The bant method for qualifying leads in your business
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 9:19 am
One of the most important conversations marketing and sales professionals have with their prospects is often the discovery call or that first exchange with the customer. This is the proverbial fork in the road for you and your prospect . Either they are a good fit for your product/service and you can continue the relationship, or you both have to move on.
It's not always obvious which path to take at that fork in the road. That's where lead scoring (or sales scoring) comes into play. By asking the right questions, you'll be able to determine whether the relationship should continue, and if so, what the appropriate next steps are. In this post, we'll focus on the basics of lead scoring, and how the BANT method can help you do that.
First…
What is a qualified lead?
On a “discovery call,” or that first conversation with the prospect, is where you can do most of your qualifying. But it’s certainly not where qualifying begins or ends. At every step of the sales process, you’ll continually evaluate prospects for increasingly specific characteristics.
According to Bob Apollo, founder of sales consulting group Inflexion Point, there is a hierarchy in qualification . That is, marketers and sales reps should qualify prospects at three different levels, which Apollo calls “organizational level,” “opportunity level,” and “stakeholder level” sales qualification.
Organizational level rating
This is the most basic level of qualification and doesn't tell you much more than whether or not you need to do further research. If your company has buyer personas, refer to them when you qualify a lead. Does the buyer match a given persona's demographic?
Questions to ask at this stage include:
Is the potential client in your territory?
Do you sell to their industry?
What is the size of the company?
Does the account fit your company's buyer persona?
Opportunity Level Rating
This form of qualification is probably what you thought of when you read the title of this post. Opportunity-level sales qualification is where you determine whether your prospect has a specific need or challenge that you can meet and whether it’s feasible for them to implement your particular product or service. The other half of a good buyer persona, opportunity-level characteristics give insight into whether a prospect could benefit from your offer/proposal.
Stakeholder level rating
Let’s say you’ve determined that your prospect’s company is a good fit for your solution and fits your buyer persona. It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty: can your contact actually pull the trigger on a purchasing decision?
To determine this, ask the following:
Will this purchase be out of your budget?
Who else is involved in the decision?
Do you have criteria for this purchasing decision? Who defined them?
When to disqualify a lead
These three previous levels also work to disqualify a lead.
For example, if your prospect completely falls outside of your company’s buyer persona, it’s safe to disqualify them on the spot at an organizational level. Maybe one day, they’ll align with your buyer persona, but they don’t right now, so don’t waste time trying to push your offer into their business.
Similarly, you might be talking to the CEO of an organization with full budget authority who passes the stakeholder-level qualification with flying colors. But if there is no problem, there is no need for your solution/offering. Qualify for business problems first.
Also keep in mind that unless a prospect can gambling data philippine qualify on all three levels, you should not move forward in the sales process. For example, if you ask your prospect about the company's strategic goals and they can't answer, that's a good sign that they're not close enough to the decision-making process and therefore lack influence.
You must disqualify this contact at the stakeholder level, even if they move up to the opportunity level.
Why it's not bad to disqualify a lead
Many marketing and sales professionals are reluctant to disqualify prospects and narrow their pipeline.
Your natural instinct is to try to work with as many leads as possible, but this isn't the best approach. The quality of your leads is more important than the quantity.
As a sales and marketing professional, your most valuable asset is your time. And it's far better spent on a handful of your best prospects than on spreading yourself thin across dozens of other prospects. Trying to close every sale that comes your way will only lead you down dead ends with prospects who aren't a good fit, while neglecting prospects who are likely to buy.
BANT method
BANT method
BANT method, what is it?
BANT is a methodology that marketing and sales professionals can use to determine whether a prospect is likely to become a successful customer—that is, make a purchase. Every customer and every sale is different, but all won deals have commonalities.
To do this, we observe whether this potential client is a good fit based on their budget, internal influence, purchasing capacity, need for the product and purchase schedule.
This method was developed by IBM and is considered an old-school way of distinguishing potential customers, but is still very useful for businesses today. The acronym BANT refers to the words Budget , Authority , Needs and Timing .
Budget: Analyze the client's purchasing power.
Authority : Analyzes whether the customer has the ability to decide the purchase or needs to take other people into account.
Needs : Analyze the needs that the product is capable of covering.
Timing : Try to find out when the customer is thinking about making the purchase.
Here are some questions you can ask at each stage of the BANT method:
Budget
Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase? What is it?
Is this a big enough priority to fund?
What other initiatives are you spending money on?
Does seasonality affect your financing?
Authority:
Whose budget is this purchase?
Who else will be involved in the purchasing decision?
How have you made purchasing decisions for products/services similar to ours in the past?
What objections to this purchase do you expect to encounter? How do you think we can best handle them?
Needs:
What challenges are you struggling with?
What is the source of that problem/pain and why do you think it is worth spending time on?
Why has this not been addressed before?
What do you think could solve this problem? Why?
Timing:
How quickly do you need to resolve your problem?
What else is a priority for you?
Are you evaluating other similar products or services?
Do you have the capacity to implement this product right now?
While the BANT method addresses many opportunity-level requirements, it can fall short on others. According to CEB research, it currently takes an average of 5.4 people to make a purchasing decision, so the “ultimate” purchasing authority could be more than one person. Be sure to involve all relevant stakeholders early in the process and ensure buy-in from each individual.
Timing is another area where the BANT method falls short today. A strict BANT qualification might tell you to put a prospect who won’t be ready to buy until next year into a closed loss queue. But you may be acting prematurely – send educational resources and offer to help until they are ready to buy, if you can.
