Sales Glossary

Browse 92 sales terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

92 Sales Terms

Annual Contract Value
The yearly value of a customer contract, excluding one-time fees unless a company defines it otherwise. ACV is often used to compare deal sizes in enterprise...
B2B
Business-to-business, meaning a company sells primarily to other companies rather than directly to consumers. B2B businesses often have longer sales cycles and...
Bookings
The total value of signed customer contracts or committed sales in a period, regardless of when the revenue will be recognized. Bookings matter because they...
Business Development
The function focused on forming partnerships, strategic relationships, distribution channels, and other growth opportunities beyond direct product selling....
Buyer Persona
A semi-fictional profile representing a target buyer's role, goals, pain points, and buying behavior, used to guide messaging and go-to-market strategy. Good...
CAC
Customer acquisition cost, meaning the average cost to acquire a new customer through sales and marketing efforts. CAC is central to judging whether growth is...
Channel Partner
An external company that helps sell, implement, distribute, or support a product as part of the vendor's go-to-market strategy. Channel partners can expand...
Channel Sales
A sales model where products are sold through intermediaries such as resellers, distributors, or implementation partners rather than only through a direct...
Cold Call
An unsolicited sales call made to a prospective customer with no prior relationship or warm introduction. Cold calling is harder than inbound selling but still...
Cold Email
An unsolicited email sent to a potential customer, investor, partner, or candidate without a prior relationship. The quality of targeting and relevance matters...
Cold Outreach
Direct contact initiated without an existing relationship, usually for sales, hiring, partnerships, or fundraising. Effective cold outreach depends on...
Contract Value
The total monetary value of a customer contract, which may span multiple years and include recurring and non-recurring components. Teams often distinguish it...
Co-Selling
A sales motion where two companies coordinate on the same customer opportunity because their offerings complement each other. It often involves partner reps,...
CRM
Customer relationship management software or system, used to track leads, accounts, pipeline, interactions, and customer lifecycle data. In many companies the...
Cross-Sell
To sell additional related products or features to an existing customer beyond their initial purchase. Cross-selling is a common expansion strategy in...
Customer Acquisition
The process of attracting and converting new customers through marketing, sales, partnerships, or product-led motion. Acquisition quality matters as much as...
Deal Size
The monetary value of a specific sale or contract, often used in averages to describe commercial motion. Deal size shapes sales process, staffing, and pricing...
Demo
A live or recorded product demonstration used to show value, workflows, and differentiation to customers, investors, or internal teams. In startups, a strong...
Direct Sales
A go-to-market model where the company sells to customers through its own sales team instead of relying mainly on partners or self-serve channels. It is common...
Discovery Call
An early sales conversation used to understand a prospect's needs, problems, budget, urgency, and fit before deeper solutioning or demos. Good discovery calls...
Distribution Channel
The route through which a product reaches customers, such as direct sales, retail, marketplaces, partners, or app stores. Startup outcomes are often...
Enterprise Customer
A large organizational buyer, typically with formal procurement, security review, legal negotiation, and multi-team deployment complexity. Enterprise customers...
Enterprise Sales
A sales motion focused on winning large organizational accounts through longer cycles, relationship building, stakeholder management, and negotiated deals. It...
Field Sales
A sales motion involving in-person meetings, travel, and direct account engagement rather than fully remote or self-serve selling. It is common for large...
First Revenue
The first actual money a startup earns from a customer, often treated as a major proof point that someone will pay for the product. It is a milestone because...
Go-to-Market
The overall approach a company uses to reach customers and turn product into revenue, including segments, channels, messaging, pricing, and sales motion. Weak...
Go-to-Market Strategy
The concrete plan for how a company will enter or expand in a market, including target customers, channels, messaging, pricing, sales motion, and launch...
GTM
Short for go-to-market, covering the strategy, teams, and motions used to reach customers and generate revenue. GTM appears constantly in startup operating...
High-Touch Sales
A sales approach involving significant human interaction, customization, and relationship management rather than low-touch self-serve conversion. It is typical...
ICP
Short for ideal customer profile, the specific type of customer most likely to get strong value from the product and buy efficiently. A clear ICP helps focus...
