“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” This is a famous quote from one of the Pioneers of marketing, John Wanamaker.

Sadly, for the sales leaders, the story doesn’t end at Ad spend. That’s just the beginning. Inside sales teams are given the mundane task of manually speaking to each lead and validating whether it’s worth the company’s time to pursue them or not. And here begins a never-ending series of frustrating calls that can go something like the ones mentioned below. 

1. “I am busy right now. Call me later”
2. “Send me the details on WhatsApp or Email. I will get back to you in a day or so”

Now, imagine this situation once:

A 24*7 AI Sales agent working round the clock, and effortlessly navigating through tons of leads and potential customers to discover the real diamonds–the prospective buyers who are interested in the product or service that you are offering.

From boosting productivity to tailoring customer experiences, chatbot integration and AI as a part of your Lead management strategy can help your business double its sales in the fastest possible time. Most importantly, it helps your sales team shift their focus on the areas that require human intervention. This is called the power of Artificial intelligence. 

What Is Lead Prioritization?

Lead Prioritization is a systematic process of ranking and categorizing leads based on their potential value to an organization. In simple terms, it’s about filtering and focusing on the most qualified leads to get promising results. 

Lead Prioritization is the process of evaluating and ranking the leads based on their potential to get converted. Well, this age-old approach makes sure that your sales team is not wasting time on the cold leads and the leads that are unlikely to convert into sales, allowing them to focus on other areas of work with more success rates. 

What Are the Lead Prioritization Frameworks?

Every inside sales team should have a proper lead prioritization framework in place to segregate the leads based on their quality. It is a fundamental component of a successful sales strategy. 

Adopting such a framework in your organization is a fruitful investment that can guarantee long-term success and increased business sustainability. 

So let’s explore some of the lead prioritization frameworks: 

1. BANT 

BANT is the most popular lead qualification method, and it stands for:

B – Budget – Means if the lead has a financial resource to make a purchase 

A – Authority – Checks if the lead has the power to make a decision 

N – Need – Evaluates if the lead has a genuine need or a pain point that the product can address 

T – Timeline – Determines the time frame in which the lead can make an informed decision 

Now, let’s understand the way it works: 

1.1. Budget-Related Enquiries 

Reason: The main reason behind this step is to check the financial capability and to evaluate a client’s interest in investing in the product or service. 

Some of the examples of questions:  

1. “Could you share your budget range under which you are looking? 

The above question helps you to understand the budget range that is running inside the client’s head

2. How much money you have invested in your past projects? 

The above question will give you an idea about the client’s past investment pattern. 

1.2. Authority-Based Questions

Reason: To evaluate if the client can decide to purchase from their organization.

Some of the examples of questions: 

1. Who will be using the product? 

The above question will not tell you who the decision maker is, however, it will tell you who all are involved in making the final decision. 

2. When was the last time you purchased a similar product? How did the entire process go? 

The above question will help you identify some pain points that the client experienced in the past. By understanding them, you can avoid repeating those points in your sales process. 

1.3. Need-related Questions 

Reason: Does the prospect really need my product? 

Some of the examples of questions: 

1. When did you identify the problem? 

By asking this question, the salesperson will identify how long the prospect has been experiencing the problem. 

2. What are your upcoming goals? 

This question will help you predict whether the prospect will renew the plan or service with your business. 

1.4. Timing-related Questions 

Reason: To understand the urgency of the situation and to know how much time will the prospect take to make an informed decision. 

Some of the examples of questions: 

1. Do you have a deadline in mind for implementing the solution? 

This will help you sense the urgency of the prospect’s situation. 

2. Are there any upcoming events/ or deadlines that you are looking for a solution in place? 

This question will help you identify any internal deadline on which the prospect needs to work. 

2. ANUM 

ANUM stands for Authority, Need, Urgency, and Money 

It was developed by Ken Krogue and is somewhat similar to the BANT approach that we have discussed so far. 

A – Authority – Is the prospect a key decision maker?

N – Need – Is your product/ service solving prospect’s needs? 

U – Urgency – Is the prospect ready to make an informed decision or will further make up their mind?

M – Money – Does the prospect have the money to buy the product/ service? 

In this approach, Authority is the front runner and Money takes a back seat as this method depends upon the rapport that you have with the prospect or decision-maker. 

Rather than entertaining a bad lead, the sales persons can quickly evaluate if they need to shift their focus making contact with the decision-maker or the department head. By following this approach, salespeople save the precious time that they would have wasted on the wrong leads. 

3. CHAMP 

ChAMP or CHAMP stands for Challenges, Authority, Money, and Priority 

This method is somewhat similar to BANT & ANUM, but it replaces Need with Challenges! 

In this method, Authority and Budget take a back seat, & Challenge and Priority are the runner ups. 

Ch – Challenges – What are the challenges that the prospect is facing?

A – Authority – Is the prospect a decision-maker in the organization? 

M – Money – Does the prospect have an allocated budget for the solution? 

P – Priority – Does the prospect have a proper timeframe for the project? 

By using the CHAMP method of Lead Prioritization, the sales personnel becomes more focused on the challenges faced by the prospect. Once they identify the challenges, an opportunity is created. 

What Are the Limitations of Traditional Lead Prioritization Frameworks?

