Collaborative Selling Models

The worst way to "multi-thread" is to be single-threaded. We know that. But the second worst way? "Random acts of multi-threading." Here's why (and what to do instead) 👇 Blindly adding more people to the deal can kill it. Multi-threading is not a 'the more the merrier' strategy. Multi-threading is like baking a cake. Your goal is to add the right 'blend of people' in the right order. Wrong people? Lower win rates. Right people in the wrong order? Lower win rates. Here's exactly how to get it right: The PAPR framework. Take every influencer involved in your deal. Rank them on these aspects on a scale of 1-5: ::::: PAIN ::::: How intense (or not) is their pain for what you solve? Low? Medium? High? ::::: AUTHORITY ::::: How much authority do they (or could they) have on this deal? Low? Medium? High? ::::: PREFERENCE ::::: How highly do they prefer your solution vs. someone else's? Low? Medium? High? ::::: ROLE ::::: How involved are they in this particular decision process? Low? Medium? High? Ok. Here's an example: Let's say I have a director of sales involved in my deal. Here's how she stacks up: PAIN: Very high. AUTHORITY: High. She's not the DM, but her voice is respected. PREFERENCE: Low. She prefers a competitor. ROLE: High. Very involved in the decision process. What's your move? You can't ignore her. Her authority is too high. You'll lose. My move? Find an internal coach. Learn why she prefers the competitor. If it's non emotional (i.e. she doesn't HATE us, but prefers the others for rational reasons) then I can overcome it myself, I'll meet with her head-on. Turn a skeptic into a champion. But if she HATES us for some reason? My words may carry no influence. So I'll enlist my champion to sell on my behalf. Now. Here's where things get powerful: Take the opposite example: Let's say I have A DIFFERENT director of sales involved in my deal. Here's how he stacks up: PAIN: Very high. AUTHORITY: Low. Not respected. Coach says people don't like him. PREFERENCE: Low. He prefers a competitor to pclub.io. ROLE: Somewhat high. Involved in the decision process. What's your move? Polar opposite as before. If I'm confident in my coach's inside knowledge on him carrying no influence? I'm going to ignore him. Box him out of the deal (I'm such a meanie I know). The point of all of this? The PAPR framework eliminate random acts of multi-threading. You can see that based on how they rank, your actions will differ. That's how you dramatically boost your win rates with multi-threading. Give it a try. Go take a deal. Map out all stakeholder and influencers. Rank each one on the PAPR criteria. And watch how your deal strategy utterly transforms.

The CEO's I know recruit challengers. People who capture complex opportunities. Most leaders want bigger deals but their team’s still selling like every deal is a friendship test. They fall into a trap: → Being warm → Being agreeable → Not rocking the boat That works for low-stakes sales. But if you’re trying to scale using enterprise partnerships or complex customers, it often leads to stalled deals. A study of 6,000+ sales people by Gartner found: • 7% of top performers were “relationship builders” • The top-performing group (40%) were “Challengers” • They taught customers something new • They tailored conversations to the customer’s world • They took control when it mattered If you're in the market to win big, strategic deals train your team to do this: 1. Teach something they don’t know → A risk they’re underestimating → A better model they haven’t considered 2. Tailor to them → Their language → Their metrics → Their decision structure 3. Take control (when it counts) → Ask the hard question → Hold the pause → Push back with clarity (not ego) Complex, strategic deals don’t close because you had great chemistry. They close because you helped someone rethink what was possible and show the path forward is in safe hands. If you want to grow through partnerships and scale revenue without scaling headcount, ask your team: "When’s the last time we taught a customer something that changed their mind?" Want help installing this capability? Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gGRsN47q ➕ I’m Phil Hayes-St Clair, I coach CEOs to grow and scale their business ♻️ Repost to help your team shift to challenger.

How can retailers activate in-store experiences that can scale efficiently and measure incremental impact? 🤝 In-store media requires cross-functional collaboration across marketing, merchandising, and retail media teams. Merchant alignment is essential to ensure in-store media supports broader category goals, promotions, and pricing strategies. However, fragmentation between teams often leads to inconsistent execution. 💰 High upfront investment in digital screens, infrastructure, and maintenance makes scalability a challenge. Retailers must balance technology costs with expected ROI. Additionally, ensuring planogram compliance and optimizing store layouts for maximum visibility and shopper impact requires coordination across teams. 📊 In-store media success is evaluated through POS data, sales lift analysis, customer sentiment surveys, and match market tests. These methods help brands understand the impact on purchasing behavior, optimize budgets, and refine in-store strategies. 🐢 Crawl Phase: Retailers should pilot technologies, gather initial data, and build a scalable business model while training teams and refining measurement approaches. Early-stage collaboration with merchants ensures that in-store media aligns with overall store operations and merchandising priorities. 🚶 Walk Phase: Use data insights to optimize content, improve store-level targeting, and scale successful pilots. Refining planograms and integrating in-store media with category management strategies help maximize effectiveness. Introduce advanced features like interactive displays, mobile integration, and AI-driven recommendations to enhance engagement. 🏃 Run Phase: Fully integrate online and in-store strategies to create seamless in-store experiences that can measure omnichannel impact. Collaborate closely with merchants, store operations, and category managers to ensure store layouts, promotions, and digital touchpoints work together.

