isions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product

One of the things that salespeople talk to me the most about is qualifying sales leads correctly. Many people have challenges with their pipelines, which I find to be quite interesting. They have a lot of opportunities in the pipeline that are either taking far too long close, they have a low closing ratio or they cannot get return calls anymore (aka the customer has lost interest). This is why I use a sales tool called BANT. Whenever I am prospecting for opportunities or new clients I will use BANT to determine if the opportunity is a legitimate sales lead or that it will turn into an eventual sale. BANT stands for Budget, Authority and Time frame. I will qualify BANT with a customer with the following questions:

If we are able to show a return on this project, do you have the budget to move forward? If they answer yes to this question, I will proceed to ask a number of open ended questions, such as: Who besides yourself would have to sign off on this agreement? With this question I am trying to quantify the process of getting a purchase order, without coming out and asking about the order directly. If they tell me that they do not have the budget for this project. I would ask them what sort of returns they would need in order to free up budget from another department (cost center, project, etc) to fund the project. If they tell me they would not be able to do that, I would then ask, what would be the requirements to get the project in their next fiscal budget cycle, when that budget cycle is, etc.

The Authority portion of BANT can actually be a little bit more challenging. Many people (especially if you are dealing with people who are low in the organization or in certain departments like purchasing) do not want to admit that they do not have the power to make a decision. I will try the same approach as with the Budget question to begin with.Who besides yourself would be involved in this decision? If they are open and give you some names, I would then begin to negotiate access to those other people. After all you want to make sure that everyone involved in the decision has firsthand information from you on the details of your proposal. If they did not give names (or say they do), I would then start to ask questions that were less around their power to make decisions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product

l turn into an eventual sale. BANT stands for Budget, Authority and Time frame. I will qualify BANT with a customer with the following questions:

If we are able to show a return on this project, do you have the budget to move forward? If they answer yes to this question, I will proceed to ask a number of open ended questions, such as: Who besides yourself would have to sign off on this agreement? With this question I am trying to quantify the process of getting a purchase order, without coming out and asking about the order directly. If they tell me that they do not have the budget for this project. I would ask them what sort of returns they would need in order to free up budget from another department (cost center, project, etc) to fund the project. If they tell me they would not be able to do that, I would then ask, what would be the requirements to get the project in their next fiscal budget cycle, when that budget cycle is, etc.

The Authority portion of BANT can actually be a little bit more challenging. Many people (especially if you are dealing with people who are low in the organization or in certain departments like purchasing) do not want to admit that they do not have the power to make a decision. I will try the same approach as with the Budget question to begin with.Who besides yourself would be involved in this decision? If they are open and give you some names, I would then begin to negotiate access to those other people. After all you want to make sure that everyone involved in the decision has firsthand information from you on the details of your proposal. If they did not give names (or say they do), I would then start to ask questions that were less around their power to make decisions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product

have the budget for this project. I would ask them what sort of returns they would need in order to free up budget from another department (cost center, project, etc) to fund the project. If they tell me they would not be able to do that, I would then ask, what would be the requirements to get the project in their next fiscal budget cycle, when that budget cycle is, etc.

The Authority portion of BANT can actually be a little bit more challenging. Many people (especially if you are dealing with people who are low in the organization or in certain departments like purchasing) do not want to admit that they do not have the power to make a decision. I will try the same approach as with the Budget question to begin with.Who besides yourself would be involved in this decision? If they are open and give you some names, I would then begin to negotiate access to those other people. After all you want to make sure that everyone involved in the decision has firsthand information from you on the details of your proposal. If they did not give names (or say they do), I would then start to ask questions that were less around their power to make decisions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product

chasing) do not want to admit that they do not have the power to make a decision. I will try the same approach as with the Budget question to begin with.Who besides yourself would be involved in this decision? If they are open and give you some names, I would then begin to negotiate access to those other people. After all you want to make sure that everyone involved in the decision has firsthand information from you on the details of your proposal. If they did not give names (or say they do), I would then start to ask questions that were less around their power to make decisions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product

isions and move onto more questions that are related to process.

What is the evaluation process you will go through? Is there a committee of people who would evaluate this service or product? I would ask a serious of open ended and closed ended questions to make sure that I understood fully whether this person could make the decision alone or not before moving on. Timelines are often a missed opportunity when it comes to BANT. A lot of people will ask something to the effect of, what is your timeline to make this decision? Or when do you need delivery of the product if successful? I think this is a missed opportunity and can lead to major frustrations if not explored fully. I would begin by asking the actual timeline question, but I would then follow that up with a serious of questions that are geared towards understanding what may delay the process. Questions like: What are your costs (loss opportunity, penalties, etc) if this project does not finish by the timelines? Are there other priorities (hey I’m fishing for other opportunities here too) that could bump this timeline if they become more important or miss their current deadlines? I have found over the years, that whenever I have challenges with opportunities in my pipeline that it usually means that I forgot to correctly identify BANT or a component of it. This is simple to rectify with a few phone calls or quick meetings, you can go in and get those sales opportunities back on track and moving towards closure and greater commissions. Although BANT is a simple concept it takes practice and discipline to make it easy.