What if I told you, the key to success in marketing these days is a series of letters? No, it isn’t ROI, CMS or SOS (for days when a deadline is looming). These days, the key to successful marketing is B.A.N.T.

B.A.N.T. is a lead qualification criteria that stands for:

Budget

Authority

Need

Timing

You may be asking why B.A.N.T is important to you as a B2B marketer. The answer is that B.A.N.T. should be considered whenever you’re creating a project, communications piece or concept. B.A.N.T. helps determine the audiences you should cater your communications to, what ROI will come from your campaigns and it helps sales and marketing departments integrate more seamlessly. It’s more important than ever to justify marketing budgets with clear ROI, and sales and marketing alignment is a vital part of this.

Here are some important questions to ask yourself to ensure you’re keeping B.A.N.T in mind:

Budget: Will this marketing effort help us determine if the audience has the budget to invest/purchase/engage in what we’re selling?

Authority: Is this marketing communications piece going to the correct person? Can they make a direct decision regarding what we’re selling or are they an influencer?

Need: Does this marketing effort help us determine if our audience has a need for our solution? How quickly does this need have to be filled?

Timing: Can we determine if this audience is ready to purchase/invest in what we’re selling? Can we create urgency to act?

If you answered YES to at least three of the above questions, you’re on your way to creating a near-perfect marketing communications piece that will lead to sales opportunities. Congratulations!

To find out what B.A.N.T. marketing means for marketing and sales team alignment, check back for part 2 of this blog.