Sales conversations are full of jargon. Terms get reused, misused, and stripped of meaning. Even experienced salespeople can find themselves nodding through phrases that sound familiar but aren’t clearly defined.
The problem? Sales vocabulary isn’t just semantics, it’s structure. If your team can’t align on what a “lead,” a “qualified opportunity,” or a “next step” really means, your pipeline will drift. Forecasts will wobble. Deals will stall.
This glossary is designed to fix that. No filler, no buzzwords. Just the 100 most useful, clearly defined sales terms, written for B2B teams that care about building a system, not winging it.
Let’s get into it.
Lead Generation & Prospecting
Lead generation is the starting point of every structured sales process. But most teams rush it. This section defines the essential terms used in prospecting, targeting, and qualifying leads, from cold outreach to MQL and SQL definitions. Start here to clean up the top of your sales funnel.
1. Lead
A lead is a potential customer who has shown some level of interest in your product or service. They may have visited your site, signed up for a webinar or downloaded a resource. Leads are not yet qualified and may not match your ideal customer profile.
2. Prospect
A prospect is a lead who fits your ideal customer profile and has been qualified as a potential buyer. Prospecting involves identifying, researching, and initiating contact. Good prospecting requires a repeatable system, not just energy.
3. Lead vs Prospect
A lead is any inbound or outbound contact who shows interest. A prospect is a lead who’s been vetted and fits your target criteria. Not knowing the difference leads to poor pipeline management, wasted effort, and missed forecasts.
4. MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
An MQL is a lead judged more likely to become a customer based on marketing engagement, like content downloads or email opens. MQLs are passed to sales for further qualification. Misaligned MQL definitions often create friction between sales and marketing.
5. SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)
An SQL is a lead that has been vetted by the sales team and meets criteria such as need, budget, and authority. It typically follows an MQL in the funnel. SQLs should be clearly defined in your sales process to avoid deal clutter.
6. Cold Lead
A cold lead is someone who hasn’t expressed interest and may not know your business. They’re often reached through outbound prospecting like cold calls or emails. Cold leads require stronger messaging and more touchpoints to convert.
7. Warm Lead
Warm leads have shown some interest, visiting your site, engaging with a lead magnet, or attending a webinar. They’re more receptive than cold leads but still need qualification to become prospects.
8. Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of guiding leads through the early stages of the sales funnel using relevant content and timely follow-ups. It helps move warm leads toward becoming SQLs. A well-structured CRM can automate parts of this effectively.
9. Inbound Lead
Inbound leads come to you, often via content, referrals, or SEO. These leads typically engage with your brand before direct contact. Inbound strategies require strong alignment between marketing and sales.
10. Outbound Prospecting
Outbound prospecting involves reaching out to potential customers who haven’t engaged with your business yet. It includes cold emailing, calling, and LinkedIn outreach. A clear lead generation strategy is key to doing this without burning your list.
11. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
An Ideal Customer Profile defines the type of company most likely to buy from you successfully and stick around. It includes firmographics, pain points, and buying behaviors. Without a clear ICP, your lead generation will be inefficient and your funnel messy.
12. Target Account List
A Target Account List is a curated list of companies that match your ICP and are worth proactive outreach. It supports focused outbound efforts and reduces waste. Building this list should be a shared effort between sales and marketing.
13. Total Addressable Market (TAM)
TAM is the total revenue opportunity available if your product were adopted by every potential customer in a given market. It’s useful for investor decks, but in sales planning, it helps size the pool you’re targeting for your target account list.
14. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
ABM is a focused marketing strategy where specific companies are treated as individual markets. ABM works best when paired with a clear ICP and a well-aligned sales strategy. It requires coordination, not just tools.
15. Cold Call
A cold call is an unsolicited call to a prospect who hasn’t interacted with your business. It’s still relevant, but only if it’s part of a structured outreach cadence and based on clear targeting. Random dials = brand damage.
