Last week I introduced you to a sales technique called BANT. As a reminder, BANT stands for the following.
- Budget
- Authority
- Need
- Timing
These are the four characteristics you need to make sure your lead has, otherwise you don’t stand much of a chance of making a sale.
As a quick summary:
Budget: they need to have the money
Authority: they need to have the authority to contract the sale
Need: they need your product/service
Timing: they need your product/service now.
Last week I went over what each of these four characteristics involves and how important it is that you get this information out of your leads. But just how do you do that? That’s the topic of today’s article.
How to get people to open up
So, just how do salespeople go about getting people to open up about the BANT qualities? It’s pretty simple—they ask them!
That’s right, they come right out and ask. Sticking with our example from last week, where the salesperson was trying to sell courier services to a law firm, here are a few samples of what that salesperson might say.
Budget: “Do you currently use a courier?” (If the answer is yes, that means they must have some budget for this service).
Budget: “Are you on a pay-as-you-go basis, or do you have a monthly contract?” (If they are on a pay-as-you-go basis, and you have a monthly discount package, then you might have an in if it saves them money.)
Authority: “What’s your role here?” (You are looking for a job title).
Authority: “Are you in charge of courier services?” (If they say no, then ask to speak to the person who is in charge of it.)
Need: “Do you use couriers?” (If the answer is no, move on to another lead.)
Need: “How many times a week do you use a courier?” (If they say only about once a month, then they are not going to be the best lead, but if they say “about 5 times a day” then they are probably worth going after.)
Timing: “Do you currently have a courier service?” (If not, then your timing might be perfect! If the answer is yes, then you can probe further: “Are you on a yearly contract?”
Timing: “When would you be ready to make a decision?” If they say, “Not until next March”, then you can follow up with them closer to that time.
Some of you right now are probably feeling shocked—such direct questions! Yes, and that’s the way salespeople do it. Now, they don’t just blurt them out, there’s a bit of chit chat and directing of the conversation. And the answers to the questions might come out over the period of a few conversations. But the sooner you know the answers, the sooner you can decide whether the lead is worth pursuing. And that is one of the keys to business survival.
Tips
- A general rule of salespeople is to only pursue those leads that you have a reasonable chance of selling to. That’s because there are only so many hours in a week, and the more hours that you spend talking to people who are never going to buy, the more opportunities you miss to speak to people that might actually buy.
- When speaking to potential clients, always think in terms of getting answers to the BANT questions.
- For budget, if they don’t have the budget now, try to find out if they might have the budget in the future (say next fiscal year) and follow up with them then.
- For need/timing, if they don’t need your product/service, try to find out why not. Sometimes they don’t need your product now, but their situation may change. For example, perhaps the law office doesn’t need your courier service now because they are under contract with another company. In such a case, pry further to find out when that contract ends.
- Develop a rating system for leads. For example, you might give one point for each of the BANT qualities they have. So someone with all of the qualities would score 4/4. Then make it a priority to follow up on any leads that score 4/4.
- When selling to individuals, remember that authority is typically divided equally between couples—they both have authority. That, however, doesn’t mean you can talk to either one. What it means is that you have to talk to both at the same time. There’s no point convincing one to buy, if that person just has to “get back to you” because they need to check with their spouse or partner. What often then happens is that they want you to go through the whole spiel again with the second person present this time, and that is not a good use of your time. So when you have your sales meeting, make sure both are present.
- A similar point can be made for working with businesses. If there are two people in charge (perhaps two partners, each with equal decision making power) then you want to pitch to both at the same time.
Moving Forward with BANT
I can’t stress enough how important a sales approach like BANT is. You have to always keep in mind that sales don’t just happen on their own—you have to make them happen! And in order to do that, you need to learn something about sales. BANT is pretty standard: most salespeople do it in some form or other.
But many people I work with are intimidated when it comes to learning and using sales techniques. So I suggest you get started by trying just one BANT related question on your next lead. The truth is, the more you do it, the more comfortable it will become for you.
