Sales Terms Flashcards
This is a sales strategy that is rooted in the idea that every action a sales rep takes throughout their sales process is in pursuit of closing a deal
ABC (Always Be Closing)
This is an experiment involving two variants, usually for measuring and comparing the market response to each.
For example, you can measure messaging or conversion rate on two different channels having similar content and purpose.
AB Testing (or Split Testing)
This refers to a record of primary and background information about an individual or corporate customer, including contact data, preferred services, and transactions with your company.
This is created after the first time a customer buys from your business
Account
It is a framework that entails full coordination of customized care and management of targeted customer accounts across all relevant units of your organization (such as marketing, sales, finance, and product development) as well as the entire customer life cycle from lead generation to after-sales support
Account-based Everything (ABE) or Account-based Revenue (ABR)
It is a strategic framework that engages qualified individual prospects or customer accounts as unique markets in themselves, worthy of focused, hyper-personalized treatment by sales, marketing, and other teams
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
It is a primarily B2B selling framework that treats qualified or high-value accounts as unique markets in themselves, where each account deserves dedicated resource allocation as well as hyper-personalized and multi-point engagement with different teams from your organization.
A strategy where the entire company coordinates to pursue high-value accounts. The departments that are most typically involved are sales, marketing, and customer success
Account-Based Selling or Account-Based Sales Development (ABSD)
This is the person responsible for developing 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 (ADR)
It s the active study of different types of data with the aim of discovering meaningful patterns and translating these into insight (such as historical analyses and forecasts), or action (such as those intended to improve business performance)
Analytics
This refers to a system of computers, software, machines, and processes that simulate certain aspects of human intelligence such as image perception, voice recognition, and reasoning
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
It is the average annualized revenue per customer contract. This 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 (ACV)
It is a term that may refer to the average price of a product in a given market or channel or the price a certain class of products or services is commonly sold for
Average Sale/Selling Price (ASP)
This refers to businesses that sell solutions to entire businesses
B2B
It s an acronym used by sales reps for lead qualification to determine whether prospects have the right Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline to purchase what they are selling
Budget: determines if the business has the budget to purchase the solution
Authority: identifies key decision-makers in the business
Need: verifies that the business has a real need for the solution
Time: checks if the business is likely to make a timely purchase
BANT Framework
____________ are the net new contracts signed, in dollar amounts (typically ACV or TCV).
Bookings
This refers to a minimum level or starting point from which further measurements or comparisons can be made for analyses, forecasting, performance improvement or strategy formulation
Baseline
____________ is a customer engagement sequence using voicemail and email messaging aimed at increase the likelihood of a positive response from prospects
BASHO Email
This is 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)
BOFU (Bottom Of The Funnel)
This refers to the interpretation of (primarily internal) data to inform product and market decisions.
It also refers to a wide range of tools used to transform data into actions for companies to take in regards to their overall business goals, strategies, and tactics.
This process uses data analytics to examine information and present relevant findings in the form of reports, dashboards, or other types of data visualization.
Business Intelligence (BI)
This is an individual or organizational entity that purchases a product or subscribes to a service
Buyer
This refers to the apparent likelihood of a person or organization of purchasing a product or service as inferred from behavior such as online browsing, media consumption, document downloads, event participation
Buying Intent
This is 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 buying signals.
Buying Signal
This is a sales framework that takes the disruptive approach to solution selling, where customers are pushed beyond their comfort zones to embrace new ideas for their business
Challenger Sales Model
This is a testing approach for determining the best engagement strategy for a given market segment, where “one” represents your current production/servicing paradigm while the “other” represents new or different ways of doing things
Champion/Challenger Test
This is a person or organization that offers services or products on behalf of another entity, mostly via a co-branding agreement
Channel Partner
This is a term that describes the percentage of customers that leave or cancel a service or product within a given period of time
Churn
A widely-used vernacular term describing a cluster of a corporation’s most important senior executives. Titles usually start with a C.
C-Level or C-Suite
This is a term that describes the percentage of customers that leave or cancel a service or product within a given period of time
Churn
This is 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
This is an entity that pays another entity for products purchased or services rendered. *Also called a customer
Client
This is a general term encompassing closed-won and closed-lost opportunities
Closed Opportunities
This is the status of an opportunity where the deal is now considered a customer
Closed-Won
This is the status of an opportunity where the deal is now lost and the prospect converts back into a buyer
Closed-Lost
This is an attempt to engage a prospect (via a personal visit or a voice call) who have no prior knowledge about or contact with the caller
Cold Call
This is the use of email to engage a prospect who has no prior knowledge about or contact with the person sending the email
Cold Email
This is the amount of money a professional earns for reaching a specific sales volume or for executing one or more business transactions
Commission
This is a type of sale common in B2B markets involving multiple decision-makers, custom service or purchase agreements, and relatively longer sales cycles
Complex Sale
This refers to a material or document released in various forms (such as text, image, audio, and video) and created to inform, engage or influence specific audiences
Content
This is a computer program or software/platform application used to create, modify, store and manage digital content
Content Management System (CMS)
The result/process of turning or converting a target lead or business into a paying customer; or more generally, the point at which a user performs a specific action favorable to a marketer or a seller. This is know as a ___________.
