Hello ladies, gents, cartoon animals & others.
Won’t lie. Been loving Substack so far.
For those who are yet to break into sales or are still gathering terminology. Seeing AE, Quota or OTE can be confusing. We've all been there.
Today’s article will be all about the sales industry terminology.
Tried to cover all the “regular” terms + mostly the SaaS stuff.
Industry Terminology
Let’s get on it.
Remember to use CTRL + F if you are looking for a specific term - didn’t sort them all.
A
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
Average Customer Lifetime (ACL): The average customer contract length before churning.
AM: Account Manager.
AE: Account Executive.
Average Contract Value (ACV): Average revenue you derive from a single customer in a given period
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): Average revenue realized per user.
API: Application program interface (often incorporates web services).
Account: Refers to a record of primary & background information about an individual or corporate customer (Including data, preferred services & transactions with your company)
B
B2B: Business-to-business.
B2C: Business-to-consumer.
Base Salary: This is the amount per hour or per year that you are paid for performing your job.
BDR: Short for Business Development Representative.
Burnout: The occurrence of fatigue & complete exhaustion. Happens even to the best.
Burn Rate: The amount of cash a company spends per month before generating a profit.
Booking: Scheduling a product demo, call, or meeting with a prospect or client.
Base Salary: Fixed amount paid to an employee, excluding any bonuses or commissions.
Buyer Persona: Archetype of buyer role.
Buyer: Individual or organizational entity that purchases a product or subscribes to a service
BDM: Business development manager. (Common name in EU)
Buying Signal: Verbal or non-verbal cue from a prospect is ready to make a purchase.
C
Close: Sales term which refers to the process of making a sale.
Cold calling: “When you are scared, but still have to pick up that phone.“ When you call someone who is not expecting your call.
Cold emailing: Email sent to a prospect without any previous engagement or relationship.
Channel: Where interaction takes place. (Phone, email, LinkedIn)
CRM: Customer Relationship Management - software that lets you keep track of activities with your customers / potential customers.
Churn: Rate at which customers cancel their subscriptions.
CTA: Call to action.
CMO: Chief marketing officer.
Commission: Additive pay based on sales.
Customer Journey: Series of touchpoints a customer has with a business/brand to become or stay a customer.
CTA (Call to action): Something you or the person you are speaking to will need to do.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Average value of recurring profit over a customer’s time doing business with the company minus the customer acquisition cost.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much it costs a business on average to acquire a new paying customer.
C-Suite: Top-level executives in a business (CMO, CEO, CFO etc).
Cross-Selling: When a sales rep has more than one type of product to offer consumers that could be beneficial.
CX: Customer experience.
CRO: Chief revenue officer.
CSM: Customer success manager.
Customer Success: Strategy adopted by B2B companies to optimize business with customers, reduce churn rate, drive profits & increase the predictability of recurring revenue.
D
Decision Maker: The person who makes the final decision on a sale.
D2D: Door to door sales.
Disco / Discovery Call: Meeting with a client, typically booked by an SDR. The goal of this initial meeting is to give the client a basic understanding of what your company can do for them.
Demo call: A call where a client is shown a presentation deck or a live demonstration of the software/service they would be getting from your company in exchange for money.
Deferred Revenue: What is to be collected in the future per contract terms.
Dialer: A piece of software that automates dialing phone numbers.
E
Enterprise: Refers to large corporations.
Engagement: Interactions carried out by the prospect with the SDR, measured in terms of action & time.
Enrichment: Improving the quality of existing data. For example, an SDR may use contact enrichment to improve the quality of their contact information.
G
Gatekeeper: Something (usually a person) who controls access to a person.
K
Key Accounts: “VIP customers” prioritized by sales reps & customer success. Losing those has a big impact on the company.
L
Lead: Classification within your database for individuals/companies that you are trying to get in contact with/manage a relationship with.
Lead Nurturing: Refers to the process of engaging & building long-term relationships with prospective customers through different techniques.
Life-Time Value (LTV): Total value of a customer from a business perspective or in terms of revenue before they churn.
Low-Hanging Fruit: Prospects that require minimum input to turn to customers.
M
Monthly Recurring Revenue(MRR): Total amount of subscription revenue realized on a monthly basis.
MQL: Marketing qualified lead.
MD: Managing Director.
MM: Mid-Market
I
ICP: Ideal customer profile.
ISR: Inside sales rep.
Inbound: Prospects that approach your company & express an interest in your service.
InMail Messages: LinkedIn “DM” system.
O
Onboarding: Process that new customers go through after signing the contract.
OTE: On Target Earnings. How much you will make before taxes when your Salary and commission combined.
Outbound: SDR reaches out to potential customers who haven’t already displayed any interest in the business’s product.
Objection: A prospect's challenge to or rejection of a product or service's benefits - normal in a sales process.
P
Pipeline: Used to visualize & track prospects as they move through the different stages of the sales process.
Prospect: Potential customer who has been qualified & is now in the sales process.
Pain Point: Prospect's pain point or need, is the most important thing for a sales rep to identify in the selling process.
Q
Quota: The sales number you need to hit.
Qualified Lead: A contact who is interested in learning more.
Quarter: Three-month period in a company’s fiscal year
R
Renewal Rate: Rate of customers staying with the SaaS/renewing their contract.
Revenue Realization: When the cash from a contract finally hits the bank, revenue is realized.
Rapport: Close & harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas & communicate well.
Referral: Process of generating sales leads wherein a third party shares information about a new prospect.
S
SE: Sales engineer.
SMB: Small- and medium-sized businesses.
Scraping: Extracting or ‘harvesting’ large amounts of data from websites.
Segmentation: Breaking down a large market into separate groups that share specific criteria (industry, budget, role, etc.).
SaaS: Software as a Service.
SDR: Sales development representative.
SEP: Sales engagement platform.
SQL: Sales qualified leads.
Sequence: Order in which you send outreach. Also known as a cadence or play.
Sales Cycle: Repeating process characterized by a predictable sequence of stages that a company undergoes as it sells its products and services to customers.
Sales Funnel: Visualization of the sales process that defines the stages through which prospective customers go through
Signaling: Process in which a consumer conveys readiness to purchase your product or service
T
Trial: Period of no cost, or low cost, access to the product for evaluation purposes.
Targeting: Refers to the specific group or subset of potential consumers a company plans to sell its product
Total Available Market (TAM): Refers to the total revenue potential for a specific product or service
Triggers: Set of signals or occurrences that meet certain criteria to be considered an opportunity to make a sale.
U
Unique Selling Point (USP): Statement conveying the unique features that differentiate a company and/or its product from the competition.
Upsell: Sales technique a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale.
UI: User interface.
V
VM: Voicemail
VA: Virtual assistant
The terminology here should provide you with an adequate start, something to help you kick off your Sales journey or grasp the terms you have not known until now.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Trying to find email addresses for your cold outreach? Findymail - affiliate
Trying to break into Tech Sales? Break Into SaaS - affiliate