The Power of Multi-Threaded Customer Relationships (And How to Build Them)
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Imagine your primary customer contact leaves abruptly, and no other connection exists with the company.
How would you ensure the continuity of the relationship?
More importantly, how would you prevent other stakeholders at the customer organization from reconsidering the partnership due to a lack of communication?
Enter multi-threadedness in Customer Success, especially 1:1 Customer Success. This practice involves establishing multiple levels of connection with your customer beyond the relationship a Customer Success Manager (CSM) has with their primary contact.
In this article, you will learn:
Let's explore how multi-threadedness can secure and strengthen your customer relationships.
Stakeholder mapping is an effective start to multi-threading. According to Miro, “An important part of stakeholder management, stakeholder mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of your stakeholders. In it, you lay out all the cross-functional stakeholders who have a stake in a product, project, or idea, all on one map. You can also document their roles and your relationship with them.”
Start by using a basic spreadsheet to list the various accounts in your portfolio in one column and your existing relationships in another. For a manageable number of customers, this task can be done without much hassle at the CSM level.
The simplest version of stakeholder mapping has a few key components: Account name, account prioritization, and account contacts.
This simply includes the account name, which should be your first column.
This typically includes the Annual Contract Value (ACV) or Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) to help prioritize accounts. This helps determine which accounts to focus on for deepening customer relationships via multi-threading.
💡 Tip: In the simple example above, we used Annual Contract Value as the sole prioritization field. However, account prioritization isn't just about dollar value. Consider using additional prioritization fields, such as:
These additional fields can help refine your prioritization and view your accounts through different priority lenses.
Ensure at least two contacts per account (e.g., Day-to-Day Contact and Decision-maker) are listed in your tracker.
Why should you track at least two contacts?
💡 Tip: Maintain and customize your basic sheet over time. Add columns for dates of the last meetings and new stakeholder relationships (e.g., your day-to-day contact’s manager, a key technical resource, or other cross-functional influencers). As your spreadsheet grows more complex, consider transitioning to a visual stakeholder map as guided by Miro.
Once you’ve added the critical details, set filters and sort your accounts by prioritization fields, such as Annual Contract Value (ACV), to identify where to focus your efforts. Prioritize accounts with higher ACV or other significant factors, and focus on building relationships with key stakeholders.
Here are three examples of how filtering & sorting can help you prioritize your efforts:
There are many free stakeholder mapping templates you can use, including the following:
💡 Tip: Check if your company's CRM, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, has built-in relationship-mapping tools. This can save you time and integrate seamlessly with your existing workflows.
Once you have the first iteration of your stakeholder map, you may notice several connection gaps, such as a lack of relationships with executive decision-makers or the right day-to-day contacts.
Leverage your current day-to-day contact to develop higher-level connections within the customer organization. Use discovery questions to identify additional stakeholders. For example, when discussing a pain point your product solves, ask, “Who else is impacted by this, and how does it prevent them from reaching their goals?”
💡 Tip: To secure an opportunity to build higher-level connections, follow up with: “I’d love to hear from them on [specific pain point] and help you showcase the great work we’re doing together to help bridge this gap.” This approach often encourages your contact to facilitate introductions to their leadership.
If higher-level influencers are unclear, check your CRM for historical data on who was involved in the sales cycle and reach out via email or LinkedIn.
💡 Tip: If the main customer point of contact (POC) during the sales cycle is unknown or has gone quiet, ask your Sales counterpart who closed the deal to introduce you as their partner, making the case that this can help maximize ROI on their purchase.
When reaching out to important stakeholders, avoid bland messages. Research the customer’s wins with your product or identify opportunities to significantly benefit them. Use publicly available information from sources like Crunchbase or LinkedIn, or gather context using AI like ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
💡 Tip: Tailoring your outreach with specific insights about the customer's success and potential opportunities demonstrates your commitment and increases the likelihood of building meaningful connections.
Once you’ve established relationships at various key levels within your customer organizations, the next step is leveraging these connections to drive outcomes for you and your company. Remember, your customers' success directly impacts your success.
Identify moments when customers are particularly happy with your product and encourage them to write testimonials on platforms like G2 or Capterra. If you’re not registered with these review portals, a testimonial for your website works too.
Additionally, provide a forum for customers to share constructive feedback or wishlist items for your product. This will not only make them feel heard but also aid in product development.
Once you’ve built customer champions, incentivize them through a customer advocacy program.
A simple iteration of this program could promise gift certificates for various things your customers can do to share their expertise or thought leadership – below are some ideas.
💡 Tip: Implement a points system for various advocacy activities. For example, 10 points for feedback that influences the product roadmap, 15 points for collaborating on a case study, and 20 points for a high-stakes sales referral. These points can accumulate and be redeemed for product, service, or event discounts. Get creative and see what works best for your customers!
Staying multi-threaded with your customers is often overlooked but is a powerful way to build lasting partnerships and drive significant company outcomes.