Don’t Faint, Use FAINT to Qualify Leads

Qualification is easy to mess up. One of the trickiest qualifying criteria to tackle is the available budget. The legendary BANT qualifying framework leads with budget to ensure sellers focus on companies that can spend the money on proposed solutions. However, what do you do when you sell something that companies don’t have set budgets for? Such as an innovation they have not yet heard about.

What to do when you sell something companies don’t have set budgets for?

A lead or prospect without a budget would be unqualified under BANT, stopping the sales process. However, the company might have had a relevant pain point and been willing to allocate money to solve it. In this case, a BANT-led seller lost a sale, and the company must keep going with their pain. It's a lose-lose situation.

What is FAINT?

FAINT is a modern lead qualification framework designed for complex B2B sales where traditional budget-based approaches fall short. Unlike BANT, which assumes prospects have pre-allocated budgets, FAINT focuses first on the prospect's financial capability to purchase, regardless of whether they have an existing budget.

FAINT, which emerged in the early 2000s, acknowledges that companies often create or reallocate budgets for valuable solutions rather than working within preset budgets in the modern business environment. Hence, the FAINT framework is particularly effective for innovative solutions or new categories where companies might not have dedicated budget lines. If there is a lack of budget, one should look for signs that the company has the financial potential to invest funds. Such signs can include high revenue, news of new sales records or financing rounds, or the amount of free cash flow.

Instead of starting with budget discussions, FAINT first assesses the prospect's overall financial capability (Funds) and decision-making authority (Authority). Do note that, especially regarding Funds, some of the questions are Level 1 discovery questions, so it is expected that sales reps will find the answers during background research on the account in question.

With FAINT, sellers can quickly assess whether a prospect has the means and motivation to purchase.

FAINT has a unique discussion point in the Interest section. While the framework strongly leans into qualifying questions, Interest adds a bit of discovery in the mix. As you see with the example questions below, Interest is a blend of background and situation, as well as goals and consequences. The purpose is to help sales reps understand the bigger picture and customers' priorities, and validate the actual Need they're trying to address. With FAINT, sellers can quickly assess whether a prospect has the means and motivation to purchase.

The Components of the FAINT Framework

Funds: Does the prospect have the financial ability to make a purchase?

Example questions to ask:

• Have you ever purchased something similar to this before?
• How do you typically secure funding for initiatives like this?
• What financial metrics do you use to evaluate investments?
• How much free cash flow do you usually have available for new investments?
• What's your company's financial growth trajectory?

Authority: Who has the power to make purchasing decisions?

Example questions to ask:

• What is your role in evaluating and selecting solutions?
• Who else needs to be involved in the decision-making process?
• Can you walk me through your typical decision-making process for a purchase like this?
• Have you assigned a team or resources to explore this area, or is it still in early stages?
• What’s your internal process for evaluating and approving new vendors?

Interest: How engaged is the prospect in finding a solution?

Example questions to ask:

• What happened that led you to research solutions like ours?
• What solutions have you tried before?
• What goals or initiatives are you most excited about achieving with a new solution?
• How does this challenge fit into your broader strategic priorities for the year?
• Are there specific results you’re hoping a new solution will unlock for your team?

Need: What particular challenges or problems need to be solved?

Example questions to ask:

• Could you describe the specific challenges or problems you’re facing?
• Can you walk me through exactly how this problem is slowing down your team or business?
• How have these challenges affected your customers or end users?
• What has been the impact so far of not having a solution in place?
• Why do you think this is happening in the first place?

Timing: When does the prospect plan to implement a solution?

Example questions to ask:

• How high a priority is solving this challenge?
• What is your timeline for implementing a solution?
• Are there any specific deadlines or milestones driving your timeline?
• What could impact your implementation timeline?
• How actively are you evaluating different options?

FAINT empowers sales teams to evaluate prospects efficiently by focusing on their financial capability and motivation to solve pressing challenges. By asking thoughtful, open-ended questions in each framework component, sales representatives can uncover the prospect's situation and readiness to move forward. This systematic approach to qualification ensures sales teams invest their energy in promising opportunities they can close, without missing out on opportunities with companies without a dedicated, ready budget.