Glossary

The most important terms from B2B sales, target audience and sales automation, in plain language. Every entry has its own link.

Terms starting with A

ABM (account-based marketing)
Marketing and sales focus on a few carefully selected target accounts and address them individually, instead of a broad audience.
Anti-ICP
The counterpart to the ideal customer profile: companies you should not target because they rarely buy or are expensive to serve. It saves time and budget. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile

Terms starting with B

Bounce
An email comes back because the address does not exist (hard bounce) or is temporarily unreachable (soft bounce). Many hard bounces harm the reputation of your sender address. Read more: Lead database
Buyer persona
An example picture of the person who buys or helps decide: their tasks, worries and goals. It helps you phrase your messages to fit.
Buying center
The group of people in a company who decide on a purchase together, for example management, the relevant department and procurement.
Buying signal
An indication that a company is more likely to buy right now, for example new job postings, a change in management, growth or a visit to your website. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile

Terms starting with C

Closed won and closed lost
Closed deals in your CRM: "closed won" are deals you won, "closed lost" are deals you lost. Together they show which customers you win and where you fail. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile
CRM (customer relationship management)
The system where you manage contacts, conversations, quotes and tasks for customers and prospects.
Customer journey
The path a customer takes from first noticing your offer to purchase and beyond, including every touchpoint.

Terms starting with D

Deal patterns
What won and lost deals have in common, such as industry, size, trigger and objections. From these patterns you can derive a customer profile based on your real closed deals. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile
Duplicate
The same person or company appears several times in your data, for example with two email addresses. Duplicates lead to someone being contacted twice. Read more: Lead database

Terms starting with F

Firmographics
Descriptive data about a company, for example industry, number of employees, revenue, location and founding year. They make up the first part of an ICP. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile
Funnel
The path from first contact to closing, pictured as a funnel. Many contacts sit at the top, few customers at the bottom. Every step in between can be measured. Read more: Go-to-market strategy: the funnel

Terms starting with G

GTM: two meanings
In this guide, GTM stands for go-to-market, the path an offer takes to reach customers. The same abbreviation is also used by Google Tag Manager, a tool for website tracking. The two have nothing to do with each other. Read more: Go-to-market strategy explained

Terms starting with I

ICP (ideal customer profile)
ICP stands for ideal customer profile. It describes the company your offer fits best, the one most likely to buy and stay. Read more: Define your target group
Inbound
Potential customers find you on their own, for example through content, search engines and your website, and then get in touch.

Terms starting with K

KPI (key performance indicator)
KPI stands for key performance indicator. It is a number that shows whether you are reaching your goal, for example the number of first meetings per month.

Terms starting with L

Lead
A potential customer whose contact details you have and who fits your target audience. The better the data, the more targeted your outreach.
Lead database
A database of companies and contacts where you filter by attributes and find matching contacts. Read more: Create an ideal customer profileDefine your target group
Lookalike companies
Companies that resemble your best customers, for example in industry, size and region. They are a good source of new target accounts because they already match your profile. Read more: Create an ideal customer profileDefine your target group

Terms starting with M

Market entry
The step into a new market, such as a new country or a new industry. The go-to-market strategy plans how it succeeds. Read more: Go-to-market strategy explained

Terms starting with O

Outbound
You actively reach out to potential customers, for example by email, LinkedIn or phone. Read more: Campaigns via LinkedIn and email

Terms starting with P

Pirate funnel (AARRR)
A model with five stages: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. It directs your attention to a few meaningful numbers.
Positioning
The clear answer to what you stand for, for whom, and what sets you apart from the competition.

Terms starting with S

Sales automation
Software takes over recurring sales tasks such as data research, messages and follow-ups. Your team holds the conversations and makes the decisions. Read more: AI campaignsGo-to-market strategy: sales automation
Sales enablement
Everything that equips your sales team to sell better: training, materials, data and tools.

Terms starting with T

Target audience
The group of companies or people you want to win as customers. In B2B, you describe it by industry, size, region and the decision-maker's role. Read more: Define your target group
Target customer analysis
The process of working out which customers fit your offer and where to find them. The result is an ideal customer profile. Read more: Create an ideal customer profile

Terms starting with V

Value proposition
The promise of what value the customer gets from you and why they should choose you. It fits into one or two sentences.

Terms starting with W

Waterfall (cascade)
Several data sources are queried one after another. If the first finds nothing, the system asks the next, until a reliable hit is found. This raises the hit rate. Read more: Lead database

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