Let's dump BANT and use IMPACCT qualification
This article was originally published on Linkedin.
Recently, I published a LinkedIn article about the dangers of early BANT qualification and how it can drive away leads and cause salespeople to overlook potential leads still early in their buying journey.
This article attracted several supportive comments and prompted a brilliant piece from Bob Apollo, B2B opportunity qualification: beyond BANT and MEDDIC to IMPACCT
Considering this feedback and Bob Apollo IMPACCT, I want to redefine the role of marketing and sales or business development reps (X)DRs and where IMPACCT qualifying should occur during the buy-sell process.
I have excerpted the following from Bob’s article to explain the IMPACCT acronym.
I: Issues and Implications - what are the prospect’s key business issues, what are the implications, who is affected by them, and are the consequences sufficient to force them to take action?
M: Money and Economic Metrics - Has an appropriate budget been allocated, and if not, is there an obvious source of funding? What is the economic impact of the key business metrics?
P: Decision Process and Criteria - what are the prospect’s decision and approval processes, what are their decision criteria - and, are all of these clear and favourable to us?
A: Authority and Influence - who are the key stakeholders and gatekeepers and what influence do they have over the decision - and who has the ultimate authority to approve the project?
C: Champions - have we identified and engaged with powerful and effective internal champions who are willing and able to promote both the project and our approach to the rest of the stakeholder group?
C: Competition - what alternative options are they considering, how do we stand against them, and what is the relative priority of this project vs. their other investment opportunities?
T Timing and Urgency - how urgent is the project, when are they planning to make a decision, what is driving this, and how confident are we in this date?
The Role of Sales/Business Development Representatives
Now that we understand IMPACCT, let’s use Bob Moesta's Jobs to be Done timeline to explain the hand-off between sales development and the sales team and where IMPACCT qualifying should occur in the sales process.
1. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): These prospects are curious and open to discussing whether your company can help solve their problems. The qualification bar for MQLs should include Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) criteria.
2. Business Development Representatives: The sales development rep's domain is when the buyer begins passively looking for an alternative approach to getting their job done. S/BDRs should focus on identifying good fits based on ICPs and readiness for a meaningful conversation, not on BANT qualification. That’s it! Anything more they learn about the prospects’ problems and goals is a bonus and useful in a first meeting. In the SDR's why meet conversation, the buyer may volunteer their key business issue (their I), but it is the sales rep's job in the formal meeting to explore the implications of change.
3. Salespeople: The most crucial part of the sales cycle is discovery, when the buyer begins actively looking. It is the salesperson’s job to understand the buyer's issues and their implications, their (I), their commitment to resolving the problem, the impact of solving or not solving the problem, and determine if it is a good fit before applying more rigorous qualification criteria. A meeting summary or qualification confirmation letter is the key to improving win rate. It should recap the meeting, the buyer’s current state, desired outcomes, and the impact of change. It should also commit the buyer to the agreed next steps, providing an auditable pipeline milestone to qualify the prospect. Once the buyer agrees verbally or in writing with your meeting summary and commits to the next steps, they are a qualified prospect. They can enter the forecast at 20% weighting. A good salesperson should close 50% of the deals that have qualification confirmed by the buyer.
4. MPACCT: Opportunity qualification happens during the Active Looking phase to identify the best approach to solving their problem. Once we have a qualified prospect after an initial meeting during Passive Looking, we enter into a more in-depth analysis of the buyer’s business, how they buy, who will sign off, how they plan to fund the acquisition and their timeline for implementation while sharing how we can help and fully understanding their desired outcomes from change.
5 Qualified Opportunities: When the buyer has completed the IMPACCT steps, they are a fully qualified opportunity. At this point, a sales presentation, demonstration, and potentially a paid proof of concept and proposal make sense. A subsequent post will provide more details about what should be included in the sales presentation, proof-of-concept, demonstration, and proposal. A general guideline is that salespeople should aim to close more than 50% of their fully qualified opportunities. Any less is a red flag indicating weak qualification skills and process.
Summary: The Value of Patience in Qualification
As others have mentioned in the comments on Bob Apollo’s post, qualifying is an ongoing process, not a one-and-done event, and certainly not something to be done upfront in the first meeting with the buyer. We agree that BANT should be buried in the graveyard of 20th-century sales terminology. By aligning qualification efforts at the appropriate place in the sales process and the prospect's buying timeline, salespeople can avoid alienating potential customers and increase their chances of success.
The key is to create value at each stage of the buyer's timeline. Early interactions should centre on listening and understanding the prospect's needs, educating them about alternative approaches and establishing trust. As a trusted relationship develops and the prospect moves further along their buying timeline, they will volunteer the IMPACCT details.
By resisting the urge to qualify too early and instead concentrating on establishing the buyer’s issues, the progress they are trying to make and the commitment to change, using a consultative selling approach, sales organizations can build stronger relationships with prospects, uncover more opportunities, and ultimately close more deals. The goal should be facilitating their buying journey, not forcing them into a premature sales process that serves only the seller's interests.