Survey template

Lead qualification form

BANT asks budget and authority and gets aspirational answers. This form qualifies on what's actually happening — what they use today, what just changed, who signs off, and what they've really spent — so you route the ready buyers to sales and the rest to nurture instead of chasing everyone equally.

Best for: Founders, sales, and growth teams scoring inbound leads before a call.

The questions

1. What are you using to solve this today?

   Long text

   A named incumbent — even a spreadsheet — signals a real problem worth budget; 'nothing yet' usually means it isn't urgent.

2. What changed recently that made you start looking?

   Long text

   The trigger event. No trigger means no timeline, and no timeline means it isn't a near-term deal.

3. When do you need this solved by?

   Single select

   This month / This quarter / Just exploring — timing separates a pipeline lead from a someday lead.

4. Who else is involved in choosing a solution?

   Single select

   Just me / Me and my manager / A committee — names the real decision path so sales doesn't pitch the wrong person.

5. What have you spent on this problem before?

   Short text

   Past spend is a truer budget read than asking 'what's your budget?' — people answer what they've done, not what they'd allow.

6. What would make this an easy yes for you?

   Long text

   Surfaces the one requirement that decides the deal, so the first call addresses it head-on.

7. Work email

   Short text

   A company domain plus a real trigger is the combination worth a same-day reply.

How to run it well

• Route on the trigger plus timeline answers, not the budget field — a clear trigger with a 'this quarter' deadline beats a big stated budget with no urgency.
• Treat 'nothing yet' on the current-solution question as a disqualifier for now, not forever; loop those into nurture instead of a sales call.
• Keep it under seven questions — every extra field on a qualification form trades a few more cold leads for a chunk of lost hot ones.
• Read the 'easy yes' verbatims before the call; the single requirement people name there is usually what closes or kills the deal.
• Auto-route by the decision-maker answer: solo buyers get a direct demo, committees get a deck and a champion-enablement follow-up.

FAQ

Why not just ask for budget and authority directly?

People answer budget and authority aspirationally — they tell you what they wish they could spend and who they wish they were. Asking what they use today, what changed, and what they've already paid gets you behavior instead of hope, which predicts a real deal far better.

How do I turn the answers into a hot-or-cold routing rule?

A clear trigger event plus a 'this quarter' timeline plus a named incumbent is a hot lead — route it to a call same day. Missing the trigger or the timeline drops it to nurture. The budget answer is a tiebreaker, not the gate.

Won't a longer form scare leads off?

Some, deliberately. A qualification form is meant to filter, not maximize submissions — the people who won't spend two minutes answering rarely convert anyway. Keep it tight at five to seven questions and you lose mostly the leads you'd have disqualified on the call.

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