BANT

Selling time is the scarcest resource on a sales team. Spending weeks on a deal that has no money, no decision maker, no real problem or no timeline loses revenue as surely as losing a sale. BANT forces an honest check early. It also gives marketing and sales one shared definition of "qualified".

• Agree in writing what counts as enough budget, real authority, a genuine need and an acceptable timeline for your offer. Revisit it when pricing or segments change.
• Ask for each directly but politely: whether funds are set aside, who else signs off, what pushed them to look now, and when they want it live.
• Start with need. Buyers who feel the problem usually find the budget, so budget questions asked first can end a good conversation too early.
• Log the answer for each letter in the CRM before a deal can move to the next deal stage, so qualification is consistent and not left to gut feel.
• Each quarter, compare closed deals with their BANT answers and adjust the bar to match what predicted a win.

BANT is a short checklist a salesperson uses to decide whether a lead is worth pursuing. It is usually credited to IBM and is one of the oldest sales qualification methods. The four letters are:

• Budget: is there money available, or can it be found, for something like this?
• Authority: does this person decide, or influence the decision, and who else must agree?
• Need: is there a real problem that the offer solves? See pain point.
• Timing: is there a reason to act now, and when does the buyer need it live?

• Treating it as an interrogation. It works as a conversation, not a form read aloud.
• Rejecting a lead with a strong need only because the budget is not set yet.