BANT Leads

BANT Leads

One sales technique utilized in the lead qualification process is called BANT. Sales teams use the BANT framework to evaluate prospects based on four main criteria: budget, authority, need, and timeline.

You may expedite the completion of additional sales cycles by having your team apply the BANT approach right away following lead creation. Identifying the most probable buyers and eliminating those who are unlikely to buy from you can save weeks or months of follow-ups and one-on-ones.

How to Use the BANT Framework to Qualify Sales Leads

Using the BANT framework is easy. Your sales representatives must find the answers to these four important questions as they interact with leads through a variety of channels:

  • Budget: Is your SaaS solution within the prospect’s means?
  • Authority: Is the potential customer powerful enough to authorize or sway a purchase?
  • Need: Can your software meet the needs of the potential customer
  • Time frame: Does your desired sales cycle duration coincide with your prospect’s ideal buying
    timeline?

Your lead is probably worth following if you can say “yes” to at least three of these questions. Prioritize those who satisfy all four requirements since they are great candidates for your sales cycle.

Even if prospects that only fit two requirements or less may still be pursued, you may decide to employ less time-consuming sales strategies to keep them interested, such as email automation or social media retargeting. In this manner, you won’t be concerned about wasted work if they end up being a dead end.

Thus, how would one go about responding to every central query within the BANT framework? We’ll outline the significance of each criterion and offer samples of indirect inquiries you might pose to leads.

1. Budget

The amount of money your leads have will have a big impact on what they ultimately decide to buy when they are looking for answers. Prospects are less likely to buy from you if your product is too expensive or if satisfying their wants calls for improvements they cannot afford. Those that can afford the greatest solution you have to offer are your best leads.

To get more insight into your prospect’s budget, you can ask:

  • How much does the problem you’re facing currently cost you?
  • How much would the problem cost you over the next year?
  • Have you tried any similar SaaS products? How much did they cost?
  • How much do you expect to spend on a solution?
  • What return on investment do you expect once you find a solution?
  • We’ve calculated that our software can save you $X per year. Does this meet your expectations?
2. Authority

Those who conduct software research and gather quotes frequently don’t have a direct say in the choice that is made. Some of your leads may be only responsible for forwarding factual information. You can be wasting your breath if you spend a lot of time on leads who lack authority.

Your salespeople can ask leads the following questions to be sure they’re speaking with decision-makers directly, or at the absolute least, those who have the power to strongly impact a purchase decision:

  • Who is going to use our software?
  • Is there anyone else you would like to invite to our next meeting?
  • How did you make your decision the previous time you purchased a comparable item

Even if your contact isn’t a primary decision-maker or influencer, these questions can encourage them to put you in contact with the right person

3. Need

Determining the needs and pain points of your prospect can assist you in determining whether or not your software is a good fit. If not, they most likely won’t buy from you because your answer isn’t what they’re seeking for.

Their lifetime worth is generally not very high, even if they do end up buying something. Products that don’t satisfy customers’ needs over time aren’t regarded favorably by them. It’s best to provide priority to customers who can truly benefit from your goods and turn into devoted, long-term customers during the sales process.

To find out what your prospects require, you can enquire:

  • As a business, what are your top priorities?
  • What difficulties are you now dealing with?
  • Have you attempted any remedies? How have they performed so far?
  • What will happen if your current challenge remains unsolved?
  • What would ideally happen once you do resolve the problem?

Even if your contact isn’t a primary decision-maker or influencer, these questions can encourage them to put you in contact with the right person

4. Timeframe

You can close more quickly the more urgently your prospect needs something. This can assist you in achieving your objective of minimizing the length of your sales cycle. As long as you keep them interested, a lead with an urgent need will go through the SaaS sales funnel more quickly and spend less time investigating your rivals.

However, your prospect can be a very well-qualified lead if their timetable is comparable to or shorter than the typical length of your sales process.

By asking inquiries such as these, you can ascertain the chronology of your prospect:

  • When do you want to see the solution implemented?
  • Do you have any objectives for the upcoming quarter that our solution might assist you in achieving?
  • Do you have any upcoming projects that our software can help streamline?
Pros and Cons of Using BANT

Most people agree that the BANT structure works well for B2B SaaS sales. However, while it could be an excellent methodology for sales qualification for some teams, it might not be the ideal choice for others. The benefits and drawbacks of BANT are weighed for you here

Pros BANT has three main advantages that might help your sales team adopt it.

1. BANT Saves Time for Your Team

Prioritizing the most pertinent leads will help your sales process flow much more easily. The BANT lead qualifying procedure efficiently eliminates leads that could seriously impede your sales cycle or serve as dead ends. Consequently, you can observe gains in SaaS KPIs such as your cost of customer acquisition since you

2. BANT Is Adaptable

There are many different types of B2B organizations that can use the BANT framework. You can tailor the queries you pose to your leads, regardless of the kind of software you sell. The four elements of the acronym BANT are important considerations for firms, even outside of the B2B sector.

2. BANT Is Adaptable

There are many different types of B2B organizations that can use the BANT framework. You can tailor the queries you pose to your leads, regardless of the kind of software you sell. The four elements of the acronym BANT are important considerations for firms, even outside of the B2B sector.

3. BANT Is Dependable

Salespeople have been using the tried-and-true BANT structure for many years. You may rely on it to assist you in identifying the most qualified leads.

Cons

BANT wasn’t precisely a modern lead qualification method when it was developed by IBM in the 1960s. For the following two reasons, BANT isn’t always the ideal option

1. BANT May Waste the Time of Your Prospects

Leads can thoroughly investigate your product online before contacting you thanks to modern technology. It’s likely that a lead you produce has already done a lot of research on your company through social media, search engines, and other channels.

BANT may focus more on saving your company time than on generating leads, which is counterproductive in a market that benefits greatly from consultative selling that is customer focused.

When posing inquiries, engage in active listening to steer clear of this pitfalls. Use prospects’ responses to assist them find the best solution for their needs as well, rather than just utilizing them to decide whether or not you want to work with them.

2. The Lead Qualification Process Is Not the Quickest Using BANT

BANT isn’t the fastest solution available, but it will save you time in the long run. These days, a lot of SaaS companies utilize sales management software that grades leads automatically according to how likely they are to make a purchase. You won’t need to interact with the lead qualification process at all thanks to this automation.

However, since you can take qualitative criteria into account, using the BANT process can help you score leads more accurately. For instance, a prospect might not be able to afford your product, but they might be open to making accommodations for the appropriate business.