Sales qualification is all about gathering all the necessary insights to make a good judgment. That judgement will determine if, as a business you bid or do not bid. It will also ensure that you have the best possible opportunity at being successful in your bid.
In sales, there are no medals for second place.
Sales qualification should easily answer the following questions:
- Should I sell to a given prospect?
- What is the best course of action to close a deal?
- Is this prospect a good fit for your offer?
- Is it a viable sales opportunity?
- Is the prospect likely to pay?
- Are our businesses culturally aligned? This is important especially if you are in the business of solution selling.
There are multiple sales qualification frameworks. These assist in qualifying if an opportunity is worthwhile pursuing.
Below are some sales qualification frameworks that may be beneficial
BANT
BANT is probably the most commonly referred to sales qualification method. It is simple and can easily be used to determine if a prospect is a good fit for your businesses products / services. It is based on their four pieces of criteria:
- Budget,
- Authority,
- Need,
- Timeline
To use BANT successfully, all four characteristics need to be qualified. BANT can be applied in any particular order throughout a client conversation.
MEDDIC
Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion
MEDDIC requires sales reps to understand every aspect of a target company’s purchase process, down to whether you have an internal champion.
MEDDIC can be incredibly valuable for increasing forecasting accuracy, something that’s crucial for companies that sell at enterprise level. At enterprise level, losing just one deal can be crippling when each sale could be worth £millions.
You should consider using MEDDIC as a qualification framework if your company sells a product:
- That requires a transformation in behaviour.
- Where the average sales price is incredibly high.
Understanding exactly how a prospect buys, why they would buy and who’s championing you internally is crucial to maintaining an accurate pipeline.
ANUM
Authority, Need, Urgency, Money is an alternative spin on BANT. When qualifying using ANUM, a sales rep’s first priority should be to determine whether they’re speaking with a decision maker.
Need functions the same way as it does in BANT, but has been moved up in priority. Urgency correlates with Timing, while Money replaces Budget, but with subtle distinctions.
CHAMP
Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization is similar to ANUM but places Challenges ahead of Authority.
“Your prospect buys things because they have a challenge. Therefore challenges are the first fundamental part of sales qualification.”
CHAMP also defines Authority as a “call-to-action,” not a roadblock. If your initial contact is a low-level employee, you can safely assume they won’t be the decision maker. So ask your prospect questions that help you map out their company’s organizational structure” to determine who to reach out to next.
GPCTBA/C&I
Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority, Negative Consequences and Positive Implications was developed at HubSpot. Buyers come to the sales process increasingly informed, so salespeople need to add value on top of product knowledge to be worth speaking with.
But value isn’t something sales reps can just “add” — to truly act as an advisor, you must explore beyond the scope of the discrete problem that your product or service could solve. This means understanding a prospect’s strategic goals, their company’s business model, and how the specific issue you’re discussing fits into the larger picture of their professional life.
FAINT
Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing. FAINT is designed to reflect the fact that many purchase decisions are unplanned and thus won’t be associated with a set budget.
Like ANUM, reps using FAINT should look for organizations with the capacity to buy, regardless of whether a discrete budget has been set aside. FAINT also adds Interest into the mix. Interest is defined as “[generating] interest from the buyer in learning what’s possible and how to achieve a new and better reality than the one they have today.”
ProAptivity
ProAptivity are an independent CRM solution provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software provides the customers with the tools needed to grow bigger, faster and with more ease
If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM or Pipedrive CRM for more information.
ProAptivity are an independent CRM solution provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software provides the customers with the tools needed to grow bigger, faster and with more ease. We help organisations embed sales best practice throughout their organisation.
If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM or Pipedrive CRM for more information.
Contact us today on 028 9099 6388 or via info@proaptivity.com. We can help you assess if your business is CRM ready.
