How to Close Major B2B Deals

We just closed a $480K deal at Aligned - our biggest ever. But twice in the final weeks, it almost died. It was brutal. Two execs came out of nowhere with objections. We had no access. No time to fix it. But 22 (!!) stakeholders had already been engaged… And they saved it. That’s when it hit me: Multithreading isn’t a tactic. It’s deal insurance. Here’s the exact playbook we now run in every complex deal: 1. Early Exec-to-Exec Sponsorship Don’t wait until sh*t hits the fan. Initiate VP-VP or CXO-CXO alignment early. We send short, supportive emails without direct asks. Time after time, that builds genuine trust and establishes a safety net long before we need it. 2. Identify ‘Hidden Stakeholders’ Buyers often silently forward materials internally. By using Deal Rooms, we uncover up to 68% more stakeholders, often the real decision-makers influencing budget approvals or strategic buy-in. 3. Isolate Stakeholders 11 people on a call? You’re NOT multithreaded - it’s about quality, not volume. Our team opens separate 1:1 convos. They follow up with each buyer with next steps, suggestions or value that ties to something they said. 4. Proactive Signal-Based Engagement When stakeholders interact with key assets in the deal room, we use those signals to trigger follow ups - e.g. RevOps spends 20min on CRM integration; they might need more info, or could benefit from a dedicated session. 5. Multiple Champions Strategy Nothing beats having an army of internal champions instead of one. Whenever we see an opportunity to build champions, we do it. It derisks the deal in case someone leaves. Plus, budgets are shared, or are just easier to pass. 6. Real-time Alerts on New Stakeholders Our deal room sends instant alerts whenever there’s a new stakeholder (see #2). We then leverage this event as an opportunity for exec introductions or quick alignment note—”Hey, saw you joined the project”. 7. Support the Above-the-Line (ATL) Met an exec early? Keep them looped into POC updates, key milestones, or call takeaways. When we give regular status updates, it builds credibility and keeps momentum - as execs don't join every call, and appreciate the visibility. 8. Never Underestimate Below-the-Line (BTL) Decision-making today is flatter; end-users/junior stakeholders are increasingly influential. I’ve lost count on how many times AEs (our BTL buyers) were make or break in our deals. Give them genuine attention. Don’t underestimate any buyer. 9. Late-Stage Exec Reinforcement If a deal stalls, a concise, confident, personal email from me as CEO resets urgency. The message isn't pushy; it reinforces our shared vision, driving commitment. —— Multithreading isn’t a tactic. It’s insurance. A deal defense system. Built thread by thread, stakeholder by stakeholder. So when things break, and they will - You’re not the only one left to save it. P.S. The Deal Room we used to multithread is Aligned. It's free to try: https://lnkd.in/dYksGnfb

In large deals, the real competition is rarely another product. It is inertia. The most effective large deals are often shaped early. When the business user begins exploring a problem, and the right conversations start happening at that stage, the deal gradually evolves into a sole-sourced decision rather than a late-stage RFP comparison. Because once a deal reaches a formal RFP stage, many vendors appear to be at the finish line. In reality, the direction of the deal was usually influenced much earlier. Many deals look healthy for months. The champion is engaged. The demos land well. The value is understood. And then, close to the finish line, the deal slows down… or quietly becomes “No Decision.” More often than not, the issue is not price or product. The deal simply never travelled far enough inside the organisation. Large buying decisions are rarely made by one person. They are shaped by a group. The business user evaluates usability. IT looks at integration. Security looks at risk. Finance looks at cost. Leadership looks at long-term impact. Each of them is solving a different problem. If the conversation is only happening with one or two people, the deal remains fragile. This is where relationship mapping becomes one of the most important disciplines in selling large deals. Not just knowing your champion, but understanding the ecosystem around the deal. Who influences whom? Who signs. Who can block progress quietly? Who needs confidence before the decision moves forward? Building that map takes time. It means asking better questions. • Who else will review this internally?  • Who will be responsible for implementation?  • Who owns the budget?  • Who needs to see this before we move ahead? As more people across the organisation understand the value, the deal becomes stronger. It stops being one person’s initiative and starts becoming a shared decision. And shared decisions move forward with far less resistance. The best sellers know that closing large deals is not just about presenting a solution well. It is about shaping the deal early and building alignment across people, priorities, and perspectives. #LargeDeals #Enterprises #SST

