In sales lead qualification, it’s the goal to only pursue potential leads that are worth our time. Cementing a meeting is a lot of work for the team, and we don’t want to waste their time if they can’t help us out. BANT is an acronym for budget, authority, needs, and timeline. BANT helps you identify what type of person you’re speaking to making the call easier when it comes to qualifying them as either a hot or not candidate.
When making a call, ask yourself these questions to better understand the person on the other line:
Budget:
How much are they willing and able to spend? This helps you determine if your product or service is in the same price-point or if you need to adjust the scope of your offering.
This is also helpful if you offer different packages at different price points because it can help you determine when to pitch a smaller package versus a larger one. It’s important not to sell a higher-priced package than what someone can afford since it will make you look like bad business and make them more hesitant when dealing with salespeople.
Authority:
Who do they answer to? Authority is directly tied to the budget, so it’s a given that someone who sets a high budget will have an authority who earns a large income. It can quickly help you identify the level of sales success your potential lead has had.
Needs:
What are they missing that may be significant? This is something you should always ask yourself once you’ve identified their budget and authority. This is your chance to learn if they have a problem you can help them solve.
This helps you learn their pain points and what stops them from taking action, so you can better understand how to position yourself in their eyes.
Trying to sell an expensive product or service when the person is missing something cheaper eliminates the possibility of a sale. It also puts the salesperson in a situation where they will look bad because the client will feel like their business wasn’t valued which makes it more difficult to earn that person’s trust and moving forward.
Timeframe:
When do they need your product or service? This helps you better understand their overall urgency and what’s on their plate, so you can better talk about how your company can fit in.
The timeframe is also useful when you know when you are able to deliver your product or service. This allows the person on the other end to make a more informed decision whether or not what you’re offering is right for them and if they want to wait for what you have to offer.
People are busy so sometimes it’s difficult to get a sales call in front of them. If you have a good idea of what they’re missing and when they need your service, you can better position your offering and talk about how what you have to offer can solve their problems.
The timeframe also helps with proper lead qualification, because if the person on the other end is already struggling to meet their current needs you don’t want to add more work onto their plate for fear the sale will fall through when they have trouble handling everything else.
Having more information about your prospect can help you qualify or disqualify them quicker and put your team in a better position to make a higher moving sale and increase your close rates.
Learn more about how you can do a BANT analysis using Conbi.