Sales Qualifying Methodologies – Comparing BANT, MEDDIC and MEDDPICC


The Importance Of Comparing Sales Qualifying Methodologies

When leads are qualified properly, less time is wasted on people not likely to buy from you, so you can hone in on the ones who are. This is why sales-qualifying methodologies are imperative to your strategy.

I recently met up with Collin Stewart from Predictable Revenue, and we discussed different sales qualifying methodologies, including BANT and MEDDIC, and their variations.

We were both surprised how many sales reps have no idea what BANT or MEDDIC stands for. They don’t understand the concept of qualifying leads. What ends up happening is they think their pipeline is full of great opportunities, only to be surprised at the end of the month when nothing closes.

Also read:
Using the MEDDIC Approach to Qualify Prospects and Acquire Customers

By fully understanding different qualifying criteria, reps become clearer about what it takes to progress a sale and what it takes to get more qualified leads. This is something we’ll be covering in our upcoming SOCO® Selling™ Workshop.

“This could be Prospecting 101. How do you qualify leads effectively? You need to have a criteria or framework that you use for qualification.”

Tom Abbott

The Discovery Call is the exact moment when you will realize whether a lead is worth pursuing. If they are not a perfect fit for your product or service, it’s time to amicably part ways. Getting to this point will often not be obvious, so choosing the path will take some time. 

So, how do you determine how to qualify leads using existing Sales Methodologies? In this article, Tom Abbott and Collin Stewart from Predictable Revenue discuss different Sales Qualifying Methodologies including, BANT, MEDDIC, and other key variations.

What’s An Inbound Sales Team?

Inbound Sales Representatives focus on individual buyers’ needs, challenges, goals, and interests. Instead of focusing on closing the sale as soon as possible, Inbound Sales Reps work to meet consumers where they are. 

A typical day for an Inbound Sales Rep involves answering calls or queries, resolving customer complaints, scheduling appointments, assisting existing customers, and following up on outbound calls. Pretty busy, right? Inbound Sales Reps must be incredibly driven, resourceful, and highly independent. They need to have impeccable communication skills and be masters of organization. 

Why Are They Vital To Sales Qualifying Methodologies?

Every business must pursue every potential customer acquisition channel that will make sense for them and their Predictable Revenue spell growth to qualify leads. However, you want to do whatever will make sense for your market, audience, and team. 

There are critical differences between Inbound and Outbound. Inbound Sales is a sales-qualifying methodology that prioritizes individual buyers’ needs, challenges, goals, and interests. Instead of focusing on closing the sale as soon as possible, Inbound Sales Representatives work to meet consumers where they are. They’re active leads. 

So, If you think about sort of two sides to the funnel, at the top of the funnel, there’s motivation. Somebody clicked on a link to your website. There was enough pain inside them that they were like, “Hey, I’m going to fill out this form, and I’m going to have a sales…” There’s a reason why they opt it in. There’s a reason why they downloaded that PDF or other freebie. 

“I think they’re both hard. I think from sitting in the seat of both an inbound and an outbound rep. Inbound is easier. Building the whole system and all the infrastructure to support inbound, it’s hard to say. We do both here and they’re both equally hard.”

Collin Stewart

How Do You Qualify Leads Using Sales Qualifying Methodologies?

You can use BANT or MEDDIC sales qualifying methodologies depending on the forecasting and the stages of your sales. So pick the most critical things for your business to see a deal moving forward. Make sure that the stages of your sales actually make sense. 

MEDICC or MEDDPICC

Metrics: Do you understand the impact this will have on their business and the identified pain? Can you articulate what it is? 

Economic Buyer: Have we had a conversation with the economic buyer? 

Decision-Making Process: Do we understand the decision-making process?

Decision Criteria: Do we know the criteria with which they will make that decision? Do we fit that criterion? Even better, have we maybe helped that prospect frame the criteria?

Process: The fun stuff or The Paperwork Process. You have to be set up as an approved vendor. Are there any NDAs you have to sign? Just get your paperwork in order. 

