Now more than ever, a deal without an above-the-line decision maker is a dead deal.
That’s why this month, we’re doing a 3-part multithreading series. Part 1 is defining your golden path. Parts 2 and 3 will cover Top Down Yo Yo Selling and Bottom-Up Champion selling
But multithreading starts with planning out your golden path. Where you want to go, who you want to talk to, and how you want to approach them.
Define and carve your path in three steps:
- Map the key personas that influence a buying decision (champions and DMs)
- Map the order in which you should reach out to them
- Make multiple incisions when prospecting an account
Here’s what the 5-call golden path looks like at 30MPC:
Map Key Personas
Who should you be talking to throughout the sales process?
You can find a lot of this by mapping previous deals, or looking at your CRM.
In general, break ‘em out:
- Horizontally by department or function (i.e. marketing, sales, accounting, legal)
- Vertically by role (i.e. CMO, VP of marketing, manager)
Start putting names and faces on a chart.
Map the Order
Who are you going to talk to first - and why? This should be influenced by the people who historically [a] have the biggest problems you solve and [b] can drive a sale forward with political capital.
There are generally two options:
- Top Down Yo-Yo Selling: Start at the top with power → move to champions —> take on blockers
- Bottom-Up Champion Selling: Start at the bottom with champions → get connected with power → take on blockers
Always try to handle the blockers AFTER you have executive DM momentum. We’ll cover this more in parts 2 and 3.
Make Multiple Incisions
Never sell or fail by yourself. Bring in reinforcements for parallel selling, or mirror-matching, to prospect all throughout the account.
That means looping in your team based on those key personas you mapped out.
- Executive:Executive outreach: Make your CRO send a note to their CXO
- AE:Power outreach: Be the senior voice reaching at and above the line.
- SDR:At/below-the-line outreach: Leverage SDRs for champions and front line groundswells.
You can stop prospecting when…
- You have a champion who has shown you they’re committed to the cause and are willing to spread the good word about you
- You have every department involved, especially for complex, multi-department solutions
- You think just one person will do the trick and don’t really want to close the deal anyway
Congrats - you’ve laid down the golden path and made your first incisions.
Next week, what happens if you get a meeting at the top?
