Glossary
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): a structured approach to developing and implementing highly-customized marketing campaigns to markets of one, i.e., accounts, partners and prospects; involves marketing and sales taking a close look at key business issues facing the target, mapping them to individuals, and tailoring campaigns to address those issues
Account-Based Sales (ABS): a structured approach that is highly-personalized and high-touch; involves marketing and sales working together to close accounts and deliver customer success with onboarding
Account Executive: the person who is primarily responsible for something whether it’s a client or account; they are the primary contact person (full funnel sales rep) for a relationship between the company and customer/client.
Activate: the stage in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework where the engagement that you've generated becomes meaningful, you expand the number of people within an account who are engaged and you aim to directly influence the definition of the problems and/or opportunities your prospects identify
Advance: an advance occurs in the sales process when an action is committed to by both the salesperson and the prospect’s organization (specific and time bound) that moves a sales process forward towards its conclusion (read more here).
Allbound: an approach that supports and aligns all aspects of your business (inbound and outbound) to ensure consistency and optimization of results; a process that drives growth and yields the greatest results
Attract: the process of directing the right people to your website; to grow awareness for your company
Awareness: the stage in the buyer's journey where the prospect knows they are dissatisfied with something (a problem they want to fix, an opportunity they want to capture, etc.); the prospect hasn't made any commitment, but the issue is now on their radar
Bounce Rate: the percentage of people who land on your web page and then leave without traveling to another page (or blog) on your site; most of the time they’ve only viewed a single page and then left the site
Business Acumen: the ability to intuitively grasp the performance drivers for someone else's business, and then clearly explain how your product or service will drive their results. It's an "ROI on the fly" conversation that's an equal mixture of business understanding, asking the right questions, and pouncing on opportunity when it presents itself
Buyer Persona: a fictional character created to represent segments of people who would use your product or service. they provide in-depth insights about the individuals you are trying to reach and provide marketers with a roadmap for creating content
Cadence: a defined set of activities that are executed in a designated period of time by a salesperson
Challenger Message: is rooted in knowledge and application and is crucial to win the attention and engagement of prospects at the top of the funnel; this message challenges prospects thinking, provides unique insights into better performance and enables them to navigate unseen pitfalls
Cold Call: delivering a generic message to a defined (or not) group of people in an effort to generate interest; you know little to nothing about the potential customer and you script yourself to create a lead
Commit: the customer agrees to do something about their problem; specifies what they'll do and potentially who they'll buy from
Commoditization: the underlying process whereby the customer (clients, donor, guest, etc.) systematically eliminates everything you perceive as being different or special about your firm (company, etc.) and your offerings, reducing you to your lowest common denominator - typically, but not always, price
Connect Call: the part of the discovery process where you want to make a solid connection with your prospect; this call is your opportunity to make a first impression and is about getting to know the prospect, NOT about making your elevator pitch
Consideration: actions focused on contacts that are either in a buying cycle or demonstrating action that they are about to be in one; this stage of the journey is about how the prospect is going to solve their problem, not about who they're going to go with to solve the problem
Contextualized Game: where account-focused approaches separate from leads-based approaches in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework; utilizes customized tactics, messages and processes; best played when a one-size-fits-all model isn't sufficient to break through the noise barrier to generate engagement and activation; works best for moderate to large ASV models
Continuation: a sales interaction that ends with no commitments (specifically from the buyer’s side) that advance a sales to its conclusion. A common continuation mistake occurs when the salesperson commits to taking an action for the buyer/prospect (read more here).
