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Why is BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) so important in B2B Lead Generation?

In order to answer the question, first we need to understand what BANT means in the sales lingo and the role it plays in qualifying leads.

BANT is a process that helps qualify prospects in any lead generation process.

BANT is a combination of different processes that help in qualifying the leads in the sales cycle.

Budget: Indicates if the prospect is willing to spend on the purchase and how much

Authority:  Indicates the key decision makers involved in the purchase-decision

Need: Indicates the need to solve a problem

Timing: Indicates the timeline required for a prospect to want a solution

Basically these four stages in BANT help sales teams to determine the buying stage or the readiness of the prospect in the buyers’ journey.

Here are few quick questions that each stage of BANT signifies:

B- Are they willing to buy?

A- Are they the only decision makers or influencers?

N- Is there an immediate challenge that needs to be addressed with a solution

T- Is the need immediate or it can wait

Let us see what each acronym means and the role that is plays at each stage of BANT:                                                                                

Budget:

Only when the prospect is willing to spend a certain amount of money on the purchase; would he be interested in buying the product or service. This helps in early evaluation or in qualifying the lead at an early stage so that the sales people can decide whether or not the lead is worth the time and efforts.

Sales team asks budget related questions to determine whether the prospect is ready to buy and determine the probability of the same in the near future. This helps to evaluate the time required for the sales cycle. However, this could be the starting point and there could be reasons beyond the budget that the prospect may have before they arrive at a decision.

Authority:

This is a crucial stage, because it is the decision maker who is going to decide whether to purchase the service or product and when to purchase it. It is important that the right person gets to know your pitch and those that are aware of the value that your sales pitch and your service is capable of bringing to their business,

Often there are hierarchies when it comes to decision making so it is important to identify not only those decision makers who are going to sign on the budget; but also those in the managerial level who are going to convince the top level executives about the purchase decision. These are the influencers that one needs to target too when at the authority stage of the sales cycle.

Need:

Asking the right questions is extremely crucial at this stage as it can determine the need or help dig out the need for a solution. The answer to your questions can help you understand the pain points of the prospect and to what extent it is bothering the prospect and whether it needs an immediate solution.

Timing:

As important it is to determine the need of a solution; timeline plays a vital role in sales. The possibility of the need to resolve the issue and arrive at a solution could be now, urgent or in the nearby future. This helps determine the buying stage of the prospect and help the sales team to decide the steps and time needed to nurture the prospect.

Conclusion:

BANT can work wonders if deployed to add value to your clients business. Flexible and agile solutions can help sales team capture a lead and push the lead further up for nurturing instead of losing the lead at the very beginning. BANT is a crucial process in qualifying leads and the sales cycle too for particular leads.

Intent data has changed the way data is consumed today and the way it can be adopted to augment B2B lead generation and demand generation in faster and more cost effective ways than ever before.

Acquiring the right data and getting the existing data right and also cleansed is both tricky and time consuming. Data has the capability to determine your outreach to the right prospects at the right time which can in turn affect your leads. We all know the importance of data cleansing and mining that is used to boost B2B leads. However, Intent data is the new power-house of B2B demand generation!

Intent data can allow you to create better demand generation strategies with more focused and customized solutions!

The behavioural information from Intent Data is crucial for B2B Sales. This behavioural data helps to nourish and build relationships with customers and help cater to them in better ways as per their needs.

Demand Generation done better:

Intent data can provide a better ground and more conducive ambience for demand generation to thrive. When you know whom to cater and how; you can do much better in terms of nurturing the prospect at each of the stages of the customer journey and thus get maximum conversions in lesser efforts.

When catering to a very fluid and complex market such as B2B; knowing the intentions of your buyers is extremely important in decision making processes such as reaching out to your prospects through email marketing; creating the sales pitch or building effective marketing and sales strategies.

