Highlights:
- Multi-threading involves building relationships with multiple decision-makers and influencers within a single account.
- Not every account is ideal for a multi-threaded approach. Assess each account’s size and complexity to determine the best strategy.
Research indicates that B2B purchasing decisions are made by collaborative groups, and the size of these buying groups is continuously increasing. According to Gartner, on average, 11 individual stakeholders are involved in each B2B purchase.
This poses a challenge for sellers, as many of these stakeholders may never become traditional “leads,” making it challenging to identify and engage key members of the buying group.
Moreover, buyers are increasingly adopting a digital-first approach to their pre-purchase journey, which reduces the opportunities for sales to engage early on. Effectively penetrating a target account requires significant effort from sales teams, but they don’t have to do it alone.
There is a need of coordinated approach across go-to-market teams that can foster deeper connections, larger deals, and stronger relationships.
What is Multi-threading in Sales?
Multi-threading in sales is nothing but developing relationships with multiple decision-makers and influencers within an account.
These deep connections can facilitate initial sales, foster long-term customer loyalty, and drive account growth. To maximize success, it’s essential to identify and engage as many stakeholders as possible.
This not only deepens relationships but also ensures continued access to the account even if key individuals change roles or leave. While multi-threading was once primarily a face-to-face practice, today’s virtual landscape allows for a broader reach and influence over entire buying teams.
How Can Marketing Support Multi-threading in Sales?
With buying groups broadening in size, engaging and bringing together all key stakeholders has become increasingly challenging. This is where marketing can play a pivotal role.
By leveraging purchase intent data, marketing can identify which types of content will resonate most with the buying group based on their behavior and activities.
With this insight, marketing and sales can collaborate to create an offer—often structured as a meeting—that will attract key decision-makers within the client’s buying center. Forrester refers to this strategy as the High-Value Offer (HVO).
Here are four types of high value offers that can effectively engage buying groups:
- Market trends, data, and vision: Host live sessions to inform or challenge buyers with the latest market insights, proprietary data, or third-party analysis.
- Collaborative planning: Conduct sessions to address buyer challenges by presenting a clear point of view and developing a collaborative plan of action.
- Customized experiences: Tailor existing content such as e-books, slides, or white papers to address specific buyer challenges and facilitate in-person discussions.
- Peer experiences: Organize virtual meetings where industry peers can share use cases, discuss similar challenges, and explore effective processes, tactics, and tools.
By utilizing these tactics, marketing can significantly enhance multi-threading efforts and help sales connect with multiple stakeholders within complex buying groups.
Tips for Implementing Sales Multi-threading that Drive Revenue Growth
Implementing successful sales multi-threading requires adopting the strategy across the entire sales organization. Here are some tips to help integrate this approach effectively:
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Optimize your sales team structure for multi-threading
The structure of your sales team plays a crucial role in executing multi-threaded selling, which is more commonly used by outbound sales teams.
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Include multi-threading in sales training
Incorporating multi-threading techniques into sales training increases the likelihood of adoption across your team. Establish clear workflows and equip your sales teams with the most effective multi-threading strategies.
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Leverage a variety of tools to gather information
Using a diverse set of tools in your sales tech stack helps your team develop a comprehensive understanding of target accounts and the key stakeholders involved. Enhance multi-threading with insights from tools like:
- Auto-dialers
- CRM systems
- B2B contact databases
- Professional networking platforms
- Tools for tracking corporate news and developments
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Identify which accounts require multi-threading
Not all accounts are suitable for a multi-threaded approach. Evaluate the size and complexity of each account to determine the appropriate strategy.
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Collaborate on account contacts as a team
Regular internal meetings between account representatives and managers ensure everyone stays updated on key contacts and relationship changes within target accounts. This collaboration fosters better alignment and a unified approach.
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Stay up-to-date on organizational changes
Changes within target accounts—such as new funding rounds, leadership transitions, office openings, or other company news—often result in shifting priorities and needs. Keeping track of these developments allows your team to engage with accounts more effectively and make strategic decisions.
Adopting a multi-threaded sales approach is essential for modern sales teams. It enables a more strategic and informed engagement with new accounts, ultimately helping sales organizations secure more deals and strengthen relationships.
Final Comments
Multi-threading in sales is an essential strategy for engaging today’s larger, more complex B2B buying groups. By building relationships with multiple decision-makers within an account, sales teams can secure deals, drive growth, and maintain access even when key contacts change.
Moreover, success requires strong alignment between sales and marketing, effective use of technology for insights, and awareness of organizational changes.
Finally, adopting multi-threading as a core practice enables deeper connections, larger deals, and stronger client relationships, ultimately positioning sales teams for long-term success in a competitive market.
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