I'm watching salespeople leave money on the table every day. The data doesn't lie. B2B deals require 6.8 stakeholders to reach consensus. Yet most reps focus on ONE relationship. This single threading approach is why deals: = Go dark without warning = Disappear when priorities shift = Get cut first when budgets tighten = Take 2X longer to close than necessary After coaching 500+ AEs who've collectively closed $750M+ in revenue, I've found the solution hiding in plain sight. It's Account Mapping in LinkedIn Sales Navigator. But not just basic mapping. Strategic multi-threading. Here’s the play: 1. Pull up your target account in Sales Navigator 2. Click "View Account Map" (shockingly, most reps don't know this exists) 3. Identify key players in the buying committee 4. Assign roles: Decision-Maker, Champion, Influencer, User, etc. 5. Develop personalized outreach for EACH stakeholder When you deploy this strategy, something magical happens: One stakeholder goes dark? You have 5 other active relationships Technical objection arises? Your champion in Engineering addresses it internally Budget concerns surface? Your Finance contact provides insider perspective Decision-maker changes? You're already connected to their peer group Here’s a real world example: Last month, my client was working a $500K deal that seemed solid. Their single point of contact suddenly stopped responding for 3 weeks. Dead deal? Not quite. We implemented the multi-threading approach, mapped the account, and connected with 4 additional stakeholders. Turns out, their champion was on medical leave but the team was still evaluating solutions. Deal closed 40% faster than their average cycle. By the way… my favorite question to get me multi-threading from the get go? During discovery calls, I teach reps to ask: "Besides yourself, who else will be involved in evaluating this solution?" Then follow up with: "And who else might influence this decision, even indirectly?" “Who else?” Map these names immediately in Sales Navigator. Look for connections between them. Identify potential champions at EACH level of the organization. While your competition waits for ghosted emails, you're having productive conversations with multiple stakeholders. All moving toward consensus. The biggest deals CANNOT be won through a single relationship. Stop leaving commissions on the table. Start multi-threading today. Check out my Sales Navigator deep dive video (and how to use AI with it). : https://lnkd.in/gtE-FWax

"Deal's looking good. I'm in with the CMO." A colleague shared his excitement. I rolled my little eyeballs. "What?" he asked, confused. "Single-threaded deals die," I replied. Three weeks later: "CMO went on leave. Deal's stalled." I wasn't surprised. The average B2B purchase now involves 11+ stakeholders. Yet most reps are still playing the "one relationship" game. Old playbook: Find one champion. Let them "sell internally" for you. Hope for the best. Failure rate? About 80%. A recent client win taught me the better approach: Initial call with the VP of Sales. Great fit, but I asked: "Who else needs to be comfortable with this decision?" The list: - CRO (economic buyer) - IT Director (technical approval) - Sales Enablement (implementation) - 2 Regional VPs (end users) That's 6 people. Each with different: - Priorities - Objections - Questions Rather than pestering my champion to coordinate everything... I created a single digital room with: - Role-specific sections for each stakeholder - Tailored ROI calculations for the CRO - Security documentation for IT - Implementation timeline for Enablement - Quick-start guides for the Regional VPs My champion shared the link. The magic happened silently: Analytics showed the CRO viewed the ROI calculator 5 times. The IT Director spent 15 minutes on security docs. Both Regional VPs watched the training videos. I hadn't spoken to any of them directly. But they were all selling themselves. When we finally had the "decision call," everyone was already aligned. No last-minute objections. No mysterious "other stakeholders." No surprises. Here's what changed: Old approach: Pray your champion effectively represents you to people you never meet. New approach: Give every stakeholder what they need, even without direct access. Multi-threading isn't about scheduling more calls. It's about making yourself irrelevant to the process. The best deals close when stakeholders convince themselves...without you in the room. Are you still gambling on single-threaded relationships? Or building networks that sell for you? Agree?

The #1 reason your enterprise deals are stalling (and it's not what you think) I watched a sales team lose a $700K deal last month because they were relying on ONE champion to push it through. The champion loved the product. The champion had authority. The champion was "fully committed." Yet the deal still died. Why? Because in 2025, the "single-threaded" sales approach is completely broken. Modern B2B deals involve 11+ stakeholders, and if you're not building relationships with ALL of them, you're setting yourself up for failure. Here's what actually works: 1) Build a complete relationship web After EVERY meeting, send the group recap AND individual personalized emails to each attendee. This creates multiple champions instead of one. 2) Move contacts strategically through stages Contact → Trust Building → Advocate For each stakeholder, send targeted content that addresses THEIR specific priorities, not generic materials. 3) Be the orchestration catalyst 84% of companies report poor internal collaboration. Your prospects don't know how to buy effectively. Pre-plan the additional meetings needed ("We'll need a technical deep dive with your IT team next week, then a separate ROI discussion with finance") 4) Use digital tools to scale yourself Create 3-4 minute targeted demo videos for different stakeholders (one for Marketing, another for Finance, etc.) Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator's relationship map to visualize and track your relationship web. The deals I'm seeing die aren't lost to competitors, they're lost to indecision and lack of consensus. Master buying team orchestration, and you'll close deals your competitors can't even keep alive.

