Better than BANT: How Identifying Needs and Pain Points Translates to Greater Sales

All marketers think about how to qualify leads who are most likely to buy and disqualify the leads that probably won’t. This is the precise reason that IBM created the BANT system for their sales team about 18 years ago. It is simple, and it worked for them at that time. Candidly, it is tough to argue the point that a lead that is fully BANT qualified wouldn’t be at the top of the list for your sales team. Reality is, they shouldn’t be and here is why. Buyer behavior has evolved, and prospects expectations have changed, but BANT remains frozen in time.

A BANT lead claims to get the key information a salesperson needs to make a sale. But reality is that simply checking a box or selecting a value from a dropdown menu to get information about budget, authority, need and timing does not always translate to a sale. The fact is the BANT information could be incorrect. And if it happens to be accurate, it is probably too late in the buying process for that buyer since they may very well be engaged with other vendors. Additionally, if you focus only on BANT qualified leads, you are probably missing out on some very high value leads.

In fact, a fixation on BANT alone can lead to disappointing conversations between sales and prospects because there just isn’t enough context to have a productive conversation. The result is a conversation that is a mismatch between the two parties (prospect and seller), and your so-called BANT-qualified lead is now a wasted lead-while you have been ignoring others.

Be Thoughtful: Focus on Need and Pain Points

Prospects are human beings, and like most people, they are more attentive to messages and conversations that understand their pain and are empathetic to their needs. Therefore, it is in your best interest to extract such information so the conversations between your sales teams and prospects are richer, more consultative and solutions oriented.

Insufficient information around pain points and compelling need is turning out to be a bigger reason why prospects don’t turn into customers.

The primary reason behind this is the lack of information around need, pain points or challenges. Activate has run many successful programs that are focused on uncovering need and pain points, and this expertise has delivered strong pipeline for our customers.

But What about Budget?

Sales is eager to ask questions like these: What about budget? Do they have it? And tell me, do they have buying power and a timeframe that fits my organization’s sales qualification requirements?

When prospects have pain, they are able to secure the budget to purchase a solution. Prospects will resolve the problem on the timetable that suits them best (not your timetable). And you always want to engage with decision makers or influencers who have the power to bring that solution in-house.