BANT is a popular sales qualification methodology used by many businesses to prioritize and qualify Leads or Opportunities. BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. The BANT methodology helps sales professionals determine whether a potential prospect is a good fit for their product or service and whether it's worth investing time and resources in pursuing the sale.
Let's break down each element of the BANT sales methodology:
Budget: This refers to whether the potential customer has the financial resources to make a purchase. It's essential to understand their budget constraints early in the sales process to avoid wasting time on leads that cannot afford the product or service.
Authority: Inquires about the decision-making power of the lead. Knowing if the person you're interacting with has the authority to make buying decisions is crucial to avoid being stuck with someone who lacks the power to move forward with the purchase.
Need: Understand the prospect's needs and pain points. Determine if your product or service can address their challenges and fulfill their requirements. This step ensures that you are offering a solution that matches the customer's needs.
Timeline: Establish the timeline for making a decision or implementing a solution. Knowing the prospect's timeline allows you to prioritize your efforts and align your sales process accordingly.
Utilizing the BANT approach, sales teams can efficiently assess leads or opportunities and concentrate on those with a greater chance of transforming leads into accounts, contacts, and opportunities or advancing the opportunity further.
Swantide's Workflows for Tracking BANT on Lead or Opportunity Records:
If you want to start tracking BANT Fields on Lead or Opportunity records you can deploy these fields from the Swantide App. Let's breakdown each Workflow.
For Lead Records:
When deploying the "Track BANT Fields on Leads" Workflow, you will deploy the following fields into your Salesforce Environment on the Lead Object.
Field | Use Case |
Budget | Enter the Prospect's allotted Budget for your Product or Service |
Budget Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Prospect's Budget |
Is Decision Maker (Authority)? | Is the Lead you are talking to the Authority maker for the deal? Yes or No? |
Who is Decision Maker? | If the Lead is not the Decision Maker, then Link the Lead to another Lead that is the Decision Maker. |
Decision Maker Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Decision Maker. |
Need? | Is there a Need for your Service or Product. Yes or No. |
Need Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Prospect's Need. |
Timeline | What is their Timeline? A Picklist value set to 1 Month, 2 Months,1 Quarter, 2 Quarters, 3 Quarters, or 4 Quarters out. |
Projected BANT Timeline Date | Based on the Timeline you selected above, whats the realistic timeline to getting this Lead converted into an Opportunity? |
Currently Using/Competition | Long Text Area to capture who the current competition is or who's Service or Product they are using. |
For Opportunity Records:
When deploying the "Track BANT on Opportunities" Workflow, you will deploy the following fields into your Salesforce Environment on the Opportunity Object.
Field | Use Case |
Budget | Enter the Prospect's allotted Budget for your Product or Service |
Budget Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Prospect's Budget |
Decision Maker (Authority) | Who is the Decision Maker for the Opportunity (Lookup Field) |
Decision Maker Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Decision Maker. |
Need? | Is there a Need for your Service or Product. Yes or No. |
Need Notes | Enter in any notes regarding the Prospect's Need. |
Timeline | What is their Timeline? A Picklist value set to 1 Month, 2 Months,1 Quarter, 2 Quarters, 3 Quarters, or 4 Quarters out. |
Projected BANT Timeline Date | Based on the Timeline you selected above, whats the realistic timeline to getting this Lead converted into an Opportunity? |
Competition | Long Text Area to capture who the current competition is or who's Service or Product they are using. |