Conversion
This relates to the incremental cost of producing one good (e.g. one subscription)
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
This is a formal written promise stating that certain activities will or will not be carried out. Restrictive covenants include NDAs and non-compete agreements
Covenant
This is the cost that is required to acquire a new paying customer for a product or service
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
This is the cost associated with getting someone to purchase your solution. It 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)
This is a system, set of practices, and associated technologies used to record, manage and analyze customer data and interactions, with the aim of improving customer engagement and revenue
There are three types of these tools:
- Operational: manages day-to-day information
- Analytical: analyzes customer data and behavior
- Collaborative: streamlines communication with customers and makes it easy to share information across any customer-facing department
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
This is a proactive mindset, function, department or strategy commonly adopted by B2B companies to optimize business with customers, reduce churn rate, drive profits and increase the predictability of recurring revenue
This is 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 Success
A set of quantitative and qualitative facts that can be used as reference or inputs for computations, analyses, descriptions, predictions, reasoning, and planning
Data
This is the time after acquiring a client before actually getting paid
Day Sales Outstanding (DSO)
This is a person who possesses the required expertise and authority in making purchase decisions
Decision Maker
This is a person who possesses the required expertise and authority in making purchase decisions.
This is the person who makes the final decision of a sale. This person needs to have the authority to buy
Decision Maker
This is a marketing process that aims to build awareness and excitement about a company’s products and services, often used by businesses to promote new offerings or feature sets, reach new markets, generate consumer buzz and drive customer loyalty
Demand Generation
This is a marketing process that aims to build awareness and excitement about a company’s products and services, often used by businesses to promote new offerings or feature sets, reach new markets, generate consumer buzz and drive customer loyalty
It’s a marketing process that builds awareness and interest in a company’s solution. The activities include lead nurturing programs, content marketing, and search engine optimization.
Demand Generation
This is a communication channel where newsletters, catalogs, brochures, and other documents are sent via traditional postal services (such as the US Postal Service) that physically deliver parcels
Direct Mail
This is the method of selling a product or service in a location other than the associated retail stores or offices, wherein the seller personally engages a prospect in a physical or face-to-face environment such as a home or a cafe
Direct Sales
*Might be used interchangeably with a qualifying call) is the first call with a potential customer, designed to determine if they are a good fit — wherein the seller can start building rapport, set the tone for the relationship, and gain deeper insight into the prospect’s challenges
Discovery call
This is an automated response email that is sent after a certain amount of time
Drip Campaign
This s 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)
This refers to businesses that sell solutions to individual consumers
Business to consumer (B2C)
___________ are unlikely to become a paying customer, wasting the time of a sales representative
Bad leads
This is the person responsible for managing customer accounts. They communicate with both prospects and current customers to understand their pain points, address concerns, and close deals. They 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
This is 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)
This refers to businesses that sell solutions to individual consumers
Business to consumer (B2C)
This is the manner in which a customer chooses solutions. It can be influenced by their wants, needs, aspirations, occupations, and environment
Buyer Behavior or Buyer Preference
This is a representation of the ideal customer for your business. Companies create these based on market research and data about existing customers.
Having this in mind is important for marketers creating a target audience and for sales representatives qualifying leads
Ideal Buyer Persona
This is 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
Buying Criteria
These are the the stages that a buyer encounters on their journey to find a solution and buy a product. The buying process can be broken down into more specific stages, but they are all grouped into three main steps:
- Awareness: the customer identifies their problem and seeks to understand it.
- Consideration: the customer does further research to find a way to resolve their problem and considers their options.
- Decision: the customer decides on a solution.
Buying process
This is 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
This is the number of conversions divided by the total number of site visitors
Conversion Rate
When a person completes a desired action, such as making a purchase or subscribing to your email newsletter, setting a meeting
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
This is 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
This the is a prediction of the profit that will result from a relationship with a customer. It can be affected by the length of the customer life cycle, retention rate, churn rate, and average profits by customer. There are two types Historical and Predictive
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
The act of estimating future sales so companies can make better business decisions and predict performance. It 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
This is a measurable value that indicates how effectively a business is reaching its goals and objectives.
