How to Build More Than One Contact in a Deal.
I have watched great deals die for one silly reason. The seller knew one person, and that person stopped replying. New job. New priorities. A quiet inbox. And just like that, months of work were gone. One contact is one point of failure. The fix is simple, and it is the difference between a deal you control and a deal that controls you.
The mistake most people make
Most people build one nice relationship and stop there. It feels good. Your contact likes you, takes your calls, and says all the right things. So you relax. But that one person is not the whole company. They get busy. They leave. They lose interest. And when they go quiet, you have no one else to call. The deal does not slow down. It just dies.
What good multi-threading looks like
Good sellers never bet the deal on one person. They build real ties with three or more people inside the account. Not just names in a CRM, but people who know them and take their call. So when one contact goes quiet, the deal keeps moving. More voices also means you learn more, and you hear about problems before they sink you.
How to do it
Add two new contacts to each live deal
Pick one deal. Name two people you have never spoken to and reach out this month. Aim for someone above your contact and someone beside them.
Hi Priya, I work with Sam on the meritt rollout. I would love your view as the team lead. Got ten minutes this week?
Ask your contact who else should be in the room
Your best contact already knows the org. So ask them. Most people are happy to point you to the right person if you make it easy.
Who else cares about this? I would hate to leave someone out who should have a say.
Keep each thread alive on its own
A new name is not a real tie. Give each person their own reason to talk to you, and follow up so the link does not go cold.
Thanks for the demo notes, Priya. I pulled the one slide for your finance lead. Want me to send it over?
See the difference
I have a great contact at meritt. Sam loves us, so I am just waiting on him to push it through. Then Sam goes on leave, and you are stuck. No one else knows who you are.
I know three people at meritt. Sam is my champion, Priya runs the team that would use us, and their finance lead has seen the numbers. If one goes quiet, I still have two ways in.
Same deal. The strong version cannot be killed by one quiet inbox. That is the whole point. You are not waiting on one person to carry the deal for you.
How you'll know it's working
You have got this when you have active ties with three or more people in the account. Not names you found online, but people who know you and reply to you. Check your top deals. Could each one survive if your main contact vanished tomorrow? If yes, you are there. Building a web takes grit, but it is the steadiest way to keep a deal alive.
Questions people ask
Why should I have more than one contact in a deal?
Because one contact is one point of failure. If your only contact gets busy, changes jobs, or loses interest, the deal stalls with no way forward. Building three or more real ties inside the account means the deal keeps moving even when one person goes quiet, and you learn more about what is really going on.
How do I find more contacts at a company?
The easiest way is to ask your current contact: Who else should be part of this? Most people are happy to point you to the right person. You can also look for the team lead who would use your product and the person who owns the budget. Aim for someone above your contact and someone beside them.
How many contacts should I have in one deal?
Aim for three or more active contacts in any deal that matters. That usually means your main supporter, the person whose team would use what you sell, and the person who controls the budget. The number matters less than the mix. You want enough voices that no single quiet inbox can kill the deal.
What if my contact does not want to introduce me to others?
Make it easy and low-risk for them. Instead of asking for a big intro, ask who cares about the decision so you do not leave anyone out. If they still hold back, that is a signal. A real champion wants more people involved. If yours guards the door, you may not have a true champion yet.
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