I often ask at events and workshops how many delegates have heard of BANT qualification as a technique in B2B Sales?
I am surprised at how few had heard of it, and therefore not actively using it. People are potentially missing out on a great hack for increasing sales and improving marketing campaigns.
When targeting your ideal clients, a lot of time is spent identifying who they are, their pain points and the solution you provide. Whilst this is invaluable in putting together a marketing campaign, including BANT would greatly improve it.
BANT stands for budget, authority, need and timing and all will effect whether a potential client buys from you or not.
B in BANT = Budget
Budget is a key consideration when targeting your ideal clients. It’s important that they can afford the services you are offering, as well as seeing the value in that investment.
It is useful to identify a range for costing your services – say £1,000 to £3,000 – and start the conversation there.
Most people are trying to get the best value for money so will aim for the lower end of your range but making the value of the higher end of the range clear can push sales in that direction.
Identifying the cost of your services can tie in with the ideal clients you are targeting as some groups (e.g., solopreneurs) may be too small to be able to afford it and others (e.g., multi-national corporations) may have expectations you are unable to deliver.
A in BANT = Authority
When targeting ideal clients, you have to know whether they are actually the ones who will be able to sign the sale off.
Knowing if you are speaking to the right person, or indeed where this person sits within the decision-making process will make a big difference to the message you bring.
Many decision makers are surrounded by staff who gather the information before presenting it to them, so asking “are you the decision maker?” isn’t the right question. They may not be the person to sign it off, but they could be the person who influences the final decision.
N in BANT = Need
Whilst you may believe your product or service is the answer to everyone’s problems you need to identify whether there is a genuine need.
The last thing you want is a potential client thinking you are offering a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
The key, is to get to know your target market, listen to their challenges and pain points and clearly identify whether your product is a ‘Need’ or a ‘Nice to Have’.
Neither is wrong but it will change the messaging of your sales and marketing copy.
T in BANT = Timing
They say timing is everything.
This is the final step in bringing your sales and marketing campaign together. You could speak to the authority figure, identify a genuine need and quote a workable budget but if the timing isn’t right then the sale won’t happen.
It can be difficult to get this right but researching the company can help perfect the timing. Do they work on a January to December or April to March year? Are they undergoing a take-over? Are they going through a structural re-organisation?
Pitching near the end of a financial year for example, isn’t likely to be successful with discussions being postponed to a later date.
Postponed conversations, however, aren’t wasted opportunities but they do result in repeated effort as teams change and time passes.
To fully define someone as a prospect all four sections of BANT need to be aligned. Sometimes this will be easy and other times it will take a little more organisation. If you would like to find out how BANT can help guide your marketing and sales conversations book a quick chat with Su today.
If you would like help with applying the DISC Car theory to your ideal client profiles and marketing strategy email or book on the link below