BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

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What is BANT?

BANT is a framework used by sales teams to qualify prospects in their sales pipeline. Based on four criteria – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline – BANT can be used as a way of identifying and assessing the viability of potential customers; and ultimately help teams decide whether a lead is worth pursuing.

Breaking Down BANT

BANT can be a powerful tool for sales teams in the lead qualification process. But let’s dive deeper into what these criteria actually mean, and why sales teams should take them into account when prospecting. 

 

Budget: First and foremost, does your potential customer have the financial resources to purchase your product or service?

Authority: Does the prospect you’ve identified hold the decision-making power to sign-off on the purchase? Will they need to escalate the final decision to a more senior colleague?

Need: Is there a genuine requirement for the product or service you are selling? Are you filling a real gap for the customer and providing a solution for their business?

Timeline: What is the timeline within which the prospect intends to make the purchase?

How to Gather Your BANT Score

Think of your customer as a well of information, just waiting to be tapped – metaphorically speaking. The easiest route to ascertaining the BANT score of a prospect is to make contact and try to book in a meeting to get under the skin of your prospect’s business needs. Discovery calls are the linchpin of all sales teams; and as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But how much quality information about your prospects are you really gaining in these sessions? 

What Questions Should You Ask to Identify BANT Score?

Each market and industry is unique, and your team will know the specific language to use while prospecting that will resonate with potential customers to gather this information. As a starter for ten, below we’ve indicated some key jumping off points to steer the conversation in the right direction. 

Budget

“What is the budget for this project?” or “How much budget have you allocated for solving this problem?”

Why you should ask this: These questions ensure that you are targeting prospects who can afford what you are selling and are therefore more likely to commit to buying your product or service. 

 

Authority 

“Are you the final decision-maker to sign off on this project?” or “Who in the team is responsible for budget decisions and how do we speak with them?” 

Why you should ask this: Today, there are an average of seven decision-makers involved in the B2B buying process. And, 50-90% of the journey is complete before a buyer even interacts with a sales representative. By identifying the budget holder, you avoid wasting time in negotiation with team members who don’t hold the executive power to sign on the dotted line. It’s always a wise idea to include a direct prompt about getting face time with the right people, so your initial prospect can pass you over when appropriate.

 

Need

“What are the key business challenges your team is facing?” or “What issues are you trying to solve as a business?” 

Why you should ask this: When you identify the problems your prospect is tackling, you can work out whether your offering is the right solution for their team. If you know that your product or service could fill the gap, you can then position your sale in the mind of the prospect as something that will have a positive impact and drive the right results.

 

Timeline

“When do you plan on implementing this solution?” or “Is there a specific deadline or launch event that this project needs to align with?”

Why you should ask this: As anyone in sales knows, timing is everything. When it comes to converting a prospect into a customer, it is important to know how your sales process aligns with the prospect’s purchasing schedule. With this in mind, you can assess when to focus resource on a prospect to make the sale, and whether a pause or hiatus might be beneficial in securing a sale later down the line.

Benefits of Using the BANT framework

Just 44% of companies use lead-scoring systems, but do the 56% really know what they’re missing out on by avoiding this crucial part of the sales cycle? Developed by IBM in the 1950s, there is no question that the BANT method is well-established, and can be a real game-changer in improving sales processes. 

 

Efficiency 

When IBM first developed the BANT framework, the goal was to optimize the sales strategy. The results spoke for themselves, with 1950 being a 39-year sales peak for the company. By saving time for sales representatives on the ground from investing in non-viable prospects, the BANT method can highly focus your sales function to convert high-potential leads. 

 

Clarity 

With only 46% of the global workforce clear on how their work contributes to overall business performance, it has never been a more crucial time for businesses and organizations to empower their teams with transparent processes and guidelines to drive productivity and profit. Implementing the BANT framework gives your team a clear method to follow to ensure consistency in how the sales function operates and how you qualify potential new business opportunities.

 

Prioritization

Structuring your pipeline based on a prospects readiness to buy can drastically improve the performance of your sales team. Guided by a clear lead-scoring program, you can identify which prospects are the most likely to commit to your product or service, and gauge a more accurate picture of your forecasts, projections and resource gaps. In short, it’s just good business!

