Everything About the BANT Framework

Even though the BANT campaign is not a new term for B2B marketers, a few of them find it challenging to design and execute this presales approach. In this article, let us find everything about the BANT framework.

BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe. This B2B marketing framework is an effective strategy for qualifying prospects and strengthening the sales leads funnel. The BANT lead qualification approach is a perfect way for marketers to analyze the prospects to determine if the prospect is a good fit based on the ideal buyer’s persona and to what extent the prospect meets all four BANT criteria.

Marketing and sales teams of B2B enterprises leverage BANT campaigns in their operations to qualify leads. Presales and sales managers that embrace the BANT lead qualification approach enable them to work efficiently and strengthen their sales cycle. Revenue operations leaders can forward BANT-qualified leads to the sales team to close the deals, and leads that do not meet the BANT criteria can be forwarded for lead nurturing for engagement. It is a practical approach because the sales reps do not focus on prospects who are not ready to buy immediately. Working in real-time on prospects meeting the BANT qualification parameters will help to improve the conversion rate.

BANT Formula

Qualifying leads based on whether the prospect meets more BANT parameters will be high-quality. For instance, if the qualifying lead meets all four BANT parameters, the sales team should interact with them in real-time. Following is the BANT formula that B2B enterprises need to be aware of and make the most out of it:

• Budget

Enterprises have specific budgets to buy new products and services to streamline their operations. B2B tech vendors should consider prospects’ budgets as a crucial criterion while evaluating the prospect because the prospect should have the allocated budgets that align with the prices of the vendors’ products and services.

• Authority

B2B purchase and sales cycles are complicated, long, and with multiple decision makers involved in the process. The decision-making process will involve various subject matter experts and business and technical stakeholders to make accurate decisions. It becomes essential for businesses to identify the decision makers’ “authority” responsible for influencing or making decisions. Businesses should be able to find the person with decision-making capabilities or the purchasing decision-making authority.

• Need

Marketing teams should consider the pain point or “need” as a crucial parameter because it defines the sales conversion rates. Before approaching the company, businesses must determine if the prospect is looking for a product or service like yours to overcome their current operational challenges. If the enterprise does not look for a solution like yours, the chances of sales conversion are zero.

• Timeframe

In a B2B setting, businesses mostly have vendor lock-in and must complete the lock-in before breaking the contract. Or there is a huge possibility that they are looking for a product or service after a while. Hence B2B technology providers need to consider the “Timeframe” criteria while qualifying BANT leads. Vendors must clearly understand the timeframe required for businesses to make final purchase decisions. This BANT parameter is a decisive criterion for approaching the client immediately for sales or putting them in the lead nurturing pipeline to keep them engaged.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Embracing BANT Campaigns

B2B enterprises widely use the BANT framework to improve the sales cycles of their tech or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products and services. This marketing strategy is an effective lead qualification process for the sales team, but it might only work for some companies. Let us weigh the benefits and drawbacks of leveraging the BANT framework:

Benefits

Designing and implementing BANT campaigns has three essential benefits that make it a perfect fit for the sales cycles:

• Reduces the Time

Marketing and sales teams that focus on the most relevant leads and help to ensure a smooth and efficient sales process. Budget, authority, need, and timeframe marketing strategies help the presales teams to eliminate the prospects that might be bottlenecks to the sales cycle. The BANT framework effectively enhances marketing metrics like reducing Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). These results are possible because your sales team will not concentrate on convincing leads that aren’t a good fit for the ideal customer persona.

• BANT campaigns offer flexibility

Various B2B tech enterprises can leverage this marketing approach to improve their conversion rates irrespective of their software products or services. You can frame customized BANT questions based on your technology products or services to qualify leads.

• Reliability

BANT campaigns have been effective B2B marketing strategies for businesses for ages. This marketing approach is reliable for identifying high-quality leads and focusing efforts on them.

Drawback

Even though the BANT framework has delivered consistent results for various enterprises for ages, there are more modern approaches to qualify leads. Let us look at the two crucial drawbacks of budget, authority, need, and timeframe.

• Can Consume Your Prospects’ Time

B2B purchase journeys are tremendously evolved, and businesses do a tremendous amount of research and development (R&D) before they make a purchase decision. Before businesses complete the BANT approach, there is a tremendous possibility that the prospect has done their R&D on your products and services using social media, search engines, and others. This B2B marketing approach will assist vendors in saving time rather than helping the leads, which can tremendously hamper the customer experience. It isn’t an ideal marketing strategy in an industry that depends on customer-focused selling.

• Time-Consuming Lead Qualification Process

BANT framework helps vendors to reduce time, but it isn’t a practical solution in the long run. Various businesses might have other modern processes to qualify leads for their sales funnel, which are short and easy to execute.

The success of your BANT campaign

Enterprises need to design customized BANT questions to ensure success. Moreover, businesses need to educate their BANT lead qualification teams to be active listeners, understand the customers’ pain points, and assist them accordingly. It is crucial to empower the presales teams rather than focusing on using the prospects’ answers to determine whether or not to work with them; they need to use the prospects’ answers to offer a relevant solution for their pain points. OnDot Media can be your reliable partner to execute a successful BANT campaign based on your needs. We have expertise in delivering successful BANT campaigns that gather high-quality leads.