Buying Cycle

A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is an individual with profound knowledge and authority in a particular area, topic, or industry.

Consultative selling is a sales approach where a salesperson acts as an advisor, focusing on understanding and solving a customer's specific needs.

Smarketing is the process of aligning your sales and marketing teams. This integration focuses on shared goals to improve lead quality and drive revenue.

Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.

The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization, motivating them to contribute to the company's success.

A lead list is a curated database of potential customers (leads) with contact information and other key data for sales and marketing outreach.

Learn about business continuity, including understanding key components, steps to ensure continuity, common challenges, & best practices.

The purchase stage is when a buyer has decided on a solution and is ready to buy. They're comparing vendors to make a final choice.

A demand generation framework is a strategic process for creating awareness and interest in your product, ultimately driving new business.

A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.

Subscription models are a business strategy where customers pay a recurring fee at regular intervals for access to a product or service.

Lightning Components is a UI framework for building dynamic web apps for mobile and desktop devices on the Salesforce Lightning Platform.

A vertical market is a niche where businesses cater to a specific industry or group of customers with specialized needs, not the mass market.

CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.

A positioning statement is a concise description of your target market and how your product or service uniquely fills their needs.

Key accounts are a company's most valuable customers, vital due to their significant revenue contribution and strategic importance for growth.

After-sales service is the support provided to customers after they've purchased a product. It includes things like warranties, training, or repairs.

AppExchange is Salesforce's cloud marketplace, offering a vast ecosystem of apps and expert services to extend Salesforce functionality.

Trigger marketing uses customer actions or events to automatically send highly relevant, personalized messages at the perfect moment.

A hard sell is an aggressive sales technique that uses high-pressure tactics to push a customer into making an immediate purchase decision.

A marketing budget breakdown is a detailed plan that allocates your total marketing funds across various channels, campaigns, and activities.

ETL, short for Extract, Transform, Load, is a data integration process for moving raw data from various sources to a central data warehouse.

Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.

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No Forms is a method for capturing lead data directly from your website visitors' profiles without requiring them to fill out any forms.

Sales prospecting software automates the process of finding, contacting, and tracking potential customers to help sales teams build their pipeline.

Referral marketing is a strategy that incentivizes existing customers to recommend a company's products or services to their personal network.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.

Inside sales is a remote sales process where reps sell products or services via phone, email, and other digital tools instead of in person.

A value gap is the difference between the value a customer expects from a product and the actual value they receive, often leading to churn.

A value statement is a clear, concise declaration of the unique benefits a company provides to its customers, outlining its core purpose.

Content syndication is the process of republishing your web content on third-party sites to reach a much wider audience.

A conversion path is the journey a visitor takes to complete a desired goal, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing.

A Point of Contact (POC) is the designated individual or department that serves as the main hub for information and communication on a matter.

Customer loyalty is a customer’s devotion to a brand, shown by their repeat purchases and engagement, driven by positive experiences and trust.

Contract management is the process of creating, executing, and analyzing contracts to maximize performance and minimize financial risk.

A sales demo is a presentation where a sales rep shows a prospect how a product or service works and solves their specific problems.

Functional testing verifies that software performs its intended functions as specified in the requirements, ensuring it works as users expect.

Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.

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X-Sell, or cross-selling, is a sales strategy of selling additional, related products or services to an existing customer base.

Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.

Revenue intelligence is the process of collecting and analyzing customer data to provide insights that help sales teams make smarter decisions.

A use case is a detailed description of how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal, outlining the steps from start to finish.

Programmatic display campaigns use automation to buy and sell digital ad space in real-time, targeting specific audiences across the web.

A tire-kicker is a prospect who shows interest in a product but has no intention of buying, wasting a salesperson's time and resources.

Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.

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A soft sell is a low-pressure sales tactic that uses subtle persuasion and relationship-building to gently guide customers toward a purchase.

An inside sales rep sells products or services remotely from an office, using digital tools like phone and email to connect with customers.