You got a $500K inbound. Pause. If you just caught a half-million dollar lead and your head is racing, pause. I have a few notes before you blow it. I say this because I once watched a $30K deal turn into a $500K close in three days. It was an anomaly. It happened because we reached power fast and we pulled the whole company into the deal. The rep did not “crush it.” She orchestrated it. Here is what to do the moment that big lead hits your inbox. 1) Get to power fast: - Ask on day one: who can sign at this amount. Not who likes us. Who signs. Do your own research first so you can suggest who this person might be when meeting with your original stakeholder. - If your primary contact cannot sign, you are networking, on top of selling. - Use your leaders. Use your CEO if needed. A warm intro from the top beats your third discovery call. 2) Quarterback your company: - Make a one-page brief so leaders can help without asking for context. Problem. Impact. Ask. Next step. - Pull product for the one question that really matters to the exec. - Pull CS for a reference that speaks their language. - Pull finance to clear vendor setup early. Big deals die in paperwork. 3) Change your process because the deal is not normal: - Ditch the standard demo. Execs want outcomes, not feature tours. - Propose a mutual action plan with dates, owners, and the signature path. - Map legal and security as early as the value you've landed allows. Get the NDA signed while you set the first meeting if possible. - Pricing needs a clean one-pager. No riddles. Tie the number to business impact. 4) Use the room the right way: - When you finally meet power, stop pitching. Ask what changed inside their business that created this budget. - Repeat their words back. Align on three outcomes they will defend internally. - Offer the shortest path that meets those outcomes. Fewer steps win. 5) Fix small frictions that kill big deals: - Calendar control. Send three exact slots. Include your exec. Make it easy to say yes. - Email subject lines that get opened by power. “Decision path and dates,” not “Quick catch up.” - Silence management. Daily update to the customer until closed. Even if the update is “waiting on security response.” - Internal rumor control. Keep your team aligned on who speaks to whom. One voice to the customer. 6) Know when luck helped you: That three-day $500K close I mentioned. We had a relationship that reached power in one call. That was luck. The part that was not luck was how fast we moved when the door opened. Brief ready. References lined up. Execs prepped. Pricing clear. No chaos. The bottom line: Big deals are not won by working harder on the wrong person. They are won by getting to power and pulling the right people in at the right time. Your job is not to be the hero. Your job is to conduct the win.

Most B2B companies skip straight to "Why us?" And then wonder why complex deals stall. After years of working with our Megadeals methodology and integrating insights from Jonas Lind's Decidable research, here's what I've learned: In high-complexity deals (complexity 5 & 6), buyers don't choose the best option. They eliminate what they can't defend. That distinction changes everything about how you should build messaging. There are three behavioural gates every risk-bearing stakeholder must pass through before a deal can close: 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — The buyer sees themselves in your description of the problem. Not awareness. Mental framing. 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 — The buyer connects your approach to their specific role's accountability. Not a generic value prop. 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 — Every risk-bearing role can defend the decision under scrutiny. This is where most deals die. The equation is multiplicative: Recognition × Relevance × Safety = Decision Movement If any one gate scores zero, the deal cannot close. No matter how strong the other two are. Here's the uncomfortable truth: most messaging strategies only address Gate 1 (maybe). They build awareness and assume the rest takes care of itself. It doesn't. The practical shift: → Layers 1–3 (Change Drivers, Pains, Short-term Coping) open Gate 1 (Recognition) → Layers 4–6 (Category, Subcategory, Dimensions) open Gate 2 (Relevance) → Layer 7 + Deal-Closing Messaging opens Gate 3 (Safety) And here's the part most teams miss: 80–90% of seller time is spent in deal-closing — but with content built for Gate 1 and 2 only. The result? Rainmakers close. Everyone else churns pipeline. The fix isn't hiring more Rainmakers. It's building a Messaging Architecture that does what Rainmakers do instinctively — systematised and scaled across every stakeholder in every deal using a deal orchestratrion support system (like Njord) What's the gate that blocks most of your deals? In my experience, it's almost always Gate 3 — Safety. Curious if others see the same pattern?

