The BANT Approach to Streamline Lead Generation

BANT is the standard approach to qualifying leads. Using the BANT method, lead generators, contractors, like VSynergize who can generate leads for you, or your sales staff can qualify a lead quickly and easily.

Budget:  Does the lead have the money to pay for your product or services? While there might be room to change the offering to meet the lead’s budget, this is the first place you can look to to understand if you have the right person.
For example, if you’re going to sell someone a diamond ring, it’s important to know if they can afford Tiffany’s or Walmart.

Authority: Does your lead have the equator to make decisions? An immense amount of time is wasted talking to the wrong people. Know that you’re talking to the decision-maker(s). If you’re not, it’s time to find that person and save yourself a lot of effort.

Need: Does the company need your product or service? This can be a bit problematic for some modern services. In many cases, the need must be “created” by pointing to the lead how your product or service will improve their business. If they don’t see the need, they’re not a lead.

Timeliness: Are they ready to buy right now? This timing can vary. If you’re trying to sell someone a multi-million dollar office building in Manhattan, the speed with which they’re going to make a decision is going to be different from the time it will take to make a decision about buying a two-bedroom house in the suburbs. Be clear that very often the buyer is not as motivated to purchase as you are to make the sale.

Start by asking about their needs and their business. If you launch right into how you want to sell them something, you might be barking up the wrong tree. For example, if you start trying to sell a saddle to someone who doesn’t own a horse, you’re going to look like a horse’s … behind.

Talk to the lead. Learn about them. Then you can ask the BANT questions.

There are several benefits to using BANT in your lead generation process, including:

• Improved lead quality: BANT can help you generate higher-quality leads by ensuring that you only pursue leads that have a budget, authority, need and timeline.
• Improved lead conversion rates: BANT can also help you convert more leads into customers by helping you focus your efforts on leads that are most likely to buy.
• Reduced sales cycle: BANT can help you shorten your sales cycle by helping you identify and pursue leads that are ready to buy.

There are several steps you can take to incorporate BANT into your lead generation process:

1. Define your criteria: The first step is to define what you consider to be a qualified lead. What budget, authority, need and timeline criteria do your leads need to meet?

2. Train your team: Once you’ve defined your criteria, it’s important to train your team on how to use BANT. This will ensure that everyone is using the same criteria when evaluating leads.

3. Implement BANT: The next step is to start using BANT in your lead generation process. This may involve changing the way you generate leads, as well as the way you qualify and pursue leads.

4. Track and measure success: Finally, it’s important to track and measure your success with BANT. This will help you determine whether BANT is working for your business and where you can make improvements.

BANT can be used in a variety of industries, including:

• Technology: BANT can be used to qualify leads for products like software, hardware and services.
• Financial services: BANT can be used to qualify leads for products like loans, credit cards and investment products.
• Healthcare: BANT can be used to qualify leads for products like insurance, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

There are several ways you can track and measure BANT success, including:

• Lead quality: Track the percentage of BANT-qualified leads that become customers.
• Lead conversion rate: Track the percentage of BANT-qualified leads that you’re able to convert into customers.
• Sales cycle: Track the length of your sales cycle for BANT-qualified leads.

BANT is a lead qualification framework that sales teams can use to determine whether a lead is worth pursuing. BANT helps sales teams qualify leads by taking into account four key criteria: budget, authority, need and timeline. By using BANT in your lead generation process, you can improve lead quality, lead conversion rates and shorten your sales cycle.

To learn how a lead generating team like VSynergize can use BANT to qualify your leads, contact us for a free consultation.