What’s a Sales Qualification Matrix, and Why Do You Need One?

By Anna Sudbury, Head of Sales at Flume Sales Training

Business is unpredictable right now, which makes selling harder than ever. Anyone else feeling the pressure?!

It's super important to ensure that your sales pipeline is clean, with high quality opportunities. We hear from clients that budget constraints, stalled deals (ghosting) and inconsistent approaches across sales teams are leading to unpredictability in the pipeline. Forecasting from dodgy intel is as much good as a crystal ball.

I’m sharing a tool that has revolutionised my pipeline, cleaned out the dead wood, and can help you assess the quality of your leads: the sales qualification matrix.

Using a sales qualification matrix helps you focus on leads that are more likely to convert, saving time and resources. Yay! This tool can also help you better understand your ideal customer profile (ICP), which means you tailor marketing and sales strategies to your ideal customers, leading to higher conversion rates and a loyal customer base. (If you want help working out your ICP, check out the first point on this blog).

To build a sales qualification matrix, start by identifying the characteristics of your ideal customer profile (ICP). Perhaps it’s turnover, company size, or job title. Assign each characteristic a score based on how important it is to your sales process. I’ve used a simple score of 1-3.

Score your leads before first outreach – if they don’t score high enough, they aren’t worth engaging. If they are worth engaging, this score will identify how likely an opportunity is to progress, and the potential value. You can focus on what matters, and what will drive revenue and best results.

Remember to reapply a score to each client as they move along the pipeline, to ensure you are targeting the right customers. Don't be afraid to rule out leads at any stage of the pipeline, saving you time and allowing you to concentrate on your ICP. I know it hurts to move an opportunity to ‘closed lost’, but if it was never going to close in your favour anyway it’s better to rip off the plaster and move on to better opportunities.

We hope this helps you clean up your opportunities and ensure they move towards closed won smoothly. If you want to see how we build this out, drop me a note and I can share more, including a sneak peek at the Excel document I designed to make the scoring process a whole lot easier – phew!

Email anna@flumetraining.com for more details.