#009: A simple framework to find buyers and eliminate window shoppers.

Read time - 2 min

Today I’m going to discuss how to qualify leads correctly, and convert them into opportunities at revenue.

The discovery stage of the sales process is the most important, because this is where you identify whether they have a need, and are a good fit for your product. If you butcher the discovery, the deal is almost guaranteed to stall, or ghost at some point in the sales process — usually at the bottom of the funnel.

The problem is there are so many different sales methodologies. Most are confusing and don’t need to be.

Whenever you add confusion or complexity to a sales process your sales cycle increases.

Deals are either won or lost on the discovery call.

Let’s dig in!

Think about it like this. If the sales process was a wheel, the discovery call would be the hub that keeps the deal moving towards the finish line, and the spokes would be other stages of the process.

There are 5 stages to most sales processes

1. Lead Generation (spoke)

2. Discovery (hub)

3. Demo (spoke)

4. Scoping / POC (spoke)

5. Negotiation / Close (spoke)

The qualifying framework we teach our clients is B.A.N.T.

Budget. What is their budget? What resources have they thrown at the problem?

Authority. How many DM’s are there? And how do they make decisions as a team?

Needs. What are the needs / use cases / pain points?

Timing. If they liked our offer when would they be looking to move forward?

The goal of the discovery call is to extract this information. We then use all the information they conveyed to personalize the buying journey.

Here are the 5 steps of the sales framework we use to conduct the discovery call and identify BANT.

Step 1: The Preamble

• Here we communicate the reason for the call and how we run prospects through our process. It’s designed to gain control of the conversation, convey authority and provide visibility into what the customer journey looks like.

Step 2: Identifying B.A.N.T.

• These are questions we ask designed to identify budget, authority, need(s) and timing.

Step 3: Reiterating the information

• Once you’ve identified BANT, you want to reiterate all the information back to them — conveying you listened, you care, and you are aligned.

Step 4: Communicating Value

• Now that you’ve listened and understand their needs better you can share how your product can help. Think of this as the trailer to the movie. The movie being the demo. You should spend no more than 3 minutes communicating value. The goal is to get them excited by providing a quick behind the scenes look at the software and to schedule the demo.

Step 5: Scheduling the demo

• Schedule the demo. This is the close on the discovery call. Make sure you schedule it while you’re on the call with them followed by a calendar invite.

Key Takeaways

1. Use BANT to qualify deals.

2. Create a discovery talk track using the 5 steps.

3. All deals are won and lost on the discovery call.

That’s it for today folks.

See you all next week!

Darren

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more you can book a call with me here.