Use BANT if you sell with short cycles and few decision makers, MEDDIC if every sale goes through a committee and a formal process, and CHAMP if the customer arrives with a problem and no solution in mind. Over WhatsApp, an agent covers the first layer of any of the three; the rest is left to the sales rep.
What each framework evaluates is in the BANT and MEDDIC entries of the glossary. CHAMP orders almost the same criteria differently: it starts with the customer's problem (Challenges) and continues with authority (Authority), money (Money) and the priority the customer gives to solving it (Prioritization).
This post does not repeat the definitions. It compares the three frameworks so you can decide which one to use, and takes you to what happens in Latin America, where the lead almost never fills out a form: they write on WhatsApp and expect a reply.
What changes between BANT, MEDDIC, and CHAMP?
All three aim at the same thing: separating who can buy from who can't yet, before spending a sales rep's hours. What changes is where they start and how deep they go.
Framework | Starts with | Works best when | Falls short when |
|---|---|---|---|
BANT | Budget | The sale is short, one or two people decide and the price is known: spare parts, supplies, standard services | The customer doesn't yet know what it costs to solve their problem and the budget question scares them off |
MEDDIC | Metrics and pain | Every sale goes through a committee, a tender or vendor onboarding: machinery, projects, annual contracts | The sale is small and half of its criteria can't be covered in a first conversation |
CHAMP | The customer's problem | The customer arrives with a symptom and not a solution, and the sale is consultative | The deal size is high and there is no budget: the sales rep finds out late |
An example to see it in practice: an electrical supply distributor in Guadalajara gets two messages on the same day. One is from an electrician asking for the price of cable for a job that starts Monday: BANT is enough, and almost everything gets resolved in the chat. The other is from a plant that wants to replace the panels on a production line. There, purchasing, the plant manager and probably an engineer who defines the specification all weigh in, and MEDDIC organizes that sale better.
That is why it often doesn't make sense to pick just one: use a lightweight framework for the first filter and a deeper one for the big opportunities. The decision is by type of sale, not by company.
The criteria all three share
Looked at closely, the three frameworks are different orderings of the same five questions:
Fit: does the company look like your ideal customer in industry, size and location?
Need: what problem do they want to solve, and what happens to them if they don't?
Decision: who decides, who else weighs in and how is a purchase approved?
Money: is there a budget, or at least an idea of what solving it is worth?
Timing: when do they need it and how high is it on their priority list?
More than the framework you choose, what matters is that marketing and sales agree on which answers turn a contact into a sales-ready lead, and that they put it in writing. That definition separates an MQL from an SQL in your company. Without it, every sales rep qualifies in their own way, which is the same as not qualifying. The full process is in the lead qualification entry.
What an agent can ask on WhatsApp, and in what order
Qualifying starts with replying fast. A study published in Harvard Business Review (2011) found that companies that contacted a lead within the first hour were almost 7 times more likely to qualify it than those that did so an hour later. It was measured with web forms, but the logic holds just as well for someone who writes from an ad that opens WhatsApp and expects an answer right away.
The second rule is that a chat is not a form. Five questions in a row feel like an interrogation, and people stop answering. According to Gartner (2025), 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience: they want to handle the simple things on their own and at their own pace. An order that respects that:
Answer what they asked: price, availability or lead time. Someone who gets something useful keeps the conversation going.
The need: what they want it for, in what quantity, for what use. It is the easiest question to answer and the one that helps most to quote correctly.
The timing: when they need it. It sets the priority without pressure.
Who decides: "Will you handle this yourselves, or review it with someone else?" works better than "Are you the decision makers?".
Money, last: instead of asking for the budget, offer ranges or two alternatives with prices and see which one they choose.
With that order, CHAMP comes out almost on its own, because it starts with the problem. BANT gets completed in the same chat if the sale is simple. MEDDIC, on the other hand, only gets started: the agent can cover the pain, a metric (how much the customer buys today, how much the problem costs them) and who else is involved, but not much more.
One question per message, mixed in with useful answers, and without going back over what the customer already said. If at any point the lead asks to talk to a person, the qualification waits. How that first message is handled when it comes from an ad is covered in responding to leads from WhatsApp ads.
