BANT.

BANT is one of the oldest and best-known frameworks in sales. It is usually attributed to IBM, which used it to qualify business customers. The idea is simple: before anyone invests time in quotes, demos or visits, they clarify four questions. Is there a budget? Am I talking to the person who decides, or to someone who can reach them? Is there a real need that our offer solves? And when is a decision or implementation due?

In practice BANT serves as a checklist for the step from marketing qualified lead to sales qualified lead. Marketing supplies a contact who fits the profile. In the first call sales checks the four points and decides whether the opportunity goes into the sales pipeline. Automated lead scoring can provide clues about need and urgency, but budget and authority usually only emerge in conversation.

BANT has limits worth knowing. Many customers have no fixed budget at the outset because they first want to know what a solution costs. Filter them out strictly and you lose good opportunities. In larger organisations a committee, rather than one person, usually decides. And sometimes the need has not yet been recognised. Variants have therefore emerged that put need first or add points such as the decision process and decision criteria.

For small businesses BANT is still a good starting point because it is short and easy to remember in any conversation. It makes sense to weave the questions into a normal first call rather than fire them off like an interrogation, and to record the answers in the CRM. A missing criterion is not a reason to drop a lead but a pointer to what remains open. Over time your own data will show which of the four questions really decide between a win and a loss for your offer.