We’ve all been there. You have a deal in the pipeline that looks perfect. You’ve built great rapport with your contact, they love the demo, and they’ve verbally committed to the budget. You forecast the close for the end of the quarter.

Then, silence.

Two weeks go by. You check LinkedIn and see the update that ruins your month: your contact has moved to a new company. Because you put all your energy into that one relationship, your deal just walked out the door with them. The new replacement has no idea who you are, or worse, brings in their own preferred vendor.

This is the danger of "single-threading"—relying on just one contact to drive a complex B2B sale. It feels efficient at first, but it creates a single point of failure that can torpedo months of work.

The days of a contact staying in the same seat for five years are over. Data suggests that roughly 20% of the workforce changes jobs every year. In a sales context, that means if you have a pipeline of five deals, statistically, one of your champions will quit before you close.

If you are single-threaded, that 20% turnover rate translates directly to a 20% risk of deal collapse.

Single-threading also limits your deal size. One person rarely has the authority to sign off on a massive budget expansion. To grow a deal, you need buy-in from finance, operations, and technical teams. Without those connections, your proposal remains small and vulnerable.

The answer is "multithreading." It just means building relationships with multiple people within the prospect's organization.

Think of it like securing a tent. If you only use one stake and the wind picks up (or the stake leaves for a competitor), the tent blows away. If you have five stakes in the ground, losing one is annoying, but the structure stands.

Effective multithreading involves connecting with three key groups:
1. The Champion: The person who wants your product and helps you navigate the company.
2. The Economic Buyer: The person who actually holds the budget (often the CFO or VP).
3. The End Users: The team that will actually use the software or service.

When you have relationships in all three buckets, a champion leaving doesn't kill the deal. The Economic Buyer still knows the ROI, and the End Users still demand the solution.

Sales reps often avoid multithreading because they worry about stepping on their champion's toes or going "over their head." Here is how to do it respectfully:

• Ask for introductions early: Don't wait until the contract stage. During the demo, ask, "Who else on your team needs to see this?" or "How does your finance team usually prefer to review these proposals?"
• Use your own executives: Connecting with your own executives is a powerful move. If you are selling to a VP of Marketing, offer to introduce them to your own VP of Marketing to swap industry notes. This builds a peer-to-peer connection that helps the deal progress.
• Validate the problem: Reach out to end-users not to pitch, but to research. "I'm talking to [Champion Name] about solving X. Does that sound like a priority for your team as well?"

Even with a perfect multithreaded strategy, people leave. This creates two main scenarios.

First, if you have multithreaded correctly, the account stays safe. You simply ask your other contacts, "Who is taking over [Name]'s responsibilities?" and the deal moves forward.

Second, that departing contact is now a high-value lead. They already know your value and trust your work. When they land at their new job, they are likely looking for quick wins and familiar tools.

This is where tools like Flux.report really shine. By monitoring your contact list for job changes, you get an alert the second a champion moves. You can reach out to congratulate them and start a conversation about their new role.

Instead of a disaster, a departure becomes an opportunity multiplier: you keep the original deal alive through multithreading, and you open a new door with the champion at their next company.