Bant The Faint Scotsman

Whilst Bant The Faint Scotsman may look like a typo and sound like a euphemism for preventing a wardrobe malfunction of a drunken Scotsman in a kilt, it is in fact three acronyms of tools to use for qualifying sales prospects as part of your business development process.

You don’t want to waste time on leads that either cannot or are unable to buy from you. Having a sales process that improves your ROT (return on time) leads to a better conversion rate.  That means qualifying sales prospects.  The quickest way to a higher ROT is to apply a quick qualification test as soon as possible to your sales opportunities.

Creative Qualifier

Firstly our SCOTSMAN (Solution, Competition, Originality, Timescale, Size, Money, Authority, Need).  If you are in a creative firm knowing that you can provide the solution with originality should enter the equation.

• Solution: does you prospect understand the solution you are selling and why it will work?
• Competition: who are your competition?
• Originality: is your solution unique or original?
• Timescale: are your timescales evenly matched and achievable?
• Size: look for an appropriate balance between your company and the potential project.  Can you handle it?  Is it too small to be worth investing time in making the sale?
• Money: does the lead have the money to pay you now, or can you negotiate suitable payment terms.  Can you offer a suitable solution for the price?
• Authority: make sure that you are talking to the person who can make this happen;
• Need: be aware of the leads needs and ensure you can meet (ideally exceed) them.

FAINT (funds, authority, interest, need, timescale) works much better with smaller businesses where the ability to even pay is more important than having a budget.  If you work with start-ups this is a much better qualifier.

• Funds: can you lead afford to buy from you?  You may be offering something that is outside the normal budgeting process, such as consulting services or rebranding where you have to know your lead is able to buy from you;
• Authority: make sure that you are talking to the person who can make this happen;
• Interest: can you generate sufficient interest in what you can do that they are a realistic buyer;
• Need: through smart questioning find out what they need really are to make sure you can meet them;
• Timescale: find out when they wanted to buy and whether you can deliver within the timescale suggested.

FAINT is the brainchild of Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group, a professional services sales consulting company.

Disconnect

When looking at your sales process it is always good to see if there is a disconnect between the leads brought in by your marketing and whether those leads are viable current opportunities.  Track how many leads fail at qualification and when necessary realign marketing and sales strategies.

Some of you may be familiar with BANT (budget, authority, need, timescale).  The idea behind it is that when meeting with the prospect for the first time you determine:

• Do they have the budget to buy your services;
• The authority to approve the purchase;
• The genuine need of those services and, lastly
• Are they working in a realistic timescale for your sales and delivery cycle.

Striking out on any one may not disqualify the prospect that may mean moving higher up in the prospect organisation to have meaningful sales discussions or slowing your sales activity to match their time line.

I find the easiest way to apply these is in the form of a check list on your CRM.  If all the boxes are ticked they are a green light.  Any missing ticks mean that the lead is either rejected as unsuitable or placed on the back burner for later follow up as part of your business development process. (Don’t tell me…you don’t have one of those either!)