and have even adopted this practice when it comes to staying on top of important deals. However, why don’t we refresh our memories and make sure we know everything there is to know about this important sales strategy and share our very own best practices?

 

First, as recap, multi-threading is the practice of staying connected with multiple key decision-makers on the purchasing side. And, why is this important? Well, there are certain reasons, but the main one relates to potential lost of contact with influencers in the purchasing organization during an important deal.

 

We all know that employees move around within organisations, or that their responsibilities inside the company might change, so the person who was involved in the initial buying decision might not be the one who will be involved in the operational aspects of closing the deal and implementing it later on. This is why it’s crucial to connect with a number of stakeholders that have authority to build consensus within their companies and get the necessary approvals to go ahed with the buying decision.

 

And, what’s the best way to go about this? Below are some tips that can help your multi-threading approach.

 

Multi-Threading Top Tips

 

1.To start, your sales teams must map out the network of influencers, deciders and stakeholders: who they are and what roles they play within their companies.

 

2. Next, it’s important to set up a sales strategy that will help build an internal case for the purchase. Sales reps need to get an understanding of the buyers’ internal processes, so that they can support the influencers with resources that will help convince stakeholders.

 

3. Even after mapping out the network of influencers and key decision makers, it’s crucial for sales reps to continue to leverage their network to grow existing relationships and stay informed of important organizational changes that might impact the potential purchase

 

4. The power of engaging and building personal relationships should always be leveraged: sales reps need to be proactive and reach out to their network on a regular basis in order to be able to ensure opportunities aren’t lost and identify when might be the perfect time for the prospect to buy.

 

I’d like to understand if you’ve already adopted this sales strategy and, if so, how are you applying it on a daily basis. 

 

Don’t forget that if you’d like to ask your Modern Selling peers for multi-threading tips this is the perfect place to do it! 

 

Happy multi-threading!

Nádia

Well, one thing I can say is multi-threading is as old as relationship building and not just in sales. It's a politics game actually. That being said, Sales Nav has been fundamental to my job back in the day when I run a sales team, and it's one of the key conversation points we have with sales people that don't see immediate value out of sales nav (and there's a ton of those). It does work better when the industry / sales process demands that there's more than 1 or 2 people in the DMU...but not when looking at SMBs or sales processes that are either too short or transactional.

 

That being said, what's always helped me before using sales nav and before doing anything with an account, online or offline has been stakeholder mapping. A great tool to do that (that actually connects to your CRM and to sales navigator) is Lucidchart, which I absolutely recommend.

 

It helps to have a map!

Alejandro

Thank you so much for sharing, as always, your incredible feedback, @Alejandro C​! I couldn't agree more with your statement that multi-threading goes way back when it comes to relationship building. And, just like you highlighted, it's not only for sales teams. The benefits of multi-threading can be extended to any teams or industries across different companies.

 

However, when it comes to SMB or shorter sales processes, multi-threading may not be used as if it was for larger corporations or deals, but maybe there are some best practices that might be brought into deals like these. For example, mapping out the network of influencers and stakeholders is always essential before reaching out to a particular account. Do you have any additional tips for deals like these, @Alejandro C​?

 

To finalize, yes Lucidchart is a great way to do this and apply the multi-threading approach. I'm sure @Gabe V​ can also share some additional insights on how Lucidchart's integration with Sales Navigator works. 😊

 

The easiest advice I can give anyone trying multi-threading is: expand your network and then start with what you know. Ideal steps would be:

 

  1. Target the account you're looking for.
  2. Search your buyers personas there. Don't be afraid to go "big", as in don't just look for the decision maker, but actually even low-key influencers. Even staff members.
  3. Create lead lists for each buyer persona within the account and save the leads.
  4. Once you have a few decent lists...add one more, and now connect / save leads within your own company. Expand your network internally as much as you can.
  5. Now go back to your BP lead leasts and see who in your company is connected to them.

 

That's always worked for me @Nadia Vieira​ , and of course mapping it so it's visual is even better. I'm sure Gabe can touch on the integration between Lucidchart, SalesNav and SFDC as a great way to actually act on that!

 

Alejandro

Love this tips, @Alejandro C​! 👏

Thanks for mentioning Lucidchart @Alejandro C​! We're all about account/org mapping for sales here at Lucidchart. You can learn more about our Lucidchart + LinkedIn Sales Navigator deep integration here https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/integrations/linkedin-sales-navigator-1 Recommend watching the video 🙂

Thanks for jumping in, @Gabe V​! 😊

Is there any specific functionality in the SN & Lucidchart's integration that you'd like to call out? Perhaps, maybe something that can help SN users improve their multi-threading activity?

Why are LinkedIn Support Staff hiding from real-time support and forcing paying customers to cull through FAQ instead? Why are LinkedIn so afraid to interact with paying customers? Are LinkedIn having financial problems? Don't use Covid as excuse. Customer Support at LinkedIn have always hidden behind FAQ and fail to provide real-time support.

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