In sales and marketing, professionals often incorporate sales-specific buzzwords into their daily language to articulate their points clearly and effectively.
Sometimes, deciphering industry jargon isn't straightforward. This glossary covers 40 of the most common sales terms, whether you’re new to sales and marketing or just need a refresher.
Let's start at the top.
Sales Terms 101
A/B Testing
A sales methodology that compares the performance of two campaigns to see which is the best. Marketers track these campaigns using key performance indicators like click-through and conversion rates.
Account-Based Selling
A popular B2B SaaS sales strategy that focuses on selling and closing a deal with targeted, high-value accounts instead of a broad range of businesses.
Cold Calling
A phone-based sales and marketing strategy involving salespeople calling customers with no prior contact to convert them to potential leads.
Cross-selling
This process involves analyzing a customer's past purchasing behavior and preferences to identify and sell additional products or services that are related or complementary.
Discovery Call
The first call with a prospect during the initial stages of the sales process is a business’s chance to share its value proposition with the prospect.
Gatekeeper
An individual or role who controls access to decision-makers within a company, like a secretary to a CEO.
Lead Generation
The process of attracting, informing, and converting strangers into prospects interested in your business offering.
Lead Qualification
The process of assessing the value of a lead and whether they have the budget, need, and authority to purchase your product.
Sales Enablement
The sales enablement process is a strategy used by sales leaders to enhance their sales team’s skill set with the right tools, resources, and training to help them succeed in their role.
Soft Sell
A sales approach where the sales agent subtly builds a relationship with a customer to gently influence them to buy a product. Opposite of a hard sell that focuses more on aggressive advertising techniques.
Upselling
This sales strategy involves gently persuading customers to consider purchasing a more expensive product or service than they originally intended. By highlighting the added value and superior features of the higher-priced option.
Value Proposition
A statement designed to highlight the primary advantages of a product or service. This statement emphasizes how a product or service will address pain points and meet the needs of potential buyers.
Quota
A sales benchmark for a designated period. This could refer to sales revenue, the number of products sold, or the number of new customers.
Customer-Related Sales Terms
Buyer Behavior
A buyer’s actions as they move through the sales funnel. Includes actions before, during, and after making a purchasing decision.
Buying Intent
This refers to the chance that a buyer will buy your product or service. It’s a good indicator for companies to choose who to target in their marketing campaigns.
Buying Signal
Indicates a customer’s readiness to buy, such as asking about contract terms and pricing. It signals sales agents to act fast to close the deal.
Customer Success
A department that supports customers in helping them achieve the most value from their purchase.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Also known as a buyer persona, this personifies the ideal customer for your business. Includes specific attributes like demographics, behaviors, and needs.
Leads
An individual or company who has interacted with your brand that may be a future customer.
Prospects
An individual or company that’s keenly interested in your offering but currently has limitations or reservations in committing to a purchase.
Sales Email Terms
Cold Emailing
This marketing strategy is similar to cold calling but in email form. It involves sending a series of personalized emails to prospects to raise brand awareness, nurture business relationships, and eventually convert to sales.
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Bounce Rate
The percentage of emails sent that couldn’t be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. Emails bounce for several reasons, including an invalid email address, filters, or a full inbox.
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Conversion Rate
The percentage of recipients who perform a desired action, like buying a product or signing up for a newsletter.
Click-Through Rate
The percentage of people who click a link in your email or website.
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is a ranking method that ranks leads from most likely to least likely to convert.
Open Rate
The open rate refers to the percentage of email recipients who have opened your email.
Segmentation
The process of dividing a large population into smaller subgroups based on shared characteristics, typically demographics and buying patterns.
Sales Acronyms
Business 2 Business (B2B)
A business model that serves businesses.
Business 2 Consumer (B2C)
A business model that serves consumers.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)
The final stage of the marketing funnel wherein the prospects are about to become paying customers. Buying intent is near-finalized.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The total cost of acquiring a new customer.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
A quantifiable measure over time that gauges performance against a set of goals and targets.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
An indicator that measures the total lifetime revenue generated by a customer.
Middle of Funnel (MOFU)
The second stage of a sales funnel that nurtures and guides leads to become qualified customers. Addresses a customer’s pain points and specific needs.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is a measure of customer loyalty that looks into the likelihood of a customer recommending your business or product to others.
Top of Funnel (TOFU)
The first stage of a sales funnel is spreading awareness and educating prospects about your product or service. Gets people interested in your product.
Key Takeaways
Being an effective sales professional or marketer isn’t just about talking the talk. It's walking the walk. That means leveraging the right tools. Say hello to Instantly.
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- Unlimited email management
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- Mass inbox feature (Unibox)
- Campaign analytics
