If you're new to Solutions Consulting management like me, or work in a corporate business or startup where there's no skills matrix to assess the skills of your team, this will be the right article for you. 

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A skills matrix is a tool used to identify the skills, knowledge, and experience of potential new hires and team members. It helps managers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their team and identify areas for development.

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Here are some other benefits of a skills matrix for your SC team:

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• Identifies areas for development and training
• Enables managers to make informed decisions about resource allocation
• Provides a framework for career development and progression
• Improves communication between team members and managers

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Let's explore the steps to set up a skills matrix.

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1. Do Your Research 💡

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It's always a good idea to start researching what's out there already, since you're probably not the first to create a Solutions Consulting skills matrix from scratch.

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There are some good examples of competency or skills matrices on the PreSales Collective blog and community, which is a good starting point.

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Don't underestimate the power of relationships. Have you built a network with like minded leaders in the Solutions Consulting space? If yes, they might be happy to share how they assess their teams on a high level, which will help to get a sense of skills you could set up for your teams.

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Last but not least, but also one of the most powerful tools is your own knowledge. If you've worked in Solutions Consulting before as an IC, you might already know what 'great’ looks like; i.e., what skills you learned as part of your own Solutions Consulting career.

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You've probably also worked with a larger team of Solutions Consultants. What were the best Solutions Consultants doing differently to win deals? Did they keep up-to-date with the product they were supporting, and build strong relationships with the eco-system around them (e.g., sales, success, professional services)? A little reflection goes a long way!

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2. Identify Roles for Your Team 🕵️

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If your company doesn’t have a skills matrix, you'll most likely at least know the SC roles and levels you’re hiring for. In my case, we had a high-level career matrix that was already set up, and I wanted to take that matrix to the next level.

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These are the roles we've already come up with, so I didn't need to think about new roles:

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• Solutions Consultant
• Senior Solutions Consultant
• Strategic Solutions Consultant
• Principal Solutions Consultant

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Most of these roles require a time-bound experience to do the job. In our case, Senior Solutions Consultants should have at least two years of PreSales experience and at least six years of customer facing experience.

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3. Learn Skills Required for Each Role 🌱

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Next, create a list of the desired skills for each role on the SC team, based on your product or service and your sales process.  

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At my company, we sell a no-code SaaS software, so our Solutions Consultants do not need to be super technical. We're also transitioning our way to value-based selling, with a new sales process being implemented as I write this article.

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With that in mind, I tried to categorise skills into high-level topics:

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Business Acumen

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We are in sales. So as Solutions Consultants, they will need to know how to drive value-based conversations, do deeper discovery, and understand our  industry and competitors.

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Technical Ability

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Solutions Consultants need to be product and use case experts. Our platform offers integrations, so SCs must be able to articulate their value. 

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Presentations

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This category refers to doing storytelling demos for different clients based on their needs and preferences.

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Team

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Building relationships with the assigned reps is crucial, on top of being willing to help the wider team and share their knowledge.

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Excellence

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This comes back to documenting deals and tracking time, but also handles topics like EQ and confidence in the job.

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After deciding on the actual skills, it's time to detail out each role level and the corresponding expectations. I've used the four stages of competency to document the detail on each role level. 

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I've tried to make the skill expectations as objective as possible, adding in time-bound requirements whenever possible. Here's an example of the skill expectations for Business Acumen:

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Don't just roll out a new process without involving your direct team or peers. In my case, I worked with a range of different Solutions Consultants to get feedback and improve the new skills matrix. Ideally, this should be an ongoing process. 

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Also note that the more people you involve, the more perspectives you'll have, which could drastically slow down the creation process. Consider involving only a small range of stakeholders that you believe represent the team well. You can always fine tune the initial release later on.

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If you're working in a global team like me, it will also be crucial to also get management buy-in. I work in the APJ region and have counterparts in the US and EMEA. You will most likely not be able to roll out a global process without getting your peers' and managers' approval. Setting up a skills matrix is a BIG change in process, so you'll need everyone to be on board with the content and direction.

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4. Rate Skill Proficiency ✨

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Now that you've set the expectation of what good looks like on each role level, you'll need to assess the current state of skills for all your Solutions Consultants.

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I tried to keep this one simple by asking three questions about each SC:

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• Are they performing the expected skills?
• Are they exceeding the expected skills?
• Are there any gaps in the expected skills?

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Instead of assessing your team members skills yourself, you could also get your team member to self-evaluate their current level of skills. In that case, you should be prepared to listen to their feedback and also provide a manager view on the assessment.

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5. Analyze Results

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You'll most likely find a combination of performing, exceeding, and gaps in the skill levels of your Solutions Consultants. While it's important to hone the strengths of an SC, it's also important to have a plan to improve their skill gaps.

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6. Develop a Training, Mentoring & Hiring Plan 📚

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This could almost be an entire article in itself, as this really comes back to the skills your team member wants (or needs) to develop. On a high level, and in an ideal world, there should be a coaching plan for all skills that managers can use to up-skill their team members.

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This might be a combination of book recommendations, articles, or training courses to increase their knowledge, but also practice sessions to create habits. And it really comes back to the actual team member itself, acknowledging that they want (or need) to improve that skill.

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7. Establish a Rhythm for Assessment 🏋️

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Assessing the skills of your team members is not a one time pass, this is an ongoing process that should be baked into your team’s 'operating rhythm.'

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My advice is to rate or have the team rate themselves once every six months at a minimum — preferably once a quarter. This will ensure that your individual team members are constantly learning and focusing on areas for improvement.

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8. Refine the Model 🌀

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Once the skills matrix model has been used for at least six months, try to collect feedback from the team and managers. You should ideally plan to update the skills and descriptions accordingly after receiving more feedback, or whenever important internal processes change.

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Now, that's a wrap! Hopefully, this article will give some ideas to create your own skills matrix for your Solutions Consulting team! I'm also curious to hear your thoughts and feedback — what has worked and what hasn't worked for you when you set up a skills matrix for your team?

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‍About Sandra Palm

Sandra Palm has been working in PreSales for more than 11 years. While much of her experience is as an individual contributor, she transitioned into management two years ago. She is currently Manager of Solutions Engineering at ClickUp.

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