Strategies to ensure success-SMART and BANT

Goals are part of every aspect of business and provide a sense of direction,?motivation, a clear?focus, and clarity of what is important. By setting goals, you are providing yourself with a target to aim for.

SMART is an effective tool that provides the clarity, focus, and motivation you need to achieve your goals. It can also improve your ability to reach them by encouraging you to define your objectives and set a completion date. SMART goals are also easy to use by anyone, anywhere, without the need for specialist tools or training.

SMART goals are:

• Specific: Well-defined, clear, and unambiguous
• Measurable: With specific criteria that measure your progress toward the accomplishment of the goal
• Achievable: Attainable and not impossible to achieve
• Realistic: Within reach, realistic, and relevant to your?purpose
• Timely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date. The purpose is to create urgency.

1. Specific

Your goal should be clear and specific, otherwise, you won't be able to focus your efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it. When drafting your goal, try to answer the 05 "W's"

• What?do I want to accomplish?
• Why?is this goal important?
• Who?is involved?
• Where?is it located?
• Which?resources or limits are involved?

Example

Imagine that you are currently a marketing executive, and you'd like to become head of marketing. A specific goal could be, "I want to gain the skills and experience necessary to become head of marketing within my organization so that I can build my career and lead a successful team."

2. Measurable

It's important to have measurable goals so that you can track your progress and stay motivated. Assessing progress helps you to stay focused, meet your deadlines, and feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving your goal.

A measurable goal should address questions such as:

• How much?
• How many?
• How will I know when it is accomplished?

Example

You might measure your goal of acquiring the skills to become head of marketing by determining that you will have completed the necessary training courses and gained the relevant experience within five years' time.

3. Achievable

Your goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an achievable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring you closer to it.

An achievable goal will usually answer questions such as:

• How can I accomplish this goal?
• How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?

Example

You might need to ask yourself whether developing the skills required to become head of marketing is realistic, based on your existing experience and qualifications. For example, do you have the time to complete the required training effectively? Are the necessary resources available to you? Can you afford to do it?

4. Relevant

This step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you and that it also aligns with other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but it's important to retain control over them. So, make sure that your plans drive everyone forward, but that you're still responsible for achieving your own goal.

A relevant goal can answer "yes" to these questions:

• Does this seem worthwhile?
• Is this the right time?
• Does this match our other efforts/needs?
• Am I the right person to reach this goal?
• Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

Example

You might want to gain the skills to become head of marketing within your organization, but is it the right time to undertake the required training, or work toward additional qualifications? Are you sure that you're the right person for the head of the marketing role? Have you considered your partner's goals? For example, if you want to start a family, would completing training in your free time make this more difficult?

5. Time-bound

Every goal needs a target date so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over your longer-term goals.

A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions:

• When?
• What can I do six months from now?
• What can I do six weeks from now?
• What can I do today?

Example

Gaining the skills to become head of marketing may require additional training or experience, as we mentioned earlier. How long will it take you to acquire these skills? Do you need further training, so that you're eligible for certain exams or qualifications? It's important to give yourself a realistic time frame for accomplishing the smaller goals that are necessary to achieving your final objective.

In the world of business-to-business sales (B2B), a qualified lead is a potential client you've vetted and determined is likely to be a buyer for your company's product or service. But how do you go about qualifying your sales leads? One of the oldest and most widely-used-lead-qualification techniques is the BANT method.

What Is BANT?

Created by IBM in the 1950s, BANT is a sales qualification methodology that helps salespeople identify qualified leads by focusing on four considerations: budget, authority, need, and timing. For?sales teams, the main goal of BANT is to save time and shorten their sales cycles. A sales rep can use the BANT lead qualification process to weed out inadequate prospects and instead focus on leads who have a high probability of making a purchase.

How to Qualify a Lead Using BANT

When qualifying leads using the BANT framework, focus on the following criteria: budget, authority, need, and timing. Most sales teams consider a lead viable if the lead satisfies at least three out of the four BANT criteria, but this can vary depending on the sales organization. Use this breakdown of BANT to determine whether to continue pursuing your sales leads.

1. ?Budget: Can the prospect afford your product? It's important to determine whether your prospect's budget parameters align with your pricing model. You should find out if they have a dedicated budget for your type of product, what they're expecting to pay, and if they have any budget flexibility. If your prospect can't afford your product or simply isn't willing to spend in the ballpark of your minimum price, it's best for you to avoid chasing a likely dead-end.
2. Authority: Does the prospect have enough power at their company to approve the purchase? You want your main point of contact to be a decision-maker at their company. Find out how your contact's company makes their budget decisions, and ask if anyone else should be a part of the buying process. Even if your contact is in charge of finalizing the contract, they still may need to consult with a group of stakeholders for approval during the decision-making process. If you discover your contact doesn't have enough authority to make the deal, try to convince them to bring the real decision-maker into the conversation.
3. Need: Does the prospect have problems that your product can solve? Ask your prospect to tell you about their pain points, the challenges they struggle with the most, the solutions they've already tried, and what they need your company to do to help. If you don't think your product will effectively solve their issues, it's not worth pushing the sales process further. If your product can help solve a problem, make sure the problem is more than just a minor nuisance so that your prospect will be motivated to take action.
4. ?Timeline: How urgent is it for the prospect to make a purchase? To assess the urgency of their time frame, ask how quickly they want to address their issues. If they want to be rid of their problems within a few months, you're in good shape. If their timeline to make a purchase decision is closer to a year or more, it's probably a smarter use of your time to pause your pursuit and follow up with them down the road. As an alternative, you can also try to create a sense of urgency by offering them a limited-time discount on your product.

When you’re hunting for information that satisfies the BANT criteria, keep in mind that you're not interrogating your prospect. Build a congenial?rapport, and ask questions in a natural, conversational manner. Be subtle in your approach, and whenever possible, try to frame your questions in a way that highlights the value of your product. Remember, the BANT methodology is just one helpful lead-generation tool. To stay organized and increase your sales efficiency, you'll want to use?CRM software?along with BANT, and you can also incorporate?SPIN selling.