What is marketing’s role before it hands off a lead to sales? Today marketers need to BAT, not BANT.
BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. These are things that marketing needed to identify before they could qualify a lead. Marketing could pass a lead on to sales if the lead or prospect had the right Budget, Authority to buy, Need for the product or service and an identifiable Time frame in which they would buy.
With today’s inbound marketing, marketers shouldn’t have to establish the prospect’s Need. That is because the nature of inbound marketing is that great content and a strong online presence attract buyers who already have a need. Buyers find your company, you don’t have to try to find them.
Marketing can qualify the level of Need as low level or critical , but if you’re doing inbound marketing right, marketing will spend less time here and more time verifying what Budget, Authority and Timeframe a prospect has.
It turns out others agree with me – see these articles and posts on the downfall and realities of BANT:
Why BANT no longer applies to B2B lead qualification
When BANT becomes AINT – the new realities of buying requires scoring refresh
Monday Marketing Term: BANT (note interesting survey stats)
Readers, what do you think? BAT? BANT? None of the above? Please comment below.
New Incite provides marketing consulting and services to help you succeed in attracting and qualifying prospects. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.
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