A

AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

  • A method of motivating people to buy by gaining their attention, interest, desire for the product, and then inspiring them to take action.

A/B Test — Also known as “split” testing

  • Compares two versions (version A and version B) of something to see which one performs better.

ABC — Always Be Closing

ACV — Annual Contract Value

  • The financial amount that a customer pays a SaaS company per year based on account subscription agreements

AM — Account Manager

  • A sales role responsible for managing a large customer account or group of large accounts

ARR — Annual recurring revenue

  • Used most often in businesses where contracts are one year in length. ARR = 12 x MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

ARPA — Average MRR (monthly recurring revenue) per Account

  • Across all accounts, the mean amount of revenue per month.

B

BANT — Budget-Authority-Need-Timeline

  • A formula is used to determine whether it’s the right time to sell to a prospect.

B2B — Business-to-Business

  • Companies that sell goods and services to other companies.

B2C — Business-to-Consumer

  • Businesses that sell their products straight to the consumer(usually a retailer stepping in between a manufacturer and customer).

B2C2B — Business-to-Consumer-to-Business

  • Companies that sell products or services to other businesses, but sell first to users and/or stakeholders at that business in order to get company-side buy-in.

BDR — Business Development Representative


  • A specialized sales role that is responsible for pursuing new partners and business opportunities.

Buyer Persona

  • A representation of your ideal customer that describes who they are, what their objectives are, what motivates them, how they think, and where and when they buy.

BR — Bounce rate

  • The percentage of email addresses that didn’t receive the message you sent because the message was returned by the mailer server or client

C

CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost

  • Cost to acquire a customer. To calculate: (spend + salaries + commissions + bonuses + overhead) / #of new customers during that time period

Cold Call

  • A phone call to a potential customer that you’ve had no prior contact with.

CRM (technology) — 

  • Customer Relationship Management Software is designed to help businesses manage customer data and customer interactions.

Cross-selling

  • The process of identifying current customers, determining the product or services that they aren’t using, and encouraging them to buy based on their need and a pre-existing satisfaction with the company

CCR — Customer Churn Rate

  • A metric used to measure customer retention and value. CR = (# customers at beginning of measurement period – # customers at end of measurement period) / (# customers at the beginning of the measurement period).

CLTV — Customer Lifetime Value

  • A prediction that connects net profit to the entire future relationship of a customer.

CMRR — Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue

  • A formula for predicting the MRR in the coming fiscal year. (Current MRR + future MRR in commit, minus the MRR of customers unlikely to renew within the fiscal year.)

CTA — Call-To-Action

  • A sentence or phrase that tells people what to do. like “Buy Now”, “Learn more”, “signup”

COGS Cost of goods sold

D

D2C

  • Businesses /manufacturers sell directly to consumers. 

Discovery Call

  • The initial phone call gauges interest and whether a person or entity is part of their target client group.

Decision-Maker

  • In sales terminology, the person who has the means and makes the final purchasing decision. Not to be confused with the gatekeeper, the person who allows you to speak with the decision-maker.

Drip Campaign

  • A digital email marketing campaign that steadily sends follow up and communication based on the interest level of the prospect.

E

Enterprise

  • In the context of sales refers to the relatively large organization of multiple levels, locations, and departments needing multi-layer software systems for collaboration.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

  • A term for the software used for centralizing HR, inventory, product planning, purchasing, shipment and fulfilment, and many more other functions.

ESP — Email service provider

  • A company that helps senders create and deliver email campaigns

EOM/EOQ/EOY

  • End of month/ quarter/year

F

FAB — Features, Advantages, Benefits

  • First focus on the Benefits a customer will gain from the product, than Advantage and then Features.

Fiscal year

  • A 12-month duration used by a company to mark its accounting period: budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting.

FUD — Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

  • A sales method used to dissuade customers from choosing or remaining with competitors by giving information that triggers fear and uncertainty.

FMV – Fair Market Value

  • The price that a reasonably interested customer is willing to pay for an asset or service. Difficult to compute but used as a company value basis.

Fortune 500

  • It is a coveted list of the 500 most successful companies based on revenue as compiled and published annually in Fortune Magazine.

G

GTM – Go-To-Market Strategy

  • It is a plan, a roadmap, or a set of actions that a company develops to optimize marketing and sales resources to promote a new (or re-branded) product or service. This allows the company to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors by using advertising, distribution, pricing strategy, social media engagement, and direct sales.

Gross Margin

  • The total sales less the cost of goods sold (COGS).

I

ICP — Ideal Customer Profile

  • A description of the customer you’re trying to sell to, including demographics, geographic, and psychographic characteristics.

Inbound

  • when a lead comes from a potential customer reaching out to your organization to inquire about a product or service.

ILV — Inbound Lead Velocity

  • The growth rate at which inbound leads are increasing

ISR – Inside Sales Rep

  • A salesperson who directs the majority of its business online and via telephone. 

J

JIT- Just in Time

K

KPI — Key performance indicator

  • Its quantifiable task list for your sales team. It includes things they need to do in order to be successful.

L

Lead

  • A contact that matches one or more of the characteristics of your ideal customer profile.

Lead generation

  • A Lead Generation is a group of exercises planned for creating enthusiasm in your leads around an item or service via strategies like:
  1. Content promoting
  2. Ads 
  3. Referrals
  4. Cold email

Lead Scoring

  • A number scale that sales and marketing teams agree on to rank inbound prospects according to their behaviours and web activity.

L2RM — Lead to revenue management

  • A customer engagement model that integrates metrics, processes, and goals to acquire new customers, upsell current customers, and grow overall revenue.

