Knowledge Base

Sales terms Dictionary.

From A to Z: everything you need to know about B2B sales, explained by Match-day experts.

98 terms5 categories

Account Executive (AE)

A sales professional responsible for closing deals, from demo to contract.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

A strategic approach where marketing and sales collaborate to target specific high-value accounts with personalized campaigns.

03Technology

AI Email Writing

AI tools that automatically generate personalized sales emails based on prospect data and context.

04Technology

AI SDR

AI software that automates Sales Development Rep tasks, from prospecting to initial outreach and follow-up.

05Strategy

Annual Recurring Revenue

ARR

The annual recurring revenue from subscriptions and fixed contracts. ARR is simply MRR × 12, but based on annual contracts.

06Strategy

Average Deal Size

ADS

The average contract value of closed deals over a specific period.

07Strategy

Average Revenue Per Account

ARPA

The average revenue you generate per customer, per year. ARPA shows how much an average customer is worth and helps you determine how much you can invest in sales.

08Sales Process

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

BANT

A qualification framework that determines whether a prospect has Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline to make a purchase.

09Marketing

Buyer Intent Signals

Measurable actions or behaviors that indicate a prospect is actively looking for a solution and possibly ready to buy.

10Strategy

Buyer Persona

A semi-fictional profile of your ideal individual buyer, based on market research and real customer data.

11Sales Process

Buying Committee

The group of people who collectively decide whether your product or service is purchased.

12Sales Process

Call center

A team or organization that handles phone contact with customers or prospects.

13Sales Process

Challenger Sale

A sales methodology where you challenge prospects with new insights and reframe their thinking.

14Sales Process

Champion

The person within the customer organization who sells your solution internally.

15Technology

Chatbot Qualification

AI chatbots that automatically qualify website visitors by asking questions and booking meetings.

16Strategy

Churn Rate

The percentage of customers who stop using your product or service within a specific period.

17Sales Process

Closing Techniques

Specific tactics and methods to help a prospect make a buying decision.

18Sales Process

Cold Calling

Reaching out to potential customers by phone without prior contact or relationship.

19Technology

Conversation Intelligence

Software that records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls to provide insights and improve performance.

20Sales Process

Conversion Rate

The percentage of prospects that move from one stage to the next stage in your sales funnel.

21Strategy

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC

The total costs you incur to acquire a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses.

22Technology

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM

Software for managing all interactions with prospects and customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

23Strategy

Customer Success Manager (CSM)

CSM

A professional who ensures customers get value from your product and achieve their goals.

24Marketing

Dark Funnel

All buying activities of your prospect that you don't see in your marketing metrics.

25Sales Process

Deal Velocity

The speed at which deals move through your pipeline from first contact to closed won.

26Strategy

Decision Criteria

The list of requirements and wishes on which a customer compares vendors.

27Strategy

Decision Making Unit (DMU)

DMU

The group of people involved in a buying decision.

28Sales Process

Demo-to-Close Rate

Demo-to-close rate is the percentage of prospects who proceed to purchase after a product demo.

29Sales Process

Discovery Call

An exploratory conversation where you thoroughly investigate a prospect's situation, needs, pain points, and goals.

30Sales Process

Economic Buyer

The person who has the budget and ultimately says yes or no to the investment.

31Sales Process

Elevator pitch

A short explanation of what you do, for whom and why it matters.

32Technology

Email Deliverability

The chance that your email actually reaches your recipient's inbox instead of landing in the spam folder or being blocked.

33Strategy

Expansion Revenue

Additional revenue from existing customers through upsells, cross-sells, or usage expansion.

34Strategy

Freemium Model

A pricing strategy where you offer a free basic version and make money by having users upgrade to premium features.

35Sales Process

Gap Selling

A methodology that focuses on the "gap" between where a prospect is now and where they want to be.

36Strategy

Gross Revenue Retention

GRR

The percentage of revenue you retain from existing customers, without counting upsell or cross-sell. GRR purely shows how many customers stay at their current level.

37Strategy

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

ICP

A detailed description of the type of company that gets the most value from your product or service, and from which you get the most value.

38Marketing

Inbound marketing

Marketing that attracts prospects through valuable content, visibility and trust.

39Marketing

Intent Data

Signals indicating that a company or person is actively looking for a solution in your category.

40Strategy

Land and Expand

A sales strategy where you start small within an account and then expand to other departments or use cases.

41Marketing

Lead Generation

The process of attracting and identifying potential customers who have interest in your product or service.

42Sales Process

Lead Response Time

Lead response time is the time between when a lead comes in and when your salesperson makes contact.

43Strategy

Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV

The total revenue you expect to generate from a customer throughout their entire relationship with your company.

44Lead Management

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

MQL

A prospect who has shown interest in your marketing but is not yet ready for a sales conversation.

45Sales Process

MEDDIC

A rigorous qualification framework for enterprise sales: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion.

46Strategy

Monthly Recurring Revenue

MRR

The predictable, recurring revenue you collect every month through subscriptions or fixed contracts. MRR is the foundation of every successful SaaS company.

47Sales Process

Multi-threading

Building relationships with multiple stakeholders within an account to reduce deal risk.

