120+ Sales Terms You Need to Know | Sales Glossary

Sales is a rapidly evolving field, so we've put together an exhaustive list of over 120 useful sales and revenue operations terms to create this complete glossary. Using this glossary you can stay up to date on the latest sales trends, rapidly onboard new colleagues, or brush up on your own sales knowledge.

Sales Processes and Techniques

AB Testing

A method to compare two versions of a sales or marketing asset, most often a landing page or an email template, to see which performs better. AB testing is commonly used to optimize lead generation and conversion rates.

ABX (Account-Based Experience)

ABX is a strategy that combines account-based marketing (ABM) and account-based sales (ABS) to create a holistic, personalized experience for high-value accounts throughout their entire journey. It focuses on delivering tailored content and interactions at every stage, ensuring consistent and relevant engagement from initial contact to long-term customer success. ABX aims to align marketing, sales, and customer success teams to optimize the customer experience and drive higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

ABM (Account-Based Marketing)

A focused approach where marketing and sales teams collaborate to target specific high-value accounts with tailored campaigns that resonate with each target.

ABS (Account-Based Sales)

ABS is a sales strategy that focuses on targeting and engaging specific high-value accounts rather than a broad market. This approach involves personalizing sales efforts for each target account, understanding their unique needs, challenges, and goals. 

ABS aligns closely with account-based marketing (ABM) and often involves collaboration between sales and marketing teams to create customized campaigns and interactions that resonate with each account's stakeholders. The goal of ABS is to build deeper relationships, provide tailored solutions, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates and increased customer loyalty by targeting those that are a good fit for consistent, sustainable revenue.

Activity-Based Selling

A sales strategy where reps focus on completing specific activities that lead to a sale, helping them stay organized and motivated by controlling their tasks and setting short-term objectives.

Consultative Selling

A sales approach focused on building relationships and understanding the customer's needs before offering solutions, ensuring the products or services provided are genuinely beneficial. The salesperson acts as more of a consultant, offering holistic solutions.

Conversion Path

The series of steps a prospect takes to become a customer, including initial engagement, nurturing, and final purchase, crucial for optimizing marketing and sales efforts.

Drip Campaign

A series of automated marketing messages sent over time to nurture leads and guide them through the sales funnel, often tailored based on recipient behavior. Often done via email marketing, and a good area for collaboration between marketing and sales. 

Inbound Sales

Sales activities where representatives respond to inquiries and interest generated by marketing efforts, focusing on nurturing and converting these inbound leads. A common situation would include a lead converting via marketing content and then being contacted by salespeople.

Incremental Sales

Additional sales generated from specific marketing activities, promotions, or sales efforts that exceed the baseline level of sales, helping measure the effectiveness of these initiatives

Inside Sales

A sales approach where representatives sell products or services remotely, typically via phone, email, or online meetings, rather than through face-to-face interactions, enabling efficient and scalable sales processes.

Outside Sales

Sales conducted through face-to-face interactions with customers, often involving travel and in-person meetings, as opposed to inside sales conducted remotely.

Social Selling

The practice of using social media platforms to connect with prospects, build relationships, and engage in conversations that can lead to sales opportunities. This is most commonly done on LinkedIn, although certain companies might also branch this out to alternative platforms like Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.

Soft Sell

A sales approach that focuses on building relationships and providing value rather than aggressively pushing for a sale. Soft selling is therefore often used to create long-term customer loyalty.

Objection

A prospect's expressed concern or hesitation about a product or service, which the salesperson must address to move forward in the sales process.

Soundbite

A concise and impactful statement used by sales reps to quickly convey key messages or address common objections during conversations with prospects.

Objection Handling

Also called objection addressing, objection handling is the process of addressing and overcoming potential customers' concerns, hesitations, or objections during the sales process. It involves understanding the underlying reasons for objections, responding effectively to alleviate these concerns, and providing solutions that help move the prospect closer to making a purchase decision. These are often based on a prepared playbook or set of common expected objections that salespeople have been trained on. 

