If you follow the Sales Prospecting Perspectives blog, you are aware that the subject BANT has been extensively covered, and the acronym has been deemed “dead.”
The sales term “BANT qualified lead” has become the bane of my existence since becoming an inside sales manager at AG Salesworks, a client-based organization. When it comes down to it, there are components of BANT that are valuable. Of course a sales rep would want to know a prospect’s Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe, but let’s be honest: despite how good the lead is, chances are that one or more of these components will be missing.
So I started asking myself: What is it I really want to know when I’m reviewing a lead from one of my sales reps, and how do I communicate that to a client to get them to modify their opinion of “BANT qualified?”