--- title: "GTM Glossary: 100 Sales and Outbound Terms Defined" description: "Plain definitions of 100 go-to-market terms for B2B sales and outbound teams, each with a worked example, FAQ and sources." path: /glossary family: glossary updated: 2026-10-17 html: /glossary sources: [] facts: terms: "100" categories: "Sales, Marketing, Data, Deliverability, AI and Agents, Compliance" last_updated: "2026-10-17" --- # GTM Glossary This glossary defines 100 go-to-market terms that B2B sales, marketing and outbound teams use, in 6 categories, each with an example, FAQ and sources. ## Sales Terms **In short:** 48 sales terms, A to Z. - [Account executive](/glossary/account-executive): An account executive (AE) is the salesperson who owns a deal from the first qualified meeting to the signed... - [Appointment setting](/glossary/appointment-setting): Appointment setting is the job of contacting prospects and booking qualified sales meetings for a closer, usually an... - [ARR (annual recurring revenue)](/glossary/arr): ARR (annual recurring revenue) is the yearly value of the subscription revenue a company expects to keep receiving... - [B2B sales](/glossary/b2b-sales): B2B sales is selling products or services from one business to another instead of to consumers. Deals usually... - [BANT](/glossary/bant): BANT is a lead qualification framework that checks four things before a seller invests time in a deal: Budget... - [Battlecard](/glossary/battlecard): A battlecard is a short internal sales document that shows reps how to position against a specific competitor, with... - [BDR (business development representative)](/glossary/bdr): A BDR (business development representative) is a salesperson who creates new pipeline through outbound prospecting... - [Buying committee (buying group)](/glossary/buying-committee): A buying committee is the group of people at a company who influence or approve a purchase, such as the end user... - [Channel sales](/glossary/channel-sales): Channel sales is a model where a company sells its product through third parties, such as resellers, distributors... - [Churn rate](/glossary/churn-rate): Churn rate is the percentage of customers, or of recurring revenue, that a company loses over a set period, usually... - [Cold calling](/glossary/cold-calling): Cold calling is phoning a prospect who has had no previous contact with you or your company to start a sales... - [Cold email](/glossary/cold-email): A cold email is an unsolicited email sent to someone who has no prior relationship with the sender, usually to start... - [Consultative selling](/glossary/consultative-selling): Consultative selling is a sales approach where the seller acts as an advisor: they diagnose the buyer's problem... - [CRM](/glossary/crm): CRM (customer relationship management) is software that stores every company, contact, conversation and deal a... - [Cross-selling](/glossary/cross-selling): Cross-selling is selling an existing customer a different product or service that complements what they already buy... - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](/glossary/customer-acquisition-cost): Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the average sales and marketing cost of winning one new customer, calculated by... - [Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV)](/glossary/customer-lifetime-value): Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue or gross profit a business expects from one customer over... - [Customer success](/glossary/customer-success): Customer success is the business function that makes sure customers reach the outcomes they bought a product for, so... - [Discovery call](/glossary/discovery-call): A discovery call is the first real sales conversation with a qualified prospect, where the seller asks questions to... - [Email sequence](/glossary/email-sequence): An email sequence is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically to a contact on a set schedule, such as day... - [GTM engineer](/glossary/gtm-engineer): A GTM engineer is a technical go-to-market role that builds automated systems for finding, enriching and contacting... - [Ideal customer profile (ICP)](/glossary/ideal-customer-profile): An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from your product and brings... - [Inside sales](/glossary/inside-sales): Inside sales is selling remotely, by phone, email, video calls and LinkedIn, instead of meeting buyers in person... - [Lead qualification](/glossary/lead-qualification): Lead qualification is deciding whether a prospect is worth sales time by checking fit with your ideal customer... - [LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index)](/glossary/linkedin-ssi): LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI) is a score from 0 to 100 that rates how well a member uses LinkedIn for... - [MEDDIC](/glossary/meddic): MEDDIC is a sales qualification methodology for complex B2B deals. The letters stand for Metrics, Economic buyer... - [MEDDPICC](/glossary/meddpicc): MEDDPICC is a B2B sales qualification framework. The letters stand for Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria... - [MRR (monthly recurring revenue)](/glossary/mrr): MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is the predictable subscription revenue a company earns in a month, normalized so... - [Net revenue retention (NRR)](/glossary/net-revenue-retention): Net revenue retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue a company keeps from an existing group of... - [Objection handling](/glossary/objection-handling): Objection handling is how a seller responds when a prospect raises a concern or a reason not to move forward, such... - [OTE (on-target earnings)](/glossary/ote): OTE (on-target earnings) is the total annual pay a salesperson earns when they hit 100% of their quota: base salary... - [Outside sales](/glossary/outside-sales): Outside sales is selling in person, with reps who