Pull the threads; winning enterprise deals
"When you pull on one thread, you start to see the whole tapestry" - Toni Morrison
Selling an enterprise-wide deal is a lot like getting a bill passed in Congress.
Decision-making in large organizations is a long, tortuous process due to legacy technology deployments, internal politics, entrenched homegrown solutions, the sunk cost of integrations, account control by incumbent vendors, and the sheer size and scale involved. In many ways, enterprise sales aims to help customers get through their own internal buying processes. Even the best and most popular product can’t make a typical enterprise buyer change the way it does procurement.
Some people think the sales force’s job is communicating value to customers. They’re wrong. The true purpose of sales is to create new value for customers, and in our case, customers can be several people inside of one organization.
Multi-threading is the concept of building relationships with multiple stakeholders within your deal. Top salespeople use this approach in every deal to build momentum and strengthen their influence when they’re not around. Data shows, on average, winning deals have at least three people from the buyer’s side included in meetings across the sales cycle. By contrast, losing deals often struggle to get more than one point of contact to attend their meetings. The first person they connect with is often the only person they ever speak with.
These insights confirm the behavior of buyers we’ve all heard – they make group decisions. There are two factors in determining whether your deal will make the jump in engagement:
If the prospect views your offering as interesting enough to socialize internally (and invite their colleagues to the next call)
If the sales rep navigates the org and includes additional stakeholders proactively.
#2 is where most sellers get this wrong while waiting for a reactive add to an email chain or meeting. You have to invest in the multithread before you need the return, which is why this is often called “deal insurance.”
When you rely on a single person to win your deal, you’re only one person away from losing it. This is single-threading, the unhealthy opposite of multi-threading. Investing in their direct reports is worthwhile even if your champion is the decision-maker or economic buyer. You may have a verbal yes, and it may feel like the deal is pretty much done.
But that can quickly flip from “I got this” to “I’m screwed.” Here’s how:
Your decision-maker suddenly stops responding to texts, calls, and emails.
Your champion forgets to tell you they are going on paternity leave, and you don’t have a point of contact to work with until he returns.
Your champion switches jobs before you can connect with other stakeholders.
Enterprise deals are often lost by being stretched vertically inside an account without being wide. You need additional contacts in case your champion disappears. That’s precisely why multi-threading is deal insurance.
Tip#1: Ask how-to questions. When looking for new contacts, don’t ask, “who’s involved in this decision?”. Your prospect may hear you asking who you need to speak with to sign a contract and then put their defenses up. Instead, ask who decided to buy the solutions yours will replace or who made a recent, similar purchasing decision.
Tip#2: Context > titles. Context roles are more important than titles. The organizations you sell to don’t adhere to your internal buyer personas - those are OUR constructs we create to influence building and internal decision-making and are more directional than precise. When you multithread, you must understand who’s who regarding responsibilities. For example, “operations” means something different at every company, from customer service to finance.
Going dark isn’t the only risk that can plague your deal. Healthy deals can quickly turn downward when priorities shuffle, budget restraints set in, or bandwidth becomes limited. Each circumstance can potentially hold up your deal, but multi-threading can tackle them all. It’s a game-changer because instead of fighting these hurdles alone, you have numerous champions battling internally on your behalf, preventing hiccups from becoming showstoppers. The ability to tackle several threats at once is essential for companies attempting to go up-market and for sellers chasing more significant, more complex deals.
Common reasons you may end up single-threading:
1. You’re introduced to a new point of contact, and you let go of your original contact.
It’s common to break into an account through a senior leader and get immediately punted to someone on their team to dig in and see if there’s a fit. You might have a first meeting with the new contact and assume they’re your new path forward without ever going back to the original contact. As time passes, the senior leader forgets about the intro, their interest in your offering fades to zero, and it’s impossible to get back on their radar.
Turn that around.
Go back to the leader who was your starting point. Give them updates and keep them in the loop. You’ll need them to step back to approve the deal later.
2. If you didn’t ask for an additional contact to work with.
You need to ask well. Ask poorly, and the best-intentioned multi-threading will quickly be interpreted as going around or over your prospect. That earns you enemies as soon as it gains you new contacts. There are non-threatening ways to make the initial request, follow up on it, and bring more people into the conversation.’
Tip#1: Write emails to your original contact to keep the lines of communication open without asking for anything. The best sellers continuously offer insights to their buyers to keep them engaged. Share the high-level evidence of what you uncover without asking for anything in return.
Hopefully, by now, you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on multi-threading! But before we get to the finish line, we must remember one thing - buyers lie. It’s not malicious. Most of the time, it’s completely accidental. Sometimes, their truth simply isn’t the truth. We’ve all sold to someone who seems just a little too chipper. That said, it’s your job to decode reality.
Every deal in your pipeline has a surprise — a hidden truth you have yet to uncover. That’s why you’re never truly in control of your deal until you learn the full truth, and that requires numerous information sources.
No one is immune to champions who — despite their best intentions — accidentally coach you inaccurately. You can’t see behind-the-scenes blockers or defend yourself against unknown procurement officers who were angry pigeons in a previous life.
If you get any of the following answers while navigating your closing motion, it’s a red flag for a flimsy truth:
“I’m the only decision-maker.”
“This is my first time purchasing at this company.”
“It’s an easy/quick procurement process.”
Unknowns are out there, waiting to derail your deal. Master sellers know to uncover these surprises proactively to maintain insurance in their deals and eliminate what would otherwise become barriers. You uncover unknowns by triangulating the truth with your stakeholders.
This means asking the same questions to multiple contacts and seeing whether the answers align. If all the answers are the same, excellent! You’re on the right track. Continue vertically until everyone from the end-user to the executive sponsor is aligned.
Suppose the answers aren’t the same, excellent! You found a potential hurdle before it found you. When you uncover an unknown in your deal, you’re a step ahead in terms of finding a solution. Alternately, if you wait for false truths to find you, they’ll greet you with a smack in the form of increased risks. You’ll feel the sting of an elongated sales cycle and a lack of control. That will leave you just hoping the deal will come in, and hope is not a strategy.
Find the truth through multiple stakeholders and nail down the win.
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