What Are GPCT – 4 Steps of the GPCT Framework

Feature Image

Jul 25 2017

blog

As we covered in the last blog, GPCT - New BANT Analysis has always been the forefront concept used to qualify leads in the sales process. But the ever-evolving business landscape of the modern era calls for an updated method that takes into account the new age variables and issues.

This is where GPCT comes into the picture.

Introduction to GPCT: What is GPCT?

Being a modified version of BANT, it assists the sales process in a similar but more efficient manner. The main issue faced by the sales department today is that prospects are being able to figure out solutions to their own problems with the help of the Internet. This is reducing the bandwidth of the value that can be provided by the salesmen to prospective leads. Hence, a greater amount of effort has to be put in now to understand the needs of prospects.

GPCT stands for Goals, Plans, Challenges, and Timeline.

Let’s understand the concept further by learning about every step.

4 Steps of the GPCT Framework

The following 4 steps are involved in the GPCT process:

1) Goals

Replacing the ‘Budget’ step of the BANT Analysis, this first step aims to analyze the end goal of the prospect, rather than simply focusing on the amount of money they are ready to shell out. The reason for this change is simple. Through the vast amount of free knowledge available 24/7 on the Internet, prospects already have pre-formulated goals that they are looking for. You can no longer rely on selling them the end result since they already know what they want. Therefore it makes sense to ask them about their expectations, quantify them, and then build your case around this by offering them a better way to reach their goals.

On the other hand, many-a-times companies don’t have the knowledge to streamline their long term and short term goals together. This provides another great opportunity for salesmen to pitch methods that are in sync with their products/services.

Here are some questions that can be asked:

  1. What business goals do you want to achieve this year?
  2. What personal goals do you want to achieve this year?
  3. What is the top priority among these goals?

2) Plans

Now that you know all about the end goals that your prospect’s business is aiming to achieve, it is now time to analyze what all steps they plan to take to reach those goals. This is a crucial step, especially if your prospects have already started to implement those plans. You can then critically analyze their blueprints and access whether they will be successful to reach their goals through them. Your services can also be easily pitched here along the way if you think they can provide real value to your prospects.

Moreover, some prospects may only know what to achieve without having any knowledge of how to do so. You can easily find this out by asking relevant questions and testing their confidence.

Some questions can be:

  1. Have you developed any plan to achieve your business and personal goals?
  2. Did you implement such a plan in the previous financial year? What was the outcome?
  3. Do you believe that there can be a better way to achieve the goals this year? Why or why not?

3) Challenges

This can be a tricky step since the aim here is to make the prospects understand that they might be genuinely stuck with a problem and that it’s time for them to come out of their comfort zone. Companies often put up a callous attitude and keep improvising before putting up with actual changes. Hence, if you can break their unproductive resolve, you can easily convert them into customers. This can be done through clearly communicating with them about the prevalent working scenario they have, understanding their whole operational structure as well as asking their views about the avenues which keep them up at night.

Some relevant questions include:

  1. What are the kinds of business challenges that you have faced in the past? Are you still facing any of them?
  2. Do you think your team is skilled enough to deal with these challenges? If not, what is your next best alternative?
  3. Why do you think you have not been able to overcome this challenge yet? What factors have been stopping you?

4) Timeliness

Just like in BANT Analysis, the last step here remains the same. The timeline is one of the most important variables to take care of any project. You can determine this by understanding the expectations of the prospects and the timeframe under which they aim to achieve their goals. This will also include the time that the prospect takes to make the buying decision. Moreover, you also need to understand the priority level of the task. If other goals take precedence, there is no point in investing so much time in a prospect who offers no return.

Relevant questions here can include:

  1. What is the nature of this goal for you? Is it weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually?
  2. What is the priority of this goal compared to the various other organizational goals?
  3. Do you have any plans to revise the timeline mid-way through the project, based on any relevant metric?

Extended GPCT

While you are figuring out how to help your prospects with their goals, plans, and challenges, you also need to determine the following details to understand their budget and the decision making ability.

This step is abbreviated as BA, which stands for Budget and Authority.

1) Budget

The budget of your prospects is a crucial metric for you since it tells you about the profitability of the lead. Return on Investment (ROI) is the key game here since it is mainly what prospects would be interested in. An important point to note is that the information gathered in the ‘Plan’ step of GPCT would come to your rescue here. If the client already has processes in place, you can pitch them about the advantages of your services/products over existing methods, and how they can help them save money.

2) Authority

New-age businesses do not have a single decision maker anymore. Authority may often lie in the hands of multiple people, especially if you are dealing with start-ups. Hence, you need to determine the right point of contact who can actually make the buying decision for this particular project. This has to be done as soon as you get in touch with the prospect so that you don’t end up using GPCT with someone who cannot make the buying decision! This makes it one of the crucial initial steps.

GPCT is more likely to help you in landing better leads as compared to BANT Analysis. It will help you make sure that you invest your time in chasing the best possible opportunities, instead of wasting time on prospects who won’t convert.

Clodura.Ai Start your Free Trial

clodura-email-banner