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What is BANT?
BANT is an acronym and a qualification framework that has been used for ages to determine whether a prospect is truly likely to become a successful customer. It can be used as a rubric or checklist for how to guide a call and make sure you’re investing your time wisely with prospects.
BANT was originally conceived by IBM as a way to identify a sales opportunity, and has been a qualification workhorse across most business sectors ever since: according to IBM, “sales opportunities are identified by speaking to prospects or clients to determine their business and solution needs through a standardized approach called BANT.”
BANT stands for:
Budget– What is the prospect’s budget?
Authority– Does the prospect have the decision-making authority/or are they an influencer?
Need– What is the prospect’s business need?
Timeframe– In what timeframe will the prospect be implementing a solution?
Here are examples of BANT questions that have routinely been used:
Budget
-Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase?
-Is this an important enough priority to allocate funds toward?
Authority
-Whose budget does this purchase come out of?
-How have you made purchasing decisions for products similar to ours in the past?
Need
-What challenges are you struggling with?
-What do you think could solve this problem?
Timeline
-How quickly do you need to solve your problem?
-Do you have the capacity to implement this product now?
For Funding Pros, BANT stands for:
Budget– What is the prospect’s capital pricing decision criteria? (How are they evaluating whether they can afford your solution or not?)
Authority– Does the prospect have the decision-making authority/or are they an influencer?
Need– What is the prospect’s business need/project/goal/Business Outcome?
Timeframe– In what timeframe will the prospect be looking to fund?
Here are examples of BANT questions for Funding Pros:
Budget
-Have you done any business funding in the past?
-What other financing for the business have you done?
Authority
-Are you the sole owner responsible for all key decisions?
-How have you made key decisions for programs similar to ours in the past?
Need
-What projects are you working on now?
-What do you need to achieve your outcome?
Timeline
-What date are you looking to fund by?
-Do you have the capacity to fund this project now?
For Funding Pros, BANT can be an effective qualification framework to efficiently drive calls and maximize our most precious resource: time. But it isn't the only tool available to us...
Happy Funding!
-FundingStrategist
https://fundingstrat.com
https://fundingstrat.com/quality-qualification-bant/