Enhance your B2B lead performance with these benefits of Intent Data:

With deeper insights due to intent data, you can create better segmented lists, further enhancing your email marketing results with more open and click through rates

Depending upon the interaction with your customers and their behavioural analysis, you can now prioritise your lead generation and demand generation strategies. Having a better idea of the readiness of customers to buy your products or services can help you do better planning in order to optimise your strategies and act in a more timely manner for better results. With Intent data you can persuade your customers at the right time to make that final buying decision that can help impact your ROI positively

Intent data can help you to identify the market or prospects that are beyond the obvious and presently marked markets and audiences and thus help you to tap a bigger share of opportunities. Thus intent data can help open new avenues that you haven’t tried before or were unknown to you before

You can focus on only those targets that show higher chances of converting. This can save a lot of time and efforts of the sales teams as they can narrow down the most potential leads.

Intent Data can help foster collaboration between sales and marketing

• Fruitful interaction with target accounts
• Getting to know more active sales leads
• Establishing brand value coherently
• Reducing the sales cycles for potential leads

This collaboration between sales and marketing can help the teams to set common demand generation objectives, further augmenting the conversions.

Your B2B Partner:

Intellitech Solutions provides solutions that augment our customers business and create more ROI. We understand the changing needs and demands of a highly competitive market and therefore we partner with Bombara; the leader in intent data that collects B2B intent data and demographic information and also firmographic data at scale to help us serve our customers better!

Your leads ‘reside’ somewhere on the web. You just need to attract them to your website through different tactics. Lead generation wouldn’t be so challenging if you knew where to look for your good leads. But you may not always get a chance to know precisely where to look and this is where real battle of finding the good leads begins.

In order to beat this hurdle, you have to create pathways that can lead your leads to you and you no longer have to keep hunting them down from the World Wide Web.

The best way to create these opportunities is to build a strategy that leverages the strengths you have- such as your website, your social media presence; a landing page with an excellent Call to Action etc.

These tactics may not seem new, but they are very effective if you want your website or any other tool to be your lead magnet.

In addition to above, lead scoring and evaluation are two more tools that play a vital role in determining the success of lead generation. Let us discuss how these tools can help you bring in more leads!

Lead Scoring:

The sales funnel is critical in determining the lead score. It is important to determine the type of leads and which lead is at which stage in the sales funnel.  There are some leads at the bottom of the funnel and some at the top of the funnel. This allows you to decide the value of your leads. And this value of leads can determine the conversion rate.

Through lead-scoring you can map the journey of your lead, establishing the probability of the lead being ready to buy or determine the stage of buying for any of your leads.

Lead scoring is critical to sales and conversion, because the profiling of leads can help you save time for the best leads and leave the rest of the leads for the time till they mature. Basically your lead scoring helps you to nurture your leads, step-wise, till the time they are ready to buy from you.

The more efficient you are at lead scoring; the better you can nurture your leads and make your conversions more predictable.

Evaluation:

Successful selling happens after fine tuning the processes again and again and going back to the drawing board if necessary, as and when required. To keep up with the ambitious ROIs, it is best to scrutinize the whole process of sales every now and then. This can help you with two things. Let go of methods and processes that aren’t working any longer and rediscover new ways of doing things that are more aligned with the stage of each lead.

Evaluation can help understand why and which leads drop off before they mature. These leads can be reached again after evaluation to convert them into good leads and finally into sales.

Conclusion:

One needs to explore different aspects of lead generation and fine-tune them again and again for better results. Willingness to try new, innovative ways of lead generation and making the most out of the existing processes by paying attention to the finer nuances of the lead generation process can help bring faster results to any B2B organization.  

Lead generation doesn’t always only mean numbers; in fact in today’s context of dynamic marketing strategies, it also means creating an overall brand awareness and brand recall through various different interwoven tactics. B2B business owners are working hard to get the latest and the most workable strategies on board to augment lead generation. Lead generation and demand generation entails nurturing and building brand awareness. This simply means that it’s important to have a comprehensive strategy; one that can enhance visibility amid your target audience and a better outreach to get them into the loop. And content syndication does just that!

Amid all the innovative strategies; content syndication is gaining importance in the B2B domain and is proving to be a great support for lead generation activities. You can simply start your lead generation campaign with content syndication!

