IntermediateTime: 30-45 minutes per opportunity

How to Qualify Sales Opportunities Using BANT and MEDDIC

Use proven qualification frameworks (BANT, MEDDIC) to identify winnable deals early and avoid wasting time on poor-fit prospects.

When to Use This Guide

  • ✓After initial prospect conversation
  • ✓Before investing significant time in deal
  • ✓When deciding pipeline prioritization
  • ✓Before requesting resources (presales, executive)
Prerequisites
  • • Understanding of your ICP
  • • Knowledge of your sales process
  • • Access to discovery question templates
  • • CRM for tracking qualification
Step-by-Step Instructions
1

Qualify Budget (B)

Confirm prospect has budget allocated or authority to secure budget.

Don't ask 'Do you have budget?' Ask about budget process, timing, amount range, and who controls it.

Example

Questions: 'What's your budget process for this type of investment?' 'Have you allocated budget for solving [pain]?' 'What range are you comfortable with?' 'If this delivers ROI, can budget be secured?'

Pro Tips:
  • • Look for budget allocated, not just available
  • • Understand budget timing and approval process
  • • Don't disqualify if budget not allocated but case is strong
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
  • • Asking direct 'What's your budget?' too early
  • • Accepting vague 'We have budget' without details
  • • Disqualifying before building value case
2

Identify Authority (A)

Determine who makes the final decision and get access to them.

Identify economic buyer (holds budget), technical buyer (evaluates solution), and champion (internal advocate).

Example

Questions: 'Who else needs to be involved in this decision?' 'What's the approval process?' 'Who has final sign-off?' 'Can you introduce me to [economic buyer]?' 'How have similar decisions been made?'

Pro Tips:
  • • Get to economic buyer early, don't wait
  • • Map out decision-making unit (DMU)
  • • Ask champion about internal politics
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
  • • Selling to contact, not decision-maker
  • • Assuming title indicates authority
  • • Not multi-threading to multiple stakeholders
3

Confirm Need (N)

Validate compelling business pain that requires urgent solution.

Quantify pain's business impact. Understand consequences of not solving. Confirm it's priority, not just interest.

Example

Questions: 'What's this problem costing you today?' 'What happens if you don't solve this?' 'Where does this rank in your priorities?' 'What's driving the need to solve this now?'

Pro Tips:
  • • Quantify pain in dollars/time
  • • Understand emotional + business pain
  • • Confirm pain is urgent, not nice-to-have
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
  • • Accepting generic 'interested in improving...'
  • • Not quantifying business impact
  • • Missing the urgency factor
4

Establish Timeline (T)

Determine realistic decision timeline and key milestones.

Understand what's driving timeline, internal processes, and realistic close date. Identify dependencies and blockers.

Example

Questions: 'When do you need this in place?' 'What's driving that timeline?' 'What's your evaluation process?' 'What could cause delays?' 'When do stakeholders need to be engaged?'

Pro Tips:
  • • Understand what's driving urgency
  • • Map out evaluation and approval steps
  • • Identify realistic vs. wishful timeline
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
  • • Accepting prospect's optimistic timeline
  • • Not understanding what drives urgency
  • • Ignoring internal approval timelines
5

Apply MEDDIC for Complex Deals

For enterprise deals, add MEDDIC dimensions: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion.

MEDDIC adds rigor for complex B2B sales. Document all six elements before advancing to proposal stage.

Example

MEDDIC Checklist: ✓ Metrics: ROI of $500K/year. ✓ Economic Buyer: CFO identified, meeting scheduled. ✓ Decision Criteria: Security, integration, support. ✓ Decision Process: 3-vendor eval, 60-day cycle. ✓ Pain: Manual process costing $1M/year. ✓ Champion: IT Director advocating internally.

Pro Tips:
  • • Document MEDDIC in CRM for each deal
  • • Use MEDDIC as proposal gate criteria
  • • Review MEDDIC weekly in pipeline reviews
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
  • • Partial MEDDIC allowing false positives
  • • Not documenting MEDDIC elements
  • • Ignoring gaps in qualification

Formulas & Examples

B A N T Framework

{
  "Budget": "Is budget allocated or can it be secured?",
  "Authority": "Who makes final decision? Do we have access?",
  "Need": "Is there quantified, urgent business pain?",
  "Timeline": "What's realistic decision and implementation timeline?"
}

M E D D I C Framework

{
  "Metrics": "What economic impact will solution deliver?",
  "EconomicBuyer": "Who controls budget? Have we engaged them?",
  "DecisionCriteria": "What criteria will they use to select vendor?",
  "DecisionProcess": "What's the evaluation and approval process?",
  "IdentifyPain": "What's the quantified pain driving this?",
  "Champion": "Who internally advocates for us?"
}

example Qualification

{
  "opportunity": "Enterprise CRM Implementation",
  "Budget": "✓ $250K allocated in Q3 budget",
  "Authority": "✓ VP Sales (economic buyer) engaged, Champion (Sales Ops Director)",
  "Need": "✓ Current system causing $400K/year lost productivity",
  "Timeline": "✓ Must launch by Jan 1 (driven by fiscal year), 90-day eval process",
  "qualificationScore": "Highly Qualified - Advance to Proposal"
}

Recommended Tools

BANT/MEDDIC checklist in CRM

Qualification scorecards

Discovery question templates

SalesPro Hub qualification module

Frequently Asked Questions

What if they won't share budget information?

Share typical investment ranges and ask if that's comfortable. If they won't engage on budget at all, that's a red flag - may not be serious.

Should I disqualify if any BANT element is missing?

Not immediately. Work to develop missing elements (especially Budget and Authority). But don't advance to proposal stage with major gaps.

When should I use MEDDIC vs. BANT?

BANT for faster, simpler sales. MEDDIC for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals. MEDDIC is more rigorous and time-intensive.

Related Guides

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