What is FAINT?
RAIN Group’s president, Mike Schultz, created FAINT in response to the inadequacy of BANT in many sales cases. As a sales qualification framework, it is designed for selling in situations where prospects don’t have true set aside budgets for your solution.
Much like ANUM’s creator, Ken Krogue, Mike felt BANT’s prioritization of the B for Budget put the cart before the horse for many prospective buyers, because many do not have predetermined budgets set aside for your solution – many buyers don’t even know your solution exists and can help them reach new heights.
But just because they have not set aside a true budget the way they see it does not mean they do not have the funds for your solution – cash flow.
FAINT stands for:
Funds – Does this buyer have the financial capacity to buy your solution?
Authority – Is this the decision-maker for buying your solution?
Interest – Through your education of how your solution can help the buyer achieve a new and better reality, have you generated interest?
Need – What are the buyer’s specific needs and how can your solution meet them?
Timing – Has buying intent been generated and what is the specific timeframe to do so?
Here are examples of FAINT questions that have routinely used:
Funds
Have you ever bought a solution like this before?
If you don’t mind me asking, what was that solution like (terms)?
Authority
How are purchasing decisions typically made in your company, specifically with products/services like ours?
I’d like to talk about how our product/service can hep your business – who might be the best person to speak with?
Interest
Does it sound like our solution would make sense for you now?
How long have you been seeking out solutions like these?
Need
What has led you to seek out a solution now?
What are your company goals?
Timing
What is your timeframe for getting this done?
When is the latest you’d like to make a decision by?
For Funding Pros, FAINT stands for:
Funds – Does the merchant have the revenue to be eligible and what is the buyer’s capital pricing decision criteria? (How are they evaluating whether they can afford your solution or not?)
Authority – Does the prospect have the decision-making authority/or are they an influencer? (Most often times the business owner, bookkeeper or office manager.)
Interest – Through educating the merchant on how you can help the business grow, have you generated interest in your solution?
Need – What is the merchant’s business need/project/goal/Business Outcome? (And what has prevented them from achieving it already.)
Timing – In what timeframe will the prospect be looking to fund?
Here are examples of FAINT questions for Funding Pros:
Funds
-Have you done any business funding in the past?
-What other financing for the business have you done?
-What have the terms of your past financing solutions looked like?
-What are the terms of your current financing solution?
Authority
-Are you the sole owner responsible for all key decisions?
-How have you made key decisions for programs similar to ours in the past?
-How are all business financing decisions typically made in your company?
-If talking about how projects get financed in the business – who might be the best person to speak with?
Interest
-Does funding/financing make sense for you now?
-How long have you been seeking funding?
-What other solutions have you looked at?
-What are your impressions?
Need
-What projects are you working on now?
-What do you need to achieve your outcome?
-What has led you to seek out funding now?
– What are your company goals?
Timing
-What date are you looking to fund by?
-Do you have the capacity to fund this project now?
-What is your timeframe for getting this done?
-When is the latest you’d like to make a decision by?
For Funding Pros, FAINT, like BANT and ANUM can be yet another effective qualification framework for driving calls to maximize our most valuable resource: time. Although great, these aren’t the only qualification tools available to us…
Which of these qualification frameworks have you found to be most helpful in driving quality conversations?
-FundingStrategist
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