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Qualifying prospects is a vital step within the gross sales course of. It retains you from spending time on alternatives which might be unlikely to transform. And helps you identify the place you need to prioritize your efforts.
It’s simpler mentioned than executed, after all. So how do you qualify leads? How do you identify if a prospect is an efficient match in your services or products?
Utilizing a gross sales qualification framework like BANT might help.
On this information, we’ll describe the BANT framework, together with what it’s and decide if it’s proper in your workforce. We’ll additionally make clear how one can implement this framework and supply an inventory of gross sales qualifying questions which you could ask.
What’s BANT?
BANT is a gross sales qualification framework that was initially developed by IBM. It helps gross sales groups qualify prospects and decide if they’ve a excessive likelihood of changing.
BANT is an acronym for:
- Finances: What’s the prospect’s funds?
- Authority: Have they got decision-making authority?
- Wants: What are their enterprise wants?
- Timeline: When are they trying to make a purchase order?
A prospect is taken into account viable in the event that they meet not less than three of the 4 standards. Nevertheless, if a prospect doesn’t meet the standards, the gross sales rep can comply with up later.
What makes the BANT gross sales qualification framework distinctive?
There are solely so many hours within the day, which is why you need your gross sales workforce to concentrate on essentially the most promising alternatives. This may assist enhance win charges and generate extra gross sales.
Right here’s how the totally different elements of the BANT framework assist with gross sales qualification.
Finances: Can they afford your answer?
Cash is a crucial think about any buying choice. If one thing is outdoors your funds, you need to both forego it altogether or think about different choices. The identical is true in your prospects.
A prospect must have the obtainable funds to be thought-about a purchaser. If they’ll’t afford your answer, they’re doubtless not match. By speaking about pricing early on, a gross sales rep can decide whether or not to maneuver on from a lead.
However don’t leap the gun too quickly.
A prospect might not have the funds now, however their circumstances may change. Likewise, for those who can justify the worth of your answer, you possibly can overcome pricing objections and persuade your prospects to purchase.
Authority: Are they a decision-maker?
Buying selections usually contain a number of stakeholders — some are gatekeepers who’re merely passing alongside data, whereas others have the ultimate say.
Studying extra about your prospects might help you identify if they’ve the authority to proceed with the subsequent steps or if you have to get others concerned.
Even when a prospect isn’t a decision-maker, they doubtless have some affect throughout the group, so don’t make them really feel undervalued. Construct belief along with your level of contact, and you’ll even flip them into advocates in your firm.
Wants: Does your answer tackle their wants?
The subsequent step within the BANT framework is to know your prospects’ wants. What challenges are they going through, and does your answer remedy them?
If not, you’d disqualify a prospect and transfer on. It’s higher to prioritize those that have an precise want in your answer as a result of they’re extra more likely to derive worth from it and switch into lifelong clients.
Timeline: When do they plan to make a purchase order?
The final BANT part is the timeline.
Prospects eager on making a purchase order quickly, have a better sense of urgency. By prioritizing these leads, you possibly can velocity up the gross sales cycle and shut extra offers.
Is the BANT gross sales qualification framework proper in your workforce?
BANT is a well-liked qualification framework, however what works for one firm might not work for one more. Weighing its professionals and cons might help you identify if it’s match in your gross sales workforce.
Let’s begin with the advantages of the BANT framework.
Professionals of utilizing BANT
One of many major advantages of the BANT framework is which you could apply it to totally different purchaser personas. You’ll be able to simply modify the questions and relate to the particular person you’re chatting with.
BANT can also be a versatile qualification framework. Whether or not you’re the pinnacle of gross sales for a Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup or an enterprise, you possibly can adapt the framework and proceed to refine it over time.
Lastly, following the BANT framework helps hold your workforce on the identical web page. This ensures your workforce follows the identical requirements when qualifying alternatives.
Cons of utilizing BANT
BANT was created within the Sixties, so it’s not precisely trendy. Whereas the basics are nonetheless intact, this decades-old framework falls quick in some areas.
Take the funds standards, as an example. Disqualifying a prospect as a result of they’re not prepared to purchase quickly may trigger you to lose the deal if their circumstances change (e.g., they obtain funding).
One other downside is that BANT is extra seller-centric. Gross sales reps aren’t constructing relationships or offering worth. They’re attempting to find out whether or not a lead is price pursuing, however this may be off-putting relying on how the questions are requested.
Whether or not you select to implement the BANT framework to qualify prospects is as much as you. But it surely does provide a confirmed methodology for figuring out high quality prospects.
Methods to use the BANT framework to qualify prospects (with questions)
Comply with the steps under to implement the BANT gross sales qualification framework. We’ve additionally included gross sales qualification questions you need to ask to shortly determine which prospects meet your standards.
1. Create an Superb Buyer Profile (ICP)
Not each prospect is the proper match in your firm. So how can you make sure that your reps are spending time on alternatives which might be extra more likely to shut?
That is the place an Superb Buyer Profile is available in — an outline of the kind of firm that may profit essentially the most out of your services or products. It aligns your gross sales and advertising groups and ensures that you just’re concentrating on the best prospects.
Step one when creating an ICP is to determine your greatest clients. Look by your CRM, gross sales intelligence platform, or no matter else you utilize to assemble this knowledge. You’re on the lookout for high-value clients who’ve been along with your firm a very long time.
Take a look at the record you created and determine widespread attributes. Take into account the next attributes to slender down your preferrred buyer:
- Trade/vertical
- Firm dimension
- Annual income
- Worker rely
- Geographic location
- Key challenges
- Expertise stack
This record just isn’t exhaustive by any means, however it does provide an awesome start line. If a prospect doesn’t suit your ICP, think about disqualifying them.
2. Decide your prospect’s funds
The primary BANT criterion is funds.
Understanding how a lot your prospects can spend is vital to qualifying them. It additionally helps you correctly scope a undertaking and handle expectations early on.
Nevertheless, discussing pricing will be tough. Asking prospects what their funds is straight away can scare them away as a result of it comes off as aggressive. Nevertheless, the longer you wait to debate pricing, your possibilities of closing the deal cut back considerably.
So when must you ask your prospects about their funds? Knowledge from our income intelligence platform exhibits that win charges are 10% increased when pricing is mentioned on the primary name.
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However timing issues right here.
You don’t wish to begin a gross sales name with a funds query and push your prospects away earlier than you’ve got an opportunity to construct a relationship with them.
We discovered that the highest reps focus on pricing about 38 to 46 minutes right into a name, whereas common reps carry up pricing a lot earlier.
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When you construct a relationship along with your prospect and get them to see the worth of your provide, you possibly can ask funds questions like:
- What sort of funds can we count on to work with?
- How a lot do you at present spend on this drawback?
- Have you ever tried different options? How a lot did they price?
- What sort of ROI are you hoping to see?
A majority of these questions show you how to gauge how critical your prospect is about shopping for and whether or not they have the means to.
3. Determine key decision-makers
The second BANT criterion is authority.
Ideally, you wish to work instantly with decision-makers or, on the very least, somebody who has a robust say within the closing buying choice.
Determination-makers are sometimes a part of the C-suite or top-level administration. They’ve the facility to maneuver offers ahead. If a prospect doesn’t have the authority to approve purchases, your subsequent precedence is to determine and join with a decision-maker.
Based mostly on knowledge from over 9,000 alternatives, we found that offers that didn’t contain a decision-maker had been 80% much less more likely to shut.
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The distinction was much more pronounced for enterprise offers with a gross sales cycle longer than 90 days and valued at over $100,000. These had been 233% much less more likely to shut when a decision-maker wasn’t concerned.
Listed here are authority-based questions you possibly can ask:
- Who might be utilizing our answer?
- What steps are concerned in approving a purchase order like this?
- What was the decision-making course of like final time?
- Do we have to invite anybody else to our subsequent name?
Asking these questions might help you identify if a prospect is a decision-maker or if you have to get others concerned.
4. Pinpoint your prospect’s ache factors
The third BANT criterion is, want.
Studying your prospects’ wants will show you how to decide in the event that they’re match. It’ll additionally show you how to tailor your gross sales pitch and place your services or products as the answer.
For instance, let’s say you provide an inside communication device.
A rep learns {that a} prospect struggles with retaining their workforce on the identical web page. Essential communications are sometimes missed, affecting deadlines and leading to sad clients.
If a rep determines that this prospect is an efficient match, they’ll place their software program as the answer by emphasizing the way it can hold communications centralized and arranged.
The important thing to uncovering your prospects’ ache factors is to ask open-ended questions. The “candy spot” for what number of gross sales questions you need to ask on a name is 11 to 14.
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Asking too many questions could make it sound like an interrogation whereas asking too few could make it exhausting to unearth sufficient ache factors.
Listed here are examples which you could ask to uncover ache factors:
- What challenges are you at present going through?
- What steps have you ever taken to deal with this drawback?
- How vital is addressing this drawback?
- What’s going to occur for those who don’t remedy this drawback?
Asking these questions provides you with extra details about your prospects and the extent of their issues. It’ll additionally show you how to decide for those who can truly meet these expectations.
5. Know your prospect’s buying timeline
The fourth BANT criterion is the timeline.
With out a clear timeline, you run the chance of an extended gross sales course of. Understanding when your prospect plans to purchase will show you how to handle expectations and plan your gross sales pipeline.
Earlier than asking your prospects about their timeline, take a look at the common size of your gross sales cycle first. This may rely on elements like your business, enterprise mannequin, and pricing.
For instance, a product that prices $10 a month could have a quicker gross sales cycle than a product that prices $1,000 a month. The latter will doubtless contain a number of stakeholders, which might lengthen the gross sales cycle by months and even longer.
As per HubSpot, the common gross sales cycle size for a SaaS product with an annual contract worth (ACV) of $5,000 or much less is 40 days. Nevertheless, it will increase to 170 days when the ACV is upwards of $100,000.
If a prospect has a buying timeline that falls at or under the common size of your gross sales cycle, they could possibly be an awesome alternative.
Ask these inquiries to get an concept of your prospect’s timeline:
- When are you trying to implement an answer?
- Does this buy have any time constraints?
- Are there any upcoming occasions that you just want this answer for?
- Do you’ve got any contracts or commitments for the same answer?
If a prospect has a buying timeline that exceeds your common gross sales cycle, you possibly can both disqualify them or comply with up at a later date.
6. Qualify your prospects and focus on the subsequent steps
For those who’ve adopted the BANT framework up up to now, you need to have every little thing you have to decide which prospects to push into your pipeline.
Keep deal momentum by discussing “subsequent steps” on the finish of a name or assembly. Examples can embody scheduling one other name or establishing a gross sales demo. When prospects decide to an motion, they’re extra more likely to comply with by.
Based on our knowledge, win charges are considerably increased when reps focus on the subsequent steps. It additionally results in a shorter gross sales cycle.
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Spend time setting and confirming the subsequent steps along with your prospects. This may rely on the place you’re of their shopping for course of. For instance, for those who’ve completed an introductory gross sales assembly, the subsequent logical step is to arrange a demo. On the finish of a name, you would possibly ask one thing like:
“I’m excited to point out you ways [feature] might help remedy [pain point]. Would you wish to go forward and schedule a demo now?”
At all times make certain to verify the subsequent steps to maintain the deal transferring. The very last thing you need is to have a misunderstanding derail a possible deal.
BANT vs. MEDDIC: What’s the distinction?
Whereas BANT is likely one of the extra well-established frameworks, it’s removed from the one one. MEDDIC is one other well-liked framework that gross sales groups use to qualify alternatives.
MEDDIC is an acronym that stands for:
- Metrics: Work out the metrics or quantifiable targets that matter in your prospects.
- Financial purchaser: Decide who has the authority to make selections.
- Determination standards: Be taught what elements your prospects use to guage purchases.
- Determination course of: Perceive the steps that prospects comply with to finalize a purchase order.
- Determine ache: Uncover the ache factors or challenges that your prospects are going through.
- Champion: Discover somebody who can act as an advocate in your firm.
For those who promote a services or products with a brief gross sales cycle, the MEDDIC framework can be overkill. Prospects gained’t have the persistence to take a seat by the road of questioning required to study their processes. BANT can be higher on this case.
Nevertheless, for those who provide technical or advanced merchandise with longer gross sales cycles, think about implementing the MEDDIC framework. However make certain to get our 26 MEDDIC questions first and study the precise questions you possibly can ask to determine promising prospects.
Get our gross sales qualifying questions and increase your win charges
One of many greatest challenges that reps face is figuring out the best prospects. With out correctly qualifying them, the reps danger spending helpful time on prospects who’re unlikely to transform.
So how do you make sure that your workforce is specializing in the best patrons?
By asking the best questions.
Click on right here to obtain our gross sales qualifying questions. You’ll get an inventory of qualification questions that cowl your complete shopping for journey. It’s 100% free.
Prepared for some BANTer?
To shortly recap, BANT entails qualifying prospects primarily based on 4 standards: Finances, Authority, Want, and Timeline. A prospect solely wants to satisfy three of them to be thought-about validated.
In fact, when you qualify a prospect, your job isn’t over but. You’ll want a solution to handle your pipeline if you wish to shut extra offers and to try this, you’ll want the best instruments.
Request a demo to see how Gong’s gross sales software program helps you achieve full visibility into your pipeline and unlock extra income.
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