16. Cold Email
Cold emails are unsolicited emails sent to potential buyers. Done well, they’re targeted, brief, and relevant. Done poorly, they’re ignored or marked as spam. Cold emails work best with a clear value proposition and a follow-up system
17. Outreach Cadence
An outreach cadence is the structured sequence of messages (emails, calls, LinkedIn, etc.) used to contact a prospect over time. Cadences should be tested, tracked, and adapted based on buyer response. A clear cadence prevents follow-up from going cold.
18. Multichannel Prospecting
Multichannel prospecting involves reaching out to leads through a combination of channels, email, phone, social, and even direct mail. It increases engagement rates when tailored properly. A strong CRM helps you track this across the funnel.
19. Lead Scoring
Lead scoring assigns a value to leads based on actions, fit, and engagement. It helps prioritize follow-up. Scoring models should align with both marketing and sales input, otherwise, they just add noise.
20. Lead Source
Lead source tracks where a lead originated, search, LinkedIn, cold outreach, events, etc. It’s essential for attribution and helps refine what’s working in your lead generation system. But it only matters if your CRM captures it consistently.
Discovery & Qualification
Most sales problems stem from poor qualification. Discovery isn’t just about asking questions, it’s about finding out if a deal is worth pursuing, and how to move it forward. This section breaks down key frameworks, stakeholders, and definitions to help sales teams build structure into every early-stage conversation.
21. Discovery Call
A discovery call is the first real conversation with a qualified prospect. It’s used to uncover pain points, understand context, and assess fit. Good discovery leads to deal clarity, but many teams rush it, leaving deals vague and hard to progress.
22. Qualification
Qualification is the process of determining whether a lead is worth pursuing. It assesses factors like need, budget, authority, and timing. A consistent qualification method improves your sales process and prevents bloated pipelines.
23. BANT
BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. It’s a classic qualification framework that helps reps determine if a deal is viable. While still useful, BANT needs adapting for modern B2B cycles with multiple stakeholders and shifting priorities.
24. MEDDIC
MEDDIC is a robust sales qualification method: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion. It’s often used in enterprise sales to manage complexity and align with buyer psychology across long deal cycles.
25. GPCT
GPCT stands for Goals, Plans, Challenges, and Timeline. It’s a more consultative framework used in early discovery to surface strategic priorities. GPCT works well when paired with lead nurturing and longer sales cycles where urgency isn’t yet obvious.
26. CHAMP
CHAMP flips BANT by starting with Challenges, then Authority, Money, and Prioritization. It focuses on solving real problems first. CHAMP is useful in coaching-based sales conversations where trust-building is essential and pricing comes later.
27. Budget Holder
The budget holder is the person who controls the financial decision for a purchase. They may not be the final signer but influence allocation. Identifying them early avoids wasted cycles chasing prospects who can’t buy, a common sales trap.
28. Decision Maker
A decision maker is someone with the authority to approve a deal. But in complex B2B sales, there’s rarely just one. Mapping the buying committee and knowing how influence works across roles is key to closing deals cleanly.
29. Buying Committee
A buying committee is a group of stakeholders involved in a purchasing decision. They often include users, budget owners, and executives. Selling to a committee requires multi-threaded outreach and a clear understanding of internal politics and priorities.
30. Sales Discovery Questions
Sales discovery questions help surface pain points, budget, and internal processes. They should be open-ended, tailored, and based on research, not a script. Poor discovery questions lead to shallow calls and unclear next steps in your pipeline.
31. Pain Points
Pain points are the specific problems, inefficiencies, or frustrations your buyer is trying to solve. Identifying real pain early in the discovery call is crucial to positioning value. If there’s no pain, there’s usually no urgency, and no deal.
32. Needs Analysis
Needs analysis goes deeper than listing requirements. It explores why those needs exist, what’s driving urgency, and what happens if nothing changes. It connects buyer problems to your solution, forming the backbone of a strong sales conversation.
