Sales Dictionary

If you’re new to sales, congratulations on joining this magical realm. You’ve aced the interview and landed your first job, and now comes the fun part: onboarding.

Get ready to be bombarded with more acronyms and unknown terms than you have heard in your entire life leading up to this point. Sounds dramatic, but depending on your vertical, that could be an understatement.

Trying to figure out all the definitions of things can get frustrating…as if you didn’t have enough on your plate, here’s a slew of slang that you can’t seem to crack. It can feel hella awkward asking coworkers every time you don’t know what something means. and the worst part is Google doesn’t always have a helpful definition for acronyms, especially when they’re industry-specific (looking at you, healthcare).

So, here’s your handy dandy guide to common business and sales terms, including breakdowns of all the pesky acronyms that keep popping up.

Let us also make one thing clear: this guide is not limited to newbies. Whether you’re transitioning from another industry, can’t keep track of all the acronyms, or recently came across an acronym you haven’t seen before, this is a guide for everyone who finds themselves asking, “WTF do all of these acronyms mean?”

• Universal Business Terms
• Universal Sales Terms

Universal Business Terms

A/B Testing

Using two variations, like email copy, to test the efficacy or another factor over a period of time. (also known as “split testing”)

ACV

Annual Contract Value. The annual amount a customer will pay based on their subscription terms.

ARPA

Average (monthly) Recurring Revenue Per Account.

ARR

Annual Recurring Revenue (i.e. 12 months x MRR).

B2B

Business to Business. A company that sells to other businesses (rather than directly to individual consumers).

B2BC

Business-to-Business-to-Consumer.

B2C2B

Business-to-Consumer-to-Business.

B2C

Business-to-Consumer.

B2G

Business-to-Government.

BANT

Budget-Authority-Need-Timeline. BANT is a methodology used to sift out qualified leads worth pursuing from the rest of the pack, using the four aforementioned items: the prospect’s budget, authority, current need, and timeline.

CAC

Customer Acquisition Cost (Also, CPL: Cost per Lead). The cost of gaining a new customer, as calculated by spend (overhead, bonuses, etc.) divided by the number of customers acquired during a set time period (e.g. one quarter).

CLTV

Customer Lifetime Value. A forecast of the monetary value a customer will bring during their entire subscription tenure with the company.

CTA

Call to Action. A phrase that encourages an action (e.g. “Let’s schedule a call for next week”).

CX

Customer Experience. The whole of interactions a customer has with your company, including with you, the platform, support, etc.

UX

User experience, which is typically used in the product sense.

D2C

Direct to Consumer.

EOD/EOW

End of Day/End of Week.

Enterprise Sales

Selling to large organizations, which typically entails bigger deal sizes, longer deal cycles, and longer contracts.

KPI

Key Performance Indicator. KPIs track progress towards a goal, and ultimately success, in a quantifiable way. KPIs are used internally by all teams. Some example KPIs for sales teams are opportunity-to-win ratio, CAC, and customer retention.

LTV

(Customer) Lifetime Value.

MoM

Month-over-month.

MRR

Monthly Recurring Revenue.

NPS

Net Promoter Score. A way to measure customer satisfaction, as calculated by subtracting “detractors” from “promoters".

OKR

Objectives and Key Results. Individuals, teams, and larger organizations use OKRs to set goals for improvement or growth in certain aspects of the business. As such, KPIs inform OKRs, and vice versa.

OOO

Out Of Office. Use this when you’re going on vacation, need to step away for an appointment, or will be otherwise unreachable. Some companies also have OOO calendars to keep teammates in the loop with your schedule.

RBE

Relationship Building Extra. Basically a gift could be a Uber eats giftcard or company swag.

RFP

Request for Proposal. A publicly-posted document (typically used by governments, but also other private organizations) announcing a project, and also defines said project, the bidding process, and the terms of the contract. RFPs are typically used when there is a need for multiple sub-contractors (hence why governments typically use them).

ROI

Return on Investment.

SLA

Service Level Agreement. A commitment from the service provider stipulating the services to be provided and any relevant standards (e.g. resolution times for support tickets). There are multi-level, customer, and internal SLAs.

SMART

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound.

SPIN

Situation, Problem, Implication, Need.

SWOT

Otherwise known as a “SWOT analysis.” Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

SMB

Small and Medium Businesses.

