Creating a deal too early means that companies enter your pipeline before they are ready. When this happens, your salespeople spend too much time with unqualified leads. That leads to a bloated and unrealistic pipeline, lower close rates and a poor prospect experience.

Ok, so you need to clarify what makes a buyer ready to make a potential purchase. But where do you start?

There are many ways to do this, so here are two helpful frameworks that might help: 𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘛 and 𝘔𝘌𝘋𝘐𝘊.

BANT is a straightforward, older framework developed by IBM. It focuses on:

• Budget: Does the prospect have the budget?
• Authority: Are you speaking with the decision maker?
• Need: Does the prospect have a problem your solution can address? 
• Timeline: Is there a specific window in which the prospect needs to implement a solution?

MEDDIC (𝘰𝘳 MEDIC) is more detailed and comprehensive, typically used for enterprise-level sales. It includes:

• Metrics: What is the quantified impact of your solution?
• Economic Buyer: Who controls the budget?
• Decision Criteria: What factors are influencing their decision?
• Decision Process: How will the decision be made?
• Identify Pain: What problems are driving the need for your solution?
• Champion: Who within the organization is advocating for you?

Which one should you use?

BANT is effective for simpler sales processes and is best suited for smaller companies or those selling more standardized products. It’s relatively easy to implement, making it a good choice for businesses with less complex sales cycles.

MEDDIC is ideal for complex, high-stakes sales processes, such as those in B2B or enterprise software sales. It’s particularly useful when there are multiple stakeholders involved.

⚠️ Whether you use these frameworks or not, it’s essential that you start to use something.

You can always measure how it’s working for you after a few weeks, and make adjustments as necessary.