Why org charts are the secret to successful multithread sales

Rising inflation. Layoffs and reorgs across industries. Tight budgets at the spendy-est companies are putting the techstack under a microscope (and on the chopping block) — and roadblocks to procurement abound.

Against all odds, worldwide IT spending is expected to grow this year. But for now, companies remain in a state of flux. Those selling to them have to buckle up for the ride and brace for a longer sales cycle.

Now more than ever, buying decisions are driven by committee consensus, and successful sellers will have to find a way to resonate with a changing cast of decision-makers who have all been tasked with doing more with less.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s still a way to close plenty of deals in this lifetime, and it’s mastering the art of the multithread sale. To do that effectively, you’ll need insights from your prospects’ org charts.

We’ll explain why org charts are the secret to successful multithread sales, and how to use them the right way.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, you might be wondering —

What is a multithread sale?

It’s simple. The basic idea behind sales multithreading is that the more champions you bring into a deal, the more likely you are to win it and the more worthwhile the deal will be.

Reasons being, multithreading:

• Unlocks more budget. If multiple departments can benefit from what you’re selling, then bringing them into the deal means more decision-makers on the buying committee that you can actually influence and add value for — and ultimately extract budget from.
• Creates deal security. Between The Great Resignation and Reshuffle, and now mass layoffs, relying on just one champion to close the deal is riskier than it’s ever been — just ask the 81% of sales reps who said they had deals lost or delayed because of a key stakeholder leaving a client or prospect company in 2022. But if you build relationships with more people on the buying committee and turn them into champions, you’re still in the game even if a few of them leave.
• Speeds up the sales cycle. Deals can stall because the champion needs sign-off from higher ups, or because of shifting company priorities, or because a key stakeholder left the company mid-deal — and multithreading can help you get ahead of those setbacks and keep the deal moving at your pace.

The benefits to multithreading are very real, but how does it all look in practice?

An example of sales multithreading in action

Imagine you sell a product that benefits both sales and marketing teams. So far you’ve built a relationship with one contact on the marketing team, and after three months it’s safe to say they’re your champion for the deal.

Then they leave the company unexpectedly, and you’re back to square one.

Maybe you decide to reach out to your champion’s backfill, and sink another three months into nurturing that relationship before you’re anywhere near closing. Maybe your champion’s role wasn’t backfilled at all, and in the time you spent trying to confirm that, the buying committee moved on and chose another solution.

Those delays and deals lost could’ve been avoided had you multithreaded with more marketing stakeholders on the buying committee — and made some inroads with the sales department, as well.

Because multithreading gives you more than just additional contacts to warm up if your champion leaves. It also provides valuable context around your champion’s departure, gives you insights into how company priorities may be shifting, and reduces the risk of putting your eggs in a single basket — whether that’s a single champion, or a single department at a company that’s very evidently in flux.

Get it? Good. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out who else at the prospect’s company you need to bring into the deal.

Enter: org charts.

Identifying multiple decision-makers for a multithread sale

The first step in the multithread sales process is identifying the major stakeholders at your prospect’s company. Ask yourself:

• Who are the primary decision-makers for this kind of purchase?
• Who else has the ability to influence purchasing decisions at the company?
• What factors does each of these parties care about most when purchasing?

And you should have those answers before you start building any relationships with the account.

Reaching out to the prospect for these answers point blank is obviously a no-go. Maybe there’s an account map for this prospect’s company somewhere in your CRM archives — but the odds that it’s been kept up to date are slim to none.

You could always scour LinkedIn or spend some quality time with the team pages on their company’s website — but even if that information was updated just yesterday, you’d still have to take a stab in the dark about who reports to who, which individuals have the most purchasing influence, and who else at the company might have skin in the game.

The only way to streamline this process — and be sure you’re getting the right answers — is with data from an accurate, up to date, and publicly available org chart.

Why org charts are essential for effective multithreading

Org charts solve the aforementioned inefficiencies and ultimately speed up multithread sales by:

• Visualizing the sphere of influence around your deal
• Zeroing in on which decision-makers to build relationships with and bring into the deal
• Shedding light on any other departments or individuals you could add value for, increasing the odds of a closed deal

It sounds like a tall order, but it’s not. These days, there are sales intelligence tools dedicated to tracking live changes to the org charts you actually care about, analyzing which people therein are best-suited for multithreading, and delivering those insights right to you on a silver platter.

Here’s a little known fact: talent movement in the org chart is a strong (yet overlooked) signal for the inner workings, intents, and needs of your prospect companies. Role changes can be a helpful hint about who at your prospect’s company is most likely to need what you’re selling.

These things considered, it would be an understatement to say that multithreading is far more effective when you have a clear view of your decision-makers within the context of the broader organization.

5 secrets to successful multithread sales

There’s lots to love about multithread sales, but mileage can certainly vary. There are a few best practices you ought to keep in mind to successfully juggle a number of relationships within the same account.

The goal is to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes or wasting anyone’s time. It’s all about connecting your offering to the pain points of every person you bring into the deal — without going over anyone’s head to make your point along the way.

With that in mind, you might want to —

1. Establish trust with your initial point of contact, and turn them into your champion.

Even if the ultimate goal is to build more relationships at the company, don’t forget about your initial point of contact once more stakeholders are in the mix. That person could very well become your deal champion if you nurture the relationship consistently.

