Bob Apollo from Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners recently sent me three whitepapers to review and comment on. I thought all three were excellent, but due to my background in, and passion about, lead qualification, that was the one topic that really stood out.

Bob’s view: Traditional lead qualification, such as the over simplified BANT criteria (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe) are inadequate to reflect the dynamics of today’s complex buying process. If your ultimate goal is to identify well-qualified opportunities where your solution stands an excellent chance of being selected by your prospect if you implement a thoughtful and effective sales strategy, then a more sophisticated qualification process is called for.

I recommend using ADOPTED as a highly refined methodology to guide the qualification process in today’s complex B2B sales environments.

ADOPTED stands for:

• Authority
• Decision Criteria
• Options
• Priority
• Timing
• Economics
• Decision Process

For the details, here is a direct link (no gates) to the whitepaper. I think you will enjoy it. And, if you want to talk about why you should not use BANT or ANUM to qualify leads, let me know (dan.mcdade@pointclear.com) or ask a question and I will respond promptly.

Thank you!