Glossary

B2B sales glossary

35 terms founders run into when they start selling, each defined in a sentence or two, with links to the guides that go deeper.

A

Account executive (AE): An account executive is the salesperson who runs a deal from a qualified meeting to a signed contract: discovery, demos, proposals and negotiation. In many startups the founder plays this role first.
Account scoring: Account scoring is giving each target company a number that reflects how good a fit it is and how likely it is to buy soon, so you know whom to contact first. Good scores are explainable: you can see which factors produced the number.; Read more:How to Prioritise Accounts: A Simple Scoring Model
Account-based selling (ABS): Account-based selling is a sales approach that targets a short list of named companies and tailors outreach to each one, instead of working a large volume of individual leads. It usually involves reaching several people at the same company.; Read more:How to Prioritise Accounts: A Simple Scoring Model How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Annual recurring revenue (ARR): Annual recurring revenue is the yearly value of the subscription contracts a company has in force, excluding one-time fees. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) multiplied by 12 gives a common approximation.

B

Buyer persona: A buyer persona describes the person who buys or influences the purchase of your product: their role, goals, pains and how they evaluate tools. Your ICP describes the company; the persona describes the people inside it.; Read more:How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Buying committee: A buying committee is the group of people at a customer who take part in a purchase decision, such as the user, their manager, finance and security. Larger deals usually involve more of them.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach
Buying signal: A buying signal is an observable event suggesting a company may be ready to buy something like your product soon, such as new funding, hiring for a relevant role, a leadership change, expansion or a product launch. Signals indicate timing; they do not guarantee a purchase.; Read more:What Are Buying Signals in B2B Sales?How to Find B2B Companies That Are Ready to Buy

C

Churn: Churn is the rate at which customers cancel or do not renew over a period, measured either by customer count (logo churn) or by revenue lost (revenue churn).
Cold outreach: Cold outreach is contacting a prospect who has had no prior interaction with you, by email, LinkedIn message or phone. It works best when the message gives a specific, relevant reason for reaching out now.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach
Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Customer acquisition cost is the total sales and marketing spend in a period divided by the number of new customers won in that period. It is often compared with customer lifetime value to judge whether growth is efficient.

D

Data enrichment: Data enrichment is adding missing details to a company or contact record, such as industry, headcount, location or job title, from other data sources.
Decision maker: A decision maker is the person with the authority and budget to approve a purchase. In small companies it is often a founder; in larger ones it may be a department head who still needs sign-off from finance.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach
Discovery call: A discovery call is an early sales conversation focused on understanding the prospect’s situation, problem, priorities and buying process before pitching a solution.

F

Firmographics: Firmographics are descriptive attributes of a company, such as industry, employee count, revenue range, location, age and funding stage. They are the company equivalent of demographics and form the base of most ICPs.; Read more:How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Founder-led sales: Founder-led sales is the stage where a company’s founders sell the product themselves, usually before hiring a sales team. It helps founders learn what customers value before they try to make selling repeatable.; Read more:How to Find B2B Companies That Are Ready to Buy Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach

G

Go-to-market (GTM): Go-to-market is the plan for how a company reaches and wins customers: whom it sells to, what it offers, at what price and through which channels such as outbound, inbound, partners or self-serve.

I

Ideal customer profile (ICP): An ideal customer profile is a description of the type of company that gets the most value from your product and is most valuable to you, defined by firmographics, needs, buyer roles and triggers. It tells you which companies to pursue and which to ignore.; Read more:How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Intent data: Intent data is information suggesting a company is researching or preparing to buy in a category. First-party intent comes from your own channels (site visits, sign-ups); third-party intent is collected elsewhere, such as content consumption on other sites.; Read more:What Are Buying Signals in B2B Sales?

L

Lead: A lead is a person or company that might become a customer but has not yet been qualified. Teams then decide whether a lead fits and is worth pursuing.
Lead scoring: Lead scoring assigns points to leads based on fit and behaviour to decide which ones sales should follow up first. Account scoring applies the same idea to whole companies.; Read more:How to Prioritise Accounts: A Simple Scoring Model
Look-alike companies: Look-alike companies are businesses that share key traits with your best existing or ideal customers, such as industry, size, region and business model, which makes them likely to have similar needs.; Read more:How to Find B2B Companies That Are Ready to Buy How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India

M

Marketing qualified lead (MQL): A marketing qualified lead is a lead that marketing judges ready for sales attention based on fit and engagement, for example downloading a guide and matching the ICP.

O

Outbound sales: Outbound sales is when the seller starts the conversation by contacting prospects who have not asked to be contacted, as opposed to inbound, where prospects come to you.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach

P

Pipeline: A sales pipeline is the set of open deals a team is working, organised by stage from first conversation to closed. Its total value and conversion rates between stages are used to forecast revenue.
Product-led growth (PLG): Product-led growth is a go-to-market model in which the product itself drives acquisition and expansion, usually through a free plan or trial that users can adopt without talking to sales.

S

Sales cycle: The sales cycle is the time and set of steps between first contact with a prospect and a signed deal. It tends to lengthen with deal size and the number of people involved.
Sales development representative (SDR): A sales development representative researches and contacts prospects to book qualified meetings for account executives. SDRs focus on the top of the pipeline rather than closing deals.; Read more:How to Read Job Postings as Sales Signals
Sales qualified lead (SQL): A sales qualified lead is a prospect that sales has confirmed has a real need, fits the ICP and is worth an active sales process, typically after a discovery conversation.
Serviceable addressable market (SAM): The serviceable addressable market is the part of your total addressable market that your product and go-to-market can actually reach today, given your geography, segment and offering.
Serviceable obtainable market (SOM): The serviceable obtainable market is the share of your SAM you can realistically win in a given period, given competition and your sales capacity.
Signal-based outbound: Signal-based outbound is outreach triggered by a specific recent change at the target company, such as a funding round or a new hire, rather than by a static list. The signal supplies both the timing and the reason for the message.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach How to Read Job Postings as Sales Signals

T

Technographics: Technographics describe the software and technology a company uses, such as its CRM, cloud provider or payments stack. They help qualify accounts when your product replaces, integrates with or depends on specific tools.; Read more:What Are Buying Signals in B2B Sales?How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Total addressable market (TAM): Total addressable market is the total revenue opportunity if every possible customer for your product bought it. It is a sizing estimate, usually narrowed into SAM and SOM for planning.; Read more:How to Define an ICP for a B2B Startup in India
Trigger event: A trigger event is a specific change at a company, such as funding, a leadership hire, an acquisition or a new office, that creates a new need or budget and therefore a good moment to reach out. Trigger events are a common type of buying signal.; Read more:What Are Buying Signals in B2B Sales?Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach

W

Warm outreach: Warm outreach is contacting a prospect through an existing connection, such as a mutual introduction, a past conversation or a shared community, which usually earns more replies than cold outreach.; Read more:Signal-Based Outbound for Founders: Timing Outreach

Looking for the full method rather than a definition? Start with how to find companies that are ready to buy or browse all guides.

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