Indirect Sales
A sales model where products are sold through partners, resellers, distributors, or other intermediaries rather than directly by the vendor. Indirect sales can...
Inside Sales
A sales motion handled primarily through phone, video, email, and remote outreach rather than in-person field meetings. It is common for mid-market and...
Intent Data
Behavioral data suggesting that a company or buyer may be actively researching or considering a product category, such as content consumption, search behavior,...
Intent Signal
A specific indicator that a prospect may be entering a buying process, such as content downloads, job postings, website behavior, or partner alerts. Individual...
Key Account
A strategically important customer account that represents significant revenue, influence, or future expansion potential. Key accounts often receive more...
Land and Expand
A go-to-market strategy where you 'land' a small initial deal (often bottom-up, developer-led) and 'expand' to more teams, higher tiers, or enterprise-wide...
Lead Generation
The process of attracting and capturing potential customer interest so prospects can enter the sales pipeline. Lead generation can come from content, events,...
Lead Qualification
The process of determining whether a lead is a real fit based on criteria such as need, budget, authority, timing, and problem urgency. Good qualification...
Lead Scoring
A system for assigning relative value to leads based on attributes and behavior such as company size, title, website visits, or content engagement. Lead...
Letter of Intent
A document stating serious intent to pursue a transaction or agreement on broad terms, often before final definitive contracts are signed. Letters of intent...
Low-Touch Sales
A sales motion with limited human involvement, usually relying on simpler onboarding, lighter qualification, and lower-cost reps or automated flows. It sits...
Marketing Qualified Lead
A lead that marketing has determined meets the threshold for handoff to sales based on fit and engagement criteria. The usefulness of MQLs depends entirely on...
Mid-Market
Referring to companies that sit between small businesses and large enterprises in size, complexity, and buying process. Mid-market customers often need more...
MQL
Short for marketing qualified lead, a prospect marketing believes is ready enough to pass to sales based on fit and engagement criteria. The quality of MQLs...
New Logo
A newly won customer account, especially in B2B sales where company logos stand in for account names and references. Teams distinguish new-logo growth from...
No-Brainer Deal
An offer framed as so obviously valuable or low-risk that the customer should feel foolish saying no. In practice, so-called no-brainer deals still fail if...
OTE
On-target earnings, the total compensation a salesperson is expected to make if they hit quota, usually combining base salary and variable commission. OTE is a...
Outbound Sales
A sales motion where the company proactively reaches out to prospective customers instead of waiting for inbound interest. Outbound sales depends heavily on...
Partner Channel
A route to market that depends on external partners such as resellers, integrators, or strategic platforms to reach customers. Building a partner channel takes...
Pipeline Coverage
The ratio between current pipeline value and future quota or revenue targets, used to judge whether enough opportunity volume exists to support the plan....
Pipeline Value
The total potential dollar value of opportunities currently in the sales pipeline, sometimes weighted by stage probability and sometimes not. It is a...
Pitch
A concise persuasive presentation of a company, product, or opportunity to investors, customers, partners, or recruits. Strong pitches are clear about problem,...
Prospect
A potential customer who may be a fit for the product but has not yet become a qualified opportunity or paying account. Prospect quality matters because...
Prospecting
The work of identifying, researching, and reaching out to potential customers to create pipeline. Prospecting is one of the earliest and least glamorous but...
Qualified Lead
A prospective customer judged likely enough to become a real opportunity based on fit, interest, timing, or need. Qualification standards vary widely, which is...
Quota
A target, usually for revenue or bookings, assigned to a salesperson or team and often tied to compensation. Quota quality shapes sales behavior because people...
Ramp Period
The time it takes for a new hire, team, product, or initiative to reach expected productivity or performance levels. Ramp periods matter especially in sales...
Reseller
A partner that buys or represents a product and sells it onward to customers, often adding local reach, support, or services. Resellers can accelerate...
Revenue
The income a company earns from selling products or services, recognized according to accounting rules rather than simply when cash arrives. Revenue is the...
Revenue Operations
The function that aligns systems, data, process, and planning across marketing, sales, and customer success to improve revenue efficiency. Revenue operations...
RevOps
Short for revenue operations, the function that coordinates systems, metrics, process, and planning across revenue teams. RevOps often becomes the connective...