Traditional lead prioritization methods, such as BANT, CHAMP, and ANUM, can exhibit characteristics that make them time-consuming, subjective, and potentially challenging. Let's delve into each aspect:

1. Time-Consuming

It often involves sales teams engaging in detailed conversations, gathering information, and manually evaluating the leads depending on pre-defined criteria. The entire process can be time-consuming as it requires direct interactions with leads to uncover various aspects 

2. Subjective 

Traditional Lead Prioritization heavily relies on the judgements of sales representatives that can often be subjective. The interpretation of various factors such as budget, authority, challenges, and priorities can vary, depending upon individuality. Subjectivity can give birth to biased assumptions, thereby affecting the overall accuracy of lead prioritization. 

3. Scalability Issues 

As the volume of leads increases, manual lead prioritization becomes increasingly dependent on resources. The manual process of lead prioritization can result in inefficiencies and may disrupt the scalability of the lead prioritization process. 

4. Lack of Real-time insights 

Market dynamics and customer preferences continue to evolve & traditional frameworks may find it difficult to capture these changes in real time.

While traditional lead prioritization methods have been foundational in sales, the inside sales team can still face some challenges related to Time Efficiency, Subjectivity, scalability, and adaptability as compared to the dynamic nature of modern times. 

Keeping in mind the complexities of the traditional methods of Lead Prioritization, businesses are drifting towards AI-driven lead scoring methods to easily segregate between hot, warm, and cold leads. 

The Role of AI in Lead Prioritization

AI has massively transformed the way how lead qualification and prioritization work. The strong tide of AI is revolutionizing the entire landscape of Lead Prioritization, allowing the inside sales team to shift their efforts more effectively and efficiently. 

Just imagine being able to identify which leads are the most promising by using AI, so that you can allow the inside sales team to focus their efforts on the areas with the highest success rates. 

AI is transforming the entire process of Lead Management in the following ways: 

1. Automated Lead Scoring 

AI uses predictive analysis to forecast the future action of the leads depending on the past data and behavioural patterns. This analysis tells which leads are most likely to convert, making sure that the inside sales team focuses more on the promising leads. 

2. Enriched Data Analysis 

With AI tools, large volumes of data can be easily processed and analyzed. Data from multiple channels, including social media, and emails, can be easily gathered and analyzed in real-time. These insights, or the information you can say, assist sales personnel in focussing their effort towards the most prospective lead. 

3. Personalized Approach 

Personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also contributes to more accurate lead prioritization. By understanding each lead's unique needs, AI empowers sales teams to prioritize effectively and build meaningful connections, thereby increasing the chances of conversion. 

4. Predictive Analysis for the next move 

AI doesn’t take a back seat after conveying, which leads to prioritizing. It also provides the next step that the sales team needs to take with the potential leads. 

5. Continuous Improvement and Optimization 

AI systems continue to evolve; they never stop.

They constantly learn from the new data and feedback that comes their way. As more and more leads are processed daily, this sets a proper tune and improves the system's ability to predict and analyze the nature of future leads. 

6. Time and Cost-efficient 

By automating the process of lead prioritization, the sales team can significantly reduce the amount of time, cost, and effort on sifting through a huge pile of leads manually. 

AI for Lead Qualification and Prioritization has taken a bold move in the technologically advanced world, innovating archaic games in a way no one can ever imagine. The ultimate power of AI to find and distinguish hot, cold, and warm leads can overall improve your business productivity. 

Always remember, AI in Lead Automation isn’t about laying off your sales team, but, it’s about empowering them with the best AI tools that work seamlessly 24*7. 

Brance AI Lead Prioritization - Need Help in Identifying High-Quality Leads?

Meet Brance – AI Copilot for the inside sales team. 

By harnessing the power of AI-driven solutions from Brance, you can ensure that the inside sales team does not waste time on low-quality leads and is always focused on the most promising leads, ultimately driving double conversion rates and boosting ROI. 

Our AI Chatbot evaluates website activities, content read by the client, and the time a prospect spends on a particular website. We use advanced AI/ ML algorithms to qualify all leads, enabling inside sales teams to focus their efforts on the most promising prospects and not waste time on cold calling. 

With Brance’s Gen AI agent, your business can experience a 40% increase in overall sales productivity. Below are the parameters that make our AI chatbot best suited for Lead generation: 

• Ultra-fast responses in real-time – Available round the clock to qualify, nurture, and prioritize leads 
• Engaging Experience – Accurate responses to prospect’s query 
• Optimized Follow-ups – Fine-tune the Follow-up process, ensuring that the communication is delivered at the right time, through the right channel, and with the right messaging. 
• Predictive Analysis – Automatic filtration and segregation of leads into hot, cold, and warm 
• Cost-efficient – Ability to amplify the lead generation process without any additional costs. 

To Conclude

In the ever-transforming landscape of Sales and Lead Generation, the integration of AI and chatbots emerges as a binding force that helps organizations propel their business forward. The shift towards automated lead scoring is more than just a technological upgrade. It denotes a strategic way businesses can qualify, nurture, and prioritize leads. 

The AI wave has begun!

Now you have the strategy and the AI platform to automate the process of Lead qualification for improved ROI and increased business productivity. 

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