BANT vs ANUM - Lead Qualification Methods

BANT vs ANUM

As explained in more detail in my ‘Lead Qualification Criteria’ blog, one of the most commonly used methods for lead qualification is BANT.

However, I have recently been reading a lot about a slight change to this list and a move towards ANUM.

BANT	ANUM
B = Budget	A = Authority
A = Authority	N = Need
N - Need	U = Urgency
T = Timing	M = Money

Today I want to go through ANUM one by one, explain why it is similar, yet also different to BANT and why the order has somewhat changed. (I have color coded the table above to help explain my thoughts)

So, first of all I see them as being a lot similar than at first glance. When first looking at ANUM we only see 2 that are the same as BANT, namely Authority and Need. I would like to claim that really Urgency is an updated version of Timing and that Money is an updated version of budget.

Authority:

Within ANUM we can see that Authority is the first criteria. This is carried over from BANT but has now been given a higher position. This is to show the change in the way we work. We are getting busier and busier all the time and the bottom line is that it is for the best of all concerned if we make sure from the get go that we are talking to the right person. Otherwise we can say all the great things we want but they will not be meaningful for the listener.

Need:

Need has also been moved up a level compared to being third in BANT but significantly we see that it remains after Authority to show that only once we know if they are the right person to speak to and we understand their internal decision making process can we actually determine if they have a business pain that matches our solution. These two go together well and therefore remain a pair in both theories.

Urgency:

Now comes the fun part. I believe that Urgency is similar to Timing but updated to reflect the new way we buy and sell. In BANT we were just concerned with knowing their project timing to help us with our own priorities and messaging, whereas with Urgency we want to know how high up their priority list this particular business pain or need is for them. This is crucial so that we can know whether or not we should be focusing on helping them build the business case and prove ROI. Also, we can see that once again this change has been driven by the fact that people are busier and we want to understand better if this is something they are focusing on now or if it is on the back burner.

Money:

Money and budget sound the same but I see them as fundamentally different. Budget was focusing on whether or not they already have set aside a clear budget for this project thus assuming that they already see the value in our solution or in solving their business pain. However in today’s modern world they don’t always already know they have a ‘need’ or don’t yet see the full added value. Therefore Budget has been updated to Money to reflect the fact that we have to only find out if they potentially have the money to purchase our solution. Then it is our job to prove to them our value and why they should apply to get the fixed budget for this purchase.

Many companies ultimately use a hybrid between these two systems and I usually suggest that companies find the right balance between these two to match their specific way of working.