Multi-threading: one account, more than one conversation.

Multi-threading means reaching two or three people in the same account, each with their own reason to care, instead of relying on one contact. It matters because considered B2B purchases rarely sit with one person, and because one quiet contact should not close the whole account. Done well, each person hears a message about their own part of the problem; done badly, it is the same email sent to everyone in the building.

Who to choose

• The person who signs - a founder, CEO or finance director, who cares about the outcome and the cost.
• The person who owns the problem - the head of the team that lives with it every day.
• The person who will use it - who can say whether it would actually work, and often champions it inside.

What it looked like in practice

• NeverBland: a website or e-commerce decision rarely sits with one person, so accounts were worked through the founder or CEO, a head of digital or e-commerce, and a marketing director.
• HG Technology: IT leadership for process automation, and the finance director in the same firm for reporting - two routes into one account.
• GP Triage: the practice, the primary care network above it and the integrated care board above that.
• Trustifyer: the marketing leader for the company and the executive with their own name on the line.

How to do it without spamming the building

1. Start with one, add the next for a reason.

   A second contact joins when the first is quiet or when the conversation reaches their part of the problem.

2. Write a different message for each.

   The same problem, from where each of them sits.

3. Never pretend they have not met.

   If two people in the account are both in the cadence, say so when it helps.

4. Keep one record per account.

   So nobody is called twice in a day and a reply from one pauses the others.

How the target accounts are chosen in the first place is in the signals worth calling on.