Funnel optimization is the process of improving each stage of the customer journey to maximize conversions and drive revenue growth.

A sales script is a pre-written guide of talking points that helps salespeople navigate conversations with potential customers.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated phone system that uses voice and keypad inputs to interact with callers and route their calls.

A talk track is a script that guides sales reps during calls. It ensures they cover key points and maintain a consistent message with prospects.

LinkedIn InMail messages are a premium feature that lets you directly message any LinkedIn member, even if you're not connected to them.

Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.

Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) measures the mean annual growth of an investment over a specified period of time longer than one year.

The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, posits that 80% of results come from just 20% of the effort. It's a key concept for prioritization.

Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) is a query language used to search your organization's Salesforce data for specific information.

Fulfillment logistics is the entire process of getting an order to a customer, from storing inventory to picking, packing, and final shipment.

Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.

A sales champion is your internal advocate at a target company. They believe in your product and help you push the deal forward to close.

Demand capture is the strategy of engaging potential customers who are already actively looking for a solution that your company provides.

Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.

A cold email is an initial outreach sent to a potential customer with whom you've had no prior contact, aiming to introduce your business.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy that uses paid tactics to increase a website's visibility in search engine results.

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that centralizes customer data to help manage interactions and nurture relationships.

Net new business is revenue from customers who have never purchased from your company before. It’s a crucial indicator of sustainable growth.

A sales enablement platform centralizes content, training, and analytics to help sales teams engage buyers and effectively close deals.

Contact discovery is the process of finding accurate contact details for potential leads, including names, emails, phone numbers, and job titles.

Learn about bad leads, including identifying bad leads, warning signs of bad leads, impact of bad leads on sales, & strategies to minimize bad leads.

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.

Sales engagement is the sum of all interactions between a seller and a prospect, aimed at building a relationship and moving a deal forward.

A channel partner is a company that works with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell their products, software, or services to customers.

A spiff is a short-term sales incentive, often a cash bonus, paid directly to a salesperson for selling a specific product or service.

Sales pipeline management is the process of organizing, tracking, and managing potential deals through every stage of your sales funnel.

Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a visual story of your customers' interactions with your brand across all touchpoints.

A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your sales process, best practices, and tools to help reps sell more efficiently and consistently.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric measuring customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your company or product to others.

Guided selling simplifies complex sales by giving reps step-by-step instructions and data-driven recommendations to close deals faster.

Account mapping is comparing your customer list with a partner's to find common prospects and unlock new sales opportunities.

Sales Operations, or Sales Ops, streamlines sales processes, manages tools, and analyzes data to help sales teams sell more effectively.

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.

Lead enrichment software adds crucial data to your leads, like contact info and firmographics, to help you better understand and engage them.

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process from a single dashboard.

Freemium is a business model offering a product's basic features for free, while charging for advanced or supplemental features.

The Target Buying Stage identifies a prospect's position in the buying journey, from initial awareness to the final decision to purchase.

Account-based advertising is a hyper-focused B2B strategy that targets key accounts with personalized ads across multiple channels.

Channel sales is an indirect sales model where a company leverages third-party partners, such as resellers or affiliates, to sell its products.

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, theft, and unauthorized access.

OAuth is an open standard for access delegation. It lets you grant apps access to your data on other services without sharing your password.

A triggered email is an automated message sent to a user in response to a specific action or event, like signing up or making a purchase.

Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.

The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy where marketing and sales collaborate to target and convert high-value accounts.

A sales stack is the suite of tech tools—from CRMs to prospecting software—that sales reps use to close deals faster and more efficiently.

Hadoop is an open-source framework designed for the distributed storage and processing of extremely large data sets across clusters of computers.

SPIN selling is a sales technique using a sequence of questions—Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff—to uncover a buyer's needs.

MOFU, or Middle of the Funnel, is the crucial evaluation stage in the buyer's journey where leads compare solutions to their known problem.