TL;DR

Too long; didn’t read. Use this before giving a brief synopsis of something.

WFH

Work From Home.

YTD

Year-to-Date.

Universal Sales

Accelerators

Accelerators are incentives used to motivate sales reps to go above and beyond (i.e. overachieving your quota). The exact amount you must hit to reach these sales accelerators depends on your company. These may come in the form of higher commission for deals beyond your quota.

AE

Account Executive.

AM

Account Manager.

BDR

Business Development Representative.

Cold Call

A call to a prospect that you have not been in touch with before.

Cold Email

See above, but for email.

Commission

*insert angelic singing* This is the dough you’ll make on top of your base, as tied to closed deals. Commission structures vary by role and company.

Comp plan

aka “compensation plan.” This determines how much money you will make based on your performance (e.g. quota attainment). It incorporates everything, like your base salary, commission, bonuses, and benefits.

CRM

Customer relationship management. A SaaS tool that helps you manage all your customer data. Example: Salesforce.

Cross-selling

Selling current customers other products that they aren’t using.

CTR

Click-through rate (as typically measured on email).

Demo

A demonstration of your product or services to a client, in which you share its features and functionality.

Decelerator

A tactic sales orgs use to encourage reps who aren’t hitting their quota to at least get closer in range. For example, if you are not hitting 60% of quota, your commission rate might drop a few percentage points. (also see: Accelerator)

Discovery call

This call is to determine if your product is a fit for the client and vice versa. On this call, you should be building rapport, establishing credibility, and asking questions to gauge fit.

ICP

Ideal Customer Profile. Your company’s target customer, based on any number of factors, including geography, company size, industry, etc.

Inbound

When a prospect comes in themselves to check out your product/service, it is considered inbound.

ISR

Inside Sales Representative. Selling using online tools, phone, and email, rather than selling in-person.

Lead

A potential customer who has no yet gone through the qualification process.

Lead scoring

The ranking process for leads using preset criteria, resulting in a ranking on a number scale.

LTV

(customer/user) Lifetime Value.

MRR

Monthly recurring revenue.

OTE

On-target earnings. The total amount a sales rep can expect to make if they hit their performance targets (e.g. quota).

Outbound

aka "outbound prospecting." The process of identifying and reaching out to prospects with the intentions of introducing them into the sales funnel.

Pipeline

aka “sales pipeline.” This is a representation of the full sales cycle. There are different owners, processes and steps at each stage of the pipeline, each meant to push the prospect farther down the pipeline until they become a customer.

President’s Club

An annual award for the sales organization’s highest achievers. Oftentimes includes an expenses-paid trip with fellow President’s Club winners and the executive team.

Prospect

When a lead gets qualified (i.e. they go through your qualification assessment and match your organization’s pre-set criteria), they become a prospect.

Quota

An amount of closed deals, leads generated, revenue amount, profit, activity, or a combination of target goals that sales managers and executive leadership determine based on the organization’s revenue targets.

Round Robin

A method of allocating new leads to different team members. Each member will receive a lead, and then once everyone has one, the cycle will reset.

SaaS

Software-as-a-Service. SaaS is a revenue model in which software is sold as a subscription. SaaS is not its own category of software/technology.

S.A.D.N.E.S.S.

Sales are dope, never ever stop selling ;)

Sales ops

Aka “sales operations.” The team, activities, and processes designed to support the sales team via managing administrative and technical tasks.

Sales enablement

The process of supporting the sales team with tools, information, and content to be more effective and successful in selling your product(s) or service(s).

SDR

Sales Development Representative. SDRs are inside sales reps whose main responsibilities lie in prospecting, lead qualification, and cold outreach, with a focus on moving leads through the pipeline. SDR is an entry-level sales role.

SFDC

Salesforce.com. The largest CRM provider.

SKO

Sales Kickoff. Typically occurring at the beginning of the fiscal year, SKO is a meeting for the sales team to get aligned on new concepts and motivated to achieve the goals set forth.

Social selling

Using a brand/company’s social media avenues to generate leads by first establishing and fostering individual relationships with prospects.

TCV

Total contract value.

Territory

A geographical region that one sales rep or team is responsible for.

Don’t see a term you need or think people should know? Have terms for specific industries? Share them with us in a "TSAGYFF?? Same" post.