33. Timeline to Buy
Timeline to buy is the estimated time frame in which a prospect will make a purchasing decision. It affects deal velocity, pipeline accuracy, and prioritisation. Vague timelines often point to poor qualification or a lack of real internal pressure to act.
34. Authority (Buying Role)
Authority refers to the role a contact plays in the purchasing process. It’s not just about job titles, it’s about influence. Identifying authority requires careful stakeholder mapping and can shift depending on deal stage or internal politics.
35. Stakeholder Mapping
Stakeholder mapping is the process of identifying who is involved in the decision, what they care about, and how they influence each other. It’s essential in multi-threaded, high-value deals. A good CRM system should support this work natively.
Sales Process & Pipeline
A healthy pipeline isn’t just full, it’s structured. This section covers how deals move from discovery to close, how to track them, and how to build a process that reflects real buyer behaviour. Use this to sharpen your sales process and improve forecast accuracy.
36. Sales Funnel
The sales funnel represents the buyer’s journey from awareness to decision. Leads enter the top and convert through stages like discovery, qualification, and proposal. It’s a model that helps structure outreach, track conversion, and align sales with marketing.
37. Sales Pipeline
A sales pipeline is your team’s visual of active deals at different stages. Unlike the funnel, which models a journey, the pipeline reflects your real-time sales activity. A clean pipeline is essential for forecasting and prioritising rep focus.
38. Deal Stage
Deal stages are the defined steps a sales opportunity moves through, e.g., Discovery, Proposal, Negotiation, Close. Clear deal stages are the backbone of a scalable sales process and help drive CRM accountability across the team.
39. Opportunity
An opportunity is a qualified deal in your pipeline with a defined next step. It usually follows a discovery or qualification stage. Tracking opportunities consistently helps with reporting, forecasting, and aligning sales team effort with business priorities.
40. Sales Cycle
The sales cycle is the total time it takes to close a deal, from first contact to signed contract. Long cycles usually indicate complex decision-making or internal blockers. Understanding your average cycle length helps improve deal velocity.
41. Deal Velocity
Deal velocity measures how quickly opportunities move through your pipeline. It’s affected by sales cycle length, win rate, and average deal size. Improving velocity often means tightening qualification and coaching reps on progressing stalled deals.
42. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of leads or opportunities that move to the next stage, or ultimately close. It’s a key metric for pipeline health and helps diagnose issues like poor qualification or weak follow-up.
43. Sales Forecast
A sales forecast estimates future revenue based on active deals and historical close rates. It should be grounded in CRM data and stage probabilities. Over-optimistic forecasts usually reflect poor pipeline discipline, not aggressive selling.
44. Pipeline Coverage
Pipeline coverage is the ratio of open opportunities to your revenue target. For example, 3x coverage means you have three times your quota in pipeline. Low coverage signals weak lead generation; too high suggests poor qualification.
45. Pipeline Hygiene
Pipeline hygiene refers to how up-to-date and accurate your CRM data is. Stale deals, missing next steps, or bloated stages all reduce forecast reliability. Good hygiene requires accountability, clear deal stages, and regular pipeline reviews.
46. Next Steps
“Next steps” are the agreed-upon actions that move a deal forward, meeting booked, proposal sent, feedback loop. Without them, deals stall. Every opportunity in your sales pipeline should have a documented next step with an owner and a due date.
47. CRM Task Management
CRM task management helps reps stay on top of follow-ups, next steps, and outreach. Tasks should be linked to deal stages and visible in dashboards. A well-configured CRM system drives consistency and reduces missed opportunities.
48. Pipeline Stalling
Pipeline stalling happens when deals sit too long in one stage. It usually signals unclear next steps, poor qualification, or lack of urgency. Monitoring stage age and time-in-pipeline helps identify and address stalled deals early.
49. Qualification Criteria
Qualification criteria are the agreed factors that determine whether a lead becomes an opportunity. They often include budget, timeline, authority, and need. These criteria should be defined in your sales process and shared across teams.
