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What Is BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) In Sales? – Let’s Find Out
Last Updated on: November 16th, 2024
BANT is a methodology of sales qualification. It consists of four stages, namely, Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing. This methodology of sales qualification helps sales development representatives evaluate whether a sales prospect is a good fit based on the stages of BANT. IBM first developed this framework in the 1950s to make the sales process more efficient.
In this article, you will learn about the BANT framework (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing). You will find out how the framework works for businesses. Then, we will discuss the stages of BANT. Finally, we will share with you the use of BANT in sales framework and processes. Hence, to learn more about BANT, read on through to the end of the article.
What Is BANT?
According to Indeed.com,
“BANT is an acronym that professionals in the sales industry use regularly. Its four letters stand for “budget,” “authority,” “needs” and “timeline.” It’s a B2B management process that helps sales professionals find valuable leads or prospects to pursue. Once a business identifies a lead or prospects using the BANT criteria, it can then prioritize sales leads and find those that are most likely to convert into long-term, loyal clients.”
IBM first developed this sales framework in the 1950s to make its sales process more efficient. Currently, the BANT is a part of the company’s Business Agility Solution Identification Guide. The process works well for IBM as well as other companies.
If you look from the perspective of the company, you can help your sales representatives to stay updated. They can learn all the useful information about whether a potential lead is a good fit for its products or even a single product. If the lead is not a good fit for the sales process, the sales team does not approach the lead.
BANT basically helped the company to quickly identify its leads. This made more time available for the sales team to cater to the qualifying leads as per the sales framework.
How Does The BANT Process Work?
TechTarget.com states that –
“Prospects that don’t meet enough BANT criteria can be placed by marketers into email nurture programs. This way, the sales team doesn’t pursue leads that are not ready to buy. Sales, on the other hand, can focus their time and effort engaging with prospects who meet the most BANT criteria, resulting in a higher likelihood of closing sales.”
B2B sales and marketing teams work together with the BANT framework to qualify the sales leads. They qualify based on BANT attributes. The team also qualifies to lead through BANT during the B2B sales process. This further helps the sales and marketing teams to work better and more efficiently.
The teams run a qualifying process for the prospects. The prospects that meet more of the BANT criteria are more qualified than the ones that meet less of the BANT criteria. For example, if a sales prospect meets all four BANT criteria, the sales team tries to contact the prospect as soon as possible.
On the other hand, if a prospect meets, say, two out of four criteria, the sales and marketing teams might place the prospect in an email nurturing program and sales messages. The target here for the sales team is to make the prospects meet the remaining criteria.
What Are The Steps Of BANT?
The following are the major steps of the BANT framework:
Budget
It shows how much money the prospect is willing to spend or able to spend. Businesses also allocate budget amounts while they purchase products and services. Hence, they also evaluate whether the stated budget amount of the prospect aligns with the company’s selling prices. This shows whether the prospect will really be able to buy the product/ service that the company offers.
Authority
In a sales scenario, a committee makes the purchase decisions. This committee comprises practitioners, business stakeholders, and technical stakeholders. Here, they all determine the degree to which the sales prospect influences the decision to make a purchase. The authority criterion returns zero in case, for example, a student is performing research.
Need
It shows whether the prospect has a need for the products and services that the company offers. The need must be active and ongoing in nature. Here, the company determines whether its product can address or provide a solution to the prospect’s need or not. The need criteria turn out to be zero if the prospect does not need the offerings.
Timing
Here, the timing criteria evaluate the period in which the prospect will make a final purchase decision. The value can be different for different prospects. For example, a prospect can make a purchase this week itself, while one needs to wait for at least six months. Both these values will be different.
Using BANT In The Sales Framework And Process
According to HubSpot,
“BANT is a significant part of the sales process because it helps sales reps qualify leads during the discovery call. Rather than waiting days or weeks to qualify leads using a score derived from the prospect’s behavior and engagement with marketing and sales materials, the sales team can get detailed information from the prospect about their budget, stakeholders, need, and timeframe.”
The following are the ways you can use the BANT sales framework:
1. Try to determine the budget of the prospect beyond the dollar amount.
2. Identify all the stakeholders who influence decision-making.
3. Find the problem and determine how important it is.
4. Create a sales timeline for the sales process.
5. Use multiple channels to retrieve information from various sources.
6. Track your progress. You can use many sales tracking tools and apps for the same.
Wrapping Up
Hope this article was helpful for you in getting a better understanding of how BANT works in sales. Here, a sales team determines the qualification of a prospect for purchasing a product or service that the company offers. The qualification is based on Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing. Do you have more suggestions on how to use BANT? Share your ideas with us in the comments section below.
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