At Outbound Pharma, we feel very strongly about lead qualification and there is no hiding from this fact.
This is a massively important part of the sales cycle and it must be done very early in the process.
Lead qualification is simply a better way to deploy outbound campaigns. It allows you to pursue the leads who are most likely to purchase the product, saving you time and energy.
Here are more reasons why sales qualification is so important:
You can move on when the lead isn’t qualified and spend more time on the prospects who are more likely to buy.
You can focus on a smaller, specific segment of buyers, which can help you deliver a more personalized selling experience.
You can learn the ins and outs of the buyer’s challenges and deliver a better solution as a result.
You can guarantee that most of your activities lead to a positive impact in revenue.
You can create different sales qualification processes for different verticals and keep a list of pitches that still feel personalized.
There are several types of lead qualification frameworks. In this article, we will address only two of the most commonly used:
BANT
B = Budget, A = Authority, N = Need, T = Timing
The Old Faithful of sales qualification frameworks, BANT is used at a variety of companies and in a variety of industries. It has quite a rich history, starting off as the brainchild of the people over at IBM. It has grown in popularity because of its simplicity, but it does suffer from one infamous flaw: it’s seller-centric and tends to discard leads for the sake of high efficiency. It works well if you know that the buyer has bought a solution that is similar to yours or might be shopping for it in the future. In fact, it works if you are dealing with people with the budget to buy from you.
ANUM
A = Authority, N = Need, U = Urgency, M = Money
Developed by Ken Krogue, co-founder at InsideSales.com, ANUM is deceivingly similar to BANT, and it’s also seller-centric. It stands for Authority, Need, Urgency, Money. It’s also simple enough for an appointment setter to work with effectively.
Now, let's go through some of the similarities and differences, and why you might want to choose one vs the other. First of all, both BANT and ANUM have "Authority" and "Need" as qualification criteria; they also place more importance to Authority than Need. However, the ANUM framework adopted the word "Urgency" instead of "Timing", and the word "Money" instead of "Budget".
Authority
With ANUM, we can see that Authority is the first qualifying question. Whereas other frameworks prioritize budget or challenges, ANUM focuses on authority right off the bat before digging in any further. If the prospect that you’re talking to doesn’t have the capability to make decisions for a company, they don’t make the cut. The rationale is simple: sometimes it may be best to make sure that we are talking to the right person right from the get-go.
With BANT, Authority is downgraded by one spot. This is because one of the greatest obstacles to a prospect purchasing from us is their ability to pay, so BANT attempts to tackle the budget issue first before moving on to the other qualification questions. Whether or not the prospect is in love with our offering, it would make no sense to try and sell them something that they don’t have the budget for. They may be able to connect us to people with authority, if they are prequalified to have a budget for the solution that we are offering to them.
While it might seem strange kicking off your sales pitch asking if you’re speaking with the right person, sometimes it may be a whole lot less forward than leading with money (like with BANT). By starting with Authority, you learn quickly whether the lead you have is truly qualified. You respect your lead’s time as well as your own by saving the full pitch for people with more authority.
Questions to ask (examples):
Have you made purchasing decisions for products similar to ours in the past?
Whose budget does this purchase come out of?
Who else will be involved in the purchasing decision?
What internal objections do you anticipate encountering? How do you think we can best handle them?
Need
With ANUM, qualifying leads based on Need is the second most important criteria. You want to determine how their company functions and how you can fulfill their needs, either today or sometime in the future. When qualifying based on needs, make sure you consider what problems, bottlenecks, or roadblocks they are currently facing. Also, take into account if they are considering alternative solutions from what you’re providing.
With BANT, qualifying leads based on Need is also important, just like with ANUM. No major difference here.
Questions to ask:
What’s your biggest hurdle, and why do you feel it’s worth spending time on?
Tell me about the most pressing problem your team is facing right now.
How long have you been facing this problem?
What led you to seek out a solution now?
Urgency vs Timing
Here is where more subtle differences between the two methods show. With ANUM, Urgency is the qualifying criteria, not Timing. Urgency is a way to know how critical it is for your prospect to be able to solve a specific pain or problem. This is crucial because, once again, people are busy and we must understand more than their timelines and priorities – we want to know how urgent a solution is.
Questions to ask:
How urgent is this issue to you?
How quickly do you need help solving your problem?
What are the consequences of this not getting solved?
With BANT, Timing refers to the priorities that your prospect has. Does this time frame align with your own organization’s selling goals? By figuring out their timing and priorities, you can determine if the prospect may be considered a colder lead to be dealt with at a later time. Again, Timing is not quite the same as Urgency.
Questions to ask:
Are you evaluating any other similar products or services right now?
What else is a priority for you?
Do you have the capacity to implement this product right now?
Money vs Budget
With ANUM, Money is the least important parameter. It assumes that money is not as important as the other criteria – and that is because many companies don’t have a fixed budget for a specific product or service -or if they do, the decision-maker may have enough sway to secure additional budget. Not only that, by this time you will have developed some rapport with the prospect, and they’ve (hopefully) developed some trust in you. This can influence their willingness to spend money on your solution, making the money discussion easier to deal with.
Questions to ask:
Do you foresee any obstacles in terms of payments?
What is solving your current problem worth to your company?
I understand you may not have a budget for this, but do you anticipate any issues/internal friction to pay for this?
With BANT, Budget is the number one criteria. Money and budget sound the same but I see them as fundamentally different. Budget refers to whether or not they already have set aside a clear budget for a particular project, thus assuming that they already see the value in our solution or in solving their business pain. In most cases, clients don’t always already know they have a need, or don’t yet see the added value of your offering. Therefore, prospects may have money, but not a budget for it.
Questions to ask:
Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase? What is it?
Is this an important enough priority to allocate funds toward?
What other initiatives are you spending money on?
Does seasonality affect your budget?
Concluding: Qualify Leads Strategically with ANUM and BANT
Both ANUM and BANT provide structured approaches to lead qualification, enabling sales teams to prioritize their efforts and focus on leads with the highest potential to convert. By evaluating key criteria such as authority, need, urgency, budget, and timeline, businesses can streamline their sales processes, optimize resource allocation, and increase the likelihood of closing deals successfully.
Ultimately, the choice between ANUM and BANT depends on the specific needs and preferences of the organization, and some companies may even combine elements from both methodologies to create a customized lead qualification approach that suits their unique requirements. We suggest companies to find the right balance between these two to match their specific way of working.
Ready to take your lead generation to the next level? Contact Outbound Pharma, our expert team can help you implement the ideal lead qualification strategy tailored to your business needs. Reach out today!