50. Forecast Accuracy
Forecast accuracy measures how close your predicted revenue was to actual results. High accuracy requires clean data, clear stage definitions, and discipline. Inaccurate forecasts often reflect culture problems, not math problems.
CRM & Sales Tools
Tools don’t fix a broken sales process, but the right systems make good habits stick. This section covers the core platforms, features, and functions that support scalable sales execution, from CRM basics to automation and tracking.
51. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
A CRM is your system of record for tracking leads, deals, contacts, and activity. It should support your sales process, not complicate it. The best CRMs are simple, structured, and consistently used by the team.
52. Sales Enablement
Sales enablement provides reps with the tools, content, and training they need to move deals forward. It includes onboarding, playbooks, and collateral. Enablement works best when mapped directly to your sales funnel and buyer journey.
53. Sales Engagement Platform
A sales engagement platform helps manage outreach cadences across email, phone, and social. It tracks activity, automates follow-up, and improves rep efficiency. When integrated with your CRM, it ensures outreach is timely and repeatable.
54. Sales Automation
Sales automation handles repetitive tasks like email sequences, data entry, and follow-ups. It saves time and standardises execution. But without a clean process behind it, automation just makes bad habits faster. Build structure first, then automate.
55. Email Tracking
Email tracking shows when a message is opened, clicked, or ignored. It’s useful for timing follow-ups and measuring engagement. But tracking isn’t selling, context matters more than clicks. Used right, it supports smarter outreach cadences.
56. Call Recording
Call recording captures sales calls for review, coaching, and compliance. It’s useful for spotting missed signals and improving rep performance. The key is to listen for patterns, not just words, and use recordings to build shared learning, not micromanage.
57. Deal Tracking
Deal tracking refers to monitoring the progress of opportunities through the sales pipeline. It relies on clear stages, CRM hygiene, and consistent updates. Poor deal tracking leads to bad forecasts, missed follow-ups, and lost revenue.
58. Contact Management
Contact management means storing and organising lead and customer info, names, roles, history, and engagement. A solid CRM should make this easy. It’s the foundation for account planning, multi-threading, and clean territory management.
59. Sales Dashboard
A sales dashboard displays real-time performance data, pipeline value, activity metrics, close rates. It helps reps and leaders focus attention. A good dashboard is actionable, not decorative. It should reflect your actual sales process, not just KPIs.
60. Sales Stack
Your sales stack is the full suite of tools your team uses, CRM, engagement, automation, reporting, etc. More tools don’t equal more performance. A lean, integrated stack built around your sales system is more effective than tech bloat.
61. Sales Analytics
Sales analytics is the interpretation of performance data to identify trends, risks, and opportunities. It includes pipeline velocity, win rates, and conversion rates. Good analytics support coaching and planning, not just reporting.
62. Opportunity Management
Opportunity management is the practice of moving deals through the pipeline with discipline. It includes setting next steps, updating stages, and tracking engagement. When paired with solid CRM task management, it prevents stalled deals.
63. Activity Logging
Activity logging tracks emails, calls, meetings, and notes within the CRM. It ensures visibility across the team and supports pipeline hygiene. Automated logging saves time, but reps still need to capture meaningful context manually.
64. Sales Workflow
Sales workflow refers to the repeatable sequence of tasks reps follow during a sale. From discovery to close, a good workflow reduces guesswork and supports scaling. It should align with your sales process and be reflected in your CRM.
65. Sales Tech Stack
The sales tech stack is the broader category of sales tools beyond just the core stack, including data enrichment, AI, call coaching, and integrations. It should support rep behaviour, not replace it. Build tech around process, not the other way around.
Roles & Sales Teams
B2B sales is a team effort, but only if roles are clearly defined. This section outlines who does what, from prospecting and closing to systems and strategy. Aligning roles to your sales process is essential for scaling sustainably.
