Sales glossary for founders

Sales can be a challenging process, particularly when it comes to decoding all the expressions and words involved in a sales conversation. That's why we created a glossary with the most used terms by sales reps. We hope this glossary can help you grow and improve your sales performance!

A

ABC - Always Be Closing. It is a term used in aggressive sales which leads to believe that the sole purpose is to be able to close a deal in the end, and if the sales rep does not achieve that, then the process is seen as a failure.

Account - It’s normally a customer. Each sales rep is responsible for a number of accounts.

Active Listening - It’s part of the customer integration, make your customers feel heard and part of the process. Knowing their concerns, theirs fears and doubts, and be available to change what is necessary to get better results and leave the customer satisfied.

B

B2B - Business-to-business. It’s a company that sells it’s products/services to other companies instead of selling to regular individuals.

B2C - Business-to-customer. A regular exchange of products/services between a company and a customer.

Back-out - A customer that tried or canceled an order/service.

BANT - Budget (if the prospect has a budget for the product/service you’re selling), Authority (if the prospect is the decision-maker/buyer), Need (if the prospect has a need for your product/service) and Timeline (the time for implementation). BANT is used as criteria for lead qualification.

BDR - Business Development Representative. Most of the time BDRs do not close deals, they just qualify the leads and pass them to a Sales Rep. It's usually a job to salespeople with 1-3 years of experience.

Buyer - A purchasing person in a business, but not a decision-maker. They close the deal based on the orders of the decision-makers.

C

Calls - It’s the contact with Lead and Prospect. It can be a phone call, in a meeting, at a trade show.

Call-to-action - An instruction to provoke an immediate response.

Close - Is a sales term which generally means achievement of the goal, for example selling a product/service for money, a renewal, acquiring a signature.

Cold Lead - A Potential customer that is not aware of the product you are selling.

Commission - A payment/compensation that a sales rep gets for closing a deal, normally based on the profit margin of the sale.

CRM - Customer Relationship Management. It’s a software that helps companies keep track of all the information they have about their existing and potential customers. CRM software also helps business relationships to grow through the analysis of the customer's data, and can also track email, phone calls and deals, send personalized emails, among other things.

Current Customer - A customer who has ordered in the last 12 to 18 months on average. Current Customer Referrals - It’s the act of trying to get referrals of other possible prospects from your current customer.

Current Customer Upselling - It’s the act of trying to sell different products/services to a current customer. Customer - Before the sales is called a prospect, and after the sale, the purchaser/organization becomes the customer.

Cycle Of Sales - A 7 step cycle to describe the ideal sale.

D

Decision-makers - The person with authority to agree to a sale.

Demo - It’s the act of presenting your product/service to a prospect.

E

Email Campaign - A sequence of emails that are sent to a Lead.

F

First Touch email - The first email in a sequence of emails.

Follow-up - An email that is sent when a lead does not reply.

Funnel (Sales) - A process that a salesperson lead customers through when purchasing products. (4 stages: Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action)

G

Gatekeeper - A gatekeeper is the person responsible for scanning the information before sending it to a decision maker. The gatekeeper screens emails calls and visitors, before forwarding them to the decision makers.

I

ICP - Ideal Customer Profile, defines a set of characteristics that are unique to your buyer persona or ideal customer.

Inside Sales - A sales rep that sells from inside the company, normally via phone or online rather than on the field.

K

Key Accounts - A big account, bringing an important amount of revenue. These accounts are a priority to a sales rep because losing him would be an enormous loss to the company.

L

Lead - A person or company that is potential customer.

Lead Generation - Researching the most probable customers given specific characteristics (job title, industry, company size, geolocation) and creating a list of leads to approach.

M

Margin - The difference between the selling price and the cost of production of a product/service, resulting in the profit.

N

Negotiation - The process of trading between the sales rep and the customer. Includes pricing, terms of the contract or other items that can be adjusted.

O

Objections - A concern/problem of a prospect that can stop you from closing the deal.

Outside Sales - Opposite of Inside Sales. A sales rep that sells on the field, or in meetings.

P

Package Sale - It’s the act of selling multiple products/services at one meeting/demo.

Past Customer - It’s a customer who has not ordered in the last 12-18 month, on average.

Pipeline - The step-by-step process sales reps go through to convert a prospect into a customer.

Prospect - A potential customer that showed interest in purchasing.

Q

Quota - The minimum volume a sales person should produce in a specific time.

R

Rapport - Having a good and healthy relationship with the customers, listening to their needs and concerns and making them feel part of the process.

Referrals - Obtaining information about possible prospects from a current customer or prospect.

Retention of Customers - Keeping your customers happy with your service/product so they keep purchasing from you. It’s better to renewal a customer than finding new ones.

S

SaaS - Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.

Sales Report - A document containing important information about results, trends and target sales that allow you to keep track of your quota achievement.

SDR - Sales Development Representative. Is a type of inside sales rep that only focuses on outbound prospecting. Unlike quota-carrying salespeople. Sales Development Reps don’t focus on closing business, they focus on moving leads through the pipeline.

SMB - Small and medium-sized business. A company between 0-100 employees it’s a small-sized business, and between 100-999 employees, it’s a medium-size business.

T

Targeting - Researching the market and choosing the right companies/customers that suit your product/service.

U

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - The feature/characteristic of your product (price, style, delivery, warrant) that makes it competitively strong and without direct comparison.

Up Selling - It’s a technique when a salesperson tries to induce the customer into buying more expensive products, to make a more profitable sale.

V

Value Proposition - A statement about a product that makes it attractive to potential customers.

W

Warm Lead - A potential customer that is interested in buying your product.

Amplemarket Team!

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to reach out to team@amplemarket.com. You can also follow us on Twitter.

 Amplemarket is your AI-powered sales assistant. Amplemarket takes care of everything from prospecting to outreach, follow-ups, and scheduling of meetings. You tell us who you want to reach out to and wait for meetings to magically appear in your calendar.

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