Qualification is deciding which opportunities deserve your time. Every sales team has more possible deals than hours, and the most expensive deal is the one you lose after six months of work. A framework helps you ask the same important questions every time and spot gaps early.
BANT
The classic framework, created at IBM. Simple and quick, good for smaller and transactional deals.
| Letter | Means | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| B | Budget | Is there money for this, or a way to get it? |
| A | Authority | Who makes the final decision? |
| N | Need | What problem does this solve, and how big is it? |
| T | Timing | When does this need to be in place? |
Weakness: treated as a checklist, it can feel like an interrogation, and in many companies budget doesn't exist until there's a strong enough case. Use it as a guide, not a script.
MEDDIC and MEDDPICC
Built for complex B2B deals with several stakeholders and long cycles. It is popular in enterprise software.
| Letter | Means | What you need to know |
|---|---|---|
| M | Metrics | The measurable result the buyer wants (for example "cut onboarding from 10 days to 3") |
| E | Economic buyer | The person who controls the budget and can say yes when others say no |
| D | Decision criteria | What they will judge options on |
| D | Decision process | The steps and people between "we like it" and a signature |
| P | Paper process | Legal, procurement and security review (in MEDDPICC) |
| I | Identify pain | The business problem and its cost |
| C | Champion | Someone inside who wants you to win and will sell for you |
| C | Competition | Other suppliers, internal projects or doing nothing (in MEDDPICC) |
Strength: it forces you to find the economic buyer and a champion, the two most common gaps in lost deals. Weakness: it's heavy for a small, fast sale.
CHAMP
CHAMP reorders BANT to start with the buyer's problem:
- Challenges: what problems are they facing?
- Authority: who is involved in the decision?
- Money: is there budget, or can it be found?
- Prioritisation: how important is this compared with other projects?
It's a good fit for teams that find BANT too blunt.
GPCTBA/C&I
Created by HubSpot for inbound sales, where the buyer often contacts you first. It stands for Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority, negative Consequences and positive Implications. It is more consultative and works well when you're helping a buyer build their case.
Which one should you use?
- Small deals, short cycles, one decision-maker: BANT or CHAMP.
- Inbound leads, consultative selling: GPCTBA/C&I.
- Enterprise deals over several months with many stakeholders: MEDDIC or MEDDPICC.
The framework matters less than using one consistently and writing down the answers in your CRM, so a manager can look at a deal and see what's missing.
Warning signs
- You've never spoken to the person who signs.
- The buyer can't say what happens if they do nothing.
- There's no date that matters to them.
- Your contact won't introduce you to anyone else.
- They want a proposal before a discovery call.
None of these mean you should give up immediately, but each one is a question to ask in your next call. If the answers don't come, it's often better to step back and spend the time on a better opportunity.
Next
Prepare your questions with the discovery question list, and test the economics of your pipeline with the pipeline calculator.