They exist at multiple levels - a high-level would focus on overall performance, such as annual growth, and a low-level would focus more on day to day activities, such as sales emails sent
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
This is a person or business that has expressed interest in your company’s solution that might eventually become a customer. Businesses can gather these through marketing, trade shows, or networking
Lead
This is the process of attracting people and converting them into prospects through activities such as website optimization, social media (LinkedIn), email marketing, and cold calling
Lead Generation
This is the process of determining whether or not a lead is worth pursuing. Sales reps use the BANT framework to qualify leads and draw conclusions about whether or not they have a high chance of becoming a long term customer. If a sales rep finds out that the lead doesn’t have the budget or need for the solution, they will make them a low priority
Lead Qualification
This is a method that ranks prospects according to the value they can add to the business.
The purpose of this is to help sales reps understand how they should prioritize their time and energy to make the most profit
Lead Scoring
This is the amount added to the price of a solution to cover overhead
Mark-up
This is a lead that is qualified as interested in a business based on engagement with their marketing materials
Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
This the part of the buying process where a lead conducts research to find a solution to the problem at hand. At this point, a lead will likely be looking at the features specific to your solution and customer reviews.
Middle of the funnel (MOFU)
This is the amount a business receives per month.
*This metric is usually used if the business is subscription-based
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
This is a customer satisfaction metric that measures how likely a customer is to recommend your solution.
This data is usually collected using a survey. Based on the rating they give, a customer is either considered a detractor (wouldn’t buy the solution again or recommend it), passive (satisfied but wouldn’t necessarily promote the solution), or a promoter (a repeat buyer that acts as a brand ambassador). Some industries use a scale of 0-10, while others use 0-100
Net Promoter Score
This refers to any questions or concerns from a prospect after a sales rep has performed a value demonstration. Common __________ have to do with budget, authority, need, and timing (BANT).
Handling this step in the sales process and a necessary skill of any sales rep or SDR/BDR
Objection
This is the act of introducing your solution to a customer and getting them set up to use it after they buy. It can also refer to hiring and training a new sales rep or employees.
Onboarding
This is a contact or prospect that has been qualified and is considered worthy of pursuing. It is important to note that the definition of an “this” can vary across businesses.
*The general idea is that they show potential for becoming a customer
Opportunity
This is a customer’s need. Identifying/pointing out the these of a particular customer and showing how their solution can relieve them is necessary for sales reps trying to close a deal.
Commonly these include spending too much on a solution, wasting time when buying, experiencing a bad selling process, and not getting enough post sale support
Pain point
______________ are comments or questions a sales rep uses to engage the prospect. The purpose of a this is to start a conversation with the consumer and learn about their pain points
Positioning Statement
This is a ratio of profitability that reveals how much money a company actually makes.
It is the amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs. To calculate this, divide your gross profit (revenue-cost of goods sold) by revenue.
Profit Margin
This is the process of looking for potential buyers. This is the first step in the sales process, and the goal is to move these prospects down the sales funnel and convert them into loyal customers
Prospecting
These are leads or prospects that have been deemed more likely to become a customer based on certain criteria they provided or you discovered.
There are two types:
Sales: a prospective buyer that has been vetted by sales
Marketing: a prospective buyer that has shown interest in a business by engaging in their web content.
Qualified Lead
This is a set amount of sales that a rep is expected to meet over a given time frame
Quota
This is an inside rep that focuses on inbound leads, which are leads that approach your business and express interest in your solution
Sales Development Representative
This is a strategy that enables a sales team with the tools, processes, training, and other resources they need to improve their performance and help provide for the customer.
Sales Enablement
This is a model that outlines the customer journey in six key stages: awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and purchase
Sales Funnel
This is the framework that outlines how your sales reps approach each step in the selling process. Includes philosophy, values, and principles
It is often confused with Sales process
Sales Methodology
This refers to the concrete steps and actions a sales rep goes through to make a sale. These are repeatable steps to convert a prospect into a loyal customer.
*It’s often confused with Sales Methodology
Sales Process
A step by step process that a sales rep takes to move someone from being a prospect to a loyal customer.
It’s divided into stages based on the customer’s readiness to buy
Sales Pipeline
A ratio that compares how full your sales pipeline is against your quota in a given period. It acts as a good indicator of sales team performance and helps forecast your company’s ability to grow
Sales Pipeline Coverage
An agreement between the sales and marketing departments of a business that defines their expectations for each other.
