I had to buy a new car recently (my faithful Volvo that got me through college and a couple of breakups finally broke down 🥀), and the entire car shopping experience taught me more about sales qualification than any training ever could.
I remember walking onto a dealership lot and within 30 seconds, a salesperson came up to me and started asking questions (Cool. We love an attentive salesperson), but he was asking all the wrong questions.
He went right into talking about leather seats, engine specs, and sound systems before he even knew my budget or what I was looking for.
The guy ended up wasting his pitch, I didn’t find what I was looking for, and I ended up getting a car at a different lot.
Now, imagine if that salesperson used BANT. If he had simply asked a couple of strategic questions about what I was hoping to spend (Budget) and what I was looking for in a car (Need), we could have met halfway. I could have potentially found a car there that was the right fit, and he could have scored a sale. It would have been a win-win situation.
The lesson learned here is that sales is never about ambushing someone with features they don’t care about. And it’s not about playing the guessing game. Sales is about qualifying before you pitch.
That’s where BANT comes in. BANT is a framework that keeps you from chasing the wrong deals, wasting your breath, or getting ghosted by someone who was never the buyer to begin with.
We break down this game-changing acronym and share why BANT is so important if you want to avoid wasting time on prospects who aren’t a good fit.
If you’re looking for a fast and efficient way to qualify a lead, keep reading. Plus, we added some bonus questions at the end that you can ask on your next sales call.
BANT Meaning
What does BANT mean? IBM created the acronym BANT in the 1950s to quickly qualify prospects and gauge if they were worth the investment it takes to close.
BANT refers to budget, authority, need, and timing. Let's take a look at each part.
- Budget: Does the prospect have the budget to buy your product or service?
- Authority: Is the prospect the ultimate decision-maker to say “Yes” or “No” to your solution, or are there other stakeholders?
- Need: Is there a genuine need for your product or service?
- Timing: When will the prospect be able to purchase your product or service?
In a similar vein to lead scoring, we essentially use BANT to evaluate a prospect. And depending on what your organization is looking for, if a prospect passes at least three of the four criteria, they will likely be a solid, buying customer.
Let's break down each step and provide some examples. Check out some sample questions you can ask for each of the four criteria of BANT below…
BANT Questions
1. Budget
It’s easy for someone to drop a price objection, say your solution is too expensive, and hang up. To get useful information on your prospect’s budget, your questions here have to move past sticker shock and budget, and you need to highlight what it’s costing your prospect to go without your solution as well as the results your solution can deliver. Drill down on relevant value here…
- Are you investing in a solution that helps with this now?
- (If yes): What are you spending on this solution?
- Are there any procurement rules I should be aware of?
2. Authority
According to The Sales Board, 85% of sales opportunities involve multiple decision-makers. More often than not you’re going to have to work with several people on a deal and put together a buying committee. With this in mind, you want to pinpoint who will be involved in the process, as well as the relationship dynamics…
- When evaluating products like this, who else is involved over there?
- What’s their position?
- What would they like to see in a solution to say, "Yes"?
3. Need
Your goal here is to find out the prospect’s pains (or show them pains they didn’t realize they had) and how your product or service can resolve these issues. In addition to this, you also want to get a sense of the urgency here.
Find out how big of a priority solving this pain is for the prospect because that will let you know if there will be any drive to purchase your solution sooner rather than later…
- What are you all focused on at Company X right now?
- How are you feeling about how things are going?
- What’s keeping you from accomplishing these goals?
- What will happen if Pain X isn’t resolved?
4. Timing
With this criteria section, you aren’t just asking a straightforward question here about the prospect’s timeline to find out how long you have to invest for a closed-won. You also want to ask questions that highlight the urgency of the prospect’s situation and goals…
- When are you hoping to have a solution in place?
- What are your sales goals for the quarter?
- Is there anything that could delay or speed up your timeline?
BANT Example
BANT can be the compass guiding a sales team through the intricacies of lead qualification, transforming our approach, and propelling us towards unprecedented success.
Strategically aligning the efforts with the prospect's Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline, a business can optimize resources. BANT empowers businesses to target prospects with not just potential but genuine readiness to engage, resulting in a significant uptick in conversion rates.
The framework's ability to streamline focus on qualified leads enables companies to direct their energies where they matter most. Through the lens of BANT, a business can achieve a nuanced understanding of the prospects' pain points, tailoring solutions to address their specific needs.
This personalized approach can not only elevate conversion rates but also bolster customer satisfaction by delivering solutions that seamlessly integrate with their objectives.
Furthermore, BANT can play a pivotal role in enhancing the efficiency of sales pipeline. By prioritizing leads based on their readiness to buy, a business not only closed deals more effectively but also ensured a robust pipeline for future opportunities.
From one CMO, "The BANT framework is not just a methodology; it's a game-changer that has redefined how we navigate the sales landscape and achieve our goals."
Why Is BANT Important?
The brilliance of BANT (and one of the reasons it’s stuck around for so long) is that it organizes qualifying criteria in order of importance.
If you’re on the phone with a prospect, and it’s established early on that there just isn’t the budget for your product, you can quickly disqualify them and move on to the next prospect.
Or if you find out that the person you’re speaking with isn’t the only decision-maker, you can take efforts to find out all the decision-makers and get everyone on the same page fast.
BANT is so valuable because it allows you to get all the information you need to move the sales process along (whether that involves moving on to the next steps or moving on to the next prospect).
Word of Warning With BANT
Avoid using BANT as an excuse to establish ZERO rapport with your prospect. In other words, don’t get on the phone and start shooting off one BANT question after the next without asking any follow-up questions. Your prospects are not robots, and your sales calls are not interrogations.
Instead, use BANT as a framework for genuine conversations.
For example, when you start finding out the prospect’s pain points, don’t merely list them off and move on to the “Timing” criteria. Find out what the real stakes of those pains are.
What would it cost the prospect to go another month or another year with the same problems? Or don’t just find out if the prospect has the budget to afford your product, but also find out what they’re spending now to try to resolve this problem.
What have they spent in the past? Remember, your goal is to transform prospects into lifelong customers.
If you’re looking for a fast and efficient way to qualify prospects sooner rather than later, try the framework salespeople have faithfully used for decades: BANT.
In addition to BANT, sales folks can ask more discovery questions during your initial sales discovery stage.
Wrap-Up
Sales isn’t about rattling off features. It’s about understanding what your buyer actually needs before you ever start the pitch.
Just like that car salesman missed a sale by skipping straight to the specs, salespeople who overlook qualification waste their time and their prospect’s time.
BANT keeps you grounded. It gives you a straightforward way to find out if someone’s ready to buy before you hit the gas on your pitch.
So the next time you're tempted to lead with the bells and whistles, take a beat. Ask better questions. And qualify like a pro. Your future customers—and your close rate—will thank you.
Related BANT Research:
- Revolutionizing Prospecting Forever
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