If you’re wanting to turn more discovery calls into closed deals for 2025, here’s the one shift to make: Double the quantity or double the quality of attendees on your next call. Why? 📊Calls with multiple participants from the seller organization are 258% more likely to close according to Gong. Why are they more likely to close? 🧠 More attendees = more perspectives, more advocates, and more internal champions. But how can you scale effectively without coming off as a sales bro? Don’t say: “I need to double the quantity of attendees because #samsales told me so.” 😜 or "How else should we invite to the next call who will be involved in the decision-making process?" (Sales-y sounding, much?) Try this instead: “Who else do you think would benefit from this on your side? or "Who do you think would want to see what we can do before deciding if this is right for CLIENT?” It’s simple, collaborative, and shows you’re invested in their process, not just your pitch. 2025 is (literally) calling.

You join the company excited to create content that helps sales close faster, better proof points, cleaner positioning, the kind of messaging that makes a rep’s job easier. But the very first people you need to partner with…have been doing this long before you got here. They’ve closed deals without your decks. They’ve written half the pitch in their heads. And they’ve built trust with prospects in real time, not by waiting for enablement assets to show up in a Notion doc. So when you show up with “help”, even if it’s good, even if it’s asked for, it’s easy for it to land like a correction. A quiet implication that they were doing it wrong. That’s the part no one tells you. Enablement is not a one-way street. And if your work looks even a little too top-down, like instruction instead of support, you will lose trust before you even start. What I’ve learned (and am still learning) is this: building healthy relationships with sales isn’t about proving your value fast. It’s about creating shared momentum, without stepping on the people who’ve already figured out how to win. Here’s how I try to do that: 1. Act like an investigator, not a fixer. In your first 30–60 days, don’t start with “What’s broken?” Start with “What’s already working that we can double down on?” Ask what moments in a deal feel frictionless. What content or stories they always go back to. Map the habits before you map the gaps. 2. Bring ideas, not deliverables. Too often, we show up with an asset in hand — a one-pager, a case study, a pitch update — and ask for feedback. Instead, bring the seed: “I’m seeing X come up in deals. What’s your take on how we should address it?” When a rep contributes to the idea, they’re more likely to adopt the output. 3. Remember your role: scale, not overwrite. The best enablement isn’t a new playbook. It’s a way to scale the instincts and stories your top reps already use. Don’t say, “Here’s what to send.” Say, “This might help reinforce what you just said.” Subtle shift, big difference. This takes longer than building a content repository and calling it done. But the payoff is way better: real trust, faster feedback loops, and enablement that actually gets used. Because the goal isn’t to impress your sales team. The goal is to build with them, so your work feels like a shortcut, not a sidestep.

🛍️ Product Management Insights: Hybrid Intelligence in Retail Ops Just witnessed a fascinating example of human-tech collaboration at Kovai Palamudhir Nilayam (KPN), a leading supermarket chain in South India. Here's what caught my product manager's eye: 💡 The Perfect Blend: At the billing counter, I observed a masterclass in reducing cognitive load while maintaining efficiency. The system beautifully combines: • Human expertise • Traditional tech (barcode scanners, weighing scales) • Process automation 🔄 The Innovation Stack: 1. Pre-labeled items → Instant barcode scanning 2. Produce selection → Quick code entry + automated weight calculation 3. Fallback system → Manual code entry when needed 🎯 Why This Matters: • Reduces human effort in mundane tasks • High repeatability, low criticality • Error reduction through automation • Maintains human oversight where it matters 🔮 Future Vision: Imagine AI joining this ecosystem - automatically identifying produce, with humans shifting to a verification role. The progression from Human → Human+Tech → Human+Tech+AI is fascinating. 💭 Key Product Lesson: The best solutions don't eliminate human touch points - they enhance them. It's about finding that sweet spot where technology amplifies human capabilities rather than replacing them. This reminds me of the contrast between authorized service centers and local mechanic shops in the two-wheeler industry. Same principle, different context! What other industries have you seen successfully implementing this hybrid approach? Share your thoughts below! 👇 #ProductManagement #RetailInnovation #TechTransformation #UserExperience #Innovation #AI #Automation

We know that getting multiple people from the buying committee actively engaged in your opportunity (and talking with each other about the need/outcome/urgency) dramatically increases conversion and win rates. We also know that's far easier said than done. Recently, I've seen companies have success getting buying committee members together not on phone calls or Zoom meetings but IRL events. At industry conferences, create an incentive for them to meet together with you vs individually. VIP tickets to something or a post-meeting group experience. At their own user/customer conference or SKO, give them an "escape room in a box" with a fun prize at the end as well as some relevant solution-outcome oriented message. At local/regional lunch-and-learn events, offer an incentive or gift if 2-3+ attend together. Bottle(s) of wine, access to a "secret" menu, etc. Back at the home office, offer to buy them a catered lunch if they have enjoy it during a "working lunch" with a discussion agenda that you provide (and/or facilitate in-person or virtually). Where buying committees physically reside and work matters of course, which will expand or limit these and other options. That said, it's working. Many of these ideas cost very little and can have a massive impact on deal velocity, commitment and conversion.