LTV — Lifetime Value (of a customer)

  • It measures the entire worth of a business in the whole course of a relationship with a specific customer.LTV = (average MRR per account x customer lifetime)/Customer Churn Rate”

LVR — Lead Velocity Rate

  • How much a company is growing with its qualified leads, month over month.

M

MAP — Marketing Automation Platform

  • Technology that helps sales and marketing organizations convert prospects into customers by replacing high-touch, repetitive manual processes with automated solutions.

Margin

  • The financial amount gained from a product or service after factoring out selling expenses

MoM — Month-over-month

  • Changes in levels expressed in relation to the previous month.

MQL — Marketing Qualified Lead

  • A lead that has demonstrated some level of interest in your product/service, and fits criteria determined by the marketing team

MRR — Monthly Recurring Revenue

  • The amount of revenue a subscription-based or recurring billing company receives per month.

N

Net worth

  • The difference between assets and liabilities.

NPS — Net Promoter Score

  • A customer satisfaction metric that measures the likelihood that people would recommend your business to others.

Negotiation

  • A process of bargaining or discussion between two or more entities to attain an acceptable mutual agreement.

O

OKRs — Objectives and Key Results

  • Standards that define and track outcomes through qualitative (objective) and quantitative (key results) methods

Objection

  • A natural part of the sales process wherein a prospect refuses or rejects the benefits of a product or service depending on budget, need, and timing. It is a prospect’s statement or view that indicates disagreement or reservation about the specific company aspects or the entirety of the sales pitch that can hinder the sale’s closing process. 

OTE – On Track Earnings/On Target Earnings


  • A standard sales pay structure that comprises a base salary with an additional amount of commission if quotas are met. 

Outbound Sales

  • A procedure wherein a seller aims to close a deal down the line by directly initiating contact with the prospective customer.

P&L — Profit and loss

  • A statement used to assess a company’s performance and financial position.

PLM – Product Lifecycle Management

  • The collection of processes involving ideation, design, development, deployment, and termination/disposal in managing a service/product.

Profit Margin – 

  • The ratio of profitability presented as either net income over revenues or net profit over sales that measures a company’s earnings. 

Prospecting –

  • The action of prospectors wherein they search and find potential buyers that they can move through the sales cycle. It is the term for leads or decision-makers showing interest in the product or service being offered.

PO- Purchase Order

  • The document issued by a buyer indicating services/products and corresponding cost intended to be purchased from the seller.

Procurement

  • The process involves demand assessment, bid reviews, approval requests, and transaction logging to find and acquire goods and services.

Price-Build-Up

  • An act of making a relativity point to discuss the price of the products or services properly.

QoQ — 

  • Quarter-over-quarter Change in level expressed in relation to the previous quarter.

QTD — Quarter-to-date

  • The time period starting at the beginning of the current quarter and ending at the current date

Quota

  • A set amount of selling that a salesperson or sales unit (i.e. territory, team, etc.) is expected to meet over a given time frame; it reflects a company’s overall sales target.

Qualified Lead

  • A contact person who communicates with the company and gains knowledge about the products or services that leads to an increase in their engagement. 

Qualifying Your Prospect

  • An act of striving to receive a verbal affirmation from your prospect that they are willing and able to make a purchase decision. 

Reply rate

  • A measurement of the number of people who respond to an email

RFP –Request for proposal

  • An invitation issued by a company to solicit vendor bids for products, solutions, or services

ROI — Return on the investment

  • What you get back from an investment of money, time, or talent.

RFI- Request for Information

  • A standard business process or document that seeks to collect text-based information regarding the capabilities of vendors or business entities.

RFQ- Request for Quotation

  • A business document that asks for comprehensive quotes and pricing for the procurement of an item or the completion of a particular task from suppliers or service providers.

SaaS — Software as a service

  • Businesses that offer services via software available online or downloaded to your computer

SAL — Sales accepted lead

  • A lead that has been accepted by the sales team because it has been deemed worthy of pursuing.

Sales Funnel

  • The visualization that defines the stages where prospective customers are being led by sales representatives to a purchasing decision. 

SDR — Sales development representative

  • A type of inside sales rep that focuses on outbound sales prospecting.

SFA — Salesforce automation

  • Software that removes the need for manual sales activities like inventory control, sales processing, tracking customer interactions, and analyzing forecasts.

SLA — Service level agreement

  • A contract between two departments that aligns goals and defines agreed-upon expectations.

SPIN — Situation, Problem, Implication, Need


  • You have to find your prospect’s problem and “hurt” them by revealing the terrible things that might happen. You then come to the rescue with your product.

SQL — Sales qualified lead

  • An SQL is the sales team affirming that it’s a good lead with a potential opportunity.

Social Selling

  • Social selling is when salespeople use social media to gather insights, build a professional brand, and interact directly with their prospects.

TOFU- Top of the Funnel

  • The first stage in the buying process is where leads identify a problem and research for information, probing marketers to offer helpful content and further steps. 

Target

  • A subset of potential consumers or a particular group in which a company plans to market its products or services.

USP – Unique Selling Point / Proposition

  • The term points to a specific concept in marketing that has to do with certain product advantages, whether price, quality, services, or features.

VoIP — Voice over Internet Protocol

  • A system that enables voice transmissions to be carried over the Internet.

WFH — Work from home

WIIFM — What’s In It For Me?

  • If there’s nothing in it for the other person, they’ll never commit to action

WOM — Word of Mouth

  • Information passed from person to person.

YTD — Year-to-date

  • A period starting at the beginning of the current year, and ending at the current date.