What is left for the sales rep
A well-configured agent does the first layer of qualification at any hour. Some parts need judgment, relationship and sometimes a visit:
Economic buyer and champion: knowing who signs and who will defend your proposal internally takes conversation and a read of the organization. The agent can ask who else is involved; spotting the champion is the sales rep's job.
Formal buying process: tenders, vendor onboarding, approvals by amount. These are covered in the first meeting.
Business case: the agent can ask for a figure, but working out with the customer how much the purchase saves or earns them is consultative selling. We cover it in how to win complex B2B deals.
Exceptions: special pricing, payment terms outside policy or custom products.
What determines whether it works is the handoff. When the lead passes the threshold or asks for a person, the sales rep has to receive the conversation with everything that was gathered, so they don't ask the same thing twice. That is how the agent-to-sales-rep handoff works, and if the sale calls for a meeting, the agent can schedule it in the same chat.
Where each answer is stored in the CRM and how the score is built
A qualification that stays in the chat is useless: you need to be able to filter it, add it up and report on it. The rule is that every answer goes to a field with closed values, not to a free-text note.
Answer in the chat | CRM field | Field type | Which criterion it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
Industry, size, location | Account data | Value lists | Fit, in all three frameworks |
What they need and why | Identified need | Value list plus a summary | Need, Challenges, the pain in MEDDIC |
Quantity or volume | Estimated volume | Number or range | Metrics in MEDDIC |
By when | Buying horizon | List: this month, this quarter, later, no date | Timeline, Prioritization |
Who decides | Contact role | List: decides, recommends, uses, purchasing | Authority, economic buyer |
Who else is involved | Contacts linked to the opportunity | Relationship to their role | Decision process in MEDDIC |
Investment range | Estimated budget | List of ranges | Budget, Money |
How they found you | Source campaign | Reference to the campaign | Attribution |
In Salesforce, the qualification fields live on the lead and carry over to the opportunity when you convert it, if you map them; the people involved in the decision are recorded as opportunity contact roles. In HubSpot, the equivalent is contact and deal properties, as we explain in the WhatsApp integration with HubSpot.
With the fields filled in, lead scoring adds up two halves: the profile (how closely it resembles your ideal customer) and the intent (what they answered and how soon they want to buy). An example of rules, not a recipe: a timeline of this month scores higher than "later," talking to the decision maker scores higher than talking to a user, and an industry outside your profile subtracts points. Above the threshold, the lead goes to sales; below it, it stays in follow-up. The weights are calibrated with your history: look at which leads from the most recent half-year ended in a sale and what they had answered.
Sellium does this part on WhatsApp: it asks the questions, scores against the rules you define (BANT, MEDDIC or your own scheme) and records the qualification data as lead fields in Salesforce, with the conversation summary in the activity and the source campaign. The details are in the WhatsApp integration with Salesforce.
Disqualifying politely
Disqualifying quickly is not a failure: it protects your team's time for what it can actually close. And qualification works in both directions, because the customer also rules you out if the price, the timeline or the solution doesn't work for them. It's better to find that out in the first chat than after three meetings.
What can't happen is a disqualified lead going unanswered. Three ways to close well:
Offer an alternative: if the order is small for your operation, refer it to a distributor or to your online store.
Leave the door open: if the problem is timing, ask when it makes sense to follow up and record that date in the CRM.
Nurture without pushing: if they fit your profile but aren't ready, move them into a lead nurturing process, with their consent and an opt-out always within reach.
A possible message: "From what you're telling me, we're not the best option for this order today. Here is the contact for [distributor], who can handle it faster. If the larger project moves forward, write to me and we'll take a look." The CRM records the reason for the disqualification, also with closed values, so you know what kind of leads your campaigns attract.
Where to start
Choose the framework by type of sale and write down, on one page, which answers make a lead ready for sales.
Create the fields in the CRM, with closed values, before touching the chat.
Write the questions in your brand's tone and in the order above, and test them with real conversations.
Define the handoff threshold and what happens to the leads that don't reach it.
Review each month which qualified leads ended in a sale and adjust the weights.
If your leads already come in through WhatsApp, qualification can start with the first message. To see it with your own cases, book a demo.
