What is a Lead?

One of the best way to describe a lead is to have more than 1 of the following :
– Budget
– Authority
– Need
– TimeLine

or Bant.

Incorporating the above criteria into your lead generation processes for all your
marketing campaigns will help save time and effort as back-and-forth communications will
be reduced therefore improving efficiency in your end result.

Having BANT criteria is not the only way to define a lead for the best outcome
certainly but it is for an one of the best way and its been used in many big companies
to move an opportunity from marketing to sales.

When marketing engages in a campaign that draws attention to a product or service,
varying degree of interests are indicated by the audiences’ action taken. The best
obviously are the ones who will be willing to provide their contact details as well as
their BANT profile.

In the initial stages of coming in contact with a prospect, the BANT criteria is held
loosely. An example would be a casual window shopper walks into your store browsing.
Potential customer? Maybe but there are layers to uncover before a sale can be made. A
B2B example would be a new signup for a white paper download. However in both of these
lead candidates action have been taken and you know who they are.

As prospecting leads move down the funnel pipeline qualification will require various assets to be deployed. Marketing Qualified Lead or MQL may require further nurturing with activities such as events and newsletters. Target MQL with relevant information that points to solving some of major pain-points will keep them from turning it cold. Brand awareness campaigns will also help to keep lead in top of mind. The next will for sales to start their engagement.

Typically a Sales Qualified Lead or SQL will meet all 4 in BANT with the key criteria
being budget. With an actual dollar amount attached, sales can revenue into his/her
pipeline as sales target.

As SQL can take times to mature, a good alternative is to outsource sales leads followup through an outsource agency. Typically, these agencies will have lower cost overall while freeing sales to focus on meatier opportunities.