Why Sales People Should Use BANTs

Guidelines for Your Salesforce and Pre-Sales Team

Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline (BANTs) generates buy-in from your salesforce and provides clear guidelines for your pre-sales team, enabling them to work together utilising that all important data.

 

Although you may trust in your carefully picked sales team to single-handedly take on the world, it goes without saying that making their life easier could provide a notable positive impact on their performance.

One of the biggest frustrations sales people have is the quality of the leads they are given. So how do you overcome this common complaint and support your sales team in converting more leads?

Using a BANTs guide, data may used to not only benefit the sales team but may also be used by the wider business. Harnessing your findings to read the market, track progress and future forecast.

Andy Martin

Written By: Andrew Martin

CCO, FormusPro

Using BANTs

Identifying Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline (BANTs) to highlight the hottest leads (pre-qualify) before being passed to your sales team, can effectively focus their efforts on those customers whose data shows the most readiness to buy.

Workflow can be setup so that leads cannot be qualified and passed to your sales team without meeting all of the criteria. If you don't already know how to set this up we can help.

Recording of data is the all-important first step in this process.

Use your CRM system to record each of the following.

 

Budget

Do they have budget!?

This may sound like a simple question but there is nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a sales pitch to find out they have no money or not enough for your product.

This is valuable time you could have spent elsewhere.

Your CRM can be configured to record either Yes/No to this question or ask for an actual amount of amount range before passing it to your sales team to follow up.

 

Authority

Are they authorised to make this level of decision?

You do not want to waste too much time speaking to someone who wants your solution but has no say, cannot influence others to its merits and will definitely not be able to sign on the line that is dotted!

Ways to identify if you are speaking to someone within the decision-making team. Be mindful of how the conversation is going and the information you receive back. The type of questions you ask will greatly improve your chances of identifying decision makers. A few suggestions could be: How does your [department, team, business] make buying decisions? Are there any other priorities or concerns from other stakeholders involved?... or just outright ask!

Your CRM system can be set up to make sure your customer services or call center teams have to ask these questions via the system.

This will not only make for consistency but highlight the decision maker, record other people in the organisation and note their level of influence.

 

Need

Do they NEED, or just want, your product?

One of the problems we have found at FormusPro is that a product can be almost too good!

Some businesses want a new ERP or CRM system simply because they have heard it will increase sales from a friend or read about how it can boost efficiency and turnover. In the cold hard light of day we affectionately refer to as reality, they might not actually need it as much as they want it.

This is why so much importance need to be paid to the qualification This issue will rear its head when you start to talk figures and close the deal. If they don’t actually need the solution you offer, they will struggle to justify it on an ROI basis and your sale will ultimately stall.

Information should be recorded against the record based on information gathered during qualifying.

 

Timeline

What is their timeline for buying?

All appears well; They have the budget, you are talking to the right person with the authority to make decisions and not only do they want your product or service, but actually need it! GREAT! Oh, but what’s this? They have a more pressing matter to deal with first or another project that needs to be completed before internal resource can be freed up.

Depending on your product or service, the buying timeline can vary significantly/ You need to work with your team to factor in sensible, achievable timescales when qualifying leads. CRM can easily record this information, either with an exact date or just a ballpark or this quarter or next. Based on this information even a lead that is not warm enough to pass to your sales team can have a task set to follow up in an agreed timescale.

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