Conversational Marketing: a feedback-oriented, one-to-one approach to marketing that companies use to generate engagement, learn about their customers, and shorten their sales cycle by creating a more human engagement/buying experience
Decision: the stage in the buyer's journey where the prospect has decided to act - they've decided how they're going to solve their problem and are making the final choice about who to choose to help them solve the issue
Decision Reluctance: occurs when little to none of the information provided by the salesperson is related to the particular decision that the customer is attempting to make
Demand Capture/Demand Fulfillment: the process of satisfying and/or solving a customer’s problem with your product/service in a market that has existing demand
Demand Creation: using marketing skills/techniques to create awareness and want for a product or service that currently is unknown to customers
Delight: the process of empowering people to grow with your business - keep them coming back; sending the right person the right information at the right time
Demand Generation: more than just marketing - the creation of touch points throughout the conversion process; building and nurturing the right prospects for long term
Discovery: the stage in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework that is focused on identifying high-quality, right-fit leads/accounts that fit your ideal client/customer profile (ICP)
Drip: an email/set of emails sent to a specific group of leads based upon inclusion criteria; sent one time based on a date/point of time
Engage: the process of communicating with prospects to form lasting relationships with them; getting prospects to interact with your product/content; the stage in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework where you're looking to connect with the right accounts and the right people within those accounts
Enterprise Customer: refers to larger, more complex business prospects/customers in B2B Sales and Marketing. There is no clear, objective determination for "larger". Companies will typically use revenue or employee size as the primary measurement, with employee size being the most common. At Lift the main driver defining enterprise is the complexity associated within the account. At an enterprise customer there are multiple senior-level influencers involved in determining the direction, and therefore the strategy the company pursues and purchases they make. We use the following head-counts as a general rule for defining enterprise customers:
- 1,000-2,500 - Light Enterprise
- 2,500-10,000 - Enterprise
- >10,000 - Large Enterprise
Epiphany: the stage in the buyer's journey where the thought that drives action originates (this takes place long before the prospect begins to think about buying anything); the first opportunity to move the prospect through the sales funnel by establishing yourself as a valuable resource
Financial Role: the person who owns the budget and makes sure you have the funds to make the project last
First Action: the process someone takes to let you access their information (name, email) to create a new lead by filling out a form to download a piece of content, registering for a webinar, signing up for a newsletter, etc.
Forecast Confidence: establishes the confidence level for each sales opportunity by representing the single probability and the basic probability range for each given level (read more on the process here)
Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
Go-to-Market (GTM): the strategy that defines how a company will reach (and win) target customers and achieve a competitive advantage
Ideal Client Profile (ICP): a company persona; they clearly define the types of companies/accounts you want to be doing business with in order to create a focal point that enables the alignment of all demand generation and product/services resources
Implementation: getting the plumbing pieces in place before turning things on; having an understanding of what the job is that needs to be done in platforms like HubSpot; understanding what it is that the client is hiring HubSpot (or other platforms like it) for, getting them onto HubSpot, and making sure that HubSpot is doing what the client needs them to do
Inbound Marketing: the creation of relevant content geared directly towards the types of prospects you are looking to attract
Individualized Game: the most complicated and difficult game to play from The D.E.A.L.S. Framework; utilizes custom tactics, messaging and processes to break into specific accounts; best used for those selling to very large companies and large ASVs
Inside Sales: a model that teaches reps to advance in specific areas with an approach centered around high-touchpoint, knowledgeable selling through phone, email, or the internet
Insight: a way to politely and explicitly teach the customer they are wrong and what it’s costing them; designed to upend the status quo; are frame-breaking
Integrator Role: the person responsible for making sure whatever is done integrated and aligns with other aspects in the business
Investigate: beginning of what is called the consideration phase of a decision; key issues are identified and decision criteria are formed; buyer hasn't decided to do anything about the problem; focus is determining if solving the problem is worth the effort
Launch: the stage in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework where engagement turns into defined opportunities and the active sales process commences
Lead: an individual who has provided contact information, and, in doing so, pointed toward a potential sales opportunity
Lead Activation: the process of generating active engagement from buyer personas at companies that meet your ideal client profile before they’ve reached the point of buying intent; purposefully advances engagement and increases their probability of becoming a high-quality sales opportunity (read more on lead activation here)
Lead Nurturing: a crucial component to leveraging both marketing and sales efforts; enables you to communicate your message and to sell when no one from your team is directly communicating with your prospects; integrates solid messaging and a cadence of emails and calls to keep things moving
Lead Velocity: the rate of increase of lead generation from one period of time to the next; depending on the size of the sale, track this on a monthly/quarterly basis (read more on lead velocity here)
MarTech (Marketing and Sales Technology): provides growth-focused businesses with potential to enable and accelerate key processes to increase productivity and impact while also lowering costs
Meaningful Conversation: A conversation where 1. We learn at least one piece of material information that enables us to personalize, contextualize, and/or customize our approach to the prospect, 2. Both parties (salesperson and lead) commit to taking a definable action by a definable time
Online Community: a group of people that meets in the virtual world through social media, hosting sites, or elsewhere on the internet; for B2B businesses, their online communities will look more like professional networks rather than a B2C one where those members will engage with the brand and talk about that specific company’s products
Outbound: where a company initiates the conversation and sends its message out to an audience - seeking out the right people
Page Optimization: the process of improving the elements of a page to increase conversions using qualitative and quantitative data
Play: contextual series of actions involving multiple tactics, executed in a defined period for contacts that meet defined criteria
Pre-engagement: actions focused on leads with little to no familiarity; designed to introduce the company and the selling proposition; to generate initial interaction
Pre-intent: actions focused on contacts that have familiarity; has a level of engagement with content or has had conversations with the company; not demonstrating intent to buy
Problem/Solution Blindness: when someone knows there’s a problem (they are not blind to it), if they don’t feel as though they have a handle on what would be involved in creating a solution, they act as though they don’t see the problem (read more about problem/solution blindness here)
Problem Identification Matrix (PIM): helps to create true alignment with your customer acquisition and success teams; helps to more quickly pinpoint the best areas to enter an account, the best path to advance an account, and to move deeper into the sales process with more impact and more velocity
Process Owner: the person or people responsible for managing the process that currently exists
Programmatic Game: the simplest and most common approach in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework; utilizes very little personalization in terms of tactics, messaging and process, and works best for smaller sale values
Results Owner: the person responsible for the outcome/result of the project, campaign, etc.
