Drowning in Alphabet Soup

BANT
MEDDIC
MEDDPIC
CHAMP
SPICED
GPCTBA/C&I (Seriously – what?)
FAINT
ANUM
NEAT

…and I could go on – but I won’t.

These are all different lead qualification frameworks and they are the north star of the consummate sales professional.

However, there’s a problem with that…the star is so bright that it’s blinding.

These frameworks are meant for salespeople, and sales leaders, to determine just how qualified a lead and opportunity is. For example, BANT, one of the most popular frameworks stands for:
B – Budget – Do they have money?
A – Authority – Can they sign on the line that is dotted?
N – Need – What is the immediate, urgent, need?
T – Timing – What’s the timeframe?

These frameworks all give salespeople boxes to check in an effort to qualify their prospects – but you don’t close deals by checking boxes, do you?

Executed flawlessly these all have value. Miss the mark? You spend your time in meetings talking about if your prospects title of “Senior Manager” is Senior enough for you to progress your deal to the next stage.

The main issue that you run into here is that a lot of these details are inward facing. Are we talking about the actual value we add or whether there’s currently a line item in their budget for “fancy new AI tool”? Sales is rarely this black and white. Of course we want to know if the person we’re talking to can make the magic happen when it’s time to buy, but normally the person ACTUALLY holding the purse strings is the CFO in their ivory tower, and unless you’re selling a huge enterprise solution, you’re likely not getting any face time with them.

Did I mention BANT was created by IBM in the 50s? When proposals were still being sent by carrier pigeon? At least MEDDIC is from the 90s. Lots of good has come from the 90s! DVDs, Super Nintendo and Ace of Base.

But sales has changed, more importantly your buyers have changed. There’s rarely an individual buyer, they might not realize a need exists, heck, technology is moving so fast, they might not even know what you’re offering exists.

Spending your time focusing on how to solve for a letter of your acronym isn’t going to drive revenue. Your prospects aren’t going to look at your Salesforce, see all the letters of FAINT checked off, scream YAHTZEE! and buy from you.

We’ve spent too much time in a world of cheap money and eager buyers. The focus needs to stop being on our internal process and needs to shift to the buyer and their journey. NEWS FLASH. All of these frameworks do that poorly. Instead of wondering why ANUM is just BANT with different letters, think about what your buyer is living day in and day out and what you are asking them to do, as a seller.

I promise, scheduling ANOTHER meeting with them just so you can fill in the blank that your VP called you out on is not the answer.

Don’t get caught up in your alphabet soup. Focus on the things that have always traditionally moved the needle. Be curious, build relationships, understand your prospects, be confident in the value you bring, be a trusted advisor.

Because as much as sales has changed, it’s stayed the same.