BANT vs CHAMP – Which Qualification Method Should You Use?

We’ve already outlined why the BANT framework can transform your sales function for the better. But it’s certainly not the only lead-scoring option in your arsenal. While BANT can save time on the qualification process and ultimately speed up the sales cycle, it can be an upfront time investment to implement the framework. And its seller-focused approach can be a turn-off to some customers (although our suggested questions above should go some way in circumventing that). 

The CHAMP lead-scoring method is a popular alternative, used by sales teams to reframe a prospect’s business challenges into opportunities. Following a similar pattern to BANT, the CHAMP method uses the following touch-points to identify the quality of the lead: 

 

Challenges – What are the challenges or pain points facing the prospect in their business? 

Authority – As with BANT, is the prospect the authority for making budget decisions?

Money – Does the prospect have the available funds to make the purchase? 

Prioritization – Is solving the challenge that your product or service offers a priority for the prospect?

 

While there is plenty of crossover with the BANT framework, using CHAMP to qualify your leads can help your team better empathise with the prospect and understand the specific strategic goals they are looking to meet. Be warned, however. The CHAMP method can lead to a delayed sales cycle. When a prospect gets hung up on the challenges they are facing as a team, it can stall the buying process. 

Building BANT Into Your Day-to-day with Surfe

Sales teams are busy. And prospecting is considered the most challenging part of the job, with more than 40% of salespeople saying prospecting is the largest hurdle of the sales process to overcome, followed by closing (36%) and qualifying (22%). Surfe allows you to connect LinkedIn to your CRM, to drive efficiency in your sales pipeline. So your team can focus their energy on the part of the job that matters to them: client relationships. 

 

Automating Lead Qualification

Tracking prospect data on budget, authority, need and timeline is one of the biggest roadblocks for sales teams looking to improve the quality of their leads. To manually record this data is an unenviable task for any sales representative. Surfe takes the data directly from LinkedIn and your CRM system to automate the lead qualification process – saving your team time and improving the quality of their outreach.

 

Enhancing Data Enrichment

Data is only as effective as the people using it. If your team doesn’t have the capacity to keep your CRM updated with current prospect information, it’s no surprise that their finely-tuned sales calls are falling on deaf ears, and their emails are bouncing from the wrong inboxes. With Surfe, sales teams can enrich their CRM data with insights gathered from LinkedIn, ensuring it is populated with current and accurate information about potential leads.

 

Streamlining Your Workflow

The cost of human error on business is real. In 2020 alone, human error cost US businesses over $3 trillion USD. For sales teams, this often hinges on incorrect or old data. Imagine if you could update your BANT lead-scoring criteria in real-time without the need for constant switching between tabs. With Surfe, you can do just that. 

Frequently Asked Questions about BANT 

 

  • How can BANT improve my sales process?

BANT helps in identifying legitimate prospects early in the sales cycle, allowing sales teams to focus their efforts on leads that are more likely to convert.

 

  • What are the limitations of BANT?

While BANT is a powerful framework, it may overlook other important factors such as the prospect’s interest level or competitive landscape. Always adapt BANT to fit the specific context and market.

 

  • Can BANT be used in conjunction with other sales methodologies?

Absolutely! There is no one-size-fits all model when it comes to sales frameworks. BANT can be integrated with other sales frameworks like MEDDIC or SPIN selling to provide a more comprehensive qualification process.

 

  • How do I handle a prospect who lacks one of the BANT criteria?

You know your customers best. Assess the overall viability of the lead and determine whether it is worth your investment or not. If a prospect lacks one criterion but scores highly on others, it may still be worth pursuing, but with a tailored approach to address the missing element.

 

  • What tools can help implement BANT effectively?

CRM systems, sales automation tools, and integrations like Surfe can help in systematically applying BANT criteria, ensuring no critical information is missed during the qualification process.

 

There’s no denying that lead-scoring can lead to monumental gains for your sales function. Whether it’s the BANT or CHAMP framework, or an acronym of your own making, Surfe can help improve the quality of your leads while freeing up the time of your sales representatives.