Six answers decide whether the proposal gets written. Get all six on the first call.

Six things, and all six fit inside a first call. The job, in one sentence you can read back to them. The money, as a number or a band they said out loud. The decider, meaning who signs and who else has to be happy before it starts. The date they need it live, and what makes that the date. What happens if they hire nobody. And one named next step with a date on it, agreed while you are still on the call. Each answer goes into a field on the record rather than into your head, because by the second call you will not remember which of the six you actually got.

Count the answers you hold. All six, with the money and the decider both real, earns a full proposal. Four or five, with the money and the decider among them, earns a short quote instead: a price, a scope line, and what you need from them to start. If the money or the decider is still missing after you have asked twice, decline kindly and leave the door open. The outcome is one of three and a person takes it. There is no score to compute and no points to add up.

Give your own number first, then stop talking. Work like this usually lands between your low and your high, does that sit inside what you had in mind. Naming your range gives them something to react to, which is far easier than asking them to guess yours. If the answer is still nothing after a second ask, that is itself the answer. Record it in Budget band as not said and treat it as a missing answer, not as a difficult client.

Say it plainly and leave the door open. The script on the card reads: I do not think I am the right fit for this one right now, mostly because we have not been able to land on a budget that works for both of us. If that changes, write to me and we will pick it up. Then fill in Lost reason while you still remember why. Four values are enough to start: budget, timing, chose someone else, went quiet. Read once a quarter, that field tells you which of the six answers you keep skipping.

BANT and the frameworks built on it are written for a sales team with reps, a manager and a pipeline review, and they work well in that shape of company. A small business has a different problem, because the same person takes the call and writes the proposal that night, so a bad qualification costs an unpaid evening rather than a forecast miss. The six answers cover the same ground, add the two questions those frameworks tend to skip (what happens if they hire nobody, and what the agreed next step is), and end in three decisions instead of a qualified or not verdict.

Yes. A 16-page A4 guide, sent as a PDF in exchange for an email address, in English, Spanish, German and Portuguese. It is vendor-neutral and works on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in any CRM you already pay for. No phone call and no drip sequence.