Revenue Operations (RevOps):the strategic coordination of all market-facing, revenue-oriented systems processes & activities designed to increase velocity, optimize throughput and reduce the effort required to solve for the customer & achieve revenue objectives (If you want to know more on this subject, view How to Successfully Launch & Integrate RevOps webinar.)
Roadmap: a process to plan out where your company currently is with where they want to go; a visual representation to help you plan out your goal and how you are going to reach them; helps with addressing issues and figuring out the quickest path to impact
Sales Development Rep/Business Development Rep/Conversational Development Rep: a type of inside sales rep that focuses solely on outbound prospecting; they don’t focus on closing business, rather they focus on moving leads through the pipeline
Sales Enablement: is the ongoing effort of aligning and optimizing all facets of an organization’s revenue generation process; focused on increasing the efficiency and acceleration of revenue generation tactics
Sales Genius: someone who is committed to a learning and sharing mindset; focused in the area of customer acquisition or customer success. They enjoy being challenged and they have a rookie mindset - they're always learning
Sales Operations: is the set of activities and processes whose purpose is to increase the velocity and predictability that enables sales reps to sell more effectively, and deliver results in line with the company’s objectives and strategies. Sales operations is a strategic function that helps reduce friction and optimizes the sales process
Sales Process: the documented representation of the repeatable steps a sales organization intentionally follows to acquire customers and when appropriate, deepens and expands the products, services and/or solutions they provide to their customers/clients
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): should represent a high-quality, high-probability lead at the beginning of a professional, value-creative sales process
Satisfice/Satisficing: to accept an available option as satisfactory; to pursue the minimum satisfactory condition or outcome
Selling: the professional process that enables two or more parties to reach a mutually beneficial result
Service Level Agreement (SLA): a contract/agreement between a business and their clients/customers or teams that creates deliverables that have been agreed to be provided; provides a mechanism for the team responsible for generating business to be clear on the goals and responsibilities of the team members
Solve/Decide: when the decision of a customer is made including who the customer will use to help them
Strategy: the process or structure whereby trade-off decisions are made in pursuit of a desired end; the purpose is to guide your decision making when it comes to how you use resources
Structure: the "invisible hand" that guides all action and behavior; is the dominant influencer of execution; is driven by the design of your system, the tools utilized, and the way people keep score
Success: the stage in The D.E.A.L.S. Framework where you win the business, and now the work of the customer success begins
Target Accounts: a finite set of accounts that, based upon the overall business objective, get disproportionate proactive focus/attention for your revenue growth efforts
The Inverse Friction Principle: the ease/effortlessness of a user's experience in doing something has an inverse relationship to the complexity involved in designing the system that makes the experience so easy/effortless
The Stockdale Paradox: confront the most brutal facts of your current reality and retain an unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end
Thought Leadership: content that is well written, authoritative, interesting, easy to understand, and represents a smart or expert perspective; when the customer believes you’re smart and know what you’re doing
Teaching Point-of-View (TPOV): powerful messaging that is designed to provoke and reframe a prospect’s beliefs, mindset or thoughts about their current situation. This focuses on the prospect’s world and their issues, not your solution
Vanity Metric: a metric that can make you feel good but is not an indicator of success or advancement; ineffective but attractive as they're easy to measure and easier to control
Wannamaker’s Law: John Wannamaker was a department store owner in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a early proponent of advertising and is credited for the quote that marketers and advertises have lived by anytime a business executive complains about the cost. The quote: I know I’m wasting half of my money on advertising, my only problem is that I don’t know which half.
Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT): period of time where the prospect is researching on their own