Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to lead scoring in B2B marketing. According to Craig Rosenberg and his post, 6 Reasons Why Everyone Needs a Lead Qualification Team, “If you send unqualified leads to sales, you will either fail or get minimal ROI from your marketing programs. Period.” Lead Qualification teams are the soldiers in the trenches that crash the phones and filter out the good and the bad leads.
One of the most crucial steps to lead qualification is turning a lead into an opportunity and passing it off to an Account Executive. Sales and marketing leaders embrace lead qualification to prevent wasting an Account Executive’s time with garbage leads, so this is a pretty significant step in Lead Qualification.
A popular approach to making sure a lead is qualified and ready for an Account Executive is using BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing
BUDGET
The prospect tells you there is or could be a budget created for a project. Here are some questions to consider:
- Does the buyer have the ability to purchase your product or service?
- Is the company in any position to afford a new solution? Use Sales Intelligence, such as InsideView, to check their Financial Details and Trigger Events to find any trends in the company
AUTHORITY
There is at least one Director Level or above Contact that is holds the authority to make a purchase decision about your offering. In most cases, the prospect you’ve reached can help you get in contact with that decision maker. Make sure the Lead Qual rep has the decision maker’s contact info. Here are some more questions to consider before checking this off:
- Are you in contact with the decision maker or somebody who knows them? Do you have their contact information?
- If you have Sales Intelligence, such as InsideView, check the internal structure of the company to make sure you are selling to the right person
NEED
A specific pain point has been identified and your product or service can fix it.
- Does the company or industry fit with your product or service? If you have InsideView, check the Industry Insights to see if any of the challenges or trends fit any pain points
- Check for trigger events to find any challenges the company is facing that your product or service can fix
TIMING
The prospect has provided you with a potential decision timeline or expected time of when they want a solution in place. Make sure you do your own research as well and make sure by asking these questions:
- Is there a specific timeframe the prospect provides about when they need your solution?
- Is the company going through an acquisition or management change and does not have the time to evaluate a new solution? Check Sales Intelligence, such as InsideView’s Smart Agents.
