How to sell to multiple decision makers without losing the deal
To sell to multiple decision makers, first map everyone who has to say yes, then give each of them their own reason to engage, rather than relying on your champion to sell for you. The move that's working best for me is simple: don't pitch the second decision maker at all. Invite them onto your show, let them have a good experience with you, and let the deal follow.
Most deals don't die because the first buyer said no. They die at the second signature, the co-founder, the CFO, the partner who wasn't on the first call. In September my own AI pointed this out about my pipeline, and the fix I landed on changed how I think about multi-threading.
Why deals die at the second signature
On a partnership call in September I admitted where we were weak. I use AI over every call I record, and when I asked it where we were losing, it told me straight. In my words on that call: "we sell one guy and we can't, we haven't sold his like his other partner or whatever because there's usually two."
That's the pattern. You do the work with one person. They're convinced. Then someone else enters who wasn't part of the conversation. Often it's the more introverted co-founder, or the CTO. In one debrief that same week, the founder who was already convinced brought his partner along, and I could tell the partner had been brought in to play the hard guy. Good cop, bad cop. It's not easy to win that room cold.
And it's bigger than co-founders. In enterprise deals the buying group is larger still. On a client call in August we mapped one company's sale and found stakeholders across R&D, marketing, the CFO and the CEO, in departments that didn't always talk to each other, each entering and leaving the deal at different stages. Their team told us top-of-funnel targeting was right 80 to 90% of the time. Where deals stalled was the follow-through after the first contact.
Buyers are also doing more of this without you. A Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers, run in August and September 2025 and reported by Distribution Strategy Group, found 67% prefer a rep-free buying experience. So the second decision maker is often forming an opinion of you before they ever speak to you.
Map who has to say yes
Start with the obvious question, early: who else needs to be comfortable with this? Ask it in the first or second conversation, not after the proposal.
I find a simple list works:
- Who signs? The person with budget authority.
- Who uses it? The person whose week changes.
- Who can block it? Often finance, legal, IT, or a co-founder.
- Who champions it? The person you've been talking to.
Then be honest about which of those you've actually spoken to. In most stuck deals, the answer is one.
Invite the second decision maker, don't pitch them
Here's the idea I came up with the day before that September call, and I said it in almost these words: instead of trying to sell him, I'll just bring him on the show and let him experience what it's like to come on the show.
Think about what that does. A pitch to the second decision maker puts them in the judge's chair. They've been brought in to find the holes. An invitation puts them in the spotlight. They prepare to make a good impression on you. You spend 30 minutes being genuinely curious about their work. By the end, they've had the same experience the first person had, and they're no longer evaluating a stranger.
It also respects the dynamic between partners. Nobody likes being sold by their own co-founder. An invitation lets the second person come to their own conclusion.
In enterprise deals the same logic scales. If the CFO is the blocker, invite the CFO onto a show about how finance leaders are handling the thing your product touches. You're not selling them. You're learning from them. And you'll learn exactly what they'd need to see to say yes.
How to word the invitation
The invitation to a second decision maker should come from you, not your champion, and it should be about them, not the deal. Something like:
Hi Priya, I've really enjoyed getting to know Sam over the last couple of weeks. I host a show on how operators are handling [problem], and from what Sam's told me about your work on [their area], you'd make a great guest. Would you come on? Thirty minutes, and you get the episode and clips.
Notice what's missing. No mention of the proposal, no "I'd love to walk you through what we discussed with Sam." If they bring up the deal on the call, great. Answer honestly and briefly, then get back to their story. The goal of the episode is for them to have the same good experience the first person had, so they're no longer evaluating a stranger.
Ask your champion first, too. A quick "would it be useful if I invited your co-founder onto the show?" keeps them on your side and often gets you the warm handoff.
Give your champion something to forward
Your champion is doing internal selling whether you help or not. Make it easy.
- A short written summary of the problem and the outcome, in their language, not yours.
- An episode or clip featuring someone the other stakeholders respect.
- A one-page answer to the question the blocker will ask. For finance, that's usually cost and payback.
A recorded conversation is a surprisingly good forward. "Here's the guy I've been talking to, interviewing the head of operations at a company like ours" carries more weight than a deck.
Keep momentum across departments
Multi-threaded deals slow down because every new person resets the clock. A few things help.
- Book the next meeting before the current one ends. Always.
- Get every stakeholder into one shared channel once the deal is real. On our side, the energy changes noticeably when a prospect creates a group chat with us. It's often the moment the deal actually starts moving.
- Follow up from your notes, not your memory. Every call I take is captured, and I use AI to draft follow-ups to whoever needs one. It's faster and more accurate than I'd be on my own.
- Pitch on every call, even the short ones. Lightly. People forget, and the person who wasn't in the first meeting never heard it at all.
When to walk away
Some deals have a second decision maker who will never say yes. You'll feel it: they won't take a meeting, won't accept an invitation, and the champion keeps saying "I'm working on it" for weeks.
I've learned to mark those honestly. If a face on a call turns sour, I'll score that deal lower and follow up without pushing. Chasing a deal that's blocked by someone you can't reach costs you the hour you could have spent with a buyer who's ready.
Before you walk, though, try the invitation. It's the one move that changes the second person's role from judge to guest. If you sell to enterprise buying groups, our page on landing enterprise clients through your show shows how to reach the VP who owns the budget and the people around them.
Frequently asked questions
What is multi-threading in sales?
Multi-threading means building relationships with several people in the buying company instead of relying on one champion. It protects the deal if your contact goes quiet, changes jobs or cannot win the internal argument.
How do you identify all decision makers in a deal?
Ask early who else needs to be comfortable with the decision. Map who signs, who uses it, who can block it and who champions it, then check which of those you have actually spoken to.
What do you do when the champion leaves?
If you multi-threaded, you still have relationships with others in the account. If not, restart by inviting the new owner of the problem into a conversation about their priorities rather than re-pitching the old proposal.
How do you sell to a CFO?
Speak to cost, risk and payback in their terms, and give them a short written answer they can check. Better still, invite them to talk about how finance leaders are handling the problem your product addresses, and listen.