That means keeping them informed about who else you’re reaching out to — and giving them opportunities to bring other people into the conversation. No matter how well-intentioned, independently scheduling meetings with other stakeholders could give your initial point of contact the impression that you’re going rogue.

Instead, give them a heads up like: “I know you mentioned Lisa, the Director of Revenue, is signing off on this — I’ll send over this demo invite to her, as well. Please feel free to invite any other team members you’d like to take a look at this.”

A simple acknowledgement can be the difference between bad blood and a long-term champion.

2. Don’t hard-sell every possible stakeholder at the company.

Because multithreading intentionally brings more cooks into the kitchen, selling every single stakeholder is unlikely to be efficient or productive. It’s better to engage stakeholders along the way than to jump into the hard sell on the assumption that your champion has already mentioned you to other members of the team.

In practice, this could look like connecting with some potential decision-makers within the account on LinkedIn — but refraining from cold pitching or offering a demo in the DMs. Something like a fresh case study, report, or blog article pertaining to a topic you already discussed with the champion would be more warmly received.

To sway the purchasing committee, each additional stakeholder has to trust that you can solve their problem — and a consistent but soft approach can go a long way.

3. Connect your champion’s problem to broader company pain points or initiatives.

Speaking of problem-solving, you’ll need a micro and macro view of what’s going on (and what could be working better) at the prospect’s company for effective sales multithreading.

Once you have a grip on the immediate challenges the champion is tasked with, you have to zoom out to understand the impact on the broader department and business. With those pieces of the puzzle, you can ask thoughtful questions and ultimately quantify the business impact of not dealing with your champion’s initial challenge.

And if your champion is considering a purchase to support a specific initiative, ask them about their KPIs and success measures, and how it connects to the high level company strategy. With more insight into the opportunity at hand for their business, you can make sure the right teams and departments get a seat at the table — making it more likely that you close the deal, and quickly.

4. Make life easy for your champions by providing the right resources.

You can be confident that your champion has plenty on their plate — so if you need them to take action of any kind on your behalf, you should provide them with resources that make it as simple and painless as possible.

Rather than relying on their ability to capture notes on every detail of your demo, consider recording a video they can share with their team. Instead of giving them the homework of coming up with which other departments that may be interested in what you’re selling, ask them some exploratory questions to help kick off the brainstorm together.

And if there’s a certain stakeholder you’d like them to connect you with, explain the rationale to your champion, offer to write out an email connecting you, and ask if they’re willing to forward it with you cc’ed. Since you’re doing all the leg work, they’ll be more likely to agree to your ask or send you in a better direction.

Equipping your champions with turnkey resources to present you and your solution increases the odds your message goes through — and offers you more control over the narrative. Done well, it can also make your champion look good to their team, earning them a win (and some brownie points for you) in the process.

5. Use an org chart to close the deal sooner

Perhaps it’s already clear that an org chart is like a treasure map to guide your efforts as you deploy the first four secrets to multithreading success — and ultimately get you there faster.

You could even say org charts speed up the entire sales cycle by keeping the multithreading process running smoothly:

• Org charts help you unlock budget from other departments faster. If you can quickly identify which departments can benefit from what you’re selling, you can bring them into the deal earlier. This can give you a headstart on demonstrating value — and increasing their willingness to pay out of the gate.
• Org charts show you where to establish deal security. Putting all of your eggs in one champion’s basket can make the deal grind to a halt if they happen to leave the company. An org chart can help you identify potential champions on the buying committee so you can build relationships accordingly. Even if a few of them leave, casting a wider net means there will still be some champions on board to see the deal through.
• Org charts keep the final decision-maker in the conversation. We all know deals can stall when the champion needs sign-off from higher ups who haven’t necessarily been privy to your demos or sales enablement materials. With an org chart, you can visualize your champion’s sphere of influence within the context of the broader hierarchy, and make sure you have the right people at the table before a setback happens.

Yes, they’re really that powerful.

Close more multithread sales with the largest database of public org charts

The Org is a sales intelligence tool built on the largest database of public org charts to track talent movement across 200,000 companies and deliver warm leads directly to your CRM every morning.

The tool enables you to plan and deploy your multithreading approach, and quickly close the deal with champions who need your product most:

• Daily prospect updates. The Org provides a daily list of companies and persons in your ICP most ready to buy. This helps your sales teams reach out to the right people at exactly the right time, making it easier for you to navigate your plan of attack.
• Buying signals. Talent movement is a strong and overlooked signal for the inner workings and needs of private companies. By tracking the movement of millions of professionals, The Org helps you determine which organizations and persons need things like software, office space, or talent.
• Quality leads. The Org prioritizes quality over quantity, providing a steady stream of quality leads throughout the week. Focusing on quality over quantity enables your sales team to focus their time and resources on the leads most likely to convert. For this reason, The Org also boasts the highest outreach conversion rates in the market.
• Org charts and contact information. Navigating your champion, economic buyer, and decision committee is a persistent problem for AEs. The Org provides the visual context of leads within the target organization along with contact information, bio, and seamless CRM integrations for easy outreach.

Ready to see it in action? Schedule a demo today.