Positioning Statement

A positioning statement is a concise description of how a brand, product, or service uniquely meets the needs of its target market better than the competition. It articulates the unique value proposition and the key benefits that differentiate it from competitors, aimed at creating a clear and compelling image in the minds of the target audience. The positioning statement typically includes the target market, the brand/product name, the category in which it competes, and the primary benefit or point of differentiation.

Sales Roles and Titles

Account

A business or organization that a company aims to sell its products or services to, typically involving multiple stakeholders and decision-makers.

Account Development Representative (ADR)

An ADR is responsible for generating and qualifying leads for Account Executives, engaging in prospecting activities to identify potential sales opportunities within targeted accounts.

Account Executive (AE)

An AE manages relationships with key accounts, handling the sales cycle from initial contact through to negotiation and closing, ensuring client needs are met.

Account Manager (AM)

An AM manages and grows relationships with existing customers, focusing on customer satisfaction, renewals, and identifying upselling and cross-selling opportunities. While Account Managers might often work under Customer Success, they should also have sharpened sales skills to pursue cross-selling and upselling opportunities as they appear. 

Business Development Representative (BDR)

See Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Field Sales Representative (Field Sales Rep)

A sales professional who engages with customers and prospects in person, often traveling to meet clients at their locations, and is responsible for building relationships and closing deals outside of an office setting.

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

A salesperson that is responsible for outreach, prospecting, and qualifying leads at the beginning of the buyer’s journey. They engage potential customers early on, identifying and nurturing prospects. 

SDRs and BDRs are very similar or even identical in certain companies, but in other situations BDRs are more focused on purely outbound leads while SDRs focus on qualifying both inbound and outbound leads. 

Lead Research Specialist (LRS)

A Lead Research Specialist is a professional responsible for identifying and qualifying potential sales leads through thorough research and analysis. They gather data on prospects, including contact information, company details, and market insights, to help sales teams target the right individuals and organizations more effectively. Their role is crucial in building a high-quality lead database, ensuring that sales efforts are focused on the most promising opportunities.

AI Data Trainer (AIDR)

AI Data Trainers are the next evolution of the LRS. Thanks to the commoditization of data, AIDRs can multiply their efficiency by leveraging artificial intelligence to perform the same tasks as LRS’ but on a much quicker timeline.

Revenue Operations (Rev Ops)

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a department or team that is responsible for aligning and integrating the processes, tools, and data across sales, marketing, and customer success teams to drive efficiency and maximize revenue growth. It aims to eliminate silos, streamline workflows, and ensure a cohesive strategy for generating and sustaining revenue. In many companies, RevOps is the team that owns the CRM. 

Sales Operations (Sales Ops)

Sales Operations describes a team or department that help a sales organization run effectively, efficiently, and in support of business strategies and objectives. They are most often responsible for the management and optimizization sales processes, tools, metrics, and data to support the sales team in achieving their goals and improving overall sales performance. Certain companies treat RevOps and SalesOps as a unified function, although RevOps plays a more holistic role across all revenue generation departments,

Sales Enablement

Sales Enablement is another department that is most often responsible for providing sales teams with the tools, content, training, and resources they need to effectively engage buyers throughout the buying process. Its goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales force by ensuring they have access to the right information and skills at the right time to close deals successfully. In many companies, Sales Enablement is the team responsible for organizing workshops and trainings to ensure that sales staff have everything they need to conduct effective outbound. 

Sales Architect

A sales professional who designs complex sales strategies and solutions tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of specific clients or markets These are particularly common in enterprise sales, where a deep knowledge o the customer is essential to closing large deals..

Sales Coach

A mentor or trainer who works with sales representatives to develop their skills, improve performance, and achieve their sales goals through guidance and feedback. Many Sales Coaches also operate on a freelance basis.

Sales Engineer (SE)

A technical sales professional who combines deep product knowledge with sales skills to demonstrate and explain the technical aspects and benefits of a product to potential customers. For example, they might explain how your service integrates with highly technical platforms, such as SAP.

Sales Metrics and KPIs

ACV (Annual Contract Value)

Measures the value of a contract over a year, crucial for understanding the revenue contribution from long-term contracts and subscription services in B2B sales.

