One of the most widely-used methods for qualifying B2B sales leads is known by the acronym BANT, which stands for Budget – Authority – Need – Timeline. The basic idea is that you will have a strong sales opportunity if you identify a lead who: Has a recognized need that your company can address. A System for Lead Scoring and Lead Ranking. The lead management process begins with the generation of inquires. Once generated inquiries will flow through a qualification and nurturing process to identify qualified leads. … Here is a system for ranking leads based on the B.A.N.T. criteria. A long time ago, IBM revolutionized sales with the introduction of BANT. The mantra is familiar to any salesperson: qualify your prospects based on their Budget, Authority, Needs, and Timeline.
Money talks, right? It doesn’t matter if a prospect has all of the authority, an enormous need, or a concrete timeline–if they have no budget for your product or service, then they can’t become a customer. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the budget won’t come along later, but it means that this person is likely in the beginning stages of the buying process and not ready to make a purchase. Although these discussions can be difficult to have in the early stages, it’s usually best to qualify prospects on budget as soon as possible. If they have a set budget of $5,000 and your product costs $50,000, then you should find that out quickly.
The second key to this system is confirming that the person you’re speaking with actually has the authority to buy or identify that person within the organization. Often times, lower-level employees or influences will do the initial research and pass information back to key decision makers. This means it’s important not to discount someone from being a potential customer just because they don’t have the final say. But, most sales will need to involve that decision maker before the purchase it actually completed. You’ll want to make this determination early in order to structure conversations appropriately.
Does the person or company have an actual need for the product or service that you’re selling? Or, maybe more importantly, have they identified that need internally? You may be able to point to a hundred companies that need what you’re selling (or at least could greatly benefit from it), but until they have identified that problem and are actually seeking a solution, it may be tough to get them interested in actually buying. Try to understand the frame of reference for each prospect and see how big of a need they have for your solution.
There are many constraints that are put on the buying process that can mean the timeline for purchase is not imminent. It may be a matter of budgets, approvals, or comparison shopping. But you should seek to understand the customer’s place in the buying journey and their timeline to purchase.