What is BANT and how can it streamline lead generation?

Lead qualification is the process of deciding whether the opportunity in front of you (the potential customer) is worth the time it takes to invest in them. It’s an effective way to determine whether a potential customer is truly interested in the opportunity you are presenting.

In fact, every one of us engages in qualifying behaviour: “Is this TV show something I want to spend time on?” “Should I order takeout again or attempt to cook?” We weigh information to decide if the opportunity presented to us is worth pursuing.

So as a sales rep, how do you qualify your prospects as a great lead? The BANT sales qualification strategy can help determine whether a lead is likely to be successful. SalesEvolve Solutions Inc. has been effectively helping Businesses solve Sales challenges by using the BANT strategy.

What is BANT?

Originally conceived by IBM as a way to quickly identify leads who were most likely to make a purchase, BANT is considered the old-school, go-to method of sales and lead qualification. BANT is an acronym for budget, authority, needs, and timeline, and it?is a type of sales lead qualification process designed to identify leads worth pursuing. As far as qualifying frameworks go, BANT is pretty straightforward and asks salespeople to consider the following:

• Budget: Does the prospective client have the necessary budget to purchase your product?
• Authority: Does the potential lead have the authority to make a purchase, or are there additional people you need to speak with? ?
• Needs: What business pain points does your service reduce?
• Timeline: When is the lead looking to make a purchase?

A lead that meets at least three of the four BANT criteria is considered viable, though each sales team may decide what a viable lead looks like to them. BANT sales leads are considered, first and foremost, from a budgetary standpoint. If the potential customer doesn’t have the funds for the product you’re selling, they probably aren’t a qualified opportunity. Keep track of your process with a Lucidchart qualifying leads flowchart.

This lead qualification process saves sales teams time and energy by eliminating or passing over opportunities with no potential. Leads are generated in many different ways: email capture, phone number capture, referral, display ads, and other traditional and digital marketing techniques. However, just because someone gave you their email address or signed up for your newsletter doesn’t mean they are going to turn out to be a successful lead.

“Wait,” you might be thinking, “isn’t every lead worth chasing down?”

Think of it this way: When you look for new cars, do you look at every single car available, or do you refine your search and include only cars that meet your criteria? You should refine your search because the first option would take years. The same process goes for sales.

If the opportunity looks viable, ask more questions to gather information. Here are a few additional questions to consider when using BANT for lead qualification:

Budget

1. Do you have a dedicated budget for new technology purchases? What is that budget?
2. Are you sharing your budget with any other departments?
3. If you had zero budgetary limitations, what would you do?

Authority

1. Do we need to include anyone else in our discussion?
2. Do you currently use any products similar to ours? Do you anticipate any overlap or redundancies?
3. How have past products been received? Is your team receptive to change?

Need

1. Tell me about the most frustrating part of your job. How long has this been a frustration?
2. Do you currently have plans to address these issues?
3. What, if any, roadblocks do you anticipate?

Timeline

1. What other issues are you facing? What’s your priority in resolving the issues?
2. When are you looking to solve your problem?
3. Are you considering any other solutions or services?

Depending on the lead (and their business), your contact might be more than one person. Very few businesses operate from a single person’s sign-off—rather, different managers or department heads collaborate to share resources (sometimes budget). Use this to your advantage by tailoring your exchanges to best fit the situation.

Although perhaps not as acronym-friendly, you can also approach lead qualification using BANT in any order. If the prospect’s timeline seems the most urgent, talk to that pain point first ( TBAN). When a need for a solution supersedes budget, adopt that sense of urgency and offer your product as a solution (NBAT). You can prioritize the acronym in any way you need to best fit your potential customer’s needs. Asking questions and actually pausing to wait for responses will help you get a better read on your contact and nurture lead generation.

BANT remains the tried-and-true strategy for optimizing revenue. Connect with me, and let's implement BANT together to tackle your toughest revenue challenges head-on and streamline your path to success. Let's turn complexity into clarity and boost your bottom line!

To get a free sales assessment:

Take this quiz https://holisticsales.scoreapp.com/ to identify potential opportunities to evolve sales throughout your business. This is not a "clickbait" style quiz. The questions are challenging and will make you reflect upon how you win business today. You are not asked to submit confidential information. There are approximately 40 questions which can feel like a lot. However, we take you through 5 core areas of your business that contribute to sales revenue and you'll gain some very good insight.

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• The results are emailed to you
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Or send an email to Jonathan D’souza at [email protected] to get your queries answered.