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)

The total value of recurring revenue from subscriptions or contracts over a year, a key metric for understanding revenue predictability and growth in subscription-based business models.

ASP (Average Selling Price)

The average price at which a product or service is sold, helping to understand pricing trends and set strategic price points in B2B sales.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses, crucial for assessing the efficiency and profitability of sales strategies.

CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)

Measures the mean annual growth rate of an investment over a specified period longer than one year, used to understand growth trends in sales and revenue.

CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)

The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer account throughout the business relationship, crucial for long-term profitability.

Close Rate

The percentage of leads that convert into paying customers, a key metric for evaluating the effectiveness of sales efforts.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of visitors or leads who take a desired action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase, used to measure the effectiveness of marketing and sales activities.

Lead Scoring

A methodology used to rank prospects against a scale that represents the perceived value each lead represents to the organization, based on various attributes and behaviors, helping prioritize sales efforts on the most valuable leads.

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

The predictable income that a business can expect to receive every month from subscription services or recurring billing, critical for financial forecasting and stability.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

A metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking how likely customers are to recommend a company to others, using a scale of 0 to 10.

OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

A goal-setting framework used to define and track objectives and their outcomes, helping align sales and marketing efforts with overall business goals.

Sales Tools and Systems

ATS (Applicant Tracking System)

Software that manages the recruitment process by tracking job applicants, often used by sales teams to manage their own hiring processes efficiently.

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote)

Sales software that helps companies configure products, price them correctly, and generate quotes quickly and accurately, streamlining the sales process. A popular CPQ platform is Salesforce.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

A system for managing a company’s interactions with current and potential customers, storing information such as contact details, purchase history, and communications. Popular examples include Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Monday, among others. .

Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)

Software that automates marketing tasks such as email campaigns, social media posts, and lead nurturing, helping streamline processes and measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

LMS (Learning Management System)

A software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development initiatives, used to facilitate employee training and development. Often used by sales enablement.

Sales Logistics

Buying Process

The series of steps a customer goes through from recognizing a need to making a purchase decision, often involving multiple stakeholders and longer decision cycles in B2B sales.

Buying Criteria

The factors that influence a customer’s purchasing decision, such as price, features, company reputation, and customer service, crucial for tailoring sales pitches to meet these criteria.

Buying Intent

Indicates a prospect’s readiness to purchase a product or service, using various signals and data points to gauge and prioritize leads with high buying intent.

Cross-selling

A sales technique where a salesperson suggests additional, complementary products or services to a customer who is already making a purchase. The goal is to increase the overall value of the sale by offering items that enhance or complement the primary product.

Intent Signals

Data points and behavioral indicators that suggest a prospect or potential customer is actively considering or interested in purchasing a product or service. Intent signals can also hint that a prospect could be susceptible or open to purchasing your product or service, such as a funding round or new expansion plans.

GTM (Go-to-Market)

Go-to-Market (GTM) refers to the strategy and action plan that a company uses to launch a product or service to the market. It encompasses the entire process of bringing the product to customers, including market research, target audience identification, marketing and sales tactics, distribution channels, and customer support. The goal of a GTM strategy is to ensure a successful product launch and achieve market penetration and growth.

Key Accounts

High-value customer accounts that are crucial to a company's revenue and growth, often receiving specialized attention and dedicated account management to ensure satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

Lead Generation

The process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in a company's product or service, often through marketing campaigns, content creation, and other outreach efforts.

GTM Strategy

See GTM (Go-to-Market)

Flywheel

A modern sales and marketing model that emphasizes the continuous cycle of attracting, engaging, and delighting customers to drive growth, replacing the traditional linear sales funnel concept.

CRM Data Hygiene

CRM data hygiene refers to the practices and processes aimed at maintaining accurate, consistent, and up-to-date information within a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It involves regular data cleaning, validation, and updating to ensure the quality and reliability of customer data, which is crucial for effective sales, marketing, and customer service operations.

Lead Management

The process of tracking and managing prospective customers (leads) throughout the sales cycle, including lead generation, qualification, distribution, and nurturing, to ensure effective conversion into customers.

