Lead qualification is one of the hardest parts of a salesperson'south task.

Even though at that place is applied science available to help, there are all the same practiced old-fashioned qualification questions that a salesperson must ask during a call with a prospect. Why?

Well, to be honest, prospects typically desire to see a demo or receive pricing data every bit soon equally possible. So, the data they share to get that intel may not be the virtually authentic.

During the sales process, you'll detect people inside the visitor who have the dominance to make decisions. These individuals are also more likely to have insight into the team'due south budget to buy what you sell. That means, forth the style, you'll assemble more information virtually how qualified the prospect really is.

Merely what if you lot could construction that information-gathering process in a way that makes sense for your sales cycle? The practiced news is, you can! You'd use a tried-and-true methodology called BANT.

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What does BANT stand for?

The acronym BANT stands for: budget — how much money the prospect is able and willing to spend; dominance — the ultimate conclusion-maker; demand — whether the prospect has a problem your business tin solve; and, timing — whether in that location is urgency to purchase your product or service.

Budget - How much is the prospect willing and able to spend on your solution?

Authority - Who is the authorisation figure in this sale? Who makes the ultimate decision?

Need - Does the prospect have a true demand for my product? Is this a universal need on the team?

Timeline - How much time will the prospect need to come to a purchasing decision?

BANT is a significant part of the sales process because it helps sales reps qualify leads during the discovery telephone call. Rather than waiting days or weeks to authorize leads using a score derived from the prospect's behavior and engagement with marketing and sales materials, the sales team can get detailed information from the prospect about their budget, stakeholders, demand, and timeframe.

What is BANT?

BANT is a sales qualification methodology that helps salespeople decide whether a prospect is a expert fit based on their budget, internal influence/ability to purchase, need for the product, and purchase timeline.

This framework was beginning developed by IBM in the 1950s and is now included as part of the company's Business Agility Solution Identification Guide. Information technology worked well for the company and others that adopted it considering it fabricated the sales process more efficient.

From the company's perspective, the sales reps were able to learn all the pertinent data upfront to determine if the prospect was a good fit for its products. If the prospect was not a fit, they would be disqualified from the sales procedure.

Companies like IBM used BANT to apace qualify leads which fabricated more of their time available for selling to qualified prospects.

How to Use the BANT Sales Framework and Process

  1. Empathize the prospect's budget across the dollar amount.
  2. Identify stakeholders in the decision-making process.
  3. Determine the importance of the trouble.
  4. Prepare a timeline for the sales process.
  5. Stay informed through multiple channels.
  6. Use digital tools to track your progress.

1. Sympathize the prospect's budget beyond the dollar corporeality.

In the erstwhile days, when reps were selling licenses, it made sense to authorize based on fiscal demand. If yous use a subscription model, and so budget probably won't be a blocker for most companies.

Simply now, most SaaS companies, for example, accuse anywhere from $10 for basic plans to tens of thousands of dollars per month for enterprise plans. If you sell a SaaS production, you tin can overcome the obstruction of price by asking about the prospect's expected ROI. If that aligns with your cost, you take practiced reason to qualify the prospect on upkeep.

2. Identify stakeholders in the decision-making procedure.

Virtually decisions are now made by a grouping rather than one person. There'southward an average of three stakeholder groups involved in every deal. Fifty-fifty if 1 person is responsible for signing the contract, you'll need to convince the majority of their team.

Map out everyone who is involved in the procedure: Their job titles, controlling role, priorities, and how y'all can get access to them (asking your champion to gear up a meeting, reaching out to them direct. etc.) The more contacts you accept, the more command you'll wield — and the less take chances this opportunity volition slip through your fingers.

three. Make up one's mind the importance of the trouble.

Next, figure out how important this trouble is to the prospect. While you're asking your prospect the questions we recommended earlier, inquire yourself the following questions: Are they highly motivated to solve it? What happens if they don't? Is there a different initiative they care about more that will compete for their free energy, attending, and decision-making capital letter?

A prospect might say they have a particular need and they may very well mean information technology, but the team's priorities — or even executive leadership'southward priorities — may exist different. This will inevitably cause kinks in the sales procedure down the road. Do your best to uncover the needs your prospect, their team, and their leaders accept as early equally possible.

4. Gear up a timeline for the sales process.

Y'all know the budget, who the decision-makers are, and the need they have for your product. Now it's time to find out how quickly their organization needs to make a determination.