travel to meet buyers at their offices, sites, trade shows or... - [Pipeline generation](/glossary/pipeline-generation): Pipeline generation is the work of creating new qualified sales opportunities, through outbound prospecting, inbound... - [Prospecting](/glossary/prospecting): Prospecting is the part of selling where a rep finds potential buyers, checks whether they fit and starts the first... - [RevOps (revenue operations)](/glossary/revops): Revenue operations (RevOps) is the function that runs the systems, data and processes behind marketing, sales and... - [RFP (request for proposal)](/glossary/rfp): A request for proposal (RFP) is a formal document a buyer issues to invite vendors to propose how they would deliver... - [Sales automation](/glossary/sales-automation): Sales automation is the use of software to handle repetitive sales tasks without manual work, such as logging... - [Sales cycle](/glossary/sales-cycle): A sales cycle is the sequence of steps from first contact with a prospect to a closed deal, and sales cycle length... - [Sales enablement](/glossary/sales-enablement): Sales enablement is the ongoing work of giving sellers the content, training, tools and coaching they need to have... - [Sales engagement platform](/glossary/sales-engagement-platform): A sales engagement platform is software that runs and tracks a seller's outreach across channels, mainly email... - [Sales funnel](/glossary/sales-funnel): A sales funnel is the series of stages a prospect passes through from first contact to closed deal, such as lead... - [Sales operations](/glossary/sales-operations): Sales operations is the team that runs the processes, data, tools and planning behind a sales organization... - [Sales pipeline](/glossary/sales-pipeline): A sales pipeline is the set of open deals a sales team is working, organized by stage from first qualified... - [SDR (sales development representative)](/glossary/sdr): An SDR (sales development representative) is a salesperson who generates and qualifies new pipeline: they research... - [Signal-based selling](/glossary/signal-based-selling): Signal-based selling is an outbound approach that times and targets outreach on observable buying signals, such as... - [SPIN selling](/glossary/spin-selling): SPIN selling is a questioning method for large B2B sales built on four question types: Situation, Problem... - [Stakeholder mapping](/glossary/stakeholder-mapping): Stakeholder mapping in B2B sales is identifying everyone who influences a purchase at an account, their role in the... - [Upselling](/glossary/upselling): Upselling is getting a customer to buy a higher tier, a bigger plan, more seats or extra capacity of the product... ## Marketing Terms **In short:** 16 marketing terms, A to Z. - [A/B testing](/glossary/ab-testing): A/B testing is a controlled experiment that shows two versions of something, such as an email subject line or a... - [Account-based marketing (ABM)](/glossary/account-based-marketing): Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B strategy where marketing and sales pick a defined list of target accounts and... - [Buyer persona](/glossary/buyer-persona): A buyer persona is a research-based profile of a type of person who buys or influences the purchase of your product... - [Competitive intelligence](/glossary/competitive-intelligence): Competitive intelligence is the practice of legally and ethically gathering and analyzing information about... - [Demand generation](/glossary/demand-generation): Demand generation is the marketing work that makes buyers aware of a problem and interested in your solution... - [Drip campaign](/glossary/drip-campaign): A drip campaign is a series of automated emails sent on a schedule or after specific triggers, such as a sign-up, a... - [Email open rate](/glossary/open-rate): Email open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that recipients opened, measured by a tracking pixel that... - [Go-to-market strategy (GTM strategy)](/glossary/go-to-market-strategy): A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the plan for how a company brings a product to a specific market: who the target... - [Inbound marketing](/glossary/inbound-marketing): Inbound marketing is a strategy that attracts buyers through content, search, social media and events they find on... - [Lead generation](/glossary/lead-generation): Lead generation is the process of finding people and companies that might buy from you and capturing their contact... - [Lead scoring](/glossary/lead-scoring): Lead scoring assigns each lead a number based on how well they fit your ideal customer profile and how much interest... - [Marketing funnel](/glossary/marketing-funnel): A marketing funnel is a model of the stages a buyer moves through from first hearing about a product to becoming a... - [Product-led growth (PLG)](/glossary/product-led-growth): Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy where the product itself is the main way to acquire, convert and... - [TAM SAM SOM](/glossary/tam-sam-som): TAM, SAM and SOM are three nested market-size estimates. Total addressable market (TAM) is all possible demand... - [Unique selling proposition (USP)](/glossary/unique-selling-proposition): A unique selling proposition (USP) is the one benefit that sets your product apart from every competitor and that... - [Value proposition](/glossary/value-proposition): A value proposition is a short statement of the specific outcome a customer gets from your product, for whom, and... ## Data Terms **In short:** 9 data terms, A to Z. - [API (application programming interface)](/glossary/api): An API (application programming interface) is a defined set of rules that lets one software program request data or... - [Data enrichment](/glossary/data-enrichment): Data enrichment is the process of adding missing or updated details to records you already have, such as contacts or... - [Firmographics](/glossary/firmographics): Firmographics