Sales Cycle
The time and stages required to move a prospect from first contact to closed deal. Sales cycle length shapes hiring plans, cash forecasting, and which market...
Sales Development
The part of the sales organization focused on generating and qualifying early pipeline through outreach, follow-up, and account research. Sales development...
Sales Enablement
The systems, content, training, and process support that help sales teams perform more effectively and consistently. Good sales enablement shortens ramp time...
Sales Engineer
A technical specialist who supports the sales process by handling demos, integrations, solution design, and buyer technical concerns. In complex B2B products,...
Sales Funnel
The staged path by which prospects move from awareness or qualification toward closed business, typically narrowing at each step. Sales funnel analysis helps...
Sales Led Growth
A growth model in which direct sales is the primary engine of customer acquisition and expansion rather than purely self-serve or product-led motion. It is...
Sales Motion
The practical way a company sells, including who reaches out, how qualification works, what channels are used, and how deals are progressed. A strong sales...
Sales Ops
The function that supports the sales team with process, systems, forecasting, territory design, reporting, and compensation mechanics. Sales ops becomes...
Sales Pipeline
The collection of active sales opportunities at various stages before closing. A healthy sales pipeline has enough volume, quality, and progression to support...
Sales Playbook
A documented set of guidance on how the sales team should prospect, qualify, position, handle objections, and progress deals. Strong playbooks improve...
Sales Qualified Lead
A lead that sales has reviewed and judged ready enough to enter active pursuit as a real opportunity. SQL criteria usually sit downstream of marketing...
SAO
Often short for sales accepted opportunity, a pipeline stage where sales formally accepts a lead or account as a legitimate opportunity worth pursuing....
SDR
Short for sales development representative, the role focused on outbound prospecting, qualification, and early pipeline creation. SDR performance often...
SMB
Short for small and medium-sized business, a broad commercial segment between solo operators and large enterprises. SMB products usually need lower pricing,...
SQL Lead
A lead that has been qualified by sales and is considered ready for active pursuit as a real opportunity, effectively another way of saying sales qualified...
Startup Pitch
A structured presentation or explanation of a startup’s problem, solution, market, traction, and business case intended to persuade investors, customers, or...
Technical Assessment
A structured evaluation of technical capability, architecture, risks, or implementation fit, often used in diligence, hiring, procurement, or enterprise sales....
Technical Evaluation
The phase in a buying or diligence process where a product is reviewed for technical fit, architecture, security, integration, and performance. Startups...
Technical Sale
A sale in which technical fit, architecture, implementation detail, and product capability matter heavily in the buying decision. Technical sales usually...
Territory
The defined set of accounts, geographies, or segments assigned to a salesperson or team. Territory design strongly affects fairness, forecasting, and rep...
Territory Planning
The process of designing how accounts, geographies, and segments are assigned across the sales team to balance opportunity and coverage. Good territory...
Total Contract Value
The full value of a customer contract across its entire term, including recurring and one-time components as defined by the company. Total contract value is...
Trusted Advisor
A person or company viewed by the customer as credible and aligned enough to influence important decisions, not just transact. In B2B startups, becoming a...
Up Market
Describing a move toward larger, more complex, or more premium customers than the company originally served. Going up market often increases deal size but also...
Upsell
To sell a customer a higher-priced version, larger package, or more capable offering than what they currently use. Upselling works best when it reflects added...
Value Prop
Short for value proposition, the clear statement of why a product matters and what problem it solves better than alternatives. Teams use the shorthand...
Volume Pricing
A pricing approach where the effective unit price changes based on the amount purchased or consumed, often decreasing at higher volumes. Volume pricing is...
VP of Sales
The senior leader responsible for sales strategy, team design, quota, forecasting, and execution. A strong VP of Sales can turn founder-led selling into a...
Weighted Pipeline
Sales pipeline value adjusted by estimated probability of closing at each stage rather than simply summed at face value. Weighted pipeline is useful for...
Wholesale
Describing sales made in bulk to retailers, distributors, or other businesses rather than directly to end consumers. For consumer brands, wholesale expands...
Win Rate
The percentage of opportunities or proposals that convert into closed deals. Win rate is meaningful only when qualification is disciplined enough that the...

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