Here is why you should start your lead generation campaign with content syndication:

1. Get started by sharing knowledgeable assets to show authenticity
2. Sharing content that is valuable creates credibility and transparency
3. Content syndication can create a wider reach to a wider audience in lesser time.
4. Leverage brand presence by content syndication through some highly viewed websites for better visibility

There are several benefits of content syndication that can help create more chances of generating leads. Let us discuss some of these benefits!

Create a Cost effective reach:

With multiple platforms available for sharing your content; this tactic of content syndication can prove to be a cost effective way of reaching your target audience. Enhancing your brand visibility through various different channels across industries also means that you have better chances of getting more qualified leads. This can be done in less time and lesser efforts with content syndication and hence this can prove to be a very cost effective technique.

Get more leads:

Those who show interest in your content could be potential customers. If they want to engage through content syndication it may also mean that they are interested in your services. Content syndication can be a lead generation magnet, wherein the customers can find you easily. Your content syndication strategy should also help you identify the right prospects that come to you. This timely move can help you capture the right leads at the right time before they go cold.

Create more brand awareness:

The best thing about content syndication is that it has no limits in terms of distribution of content across various channels of information. This means there is no limit in the scope for creating multiple target audience with content syndication. Content syndication’s collaborative power will allow more brand awareness which is crucial for the complex B2B market. With competition being tough today; content syndication can enhance your brand awareness making your reach better. You can easily find leads without having to invest in complex strategies or efforts for finding potential leads, as people can easily find you!

Conclusion:

B2B companies are already using different channels for lead generation and demand generation using various different strategies to get quality leads. Content syndication can be a great enabler for you to augment and accelerate your lead generation activities. This is the right time to invest in the right strategy such as content syndication as your content deserves the right audience and you deserve the good leads!

Everyone talks about how lead generation should be done in certain ways. However; there is no one-size-fits-all formula for augmenting lead generation and conversion. Different companies have different approaches depending upon their goals and objectives; however, attention should also be given some other factors that may not seem so obvious but could have the potential to impact your lead generation success.

This blog discusses the not-so-obvious but important factors that have the capacity to impact your lead generation processes and results.

Not all leads are similar-

Each lead is different:

Differentiating leads is crucial for sales and marketing people so that the sales teams only spend more time and effort on those leads that are most likely to convert. It is also important to understand whether a lead qualifies to be a potential converting-lead before it is passed on to the sales team.

MQLs are the Marketing Qualified Leads that are ready to be handed over to the sales teams; on the other hand, Sales Qualified leads are the ripened ones that are ready to buy from you. A clear distinction between MQL and SQL is necessary for faster conversions.

It all comes down to knowing the type of leads and the need for nurturing certain leads in order to move them to the stage of conversion. Effective lead generation entails a journey and a deep understanding of different types of leads to finally get the desired results.

Not all buying stages of leads are the same-

Identify the buying stage of a lead:

Some of the qualified leads are not yet ready to buy from you; hence nurturing them becomes a crucial step in lead conversion. Some of these qualified leads need to be reached through your website, through e-mailers or content that educates them about your services so that they can quickly arrive at a buying decision. Nurturing entails understanding the exact requirements and communicating with the prospect about the various virtues of your services that can help them solve their challenges.

Lack of Coordination and Collaboration-

Your sales and marketing teams need to be on the same page:

Sales and Marketing teams cannot work in silos. The synergy between marketing and sales teams can speed up the process of lead conversion. Here are a few things that they could agree upon for the best outcomes.

1. A clear understanding of the needs and requirements of the prospect
2. Measuring the quality of leads
3. Defining and agreeing upon the target audience
4. Analyzing the processes in order to fine-tune then if necessary for more success in lesser time
5. Preparedness to reconfigure the strategy or approach for certain leads for nurturing processes

Delayed response in contacting the lead:

Don’t let delayed response cost you a good lead:

Sometimes a delayed response to a prospect can increase the time of the sales cycle and can cause delays in the lead conversion process. Responding to a curious prospect should be a priority as it can be a game-changer in the B2B domain.