are descriptive attributes of a company, such as industry, employee count, annual revenue, location... - [Intent data](/glossary/intent-data): Intent data is information about which companies or people are researching a topic or product right now, collected... - [Sales intelligence](/glossary/sales-intelligence): Sales intelligence is the data and tools sales teams use to find and understand prospects: company and contact... - [Technographics](/glossary/technographics): Technographics is data about which technologies a company uses, such as its CRM, email provider, cloud platform or... - [Waterfall enrichment](/glossary/waterfall-enrichment): Waterfall enrichment queries several data providers in sequence for the same field, such as a work email or phone... - [Webhook](/glossary/webhook): A webhook is an automated HTTP request that one application sends to a URL you choose when a specific event happens... - [Workflow automation](/glossary/workflow-automation): Workflow automation is the use of software to run a multi-step business process by rules, where a trigger such as a... ## Deliverability Terms **In short:** 15 deliverability terms, A to Z. - [BIMI](/glossary/bimi): BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a standard that lets a domain show its logo next to its emails... - [Catch-all email](/glossary/catch-all-email): A catch-all email setup accepts mail sent to any address at a domain, even addresses that don't exist. Because the... - [CNAME record](/glossary/cname-record): A CNAME (canonical name) record is a DNS record that makes one hostname an alias of another. Lookups for the alias... - [DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)](/glossary/dkim): DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email authentication standard that adds a cryptographic signature to each... - [DMARC](/glossary/dmarc): DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is a DNS policy that tells receiving servers... - [Email bounce rate](/glossary/bounce-rate): Email bounce rate is the share of sent emails that receiving servers returned as undeliverable. Hard bounces are... - [Email verification](/glossary/email-verification): Email verification checks whether an email address exists and can receive mail before you send to it. It tests... - [Email warmup](/glossary/email-warmup): Email warmup is the process of building a new mailbox or domain's sending reputation by starting at low volume and... - [Google Postmaster Tools](/glossary/google-postmaster-tools): Google Postmaster Tools is a free Google service that shows senders how Gmail treats their mail, with data on spam... - [IP reputation](/glossary/ip-reputation): IP reputation is how much mailbox providers and blocklists trust the IP address your email comes from, based on its... - [MX record](/glossary/mx-record): An MX (mail exchanger) record is a DNS record that names the mail servers accepting email for a domain, each with a... - [PTR record](/glossary/ptr-record): A PTR (pointer) record maps an IP address back to a hostname, the reverse of an A record. Mail servers use this... - [Sender reputation](/glossary/sender-reputation): Sender reputation is how much mailbox providers trust mail from your domain and IP addresses, based on recipient... - [SPF (Sender Policy Framework)](/glossary/spf): SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email authentication standard. A domain publishes a DNS TXT record listing the... - [Spintax](/glossary/spintax): Spintax (spin syntax) is a text format that writes alternatives inside braces separated by pipes, such as... ## AI and Agents Terms **In short:** 11 AI and agent terms, A to Z. - [Agentic AI](/glossary/agentic-ai): Agentic AI is artificial intelligence that pursues a goal with limited supervision: it plans the steps, calls tools... - [AI agent](/glossary/ai-agent): An AI agent is a software program that uses an AI model to work toward a goal on its own: it decides which steps to... - [AI agent builder](/glossary/ai-agent-builder): An AI agent builder is a tool for creating AI agents without writing a full application: you set the instructions... - [AI notetaker](/glossary/ai-notetaker): An AI notetaker is software that joins or records your meetings, transcribes the conversation, and uses AI to... - [AI SDR](/glossary/ai-sdr): An AI SDR is software that does the work of a sales development representative with AI: it finds and researches... - [BYOK (bring your own key)](/glossary/byok): BYOK (bring your own key) means a customer supplies their own key to a software service: an encryption key they... - [Conversation intelligence](/glossary/conversation-intelligence): Conversation intelligence is software that records sales and customer calls, transcribes them and uses AI to analyze... - [LLM (large language model)](/glossary/large-language-model): A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on very large amounts of text to predict the next token, which... - [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/glossary/model-context-protocol): Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, introduced by Anthropic in November 2024, that defines how AI... - [Prompt engineering](/glossary/prompt-engineering): Prompt engineering is the practice of writing and refining the instructions, context and examples given to an AI... - [RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)](/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation): Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a method where an AI system first searches a trusted source, such as company... ## Compliance Terms **In short:** 1 compliance term, A to Z. - [SOC 2](/glossary/soc-2): SOC 2 is an AICPA framework in which an independent CPA firm examines a service organization's controls for... ## Related - [How Ken works](/how-it-works) - [Ken features](/features) - [Blog](/blog) ## Changelog - 2026-10-17: Glossary published.