The "B" in BANT-focused Demand Generation - Budget 101

The best thing in life is free,

but you can give it to the birds an' bees.

I need some money, need some money.

-John Lee Hooker

My favorite Blues singer sang it well - and for demand generation, money (or in this case budget) is a necessary part of any qualified lead. However, most prospects don't like disclosing their budget numbers to vendors early - and often, vendors don't know how to ask the right questions around budget in general.

From the client's perspective, it's a bit like dating - you don't tend to disclose how much you make to someone on date #1, but by the time that you are serious enough, you'll share your W2 information. Same thing is true in the engagement cycle between a client and a vendor. On day 1 of engagement, the client will rarely disclose their actual budget numbers on a project (unless tactically it is done to reveal either a top or bottom line of price sensitivity).

From the vendor's perspective, if the client won't be sharing budget on day 1, then how in the world do you determine budget?

• Ask circular questions about budget.
• Do your research in public documents like the company's annual reports for budget trends and planned expenditures in the future fiscal year.
• Sell the heck out of the value of your solution - not the cost of it.

Circular questions about budget can range from understanding:

• Which departments are funding the project?
• Does a board of directors have to sign off on the expenditure?
• Are the funds only available for a certain timeframe and do they go away/need re-approval past that timeframe?
• Is the project considered part of a capital project initiative or "everyday" spend of IT dollars?
• If they are price sensitive (and have let you know it), have they considered using financing* to complete the project?

Researching the company's public records (and heck, twitters/blogs) can generate a wealth of information on the what the company has done in the past and what it plans to tackle in the future. Understanding the scope of what initiatives the company has on its radar can be invaluable - and lead the vendors to structure their value propositions more centrally to the company's plans.

Selling the value of your solution and not the cost of it is a topic I plan to discuss in a future post - but let's leave it as simple as, if the client understands and believes the value you bring to the table, cost can become irrelevant.

The KISS Question is "how many ways do you ask about budget on date 1?"

*Financing can be a terrific way to secure that a lead turns into a sale - a vendor can reap a ton of benefits including:

• Increase deal size.
• Close deals faster.
• Strengthen customer relationships by being a partner - not just a vendor in the process.
• Get paid up front.
• Offer more flexibility to the clients.

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon and Follow the Money

Moving onto the area of "Authority" of NABT (see my earlier posts if unfamiliar with the acronym), how do you find out if someone has the authority to be considered a quality lead?

The usual suspects of titles are still important - they are a classic example that are still very true in many quality leads.

However, some companies are using unusual titles or more commonly a Manager at one company could be the equivalent to a VP at a different company. Unless you know the company's ways of using titles, you could miss a quality lead.

Two ways to understand a bit about someone's authority is understanding their personal 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon and to follow the money.

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon is simple - who is the person connected to within the organization and how many degrees are they away from the CEO, CIO, CFO, or General Counsel. Which leads me to the next step, follow the money.

In today's organizations, especially if you are looking to have them purchase enterprise-wide solutions, the budgets will be controlled by a CEO, CIO, CFO, or General Counsel. If your lead does not have the political capital or authority to influence one of these titles, your sales cycle will be longer, deal size shorter, and overall, the lead is less likely to close.

The KISS Question for this post is, "how far away is your lead from a C-title"?

What makes a great lead?

So it would be so simple if the phones just rang off the hook, filled with customers and net new prospects with a PO in hand, ready to buy, and your demand generation teams just had to pick up the phone and keep track of those PO numbers.

If you are that lucky, I would highly suggest that you play the Lotto.

For most everyone else, high volume/high quality lead generation is just not that easy.

However, before you set your plans up to generate all this volume of terrific leads, have you asked yourself, or more importantly, your sales teams, what makes a great lead?

A classic way is to identify BANT - budget, authority, need, timeframe. Sure, folks may call these items different things - but ultimately it comes down to these four items. The order of "BANT", in my opinion, is a bit misleading....but the acronym is not as easy on the tongue. I prefer the order of NABT.

Since this blog is "The KISS Principle of Lead Generation", your first KISS question is "What makes a great lead - for your team?"