It has been observed that only 37% of companies have responded to their leads within an hour and that 24% of companies took more than 24 hours to respond to a lead!

These facts show that businesses failing to contact a lead in time could cost them a potential lead that might have otherwise got converted had they been proactive and quick in responding to the lead. Over a period of time, the quality of a lead can degrade and it can eventually become a cold lead.

Conclusion:

Every company is different and every lead is unique. There is no magic formula for B2B lead generation. The above factors are crucial in lead conversion; however, every organization has different business goals and objectives. The lead generation and nurturing process should be in line with the core business objectives of an organization. If the foundation of your lead generation process is about building long term relationships with customers other than just getting business out of them, then you will have created a more sustainable lead generation model for your company.

B2B Lead Generation is now being simplified by various different tactics adopted by marketers. It all starts with your customers’ getting to know more about your services and how your services are actually going to solve their problems. To keep getting consistent and good B2B sales leads; you need not go back to the drawing board and change your strategies every now and then. In B2B lead generation if you follow processes that work; you are in the game to win the best possible leads.

Setting up a realistic and smart campaign is a good beginning. Also, constantly evaluating the effectiveness of your lead generation tactics through certain metrics is a good way to know where you are heading and if it is the right path.

The things to be considered while setting up your B2B lead generation campaigns can be to determine a list which can be the most important element of your campaign, followed by creating a campaign with multiple touches to broaden the scope of success.

Here are two more ways to ensure you get the best quality leads:

Setting up email marketing campaigns:

Email marketing that includes a downloadable asset for your prospect can be very effective and can be instrumental in converting the lead into a customer. Refreshing your email lists should also be a part of your email marketing strategy as it will ensure that you are reaching new prospects, in addition to those already contacted.

Calling warm leads:

Telemarketing as a form of lead generation is still in vogue and can reap huge benefits for being able to start a conversation with your prospects. Get to know them while you communicate about the e-mailer and how you can help them at the same time.  Using both telephone and email, can be very effective in reaching prospects and having an opportunity to learn their needs and determine how your company can help them.

Conclusion:

The quality of leads and the impact that those leads have on ROI is extremely important.  Email lead generation campaigns, with interesting assets included, in addition with telemarketing to vary the contact method, can achieve optimum results.

When the sales and marketing teams of a B2B company are very well aligned, they have the capacity to bring in maximum results. It is a proven fact that if the goals, processes, and technology objectives of these two teams are very well aligned, the company can make good business. If you want consistent results; demand generation can create those results for you and your company. B2B demand generation can create brand visibility, nurturing the prospects, converting the prospects into customers to maintaining long term relationships with the customers.

B2B demand generation strategies that nurture the prospect at each and every stage of the customer journey can bring in more leads. It not only allows long term relationship building, but it also helps you to retain your existing customers, while successfully bringing in new customers.

In this blog we discuss how you can make this critical strategic activity successful for attracting more leads:

Brand Awareness:

Research shows that 86% of consumers prefer brands that are authentic, transparent, and solid in their values. In an oversaturated market, it is extremely important to be known and also to be known amid the right audience. A strong brand or a B2B service provider that has established itself in the market is most likely going to attract more leads. Telling an impeccable brand story that is true and is lucrative at the same time is important in today’s market to be able to attract potential customers.

Buyer Personas:

Knowing the buyer persona from your niche target audience is extremely crucial for success in B2B sales and marketing. B2B demand generation campaigns that focus on the precise target audience and are based and built on the knowledge of the customer are more likely to convert into business. A strategy that encompasses the perfect understanding of the customer’s pain points, challenges, business objectives, etc. can help you to segment or categorize your database for maximum results.

Build pathways: Spell out Call to Action

As we all know, a website can be a really useful lead magnet, but it always almost works when you embed strong and robust CTAs within the website. A website with strong CTAs and an outstanding landing page can create diverse pathways to B2B Lead Generation. You can create case studies, webinars, whitepapers, etc. and also get your content syndicated for better outreach as a part of your B2B demand generation strategy.

