Welcome to part 3B/3 of the multithreading series! If you haven't seen them yet, here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3A.
While we were pumping out last week's edition, we realized that the breakdown was getting waaaay too long.
So as promised, we'll wrap things up by covering steps 3 & 4 to successfully execute a Bottom-Up Sale, where you sell through a champion.
Here are the 4 steps to do it:
- Win the champion first
- Sell the ask to power
- Sell with your champion
- Run the big team meeting
Let's get after it.
Selling With Your Champion
Last week, we wrapped up the noozy teaching y'all how to sell the ask to power. Once you've successfully brought the champion on board, your next job is to learn how to sell with them.
There are two options:
- What we prefer: The champion gets you a meeting directly with power
- What will probably happen: You have to sell through a champion
If you're able to secure the meeting with power, utilize the champion sandwich. Here's what it is:
- Before the meeting: Schedule 15 minutes with your champ to get on the same page. Validate their pains, get the insider's scoop on the executive, or even pressure test pricing.
- After the meeting: Grab 15 minutes with your champ again to understand how the executives reacted internally, recap, and plan your next steps.
If you have to sell through your champion, here's what you need to do:
- Coach them on how to sell: Frame their problems to show business-level impact, cut out details execs don't care about, & show them how to position your solution.
- Make it EASY: Give them all the ammo (materials) they need. Think recaps, business cases, videos, ROI data, you know the drill.
- Preserve integrity: Practice with your champ to ensure the talking points are clear and unambiguous.
Running The Big Team Meeting
It's the morning of the big meeting showtime. Before you jump on the Zoom, here's how you should structure the call:
- Skip long, drawn-out intros: Start with names & faces. Then get right into the agenda. Remember, execs don't have time to waste!
- Empower your champion: Have your champ kick off the meeting with the 3 big problems they want to solve.
- Ask the execs to chime in & validate: Are these the most important problems for them too? If so, what should we focus on the most?
- Run a short demo: No more than 10 minutes.
- Ask for buy-in: Understand if we've shown them enough to move the deal forward.
A few tips to help take this to the next level:
- If the room has more than 5 people, try to split up the room into 2 based on function
- Match up the room on a 2:1 ratio (i.e. if they bring 4 people, you bring 2)
- Match power with power, function with function
- Use their language to explain pain and problems - not yours
That’s it: that’s multithreading from start to finish. Listen to the episode for more detailed, actionable tactics.
Never stop threading. Never sell alone. And never lose a deal alone.
(Friendly reminder - we made a Big Team Demo Deck Template a while back...)
