Using Lookup instead of Index/Match for left lookup

I like using that LOOKUP syntax, where appropriate.....but....it requires the LOOKUP range [B2:B5] to be in ascending order, if you can't guarantee that then INDEX/MATCH is the option to use

.....also it can give a "Closest Match" which probably wouldn't be appropriate for your example. For instance if you change F2 to Maggie the LOOKUP won't return N/A it'll match with John and give a result of 675.

If you do have a lookup range sorted in ascending order but want an exact match then this formula can be used

=IF(LOOKUP(F2,B2:B5)<>F2,NA(),LOOKUP(F2,B2:B5,A2:A5))

Which is a much faster formula than a VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH with exact match option