Conclusion:

The key to successful B2B demand generation is to include a comprehensive plan that encompasses each touchpoint of your prospects’ journey so that you give them exactly what they need. B2B demand generation is the bigger picture of your marketing strategy that allows you to include activities that truly nurture your prospects at the various stages of the buyer’s journey.

The importance of data is unbeatable and B2B businesses want to now focus on becoming data-driven enterprises. However, companies who want to make this transition need to have a ‘data mindset’ before shifting their focus on making data work for them. Various practices such as data inventory, data cleansing can help shape the right data strategy for organizations that want to use data for sales and marketing activities.

Before you think of data as the power-house for your enterprise, its best to evaluate the existing data and analyze it to be able to make it actionable.

So how can one truly become a B2B data-driven enterprise? Here are some things that you can adopt to make sure you have the right data strategy.

Data Culture:

Data handling is not just the job of data experts. In fact; any organization that wants to be data-driven should imbibe data culture; wherein each participant understands the true value of data. Data ownership should be a regular norm and the seriousness of data should be conveyed to the employees through the top influencers in the organization. Developing a data mind-set is equally important to be a successful B2B data-driven organization.

Data Inventory:

While we might want to look outside the company for data; it is equally important to conduct a data inventory within the company.  You will be surprised to find a lot of data already present in files, documents and other storage facilities; also in the forms of databases, records etc. within the company. This data needs to be extracted to be made available for usage. No data can become actionable until and unless it is treated to become valuable. The extracted data needs to go through data analysis; because there is always the possibility of degraded data to be found amid huge volumes of stored data; one that has become redundant in time.

Data Cleansing:

Incorrect data can hamper businesses more than not having data at all. Before you decide to use data for any marketing or sales activity, it is crucial that you only use data that is authentic, correct, and the one that is not out-dated. Using incorrect data can be hazardous and can lead to failure of campaigns leading to huge losses. Data inventory and data processing are therefore essential in making sure the data you have is usable and is actionable too. Since talking to the right audience matters a lot in B2B sales and marketing, the information about your prospect or the buyers’ journey is equally essential in building the right marketing strategies. Hence, the right data plays an important part in creating the right marketing strategies.

Trade shows, events and conferences have always been one of the most lucrative channels for generating leads and eventually more business. However, the impact of Covid-19 pandemic is huge and most businesses have lost great deal of opportunities in generating leads due to the cancellation of almost all the events.

As per the research statistics from Forbes, more than 35.3 million people planning to attend an event had to drop their plans. Many businesses and marketers are facing huge loses and are trying to cope up with this overwhelming situation. However, this calamity of catastrophic proportions is also forcing marketers to look at other viable options to keep their businesses running.

Let us discuss some of the most viable solutions that can help you keep generating leads and eventually bring more business, even in the absence of events and trade shows-

High Quality leads through Demand Generation:

Demand Generation involves comprehensive marketing tools and is a versatile and sophisticated method to directly generate revenues. Fuelled by inbound marketing, demand generation is a more holistic way of creating long lasting relationship with your prospects. Marketing and sales is closely aligned with demand generation and the results are high quality leads in no time.

Account Based Marketing:

With a more customized approach, Account Based Marketing proves to be the kind of focused effort that your business needs today in creating the desired results. This approach of ABM allows businesses to reverse-engineer sales and the aligned processes. By creating highly customized messaging, ABM targets specific customers addressing their specific needs. This increases the chances of achieving the objectives and thus APM works successfully and quickly in most cases.

Email Marketing:

Email Marketing can be a powerful tool for better outreach. Email marketing entails engaging the audiences with relevant, authentic and meaningful messaging and when done rightly, it is one of the best tools to attract leads.  Robust database and focused messaging that is tailored differently for different buyer personas can fetch the desired results. This is the time to leverage the advantages of email marketing to the fullest and fetch more leads than ever.

If your business is facing challenges in lead generation due to the cancelled trade-shows and events, click here to get in touch with us now! Our experts will help you out now and in the future too!