It exists to make sure the sales and marketing departments are aligned and complement each other’s work
Service Level Agreement
This refers to aligned sales and marketing efforts. The word sounds silly, but the principle behind it is crucial for the success of a business. They both need to support each other, and that requires a lot of communication and collaboration
Smarketing
The act of using social media to interact with prospects. Oftentimes, this includes providing answers to simple questions that will help the prospect better understand their pain points and potential solutions
Social Selling
A ________ is a series of words or phrases that a sales rep has prepared to help them quickly and effectively communicate with a prospect
Sound Bite
This occurs when a seller finds a higher-end solution to provide an existing customer. An example of this would be when you buy a subscription to a software tool, and the next month the sales rep attempts by showing you the ropes of a more expensive version with better features
Upselling
This is the presentation of the benefit(s) that a solution provides to its customers. A good one (that is presented during the value demonstration stage in the sales process) will cater to the individual needs of that particular customer
Value proposition
This is a version of the sales pipeline where a value is placed on each opportunity based on their current stage in the sales process
Weighted sales pipeline
This refers to the business intelligence process that creates reports with real-time data sets as needed by users.
These reports are put together to answer a specific question in response to a particular event. Essentially it shows the after effects of a certain business action
Ad hoc reporting
This refers to the process of governing the life cycles of contracts with customers, vendors, partners, and employees.
It begins when a contract is drawn up, and ends when it expires. However, within that time frame, the contract might be renewed or the terms may change, requiring management
Contract Management
This refers to the process of generating, tracking, and prioritizing potential customers.
Once these leads are generated from other marketing or sales actions and qualified as worthy of pursuing, they are arranged and approached based on their likelihood of making a purchase.
After that initial contact is made, they are nurtured and hopefully converted into customers. This whole process is referred to as _____________.
Lead Management or
Prospect Management
This refers to the administration of deals within a business’ sales pipeline. The purpose of this added layer of attention to opportunities is to enable sales reps to easily and conveniently close as many deals as possible
Opportunity Management
This works to streamline every stage of the sales process and customer journey.
It refers to the process of moving leads further down the pipeline, with the ultimate goal of converting them into customers
Pipeline Management
A method of data visualization that portrays your most important sales metrics in a way that is easy to understand. Sales dashboards can be created for a variety of sales department matters, such as performance, conversions, and activities completed
Sales Dashboard
This refers to the organization of sales processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Areas of this include compensation plans, quota setting, and territory management
Sales Performance Management
This a profitability measure that assesses a company’s revenue per customer account
Average revenue per account (ARPA)
This a SaaS metric that represents how much revenue growth or churn your company had over time from your existing pool of customers, revealing the health and growth potential of your business
Net dollar retention (NDR)
This is typically expressed as a ratio of MRR (monthly reoccurring revenue) lost as a percentage of renewals candidates, but can also be expressed as the total MRR or ARR value lost to customer cancellations and attrition
Aka (RRC)
Recurring Revenue (ARR/MRR) Churn
GAAP revenue, MRR or ARR churn, typically reported as a ratio. Slightly broader than recurring revenue churn in that it can include lost non-recurring revenue
Revenue Churn
This is typically expressed as the average ARR/MRR decrease due to lost customers
Average Recurring Revenue Churn
A traditional approach to measuring churn in software companies, this approach has been replaced using ARR and MRR churn ratios
Bookings Churn
This is a widely used formula to measure sales efficiency. It measures the output of a year’s worth of revenue growth for every dollar spent on sales and marketing. To think of it another way, for every dollar in S&M spend, how many dollars of ARR do you create
Magic Number
__________ aka Sales and Marketing costs
S&M Spend
This is a widely used formula to measure sales efficiency. It measures the output of a year’s worth of revenue growth for every dollar spent on sales and marketing. To think of it another way, for every dollar in S&M spend, how many dollars of ARR do you create
Magic Number
A frequently used financial comparison for comparing two or more measurable events on an annualized basis
Year-Over-Year (YOY)
Also referred to as CLV. It is an estimation of the aggregate gross margin contribution of the average customer over the life of the customer
Lifetime Value (LTV)
___________ is a metric summarizes the contractual value of fully executed term contracts.
It can differ from Bookings in that Bookings may be defined to include only certain items and only the first year of a multi-year agreement, whereas “this” is not typically limited to the first year, nor would it typically except certain transaction types
*It can include renewal bookings, and when examined for specific customers, can include the total value of the contract over many terms
Total Contract Value (TCV)
This is the number of months required to pay back the associated customer acquisition costs and is calculated as the CAC divided by the Average Monthly Gross Profit
CAC Payback Period
This is used to measure a company’s sales efficiency using a ratio of New Subscription Revenue to Sales & Marketing (S&M) expense. Put another way, this shows how much it costs to acquire $1.00 of subscription revenue. Any ratio above 1.0x means that your company generates more New Subscription Bookings than it spends to acquire the customer
SaaS Magic Number
This is the closing stage, where the marketer goes for the sale. While person-to-person contact is likely for the sake of building a relationship with the lead, content may include case studies, trials, live demos and consultations.
BoFu (bottom-of-funnel)
