To BANT or Not To BANT…

Swipe Left or Swift Right…it’s a tough decision Mr. Bant got to take. Let’s go one scene back.

Mr. Bant is a charming man who has his own guidelines that he lives and breathes. He is of a day and age where going to a Charity Benefit without a date just looks sad. His colleagues insisted that he register on Tinder. Click, click, click..he goes.

The choices are galore. He is overwhelmed. A mere picture of a pretty face means nothing to him. He wants to date someone where intents align.
Mr. Bant has a friend Dr. Andrew Ng( Yea! The insanely intelligent mind behind revolutionizing online education through Coursera). Bant barges into his Stanford University Computer Science Room 156. There was this another young suave gentleman in the room. He was fixated on the ceiling lights, lost in thoughts. Mr. Bant at once recognized him to be the person who humbly calls himself the “Accidental Evangelist”. Mr. Sangram Vajre, a kickass marketing guru, seemed delighted at the intrusion. Bant blurted out, “I need a date. I need it for my Charity Benefit tomorrow”.

Andrew yawns, “ Are you really going to that thing? You know it is bow-tie right”.
He looked amused.

Bant rolled his eyes, “Cut the joke! Please help me”.

Andrew sits up straight. He said, “Meet Mr. Sangram Vajre. He is”.

“Of Course! I know who he is!! How much out-of-date do you think I am !!” gushed Bant.

Sangram had been enjoying the friendly banter between the two friends. He chimed in, “ Tinder away Mr.Bant. Let’s just shortlist a few and then take it from there.”

They poured their heads into the giant iMac. After hours of deliberation, they narrowed the list to two- Ms. Lead and Ms. Prospect.

“How do we decide?”, asked Bant, looking even more confused than a few hours back.

Sangram laughed out aloud. He knew very well where the conversation was headed.

Andrew asked, “ Do you have specific criteria in mind?”

Bant replied, “ For starters, I am on a limited Budget. I am already shelling out for an evening attire. I would enjoy going out with a woman, who is an independent thinker and can keep a conversation alive for more than 1 minute. Can we please hurry? I need someone by tomorrow evening”.

Sangram started scribbling in a notebook. “Bant!!! He yelped! You have come up with something really exciting. You have the Budget, even though limited. You need someone with Authority. Clearly, you have a  need. Well, not sure if you can get hold of her by tomorrow.”

Andrew was seeing how it was all shaping up. “BANT Criteria eh?”

Bant looked curious. He was quick to connect the dots. “B for Budget, A for Authority, N for Need and T for Timeline. Bingo!!”

Andrew floated the idea of weighted averages to bring more clarity to BANT CRITERIA. Clearly, he and Sangram were in a different dimension now of scoring leads for B2B marketers.

How to use BANT Sales Methodology to qualify leads:

Let us assume a target account, Alpha, from the pharmaceutical industry. The pursuer is a marketing analytics company. There are a few important questions to answer while pursuing Alpha.

What industry does Alpha belong to?

Pharmaceuticals.

Do they have money to spend on software/analytics?

Oh! Yes. Their revenue is encouraging enough.

When do they go to market?

When they have FDA approvals for manufactured drugs.

Do they have a marketing team?

Yes. They are very focused on Account-based marketing, data-driven marketing, SEO, Google AdWords, LinkedIn AdWords. Outdated CRM is the reason they feel inhibited from reaching full potential.   They aspire to be the best Pharma company in the world. Looks like missing decision maker attributes in their CRM is the only bottleneck right now.

Would Alpha want to make a decision soon or just wait to be reborn?

Yes, they need a solution to fix their problem now.

Does the pursuer know someone of authority in Alpha, who would be interested in closing the deal?

Yes, Mr. Go-Getter Decision Maker, CMO of Alpha.

Alpha has the Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline. It makes Alpha a BANT Qualified Lead and it is worth going after. To give your sales funnel that much-needed boost, BANT Sales Methodology can not only save you time but also help you focus right.

Back to Scene:

As Sangram and Andrew were lost in calculations and brain-storming….

“Guys, I think I found my date. She meets the BANT Criteria. I am definitely swiping right for Ms. Prospect. She is definitely an independent thinker who does Web freelancing. The timing couldn’t be more perfect since she relocated here for work last month. Let’s just say you two saved me a heartache of being misled. See what I did there. Ms.Lead and misled.”, Bant chuckled.

Andrew and Sangram nodded dismissively at Mr.Bant’s play with words. They were only too happy to have found their friend a date.