Identifying whether you're looking at months of red tape and approvals or a simple one-pitch-and-a-shut type of deal tin help you plan your pipeline and ready for the close.

5. Stay informed through multiple channels.

While this step doesn't fall into one particular step of BANT, it's an important i that will help y'all stay ahead of any objections, delays, or concerns with your prospect. Follow their social media, sign up for their newsletter, and, for enterprise prospects, attend events they might have that are open to the public.

Keeping a pulse on the deals you have in the pipeline (outside of the times you're meeting with them) can aid you uncover new needs they take that your production tin solve. You may as well discover additional stakeholders that you'll be communicating with afterwards in the sales procedure.

Staying in the loop informally can help you qualify a prospect using information you gather yourself. This will requite you a holistic moving-picture show of the prospect so you lot tin can determine whether they'll be a nifty fit for your product.

six. Use digital tools to track your progress.

Using digital tools that keep track of your pipeline and manage relationships will be helpful equally you implement BANT into your sales process. Equally you balance multiple prospects concurrently, y'all'll be able to discern exactly where you left off with each 1 and how far they have to go before the deal is closed.

HubSpot's Sales Hub software can help you lot get-go conversations, deepen relationships, and manage your pipeline using the BANT framework.

HubSpot Sales Hub

Execute the BANT Framework With Sales Hub

How Non to use BANT

BANT has fallen out of favor with a few sales experts. Opponents of BANT find that the information gathered in this framework is helpful, but it's discovered much too late in the sales procedure. Others but prefer organizing their topics differently, thus using other frameworks similar GCPT.

I'm here to tell you lot that the guild of the framework isn't an result. You can (and should!) use BANT in the order that creates the best sales experience for the prospect.

BANT fails when salespeople use it equally a checklist. Instead of having a natural conversation, they ask prospects a series of unrelated questions without truly listening to their responses.

Hither's an example:

Rep: "Do you lot have a budget ready aside for this?"

Prospect: "Not yet, just it should be finalized on Tuesday."

Rep: "Groovy. And who will be signing off on this deal?"

Prospect: "My manager Sheila."

Rep: "And you'll be using Spartan to organize customer events around the state, which currently you practice not have software for. Information technology seems like your current system is difficult to manage and scale."

Prospect: "Yes, that's correct."

Rep: "Is there a specific date you lot'd similar to have a solution in identify for?"

Prospect: "Probably sometime in the spring."

Rep: "Okay, groovy. I call up the next step is arranging a demo between you and an events specialist — what practice you lot call back?"

Prospect: "I'd like to expect effectually a scrap more first … I'll shoot y'all an email in a few weeks."

The salesperson is never going to hear from that prospect again.

And then what went incorrect?

Starting time, this was an interrogation, not a two-fashion dialogue. No one enjoys existence quizzed. Unfortunately, BANT often causes reps to stick to a memorized list rather than request layered questions that build on each other.

Second, the rep missed several opportunities to dig deeper. They didn't acquire annihilation about the decision-maker, Sheila; the budget approval process; or the reason for a spring implementation.

To apply BANT successfully, think of information technology as a framework rather than a to-do list. You demand to qualify them based on all four characteristics, simply you lot don't need to practise them in a particular order. In fact, you lot should tailor the procedure to every prospect you qualify.

BANT Lead Qualification Questions

We learned earlier that BANT is more a checklist. This framework helps y'all discover a lot of important data about a prospect in a short amount of time while also edifice a relationship with them. The key to making BANT piece of work for you is asking thoughtful questions that flow together in a conversation.

Below are some of the best questions to inquire a prospect for each stage in the BANT framework. Retrieve, you're having a conversation, so vary the order and the wording equally you need to.

Budget

1. What do yous currently spend now on this problem or demand?

Here, you're trying to notice if the company has already purchased what you sell. If they haven't, y'all'll need to sell them on your product category and your product.

2. Nosotros've determined that your team is losing X amount per [week, quarter, twelvemonth] on this trouble. How does that compare to the budget you've set aside?

See if the prospect realizes how expensive not implementing your solution is.

3. We estimate that your team could potentially gain 10 corporeality per [week, quarter, year] past making this [alter, investment]. How does that compare to the budget you've set bated?