The B2B sales Playbook: How MBB Firms sell (and you should too) The other day, I was in a meeting where a major brand was pitching to one of my clients. It was painful to watch. For 30 minutes, they talked about themselves. Their capabilities. Their success stories. Their tech. Their global reach. Not once did they ask, “What’s your problem?” Not once did they try to understand what actually mattered to the client. This happens ALL THE TIME in B2B sales. And it’s the fastest way to kill a deal before it even starts. Here’s the thing: B2B sales isn’t about you. It’s about them. And whether you’re a startup selling SaaS, an engineering firm pitching to a construction company, a boutique consultancy, or anyone selling projects to enterprises this playbook applies. It’s the method consultants have used for 50+ years to sell multi-million-dollar projects. Here’s how to do it right. 1. Stop selling solutions. Start diagnosing problems. The biggest mistake? Pushing your services instead of uncovering the client’s actual pain points. MBB rule: Never sell a solution before diagnosing the problem. The first meeting isn’t about what you do. It’s about what they need. - Ask smart questions. - Identify the real pain points. - Find the problem behind the problem. The best salespeople don’t pitch. They make the client realize they deeply understand their challenges. 2. Forget proposals. Start with a short memo. Once you identify an opportunity, DO NOT jump into a full proposal. Instead, test the waters with a short memo covering: - What you understood about their problem - How you think it can be solved - The impact it could have A memo lets you validate interest before you waste time crafting a proposal. If the client says, “This makes sense. What’s next?” then, and only then, you move forward. 3. Nail the proposal without the price. Here’s the mistake most people make: They include fees too early. Before discussing price, you need the client to say: - "Yes, this is the right problem.” - “Yes, this methodology makes sense.” - “Yes, this outcome is valuable to us.” You want full alignment before price even enters the conversation. Because if the client questions the cost before they’ve bought into the solution, you’ve already lost. 4. Price based on impact, not effort. Most people price their services based on effort. Wrong. Your internal costs don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the value you create. If solving this problem saves the client $50M, your fee isn’t about your hours; it’s about your role in that value. If your price is based on cost, you’re a commodity. If your price is based on value, you’re a partner. Final thought. Most people sell like that multinational: pushing services instead of solving problems. MBB firms? They do the opposite. They frame problems, align the client before discussing price, and charge based on impact, not effort. This playbook works in every B2B deal. Try it.

When reps tell me enterprise is "just harder," I hear them saying they're playing the mid-market game on a bigger field. Enterprise isn't harder selling. It's a different sport with different physics. You win by aligning buying groups, writing CFO-grade business cases, and running structured pilots. I generated over $100M selling at IBM and Google. Here are the 5 disciplines I wish I knew when starting: 1. Map the buying group or your forecast is fiction Complex purchases involve 7+ stakeholders now. More roles, more veto points, more delay. Create a buying-group map with three columns: Economic (CFO/GM who owns P&L), Operational (VP/Director who owns outcomes), Technical (IT/Security/Legal/Procurement). Align these three early. If any column is empty, your forecast is fiction. In complex B2B, the problem is consensus, not charisma. 2. Write like a CFO, not a seller CFOs are capital allocators first. They green-light initiatives that upgrade unit economics and reduce risk. Translate your value into P&L levers (revenue uplift or expense reduction), cash levers (DSO/DPO, capex vs opex), and risk levers (compliance, security, continuity). The case is stronger when you quantify THEIR operating metrics, not generic ROI. Treat your proposal like capital planning, not a pitch deck. 3. Turn "hope" into a schedule A Mutual Action Plan turns hope into a schedule. List the decision milestones, owners on THEIR side and yours, artifacts required, and dates. Keep it on one page, update it live, and treat slippage as a risk you escalate. Gartner says 74% of B2B buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during decisions. If you aren't mediating that conflict, you're watching a deal stall. 4. Run a pilot-to-decision, not an endless proof One metric, one team, four weeks. Pre-agree pass/fail criteria and the exact commercial step if you hit the target. No "we'll see" or "let's discuss next steps." Before founding Seamless I learned this selling at IBM and Google. What generated over $100M wasn't better demos. It was turning every pilot into a binary decision with a scheduled close. 5. Forecast artifacts, not intent Don't forecast on "verbal yes" or "they're interested." Forecast on artifacts: redlined one-pager, booked security review, pilot agreement with pass-fail metrics, procurement templates exchanged. Intent doesn't move deals. Artifacts do. The difference between hope and deals is whether you can point to a document, calendar hold, or signed pilot plan. — Big deals don't die from bad pitching. They die from unmanaged buying groups and weak business cases. When you manage consensus instead of hoping for it. When you speak CFO, not sales rep. The value follows.