Sales Terminology Flashcards
When a lead comes from a potential customer reaching out to your organization to inquire about a product or service
Inside Sales
The result of a prospecting effort to a potential customer who has not yet expressed interest in a product or service offered by the organization
Outside Sales
The act of finding potential buyers or clients – also known as prospects – for your product and reaching out to them, with the aim of entering them into a sales funnel they’ll stay in until, hopefully, they’re ready to buy from you.
Prospecting
Acronym which stands for: budget — how much money the prospect is able and willing to spend; authority — the ultimate decision-maker; need — whether the prospect has a problem your business can solve; and, timing — whether there is urgency to purchase your product or service.
BANT Criteria
A market encompassing a group of companies and customers that are all interconnected around a specific niche. Companies in this market are attuned to that market’s specialized needs and generally do not serve a broader market. As such, these markets typically have their own set of business standards.
Vertical Market
Contains all the records of customer interactions, including contact information, preferred services, and transactions with your business. This is created after the first time a customer buys from your business
Account
A strategy where the entire company coordinates to pursue high-value accounts. The departments that are most typically involved in account-based selling are sales, marketing, and customer success.
Account Based Selling
The person responsible for managing customer accounts. They communicate with bothprospectsand current customers to understand their pain points, address concerns, and close deals. This person needs to have extensive knowledge of the business’s value proposition so they can relate it back to the needs of a particular customer.
Account Executive
An individual or organization that fits a seller’s criteria to be a potential customer.
Prospect
A person or company that has expressed interest in another company’s solution that might eventually become a customer. Businesses can gather leads through marketing, trade shows, or networking.
A Lead
This person develops sales strategies, identifies potential customers, maintains a solid understanding of the current market, and participates in any other activities that help a company meet their sales goals.
Account Development Representative
The average annualized revenue per customer contract. This is is usually compared against customer lifetime value to see how long it takes to pay back the cost of acquiring a customer.
Annual Contract Value
A member of the sales team that focuses on outbound leads. This means they reach out to people in hopes they will become a sales opportunity.
Business Development Representative (BDR)
The stage in the buying process where the customer makes a buying decision. They have moved down the sales funnel from the top (becoming aware of their problem and potential solutions), to the middle (showing interest and comparing options), to the bottom (taking action and showing loyalty to a brand).
Bottom of the Funnel
The manner in which a customer chooses solutions. It can be influenced by their wants, needs, aspirations, occupations, and environment.
Buyer Behavior
A representation of the ideal customer for your business. Companies create these based on market research and data about existing customers. Having these in mind is important for marketers creating a target audience and for sales representatives qualifying leads.
Buyer Persona
Any information a customer might request so they can make a well-informed buying decision. A customer might ask about particular benefits, how your business is different/better than the competition, and how much the solution costs.
Buyer Criteria
The stages that a buyer encounters on their journey to find a solution and buy a product. Thiscan be broken down into more specific stages, but they are all grouped into three main steps: 1. Awareness: the customer identifies their problem and seeks to understand it. 2. Consideration: the customer does further research to find a way to resolve their problem and considers their options. 3. Decision: the customer decides on a solution.
Buying Proces
A verbal or nonverbal cues that show a customer is ready to make a purchase, such as signing up for a free trial or asking about contract specifics. Picking up on these signals can help sales reps better focus their attention on customers that are giving off more of these.
Buying Signal
The likelihood of a person making a purchase, which is realized through monitoring online buying journeys.
Buying Intent
The percentage of customers that stop doing business with a company over a certain period of time. This is calculated by dividing the number of customers you lost by the number you had at the beginning of the chosen time frame.
Churn Rate
These include both closed-won and closed-lost opportunities. However, some businesses use this term to mean only closed-won opportunities.
Closed Opportunities
When a sales rep closes a deal and the customer purchases a solution.
Closed-Won
An opportunity that does not end with a sale being made.
Closed-Lost
The number of deals closed compared to the number of engaged prospects. This ratio can be used to evaluate the performance of an individual sales rep and forecast sales.
Closing Ratio
A person that completes a desired action, such as making a purchase or subscribing to your email newsletter.
Conversion
The steps a person takes to become a lead. The stages involved typically include people interacting with a business’ content and calls-to-action.
Conversion Path
The number of conversions divided by the total number of site visitors.
Conversion Rate
When a sales rep finds more than one solution that will help a particular customer. This can either happen at the time of the first purchase or later on once the sales rep has created a relationship with the customer.
Cross-Selling
The cost associated with getting someone to purchase your solution. This is a good indicator of profitability - the amount of money extracted from customers is compared to the cost of acquiring that customer.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
A prediction of the profit that will result from a relationship with a customer. This can be affected by the length of the customer life cycle, retention rate, churn rate, and average profits by customer.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Software acts as a database full of customer information. There are three types of CRM tools: 1) Operational CRM: manages day-to-day information 2) Analytical CRM: analyzes customer data and behavior 3) Collaborative CRM: streamlines communication with customers and makes it easy to share information across any customer-facing department. CRM is designed to help sales reps create relationships with customers and give customers a personalized experience, resulting in more sales.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A business practice, or department, that ensures customers achieve their desired outcome when using a business solution. This creates a mutually beneficial situation for the business and the customer - the customer resolves their pain point and the business increases the likelihood of earning that customer’s loyalty.
Customer Loyalty
The person who makes the final decision of a sale. This person needs to have the authority to buy.
Decision Maker
A marketing process that builds awareness and interest in a company’s solution. These activities include lead nurturing programs, content marketing, and search engine optimization.
Demand Generation
The first call a sales rep makes to a prospect. This stage can also include lead qualification and determination of pain points.
Discovery Call
The act of estimating future sales so companies can make better business decisions and predict performance. This act can be based on past sales data, industry comparisons, or economic trends.
Forecasting
A person that either enables or prevents information from reaching the intended person at a company. An example of this would be a personal assistant giving a message to a decision maker, the intended recipient.
Gatekeeper
A salesperson that conducts most of their business over the phone or online.
Inside Sales Rep