The best CMO–CCO pairs I place do not act like colleagues. They act like co-founders. When that chemistry is real, the P&L stops wobbling. The value creation story is one voice. Price, pack, promo and mix sit in the same conversation as distinctiveness, penetration and creative system. Retailers feel it. Boards feel it. Teams move faster because there is no daylight between growth math and brand meaning. Here is what it looks like in the wild. They write one thesis and defend it together. The CCO carries the deal math and route to market. The CMO carries demand creation and memory structures. They trade off in real time. Less promo depth because we are buying repeat with assets. More depth this quarter because we are seeding a new pack that brand will defend next half. No tug of war. Just sequencing. Cadence is the tell. A weekly revenue room that covers contribution, mix and incrementality. A creative and assortment huddle where the retailer plan meets the brand system. A short Friday post-mortem that kills what did not work so the team can breathe. Decision rights are written down. Who owns pricing. Who signs retail media. Who calls the stop on a tired creative platform. Everyone knows. The other tell is language. A CMO who can talk net revenue and promo elasticity without flinching. A CCO who can ask for test design before a big spend. They respect the other’s craft and still hold each other to evidence. I screen for this in search. Do they land one clean story in 90 seconds. Do they name a kill list without getting defensive. Do their references talk about clarity and followership, not just charisma and relationships. And most important, do they make each other better in conflict. Private debate, public alignment. That is co-founder energy. When pairs fail, you hear two narratives. Sales chases volume while brand chases vibes. Retail media becomes a budget fight. Promo lifts topline and quietly wrecks mix. That is how you create six-month CMOs and exhausted commercial teams. If you are a CEO, hire the pair, not the person. Give them one mandate, one scoreboard, and incentives that reward both margin this year and penetration over the next four quarters. Insist on a joint quarterly note to the board so the story stays stitched. Put them two-in-a-box with your top retailers for a quarter and watch belief grow. If you are a CMO or CCO reading this, ask yourself a blunt question. Could you be someone’s co-founder inside this business. If yes, show it. If not, find the partner who makes your work compound. Where does your company feel the wobble right now. In the math or in the meaning. And who is the partner that would fix it. #Leadership #FMCG #CPG #ConsumerGoods #ExecutiveSearch #Retail #Ecommerce #Growth

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

I shared some thoughts last week from my co-selling roadshow on tips for scaling co-sell with AWS. TL:DR it was about focusing where you are already strong in your GTM for any cloud co-sell. This week, I want to talk to you about teaching your sales team how to sell with cloud providers. Co-sell deals live and die in the field, between your sellers and cloud sellers. Don't leave this delicate dance to chance. If you are an Alliance Leader, learn all you can about the partner cloud sales team and incentives. You are the translator between your sellers and the partner cloud sellers. Dive deep. Be the expert. But that isn't enough. You need your sellers to know what to expect and be ready for a co-sell call with a cloud seller. We are different than your other partners. We aren't a reseller, our sales team is large, and every cloud provider has tons of native services and solutions they are selling (AWS has more than 200). We also think differently, we are customer obsessed, work backwards from customer problems and are long-term focused (a cloud transformation is a long journey). Your sellers need to understand: - who they may run into on the call - demystify the roles at a cloud seller - how they are paid on co-sell deals, what's in it for each seller - how big the cloud seller patch is and how it aligns to your field team territories - what they can ask for from a cloud seller (and what to avoid) - what expectations to have going in to a co-sell call If you are early in your co-sell journey, you need to babysit all these co-sell calls. You may not have the right to educate and enable your whole sales team right now, so instead, focus on just-in-time prep of a seller before a co-sell call and YOU run the call for maximum outcomes. As you gain mindshare and wins with the cloud partner, use your sellers as your PR team, have them share their wins with their peers at every sales team call. Once the co-sell flywheel starts spinning, survey your sellers on what they know and don't about cloud co-sell and build a solid training and enablement plan. Every new hire needs to learn the ropes, each seller should be able to understand the co-sell strategy and mechanism at your company and how we help each other. Are you thinking about your cloud co-sell session at Sales Kick off? You should be. Call to action: End the year strong with a few key co-sell wins, some sellers who have drunk the cool-aid (and made money), and earn the right to take the stage at SKO to talk about cloud co-sell for 2025. Need to learn more about co-sell with AWS? Link in the comments is to a co-sell foundation course with AWS. Great for alliance leaders and sellers to take (all types of partners: consulting or ISV partners). Want to learn more? Let's talk.