Now it's your turn
In addition to the BANT method, there are other methodologies that you can use in your lead qualification process. Try to identify which one best suits your business. However, the valuable thing is to be able to identify that not all leads are ready at the same time to buy your product or service, and that the strategic thing is to focus on those who are already ready to make the purchase decision.
It's not always obvious which path to take at that fork in the road. That's where lead scoring (or sales scoring) comes into play. By asking the right questions, you'll be able to determine whether the relationship should continue, and if so, what the appropriate next steps are. In this post, we'll focus on the basics of lead scoring, and how the BANT method can help you do that.
First…
What is a qualified lead?
On a “discovery call,” or that first conversation with the prospect, is where you can do most of your qualifying. But it’s certainly not where qualifying begins or ends. At every step of the sales process, you’ll continually evaluate prospects for increasingly specific characteristics.
According to Bob Apollo, founder of sales consulting group Inflexion Point, there is a hierarchy in qualification . That is, marketers and sales reps should qualify prospects at three different levels, which Apollo calls “organizational level,” “opportunity level,” and “stakeholder level” sales qualification.
Organizational level rating
This is the most basic level of qualification and doesn't tell you much more than whether or not you need to do further research. If your company has buyer personas, refer to them when you qualify a lead. Does the buyer match a given persona's demographic?
Questions to ask at this stage include:
Is the potential client in your territory?
Do you sell to their industry?
What is the size of the company?
Does the account fit your company's buyer persona?
Opportunity Level Rating
This form of qualification is probably what you thought of when you read the title of this post. Opportunity-level sales qualification is where you determine whether your prospect has a specific need or challenge that you can meet and whether it’s feasible for them to implement your particular product or service. The other half of a good buyer persona, opportunity-level characteristics give insight into whether a prospect could benefit from your offer/proposal.
Stakeholder level rating
Let’s say you’ve determined that your prospect’s company is a good fit for your solution and fits your buyer persona. It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty: can your contact actually pull the trigger on a purchasing decision?
To determine this, ask the following:
Will this purchase be out of your budget?
Who else is involved in the decision?
Do you have criteria for this purchasing decision? Who defined them?
When to disqualify a lead
These three previous levels also work to disqualify a lead.
For example, if your prospect completely falls outside of your company’s buyer persona, it’s safe to disqualify them on the spot at an organizational level. Maybe one day, they’ll align with your buyer persona, but they don’t right now, so don’t waste time trying to push your offer into their business.
Similarly, you might be talking to the CEO of an organization with full budget authority who passes the stakeholder-level qualification with flying colors. But if there is no problem, there is no need for your solution/offering. Qualify for business problems first.
Also keep in mind that unless a prospect can gambling data philippine qualify on all three levels, you should not move forward in the sales process. For example, if you ask your prospect about the company's strategic goals and they can't answer, that's a good sign that they're not close enough to the decision-making process and therefore lack influence.
You must disqualify this contact at the stakeholder level, even if they move up to the opportunity level.
Why it's not bad to disqualify a lead
Many marketing and sales professionals are reluctant to disqualify prospects and narrow their pipeline.
Your natural instinct is to try to work with as many leads as possible, but this isn't the best approach. The quality of your leads is more important than the quantity.
As a sales and marketing professional, your most valuable asset is your time. And it's far better spent on a handful of your best prospects than on spreading yourself thin across dozens of other prospects. Trying to close every sale that comes your way will only lead you down dead ends with prospects who aren't a good fit, while neglecting prospects who are likely to buy.
BANT method
BANT method
BANT method, what is it?
BANT is a methodology that marketing and sales professionals can use to determine whether a prospect is likely to become a successful customer—that is, make a purchase. Every customer and every sale is different, but all won deals have commonalities.
To do this, we observe whether this potential client is a good fit based on their budget, internal influence, purchasing capacity, need for the product and purchase schedule.
This method was developed by IBM and is considered an old-school way of distinguishing potential customers, but is still very useful for businesses today. The acronym BANT refers to the words Budget , Authority , Needs and Timing .
Budget: Analyze the client's purchasing power.
Authority : Analyzes whether the customer has the ability to decide the purchase or needs to take other people into account.
Needs : Analyze the needs that the product is capable of covering.
Timing : Try to find out when the customer is thinking about making the purchase.
Here are some questions you can ask at each stage of the BANT method:
Budget
Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase? What is it?
Is this a big enough priority to fund?
What other initiatives are you spending money on?
Does seasonality affect your financing?
Authority:
Whose budget is this purchase?
Who else will be involved in the purchasing decision?
How have you made purchasing decisions for products/services similar to ours in the past?
What objections to this purchase do you expect to encounter? How do you think we can best handle them?
Needs:
What challenges are you struggling with?
What is the source of that problem/pain and why do you think it is worth spending time on?
Why has this not been addressed before?
What do you think could solve this problem? Why?
Timing:
How quickly do you need to resolve your problem?
What else is a priority for you?
Are you evaluating other similar products or services?
Do you have the capacity to implement this product right now?
While the BANT method addresses many opportunity-level requirements, it can fall short on others. According to CEB research, it currently takes an average of 5.4 people to make a purchasing decision, so the “ultimate” purchasing authority could be more than one person. Be sure to involve all relevant stakeholders early in the process and ensure buy-in from each individual.
Timing is another area where the BANT method falls short today. A strict BANT qualification might tell you to put a prospect who won’t be ready to buy until next year into a closed loss queue. But you may be acting prematurely – send educational resources and offer to help until they are ready to buy, if you can.
Now it's your turn
In addition to the BANT method, there are other methodologies that you can use in your lead qualification process. Try to identify which one best suits your business. However, the valuable thing is to be able to identify that not all leads are ready at the same time to buy your product or service, and that the strategic thing is to focus on those who are already ready to make the purchase decision.