B2B Sales Glossary
Every term you need to know to understand outbound sales, lead generation, and pipeline management.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
A detailed description of the type of company that is the best fit for your product or service. An ICP typically includes firmographic criteria such as industry, company size, revenue, location, and technology stack.
Sales Development Representative (SDR)
A sales team member focused on outbound prospecting and qualifying leads. SDRs typically handle the top of the sales funnel — identifying prospects, reaching out via email, phone, and LinkedIn, and booking meetings for Account Executives.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
A lead that has been identified by the marketing team as more likely to become a customer based on their engagement with marketing content, such as downloading a guide, attending a webinar, or visiting a pricing page.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
A lead that has been vetted by the sales team and confirmed as a genuine opportunity. SQLs have typically had a conversation with a sales rep and meet the criteria for budget, authority, need, and timeline.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
A strategic approach to B2B marketing where sales and marketing teams collaborate to target specific high-value accounts with personalised campaigns, rather than casting a wide net.
Email Outreach
An unsolicited email sent to a prospect who has no prior relationship with the sender. In B2B sales, email outreachs are used to initiate conversations with potential customers and book meetings.
Cold Calling
The practice of calling a prospect who has not previously expressed interest in your product or service. In B2B, cold calling is used alongside email and LinkedIn as part of a multi-channel outbound strategy.
Lead Enrichment
The process of enhancing a lead record with additional data points such as job title, company size, email address, phone number, and technology stack. Enrichment can be done manually or through automated data providers.
Waterfall Enrichment
A data enrichment strategy that queries multiple data providers in sequence (a "waterfall") to maximise the coverage and accuracy of contact information. If the first provider cannot find an email, the system tries the second, third, and so on.
Sales Cadence
A structured sequence of outreach activities (emails, calls, LinkedIn messages) spread over a defined period. A typical B2B cadence might include 4-6 emails, 2-3 LinkedIn touches, and 1-2 phone calls over 3-4 weeks.
Reply Rate
The percentage of email outreachs that receive a response from the prospect. Reply rate is calculated as total replies divided by total emails delivered, expressed as a percentage.
Open Rate
The percentage of sent emails that are opened by the recipient. Measured using a tracking pixel embedded in the email. Open rate is calculated as unique opens divided by emails delivered.
Booking Rate
The percentage of outbound contacts that result in a booked meeting. Calculated as meetings booked divided by total prospects contacted, expressed as a percentage.
Pipeline
The total value of all active sales opportunities at various stages of the sales process. Pipeline is typically measured in currency and tracked by stage (e.g., meeting booked, proposal sent, negotiation, closed won).
Annual Contract Value (ACV)
The average annualised revenue per customer contract. ACV is calculated by dividing total contract value by the number of years in the contract term.
Close Rate
The percentage of sales opportunities that result in a won deal. Calculated as deals closed divided by total opportunities in a given period.
Demand Generation
A marketing strategy focused on creating awareness and interest in a product or service. Demand generation encompasses content marketing, events, paid advertising, and outbound outreach to build a pipeline of potential customers.
Outbound Sales
A proactive sales approach where the seller initiates contact with potential customers, rather than waiting for inbound leads. Outbound sales typically involves email outreach, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, and direct mail.
Appointment Setting
The process of scheduling qualified meetings between a prospect and a sales representative. Appointment setters handle outreach, qualification, and calendar coordination so that closers focus exclusively on selling.
B2B Lead Generation
The process of identifying and attracting potential business customers. B2B lead generation includes both inbound methods (content, SEO, paid ads) and outbound methods (email outreach, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach).