GPCTBA/C&I

GPCTBA/C&I is a three-part framework sales qualification process that is developed to best qualify whether a prospect truly could benefit from our products and services. This sales qualification process is developed by Hubspot.

Earlier when prospects could not figure out solutions to their own problems via a simple Google search, their favorite blogs, or by posting a question on a social media site, they were reliant on salespeople. During that time BANT was popularly used by salespeople as a sales qualification method to identify prospect’s problems and confirming the needs to qualify the prospect for sale.

Today, all this information is one Google Search away for a prospect. Prospects are much more informed about you and your competitor's products and services, have identified their own needs and started to design their own solutions - all before even thinking about talking to a salesperson.

This has caused the rise of the new sales qualification process GPCTBA/C&I. Here's a breakdown of each part of this sales qualifying process.

1. GPCT(Goal, Plan, Challenges, Timeline):

Goals: The goals you want to identify are quantifiable goals your prospect wants or needs to hit. There are really only a few reasons to buy any product: to make more money, save money, or avoid some risk of losing money.

Sometimes, companies haven't defined or quantified these goals very effectively or they haven't determined how their high-level goals relate to their day-to-day metrics or milestones. This is opportunity number one for salespeople to establish themselves as an advisor by beginning to help prospects reset or quantify their goals.

Plans: Now that you have a sense of what the prospect's individual and company goals are, you want to find out what their current plans are that they will implement in order to achieve these goals.

You want to really nail down whether they tried this before and how it worked. You want to know why they think their plan will succeed or fail, what changes they've made along the way in their plan and why, as well as what their backup plans are if their current plans don't work out.

Challenges: The most important moment in any sale is determining whether you can help a prospect overcome their and their company's challenges; ones they're dealing with as well as ones they (or you) anticipate.

Most companies don't invest money just to achieve a goal. They'll prefer to just do more of what they're already doing, and will resist change until they really need to make a change. That usually happens because what they've done just isn't working or they ran into a challenge they simply can't overcome. The trick is getting prospects to admit that they are stuck.

Timeline: It's all about timing. When do they need to achieve their goal? When can they implement their plan? When do they need to eliminate this challenge?

If your prospect doesn't have the bandwidth to deal with these issues or has more important goals that take precedence, their timeline might be "in the future" and you have to make the decision whether to invest time now or not.

2. BA(Budget and Authority)

If you've determined that you can help your prospect achieve their goals, implement their plan, overcome their challenges - all within their required timeline - it's time to start talking about how they'll make the decision and where the funding is coming from.

Budget: It’s critical to establish what your prospect’s budget is. After all, you can't help them if they can't invest in your solution. Assuming you've done a good job quantifying their goals and challenges, now's the time to remind them of the upside and confirm that they agree on the potential ROI.

Authority: Salespeople often don't get to talk to the economic decision maker until later in the process, if ever. Yes, great salespeople still call higher-ups. But realistic salespeople are willing to try and turn influencers into champions.

When you do get the decision-maker involved, you should start from the beginning of the process. Don't assume that the goals you've uncovered in their organization based on prior calls are their top priorities. Go over GPCTBA with them and confirm that you understand their world. Emphasize the ROI of your product.

3. C&I(Negative Consequences and Positive Implications)

What are the negative consequences if your prospect does not achieve their goal? What are the positive implications if your prospect reaches their desired goal? Can your product help the prospect mitigate the risk of not achieving his or her goals and further increase the chances of achieving them?

If your product can significantly help them avoid consequences and further aid in achieving even bigger follow-up goals, you've got a very strong value proposition.