Why BANT is Important for Lead Nurturing
Do you know why BANT is important for lead nurturing? In order to have success at lead nurturing, companies sometimes include a BANT score within their lead scoring system. Those companies that do not include a BANT score are missing a critical component to having a successful lead nurturing system. Throughout the history of sales, leads have been lost for various reasons: they get ignored, discarded or lost. Or they miss the mark because the audience doesn’t fulfill four key components of a quality lead:
- Budget – It’s important that a lead has the capacity to pay for your offering. This doesn’t necessarily mean they should be able to pay immediately; however, there has to be a reasonable expectation that the cost of your offering can be included a lead’s budget within an adequate timeframe.
- Authority – Who is the intended audience for marketing messages and sales contacts? If it doesn’t include decision-makers or subordinates, then money is likely being wasted. Touchpoints should be directed at the most effective buying authority possible. Although primary decision-makers are often the best targets, subordinates who can obtain authority directly from decision-makers can be effective lead nurturing targets as well. At times, buying influencers can be an appropriate audience, but you can expect a longer sales cycle for the prospective buyer.
- Need – Leads must acknowledge that there is a need for what you offer before they will buy. There are two types of need: current and anticipated. While lead nurturing, it’s important to determine the timing of a prospect’s need for your offering; therefore, “uncovering” the need for your solution is critical. Keep in mind, a need is not always recognized by your prospects, so your lead nurturing system should include ways to prompt need recognition. For example, within industries such as emerging technologies leads often have to be convinced there is a need to improve current operations and be educated about a solution before a decision-maker will consider a purchase.
- Timing – If a lead is not ready to buy, sales attempts will probably not be successful; therefore, it’s important to connect your sales department with a lead at the most appropriate time (usually after Budget, Authority, and Need have been addressed). Contacts throughout the lead nurturing process should be scheduled in order to advance the lead through each stage of the sales cycle. For example a direct response offer is often not appropriate for a lead entering your nurturing pipeline.
So the impact of addressing BANT during the lead nurturing process cannot be overestimated. Using lead scoring is one way to qualify leads against your criteria such as BANT. If you would like to learn about more ideas to bolster your lead nurturing or lead qualification process, contact Lead Liaison for a free consultation.
