Lead qualification can be a challenge at any point, but especially when youâre fortunate enough to have the leads flooding to you. You need to be able to balance handling the volume effectively without losing any leads, which means you need to quality and disqualify leads quickly. The BANT sales framework can help with that.
Smith.ai live agents have been successfully helping businesses qualify leads by using BANT and other sales frameworks since 2012. Read on to learn more about how BANT can help your business qualify leads more productively.
BANT is a sales strategy that breaks the sales qualification process down into four main categories:
As a sales rep engaging with potential sales leads, use questions geared toward learning more about each category to determine whether a lead is worth pursuing. In general, if your lead gives positive responses in three of the four areas, they are a quality lead worth pursuing.
When used correctly, BANT effectively and quickly qualifies leads to help shorten the sales cycle and save you time and money.
Use the BANT strategy with any new lead, whether itâs during a discovery call, follow-up calls, chat interactions, or emails. The earlier you start using it, the more efficient lead qualification can be.
Here are a few tips to qualify a lead using BANT:
Asking provocative questions and truly listening to the answers is key to the success of BANT. Weâve assembled some questions for each category to guide your conversation, but remember to avoid asking them in some sort of rigid or rapid-fire manner.
Budget questions can be hard to ask. But if youâre talking to someone who canât afford your product or service, it wonât matter how good the rest of your pitch is. Here are a few questions to ask to get a sense of your prospectâs budget:
Authority questions ensure you are talking to the person who has the authority to decide whether or not to move forward with your product or service. They may be the most important questions to ask early on in the engagement, since you want to ensure youâre not wasting your time (and theirs) talking to someone who canât move the project forward.Â
Donât be surprised if you end up talking to multiple stakeholders since most companies today use a committee to make decisions. Dealing with influencers can still be helpful, but ultimately, you need to know who the person is that will make a decision on whether or not they will buy your product or service.
These questions help you determine if your product or service can actually solve the leadâs problem. It can also help you tailor your sales pitch to their specific concerns and increase the likelihood they convert from a lead to a paying client.Â
Identifying whether a lead is ready to make a decision now or if they are still in the early stages helps you priotize your leads, build out your calendar, and determine how to move forward. If theyâre ready to buy now, you know your sales team needs to move fast, but if theyâre still early in the process, it might be better to focus on nurturing the lead rather than taking them directly to sales.
BANT is a successful lead qualification framework when itâs used correctly. Unfortunately, many companies make mistakes that limit its effectiveness, costing them leads and time.
It can be tempting to give up on a lead when the person youâre talking to gives you the brush-off. But keep in mind that you may have caught them at a bad time or they donât know the answer to your questions right then and there.
Instead of giving up, if a prospect isnât fully answering a question, steer the conversation back to one of the four pillars of BANT in a natural way. Continue to learn more by asking open-ended questions. If they keep shutting you down, consider ending the call nicely and trying back later so you can talk with someone else. Asking questions that begin with âWhy do you feel that way?â or âCan you help me understand this?â are more gentle approaches to digger deeper into BANT-related topics.
When you use BANT as a checklist, you end up with a call like this:
Sales: How much money do you currently have in your budget allocated to fix this problem?
Lead: We havenât finalized a specific number yet.
Sales: I see. And who will ultimately make the decision?
Lead: Our task force committee.
Sales: Great. It seems like your current solution isnât working for you.Â
Lead: Yes, thatâs right.
Sales: When do you plan to make a decision?
Lead: Weâre hoping by the end of the fiscal year.
Sales: Excellent. Would you like to schedule a follow-up meeting on Monday?
That lead is not scheduling a follow-up because the sales representative didnât take time to listen or ask follow-up questions.Â
For this reason, some sales professionals will tell you BANT doesnât work in our modern sales environment. But nothing says you have to ask the questions in the acronym order â it may actually be more effective to ask the questions in any order, as long as the conversation flows naturally.Â
Then you end up with a more successful call like this:
Sales: How much money do you currently have in your budget allocated to fix this problem?
Lead: We havenât finalized a number yet.
Sales: Thatâs fine. Do you have a ballpark or a number that youâve spent in the past?
Lead: I know in the past weâve spent about $50,000.
Sales: Thatâs great to know, thank you. Do you know when youâll have a more definite number?
Lead: Probably at the end of the fiscal year.Â
Sales: That makes sense. Who will ultimately make the decision about what product you use?
Lead: Our task force committee.
Sales: Thatâs great. Is there anyone on the committee that I should reach out to, or will you be the main point of contact?
Lead: Iâm the main point of contact for now, but there are five people on the committee who may want to see a demo as we move forward in the process.
Sales: We can definitely set that up in the future. In the meantime, would it be OK for us to set up a follow-up meeting on Monday?
Notice how the salesperson asks follow-up questions to get more information, but doesnât seem pushy. Thatâs the way BANT should be used in a sales call.
When you get a lead on the phone or in a chat, it might be tempting to dive right into BANT since the earlier you use it, the more effective it is at determining whether or not a lead is worth pursuing. But BANT only works for you â it doesnât do anything to help the lead get to know you better.
Remember to be conversational and empathetic, and then start asking BANT questions so you donât ambush the lead or make them feel ignored.
Keep it natural. Donât suddenly ask your lead about their timeline for solving the issue when youâve been talking about something else.Â
This is especially true for budget-related questions, since many leads will avoid specifics if they feel uncomfortable.Â
Companies today often rely on committees or task forces to make a decision, so you may have to talk to multiple people throughout the process. Unless the lead explicitly tells you they are the point person, you should plan on reaching out to other members of the team with authority to make a decision.Â
The BANT method can be a surface-level tool if you stop at the initial questions. For example, a client may tell you they have a certain budget, but once they learn more about your service or product, they may be willing to spend more.
Keep building your relationship with the lead and keep asking follow-up questions with an empathetic ear and without being pushy.Â
Consider combining elements of BANT with other lead qualification frameworks to increase your odds of success.
If you need guidance on implementing BANT sales practices or want someone to do it for you, contact Smith.ai. Our 24/7 virtual receptionists can tackle your outreach campaigns and live chats and handle your lead qualification using BANT.Â
Learn more about how Smith.ai can help you by booking a no-obligation appointment with us today. You can also try our outreach campaigns for added sales support..Â
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