Lead Qualification

The process of evaluating potential customers to determine their likelihood to purchase, based on criteria such as budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT), ensuring sales efforts are focused on the most promising leads.

Customer Lifecycle

The stages a customer goes through in their relationship with a company, from awareness and acquisition to retention and loyalty, guiding strategies to enhance customer experience and value.

Key Accounts

High-value customer accounts that are crucial to a company's revenue and growth, often receiving specialized attention and dedicated account management to ensure satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

Pipeline Management

The practice of overseeing and optimizing the sales pipeline to ensure opportunities are progressing and resources are allocated effectively.

Prospecting

The process of identifying and reaching out to potential customers to generate new sales opportunities, typically involving research, cold calls, and networking.

Upselling

A sales technique where a salesperson encourages a customer to purchase a more expensive or premium version of the product or service they are considering. The goal of upselling is to increase the value of the sale by offering enhanced features, benefits, or complementary products that provide greater value to the customer.

Sales Compensation and Incentives

Base Salary

The fixed annual compensation paid to an employee, excluding bonuses and commissions, providing a stable income foundation for sales representatives.

Bonus

Additional compensation given to employees, typically based on performance metrics, often tied to meeting or exceeding sales targets.

Commission

Additional compensation based on performance, typically a percentage of the sales made, incentivizing sales reps to close deals and increase revenue.

Commission-Based

A compensation structure where a significant portion of a salesperson’s earnings comes from commissions, aligning their income with their sales performance.

Compensation Plan (Comp Plan)

The complete package of salary, bonuses, commissions, and other benefits provided to sales employees, designed to motivate and reward performance.

Commission Draw

A commission draw is an advance payment against future sales commissions. It is typically provided to sales representatives as a form of financial stability, ensuring they have a predictable income while working towards their commissions. The draw amount is later deducted from the actual commissions earned. Draws can be recoverable (where the advance must be paid back if commissions are less than the draw) or non-recoverable (where the advance does not need to be repaid if commissions do not meet the draw amount).

Draw Balance

The amount of draw that has yet to be covered by earned commissions, indicating how much a sales rep needs to earn before receiving additional commission payouts.

Incentive Structure

A system of rewards and compensation designed to motivate sales teams, including elements such as commissions, bonuses, and performance-based incentives, aimed at driving desired behaviors and achieving sales targets.

Forecasting

The process of predicting future sales performance based on historical data, market analysis, and sales trends, essential for setting realistic targets and making informed business decisions.

Pipeline Coverage

The ratio of the total value of opportunities in the sales pipeline to the sales target, indicating whether there are enough potential deals to meet goals.

Quota

The sales target or goal assigned to a sales representative or team over a specific period, used to measure performance and success.

Sales Performance Management

The process of monitoring, evaluating, and improving the performance of sales teams through tools, metrics, feedback, and training.

Uncapped Commission

Uncapped commissions refer to a compensation structure in sales where there is no upper limit on the amount of commission a salesperson can earn. This means that sales representatives can earn unlimited commissions based on their sales performance,

Customer and Account Management

Account Manager (AM)

Manages and grows relationships with existing customers, focusing on customer satisfaction, renewals, and identifying upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

Customer Lifecycle

The stages a customer goes through in their relationship with a company, from awareness and acquisition to retention and loyalty, guiding strategies to enhance customer experience and value.

Sales Methodologies and Frameworks

AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

A framework outlining the stages a prospect goes through, helping structure effective sales pitches by capturing attention, building interest, creating desire, and prompting action.

BASHO Email

A highly personalized email used in sales prospecting, designed to engage high-value targets by demonstrating in-depth research and understanding of the recipient’s needs and challenges. Surprisingly enough, it’s not an acronym, but was after the company that first popularized its use. 

ANUM (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money)

A sales qualification framework that helps identify key factors in closing a deal: who has the authority, the prospect's need, the urgency of the purchase, and the available budget.

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

A framework to qualify leads based on their budget, authority to buy, need for the product, and timeline for purchase, helping prioritize prospects likely to convert.

CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization)

A sales framework focusing on understanding the prospect's challenges, identifying decision-makers, evaluating budget constraints, and prioritizing the sales approach.