66. SDR (Sales Development Rep)
An SDR focuses on top-of-funnel outreach, qualifying leads and booking meetings for AEs. SDRs don’t close deals but drive pipeline. A well-run SDR team follows a clear outreach cadence and qualifies leads based on your ICP.
67. BDR (Business Development Rep)
BDRs often focus on outbound prospecting to generate new business opportunities. The title is sometimes used interchangeably with SDR, but BDRs may handle more complex or strategic outreach to target accounts.
68. AE (Account Executive)
An AE handles mid-to-bottom funnel activity, running discovery, giving demos, managing stakeholders, and closing deals. AEs rely on qualified pipeline and need strong opportunity management to avoid deals stalling late.
69. Sales Ops (Sales Operations)
Sales Ops supports the sales team through process design, tooling, and data. They ensure the CRM works, reporting is accurate, and reps spend time selling. Good Sales Ops reduce friction and scale best practices.
70. Sales Enablement Manager
The Sales Enablement Manager builds onboarding, training, and content to help reps succeed. They connect strategy to execution. Enablement should be aligned with the sales funnel, not just checklists or training decks.
71. RevOps (Revenue Operations)
RevOps unifies Sales Ops, Marketing Ops, and Customer Success Ops under one function. It aligns revenue systems and data across the funnel. In companies with long sales cycles, RevOps helps ensure clean handoffs and consistent metrics.
72. Inside Sales
Inside sales refers to reps who sell remotely, via phone, video, and email, instead of in-person. It’s the dominant model for modern B2B sales. Inside sales relies heavily on good CRM tools and clear digital workflows.
73. Field Sales
Field sales reps work in-person, handling strategic or high-value accounts. They meet clients onsite and often close complex, multi-stakeholder deals. Field sales must be tightly integrated with inside teams to avoid duplication and lost context.
74. Sales Manager
A Sales Manager leads a team of reps, coaching, hiring, forecasting, and holding people accountable. Great sales managers build systems, not just pressure. Their role is to drive consistent execution of the sales strategy.
75. Account Manager
An Account Manager owns the customer relationship post-sale, ensuring retention, renewals, and growth. They don’t close new deals but expand existing accounts. In complex B2B environments, they work closely with the sales team to stay aligned.
76. Customer Success Manager (CSM)
A CSM focuses on customer outcomes, adoption, satisfaction, and value delivery. While they don’t sell directly, their work impacts retention and upsell potential. Strong handover from AEs to CSMs is essential for reducing churn.
77. Sales Coach
A Sales Coach improves rep performance through feedback, training, and habit development. Unlike managers, coaches focus less on numbers and more on skills. Coaching works best when built into the sales workflow, not treated as an afterthought.
78. Sales Consultant
A Sales Consultant brings external perspective to help improve sales strategy, systems, and execution. They often work with founders or sales leaders to design scalable processes. At 1000Steps, we consult across sales and marketing strategy, CRM, and enablement.
79. Sales Engineer
Sales Engineers are technical specialists who support sales teams in complex demos, proofs of concept, or technical evaluations. They bridge the gap between product and client needs, especially in SaaS, fintech, or enterprise environments.
80. Sales Team Structure
Sales team structure refers to how responsibilities are divided, by function (SDR/AE/CSM), by territory, or by vertical. The right structure reflects your sales cycle, deal size, and growth goals. Structure should support focus, not create silos.
Sales Methodologies & Frameworks
Sales isn’t about personality, it’s about process. These frameworks shape how teams qualify, position, and close, and help salespeople focus on solving, not just selling. This section includes classic methods, modern models, and core principles behind the 1000Steps sales system.
81. Solution Selling
Solution selling focuses on identifying a prospect’s pain and tailoring your product as the solution. It’s less about features and more about impact. Still useful today, but only when combined with clear discovery and qualification.
82. Consultative Selling
Consultative selling means acting more like a trusted advisor than a pitch person. It requires deep listening, tailored insights, and patience. Success depends on strong discovery questions and a genuine desire to help, not push.