Identified Panic: What is your prospects issue? What motivates them?

Competitors: what’s the competitive landscape? Who else are you up against? And then © = C was the Champion.

Typically MEDDPICC is suitable for bigger deals with a long buying process or an extensive and complicated cycle. 

MEDDPICC Qualification methodology Infographic

BANT

Budget: Does the lead have a budget to afford your offering?

Authority: Does the person you are talking to have the ability or authority to make a purchase?

Need: Do they need your product or service? 

Timing: Does the prospect have a critical need for your solution now?

What Is Customer Verifiable Outcome?

Rather than scheduling a qualifying call, they’ve organized the qualifying call. They booked the time in my calendar, for example. Rather than I sent them a brochure, they confirm that they went through the brochure. Or they introduced me to someone, or they did this, they did that. It’s not the behavior of the sales rep exclusively. It’s the behavior of that prospect or the customer. What did they do?

The Scientific Approach To Qualify Leads

The most important aspect of Qualify Leads is your market and messaging – this is not something you can steal or copy from somebody else. You have to work your way towards this and have to be tested. It has to be validated to ensure consistency.

When crafting your approach,  don’t hop on Google and search for the 10 best cold-calling scripts and use them verbatim. Why not? You need to formulate your own hypothesis based on your specific market, and you can ensure that your messaging is tweaked to address individual needs. 

Channels and Tactics are sources you can copy from – You can listen to a podcast just like this and, in turn, can understand what other channels people are using. 

The core idea I want to get across is that market messaging is the most important aspect you need to develop because you need to have a proven process for testing and iterating your way to them. What is the best way you can do this? Targeting Hypothesis, the Need Hypothesis, and then the Messaging Hypothesis. 

 â€śIt’s all about fine-tuning, tweaking, and experimenting.”

Tom Abbott

The Need hypothesis is just what do we feel, what do we feel is actually the critical pain?  What’s the responsibility of the individual? Their goal? KPI? What exactly is the friction getting in their way? And then, the messaging hypothesis ties the need to how our product solves that need. 

So, in short, Market messaging your customers change, the market changes, the competitive landscape changes. 

Key Questions & Answers

If there’s one message you could share with these, like sales leaders, small business owners, and sales reps, that would really help them up to their game around outbound, what would that be?

Channels and tactics can be copied and they all need to be updated on a continuous basis. This is not a set and forget thing.  Your market and messaging are something you’re always going to need to be continuously testing, iterating, and improving. – Collin 

Are there any plans for Predictable Revenue 2.0 or revisiting it, like revisiting an e-myth?

Yeah, it’s certainly been something we talked about. One of the things that we wanted to do  to sort of fill the gap was the Predictable Revenue podcast

Collin

How do you get people to reply  to your emails?

I like to use a short and to the point subject line. I’m not going for the kill right away, for the meeting. I’m looking for is this email relevant? That’s really what I’m trying to qualify for when I’m trying to open up a conversation because I want to make sure that I’m investing my time on the right individuals. So, I want to give everybody the opportunity to say, “Hey, no, I’m not the right person”.

Collin

Deal Management and Lead Qualification Training

Stop wasting time on leads that won’t convert while learning how to manage the deal process of ones that will.

With SOCO’s cutting-edge lead qualification training, your team will learn how to identify and prioritize prospects who are more likely to buy while at the same time learning how to use the MEDDIC or MEDDPICC approach to manage stakeholders and the buying process. They’ll also gain a deep understanding of the customer’s pain points, priorities and decision-making criteria, ensuring every interaction resonates deeply with potential buyers.

Equip your team with the skills they need to assess, prioritize, and effectively engage with leads. By mastering the art of lead qualification, your team will streamline the sales process, boost productivity, and ultimately drive greater revenue.

Don’t let valuable opportunities slip through the cracks. Invest in your team’s success with SOCO’s sales qualification training.

MEDDIC Sales Training, Lead Qualification Training
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