48Sales Process

Mutual Action Plan

MAP

A mutual action plan (MAP) is a joint step-by-step plan where seller and customer record what steps are needed to reach a deal, including responsibilities and deadlines.

49Strategy

Net Revenue Retention

NRR

The percentage of revenue you retain from existing customers, including upsell and cross-sell. NRR shows whether you earn more from your current customers, even if some customers stop.

50Marketing

Nurture Campaign

An automated series of emails and content that keeps leads warm until they are sales-ready.

51Sales Process

Objection Handling

The skill of effectively addressing objections and doubts from prospects during the sales process.

52Sales Process

Outbound Sales

A proactive sales strategy where you approach potential customers, instead of waiting for them to come to you.

53Sales Process

Pilot Program

A pilot program is a limited test phase where your customer tries your product or service with a small team or part of their organization.

54Strategy

Pipeline Coverage

The ratio of your total pipeline value compared to your sales target for a given period.

55Sales Process

Pipeline Generation

All activities that add new qualified opportunities to your sales pipeline.

56Technology

Predictive Analytics

AI-driven analyses that predict which leads, deals, or actions have the highest chance of success.

57Technology

Predictive Lead Scoring

AI models that automatically score leads based on conversion probability, trained on your historical data.

58Strategy

Product-Led Growth (PLG)

PLG

A go-to-market strategy where your product itself is the primary driver for acquisition, conversion, and expansion - with minimal sales intervention.

59Sales Process

Proof of Concept (POC)

POC

A short practical test to prove that your solution truly solves the promised problem.

60Sales Process

Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

QBR

A quarterly strategic conversation with your customer where you evaluate results, discuss challenges, and determine future goals.

61Strategy

Quota Attainment

The percentage of your sales team that hits their target (quota) in a given period.

62Sales Process

Referral Selling

A sales strategy where you ask existing customers or network to refer you to potential new customers.

63Marketing

Revenue Attribution

Assigning credit to the marketing and sales touchpoints that contribute to closed deals.

64Strategy

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

RevOps

A holistic approach that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success to maximize revenue growth.

65Sales Process

Sales agent

An independent intermediary who represents a supplier and helps generate customers or deals.

66Technology

Sales Analytics

Collecting, analyzing and visualizing sales data to make better decisions and improve performance.

67Technology

Sales Automation

The use of software and tools to automate repetitive sales tasks and increase sales efficiency.

68Sales Process

Sales Cadence

A structured follow-up schedule that determines how often and through which channels you approach a prospect over a specific period.

69Strategy

Sales Compensation Plan

The compensation plan for your sales team: how much do they earn fixed, how much variable, and based on which metrics do they get bonus? A good plan motivates and guides behavior.

70Technology

Sales Copilot

AI assistants that help sales reps in real-time during calls with suggestions, battle cards, and next best actions.

71Sales Process

Sales Cycle Length

The average time from first contact with a prospect to closed won deal.

72Sales Process

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

SDR

A sales professional focused on generating and qualifying new sales opportunities.

73Strategy

Sales Enablement

Strategically equipping your sales team with the right content, tools, training, and processes to sell more effectively.

74Technology

Sales Engagement Platform

SEP

Software that automates your outbound cadences and orchestrates every touchpoint with prospects.

75Strategy

Sales Forecasting

The process of predicting how much revenue you will generate in a specific period based on your pipeline.

76Technology

Sales Intelligence

Data and insights about prospects and accounts that help you better target, personalize, and sell.

77Strategy

Sales Kickoff (SKO)

SKO

An annual sales event where the entire sales team gathers to discuss goals, strategy, and new initiatives for the coming year.

78Strategy

Sales management

Managing, measuring and improving a sales team and commercial process.

79Sales Process

Sales outreach

Actively approaching prospects through channels like phone, email and LinkedIn.

80Sales Process

Sales Pipeline

A visual overview of all active deals in different stages of your sales process.

81Strategy

Sales Playbook

A documented overview of your sales process, best practices, and proven plays your team uses to consistently close deals.

82Technology

Sales Proposal Software

Software that lets you quickly create professional, interactive sales proposals that you can track and optimize.

83Sales Process

Sales prospecting agency

An external partner that helps companies generate new customers, meetings or sales opportunities.

84Lead Management

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

SQL

A prospect who has been qualified by sales and is ready for an active sales process.

85Lead Management

Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO)

SQO

An SQL that has been further qualified and officially converted into an active opportunity in your pipeline.

86Strategy

Sales Territory Management

Dividing your market into areas or segments and assigning salespeople to those areas. This creates focus, prevents overlap and makes sales measurable.

87Sales Process

Sales Velocity

Sales velocity measures how quickly your sales team generates revenue: the result of number of deals, average deal value, your conversion percentage and sales cycle length.

88Sales Process

Sandler Selling

A no-pressure sales methodology based on mutual qualification and up-front agreements.

89Marketing

Social Selling

Using social media, especially LinkedIn, to build relationships with prospects and create sales opportunities.

90Sales Process

Solution Selling

Een sales methodology die focust op het identificeren van klant-behoeften en het positioneren van je product als oplossing.

91Sales Process

SPIN Selling

SPIN

A questioning methodology for complex B2B sales: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff questions.

92Sales Process

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