Here, Ross Slogrove, UK & Ireland country manager at multi-channel communications solutions provider Ringover, explores what a sales matrix is and what to consider when creating one that will serve your business’s needs.

Effectively managing time and investing in a potential customer can be difficult without the right systems in place. After all, how can you tell which clients are worth pursuing?

That’s where a sales matrix comes into play. Not only will it enable you to assess and prioritise your leads, but it will also help coordinate your customer outreach more efficiently. At its core, the sales matrix helps gauge the urgency and viability of sales opportunities by comparing a prospect’s receptiveness with a business’s offerings, identifying areas of overlap. There are several things to consider when creating a sales matrix.

What to keep in mind when building a matrix for prospects

How you build your sales matrix will vary depending on whether you’re thinking about a new or existing customer.

When approaching a business for the first time, you need to make sure you’re speaking the same language. Lingo such as acronyms, buzzwords and common tools can vary business-to-business. If you want to position yourself as a salesperson that truly knows your targets, you need to communicate on their terms. Learn how that business talks, if your values and objectives can align and if your solution can solve the challenge for the client.

Revision over, it’s time to think about the events that may influence your prospect to purchase.

Can you identify a certain pain point that provides a new selling opportunity? When did the event happen, and who will it affect? Which decision makers will be most concerned? Then, list the names of the people most likely to be interested in your product. As part of the matrix, chart out the leaders, influencers, and people most likely to engage with what you’re offering.

Be clear on total cost analysis – it’s rarely “just the product” being sold. Make sure to include installation, training, continued support and any hardware or software requirements in your brief to avoid blindsiding prospects.

Lastly, you’ll also need to consider your business’s own investment of selling to a new market. You will want to think about weighing your resources to grow in a new area without overwhelming staff or alienating current clients. For instance, if you feel a new prospect could bring in 20% business growth, you could balance your sales resources as 80/20. How you weigh up team capacity and what’ll work best for your business is really up to you.

What to keep in mind when building a matrix for existing customers

It’s never too late to rethink or start building a sales matrix, even if you’ve had a relationship with a customer for some time. You can take a similar approach to building a matrix for a new customer, but with some tweaking.

Think of all the products and services you offer, and all your clients who use or could use them. Once you’ve categorised a client based on industry, size, location, and the products they currently purchase, you should be able to fit them into your matrix and match them with the preferred solutions. It’s then possible to identify who you can cross sell to, which customers would benefit from an additional service, and who to hold back on.

The right tools

Alone, the sales matrix is a useful tool for businesses wanting to identify where to place their efforts and when. However, there are additional tools that can make managing customers more effective.

Identifying businesses to contact and setting up a strategy to connect with them can be a laborious process. HubSpot actually claims that 40% of sales representatives find prospecting the most challenging part of their jobs.

This year, Ringover launched its new multi-channel sales prospecting tool that automates outreach and reduces much of the time-wasting work. Cadence can form a crucial part of the sales matrix by allowing sales representatives to automate their workflows and create customisable sequence models, including phone calls, SMS, emails, LinkedIn messages, and WhatsApp, which can be adapted to each prospect.

This involves inputting prospect information and scheduling what method of communication will be used to contact them, and at what time. This simple, yet effective, method can significantly improve the outcome of prospecting and generate a more qualified pipeline.

Remember, you don’t have to work harder to achieve better results. Instead, you can work smarter by using a sales matrix to help pursue the perfect balance in finding and acquiring customers.