83. Value-Based Selling
Value-based selling connects your product to the buyer’s specific goals or outcomes. It shifts the conversation from price to impact. It’s essential for defending margin and aligning with decision-makers who care about ROI, not features.
84. SPIN Selling
SPIN stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff, a question framework used in discovery. It helps reps guide the buyer to self-identify pain and urgency. SPIN still works, but needs to be adapted for today’s faster, multi-threaded sales cycles.
85. The Challenger Sale
This methodology categorises reps into types, with “Challengers” winning most often by teaching, tailoring, and taking control. It works well in high-complexity deals. But it requires strong sales enablement to pull off consistently.
86. Sandler Selling
Sandler emphasizes equal footing between buyer and seller, with reps qualifying hard and controlling the process. It uses structured questioning and “up-front contracts.” Useful in services or long-cycle deals where clarity is everything.
87. Sales Playbook
A sales playbook documents how your team sells, including messaging, objection handling, stages, and cadences. It aligns reps around what works. A good playbook reflects your sales process, not just tactics.
88. Sales Strategy
Sales strategy is the high-level plan for how you target, sell, and grow, including segments, channels, and team roles. Without strategy, you’re just doing activity. Your sales strategy should directly support company goals.
89. Sales Process Mapping
Sales process mapping means clearly documenting the steps your deals go through, from lead to close. It improves consistency, coaching, and CRM setup. It’s a core part of any scalable sales process design.
90. Sales System (1000Steps core)
A sales system is the structured combination of people, process, tools, and habits that drive performance. It turns tactics into a repeatable engine. At 1000Steps, we help build systems that create clarity, consistency, and control.
91. Deal Progression Framework
A deal progression framework defines how deals should move through stages, including milestones, next steps, and signals. It prevents stuck deals and supports forecast accuracy. Without one, your pipeline becomes guesswork.
92. Sales Objection Handling
Objection handling means responding to buyer concerns without pushing. It requires empathy, context, and preparation. Great objection handling starts in discovery, not the close, and often signals interest, not rejection.
Buyer Psychology & Closing
Understanding how people buy is just as important as knowing how to sell. This section explains key psychological triggers, decision stages, and closing behaviours that shape deal outcomes, especially in complex, multi-stakeholder sales environments.
93. Buying Signals
Buying signals are verbal or behavioural cues that suggest a prospect is ready to move forward, like asking about pricing, timing, or next steps. Missed signals = missed closes. Train reps to spot and act on them early in the sales cycle.
94. Buying Journey
The buying journey is the process a buyer goes through, from recognising a problem to selecting a solution. It often doesn’t match your sales funnel. Aligning outreach and messaging to the buyer’s actual journey improves conversion and trust.
95. Buying Intent
Buying intent refers to how likely a prospect is to purchase based on their behaviour and context. It can be inferred from engagement data, trigger events, or explicit signals. Intent scoring helps prioritise lead follow-up and sales outreach.
96. Sales Trigger Events
Trigger events are changes in a prospect’s company or role that create urgency, like funding rounds, leadership changes, or product launches. Identifying these triggers early can give your outbound prospecting a serious edge.
97. Objection Handling
Objection handling is the ability to navigate pushback without losing trust. Common objections include budget, timing, and priority. Good reps explore the “why” behind the objection, and know that most objections surface from unclear value or risk.
98. Decision Fatigue
Decision fatigue is when buyers become overwhelmed by too many choices or steps, delaying or avoiding a decision altogether. It’s common in long B2B cycles. Simplify options, clarify next steps, and reduce friction to help buyers move forward.
99. Close Rate
Close rate is the percentage of deals won versus deals worked. It’s a key indicator of rep effectiveness, deal quality, and sales process health. Low close rates often point to poor qualification or weak follow-up.
100. Deal Closing Techniques
Closing techniques are methods used to secure final agreement, from assumptive closes to summary closes. The best closing isn’t a trick; it’s the natural result of a well-run process. A great close reflects trust, clarity, and timing.