FAB (Features, Advantages, Benefits)

A sales technique that highlights the features of a product, explains the advantages of those features, and describes the benefits to the customer, helping to create a compelling sales argument.

FAINT (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing)

A sales qualification methodology that emphasizes the prospect's financial capability, decision-making power, interest level, actual need, and the appropriate timing for making a purchase.

FORDEC (Frame, Objectives, Risks, Decision Criteria, Evaluate, Commit)

A decision-making framework used to systematically frame the situation, set objectives, assess risks, determine decision criteria, evaluate options, and commit to a course of action.

GPCTBA/C&I (Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority/Negative Consequences & Positive Implications)

A lead qualification framework that helps sales reps understand a prospect's goals, plans, challenges, timeline, budget, and authority, along with the negative consequences of inaction and the positive implications of solving their problems, ensuring a thorough assessment.

MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion)

A comprehensive sales framework aimed at understanding the buyer's metrics, identifying the economic buyer, determining decision criteria and process, identifying the pain points, and finding a champion within the organization.

NEAT (Needs, Economic impact, Access to authority, Timeline)

A sales qualification approach that identifies the prospect's needs, assesses the economic impact, ensures access to decision-makers, and understands the timeline for purchasing.

SCOTSMAN (Solution, Competition, Originality, Timescales, Size, Money, Authority, Need)

A sales qualification framework that helps in evaluating the suitability of a prospect by examining the solution fit, competitive landscape, originality, timescales, deal size, budget, authority, and need.

SNAP (Simple, iNvaluable, Align, Priorities)

A sales methodology that focuses on keeping the sales process simple, providing invaluable insights, aligning with the prospect's needs, and prioritizing their requirements.

SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff)

A questioning technique used in sales to uncover a prospect's current situation, identify problems, understand the implications, and highlight the need-payoff of the solution being offered.

TACTIC (Target, Approach, Convert, Tell, Incentivize, Close)

A structured sales approach that targets potential customers, adopts the right approach, converts interest into action, communicates effectively, incentivizes the prospect, and closes the deal.

VALUE (Validate, Align, Leverage, Understand, Engage)

A sales framework that emphasizes validating the prospect's needs, aligning solutions to those needs, leveraging the right resources, understanding the prospect's environment, and engaging effectively.

Sales Communication and Documentation

Call for Proposal (CFP)

A document that invites suppliers to submit proposals for a project, common in B2B sales when organizations seek detailed bids from multiple vendors.

RFP (Request for Proposal)

A document issued by a company seeking bids from potential vendors or service providers, outlining project requirements and criteria for selection, used to solicit proposals and choose the best fit for a project.

Positioning Statement

A concise description used by sales reps to explain how a product or service meets the specific needs of a prospect, often highlighting key benefits and differentiators.

Statement of Work (SOW)

A detailed document outlining the scope, deliverables, timeline, and responsibilities for a specific project or service agreement, used to set clear expectations with customers.

MSP (Mutual Success Plan)

A collaborative document or agreement between a vendor and a customer that outlines the shared goals, objectives, and milestones necessary for the successful implementation and use of a product or service. The plan is designed to ensure that both parties are aligned and committed to achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.

Ideal Buyer Persona (IBP)

A modeled profile of a key decision-maker in an organization based on market research and real data, helping sales and marketing teams align their efforts to attract and engage the right audience. IBP is a relatively newer term when compared to ICP, but is used by some companies as a more granular step that better describes decision-makers within a particular company. 

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of a person that represents the perfect customer for your product or service. For example, a good ICP might be a VP of Sales at B2B Tech/SaaS companies. 

Miscellaneous Terms

Loss Leader

A pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other profitable sales, attracting customers with a low-cost item in the hope they will purchase additional, higher-margin products.

Pain Point

Specific problems or challenges that a prospect or customer faces, which a product or service can solve. Targeting the pain point correctly is critical for tailoring sales pitches and solutions.

De-Dupe

The process of removing duplicate entries from a database to ensure data cleanliness and accuracy, critical for effective customer relationship management and marketing automation. Most often used in reference to cleaning CRM data.