The prospect may want to grow rather than prevent loss. Frame the question in terms of potential for gain.

4. What squad's upkeep would this tool fall within?

With this question, you lot can make up one's mind potential stakeholders yous'll need to speak with during later stages of the sales process.

five. How much would it price to build the system past yourself?

Y'all'll uncover whether the prospect can solve this problem in-house or if they are looking for an external solution.

6. How much would information technology cost if yous haven't fixed this effect in v years?

This question is two-fold — you're reminding the prospect that at that place is a cost to non making a decision and you lot're determining how much their need will cost them if they don't find a solution. You can help the prospect understand their ROI with the answer to this question.

seven. How heavily will price factor into your determination?

This standard budget question helps you determine whether you need to justify the value compared to the price of your production.

eight. Have you identified a budget range for this purchase?

Here's some other standard budget question to determine if the prospect has done research on the toll range for your product category.

9. What's the ROI y'all're hoping to run into?

This question volition help y'all position your production in a way that meets the prospect'due south goals.

Authority

10. Who will be using the product?

This question won't always requite you lot the decision-maker, merely it will tell you who else might be involved in the buying decision.

11. When was the last time you bought a similar production? How did the controlling process go?

If there were significant pain points or things the prospect liked about their last purchase, you can eliminate or incorporate those into your sales procedure.

12. This is commonly the stage where my customer brings in [the caput of Finance, the other stakeholders, their director] to [hash out X, get their perspective on Y]. Do y'all want to invite [Z person/people] to our next meeting?

This question can save you lot and the prospect time. Rather than discovering you don't have the correct stakeholders on the telephone call, you can work around their schedule in advance.

xiii. Volition anyone else be involved in this decision?

This question opens upward another opportunity to invite additional stakeholders into the conversation early on.

Need

fourteen. When did you lot identify [problem, opportunity]?

By request this question, you'll acquire how long the prospect has been experiencing this problem.

xv. What steps have you already taken to address it?

You can assess whether your solution volition be successful or if there's some other way they can solve this problem past using your solution in conjunction with some other ane, or if they're better off with a different solution entirely.

16. How important is addressing this to your personal goals at [visitor]?

If the need is tied to a goal the prospect has at their company, they'll personally exist motivated to make a decision.

17. What are your meridian priorities at the moment? How do they fit within your team's goals?

Sometimes prospects can forget to include the team'south perspectives in purchasing decisions, especially if that team will be using the product. You'll want to know if your product will further or hinder the squad'south achievement of their goals.

18. What are your team's goals for the next year?

This question can help yous predict whether the prospect will renew their service with your business organization.

nineteen. What happens to your squad's goals if you don't address this need?

This question volition help both y'all and your prospect understand the urgency of the determination to brand a purchase.

Timing

20. Are there whatever upcoming events/deadlines that you'd similar to take a solution in place by?

Oftentimes, urgency doesn't have to come up from you equally a salesperson, it can be an internal deadline that you and the prospect will need to work within.

22. Are y'all planning any [insert relevant project here, i.e. lead generation entrada, major hiring spree, programme overhauls, etc.)?

If and so, at that place's a expert risk that the prospect wants to make a determination by a certain appointment and volition follow through.

23. What's your [lead generation, revenue, retentivity, etc.] goal for [next quarter, half of the twelvemonth]? Will you exist able to run across that goal without some sort of change?

You can employ this information to position your product as a solution that tin can assistance the prospect come across those goals.

24. Working astern from the engagement you gave me, we'd need to finalize our agreement by [earlier engagement]. Is that sound doable?

This firm question asks the prospect if they're able to brand a determination based on the information they've already provided. You'll be able to apply this date to programme your pipeline.

Qualify Your Leads With BANT

BANT has lasted through the ages because information technology's effective, memorable, and applicable to a range of products, price points, and sales processes. This framework is best used in conjunction with thoughtful questions that menstruation naturally in a 2-fashion chat.

If yous've never used BANT before, or if yous think it's outdated for today's sales procedure, endeavor it out on your next discovery telephone call to see but how much data you uncover.

Desire to up your sales game even more than? Evolve your BANT strategy to include even more questions you lot can enquire to qualify more leads and shut better deals.

Editor's note: This postal service was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

sales qualification

sales qualification

Originally published Aug 12, 2021 5:00:00 PM, updated August 12 2021