Dark Funnel

Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect, hypothetical company that would get the most value from your product.

A sales kickoff (SKO) is an annual event for a sales team to celebrate wins, align on goals, and get motivated for the upcoming year.

A sales forecast is a projection of future sales revenue. It's a crucial tool for businesses to make informed decisions and allocate resources.

Direct sales involves selling products directly to consumers in a non-retail setting, such as at home, online, or person-to-person.

A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.

Lead response time is the duration between a potential customer showing interest and your team's first point of contact with them.

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

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.

Mid-market companies are businesses larger than small businesses but smaller than large enterprises, often defined by revenue or employee size.

Channel partners are third-party firms that help market and sell a company's products or services, acting as an indirect sales force.

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is a document that a company sends to one or more suppliers to get a quote for specific products or services.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model where businesses pay a fee each time one of their online ads is clicked by a user.

An Account Development Representative (ADR) identifies and qualifies new business opportunities, creating a pipeline for account executives.

Supply Chain Management oversees the entire production flow of a good or service, from raw materials to final delivery to the consumer.

“End of Quarter” (EOQ) refers to the final weeks of a business quarter when sales teams rush to meet quotas, often leading to a flurry of deals.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total revenue a business expects from a customer throughout their entire relationship with the company.

Internal signals are data points from your own systems, like website visits or product usage, that indicate a customer's buying intent.

Competitive analysis means identifying your rivals and assessing their strategies to pinpoint your own business's strengths and weaknesses.

Real-time data processing is the method of analyzing data the instant it's generated, enabling immediate actions and decision-making.

Customer churn rate is the percentage of subscribers or customers who cancel their service with a company during a given time frame.

Sentiment analysis, or opinion mining, automatically determines the emotional tone behind text—whether it's positive, negative, or neutral.

A trusted advisor is an expert who builds a deep client relationship by consistently prioritizing their best interests over any single transaction.

Customer Data Management (CDM) is the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing customer data to create a unified view of your audience.

Direct mail is a marketing method where businesses send physical promotional materials directly to potential customers' mailboxes.

Learn about break-even, including calculating your break-even point, importance of break-even analysis, & break-even analysis vs. profit margins.

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

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

Segmentation analysis is the process of dividing a broad market into smaller, distinct groups of consumers with similar needs or characteristics.

Content Rights Management involves controlling the use and distribution of copyrighted digital media to protect intellectual property.

A hybrid sales model blends traditional and digital sales methods to engage customers across multiple channels and buying preferences.

Learn about business intelligence, including key components of business intelligence, the role of BI in decision making, business intelligence tools and techniques.

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

Intent data tracks a user's online behavior—like searches and site visits—to identify signals that they are ready to make a purchase.

Learn about B2C2B, including how B2C2B transforms sales, key strategies for B2C2B success, & differences between B2C2B and B2B2C.

Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.

A sales call is a real-time conversation between a salesperson and a prospect, aiming to persuade them to purchase a product or service.

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

Inside sales metrics are quantifiable measures used to track the performance, activities, and effectiveness of an internal sales team.

Warm outreach is contacting prospects with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact, making your message more personal and effective.

User testing involves observing real users interact with a product to identify usability issues and improve the overall user experience.

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

Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.

Digital advertising is the practice of delivering promotional content to users through various online and digital channels like social media or search engines.

Outbound leads are potential customers a business proactively contacts through outreach like cold calls, emails, or social media.

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

A headless CMS is a back-end content repository that delivers content via API to any front-end, decoupling the content from its presentation layer.

Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the percentage of people who click on a specific link, ad, or call-to-action.

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.

Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.

A Content Management System (CMS) is software for creating, managing, and modifying website content without needing specialized technical skills.

A follow-up is a communication sent after an initial interaction to continue the conversation, provide more value, or prompt a response.

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

Incident response is an organization's systematic approach to managing and mitigating the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack.

GDPR compliance means following the EU's strict data protection laws to ensure the secure and lawful handling of personal data.

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

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

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.

Learn about buyer intent data, including sourcing and interpreting buyer intent data, & key metrics in buyer intent analysis.

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

DevOps is a culture and set of practices that merges software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development cycles.

CPM, or Cost Per Mille, is a key advertising metric. It's the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand views or impressions of a single ad.

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

Lead qualification is the process of determining which prospects are most likely to become paying customers based on predefined criteria.

Intent-based leads are potential customers whose online actions—like searches or content engagement—signal a clear interest in buying a solution.

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

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

A buying signal is any action from a prospect that indicates they are interested in making a purchase, helping sales teams prioritize leads.

Inbound leads are potential customers who proactively reach out after finding your business through content, social media, or search.

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

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

Learn about buyer, including identifying your ideal buyer, understanding buyer's journey, & evaluating buyer decision processes.

A cloud-based CRM is a customer relationship management tool hosted online, letting teams access and manage customer data from anywhere.

Going dark is when a once-responsive prospect suddenly stops all communication, leaving you wondering what went wrong.

Cost Per Click (CPC) is a digital advertising model where an advertiser pays a fee each time one of their ads gets clicked by a user.

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has shown interest based on marketing efforts but isn't yet ready for a sales conversation.

Forecasting uses historical data to make informed predictions about future trends, helping businesses anticipate outcomes and plan accordingly.

Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.

Sales performance metrics are key data points that measure a sales team's effectiveness in achieving its goals and driving revenue.

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.

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

Sales rep training is the process of equipping your sales team with the skills, knowledge, and tools to effectively sell and hit their targets.

A messaging strategy defines what your brand says, how it says it, and where it says it to connect effectively with your target audience.

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

Learn about B2B data solutions, including unlocking the power of B2B data, & key components of effective B2B data solutions.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a formal document that outlines a project's needs and invites qualified vendors to submit bids to complete it.

Data appending is the process of adding new data fields to your existing database records to enrich and complete your information.

Predictive Customer Lifetime Value (pCLV) is a forecast of the total net profit a single customer is expected to generate for your business.

Edge locations are globally distributed data centers that cache content close to users, reducing latency and delivering web content much faster.

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

Consumer buying behavior is the study of how individuals select, buy, and use products and services to satisfy their needs and desires.

A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.

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

User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.

Return on Investment (ROI) is a key performance metric that measures the profitability of an investment relative to its initial cost.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, offering insights into user behavior and marketing effectiveness.

ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.

Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.

Learn about brand awareness, including understanding its importance, building an effective strategy, key metrics to track, & examples in the real world.

A Single Page Application (SPA) is a web app that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page rather than loading new pages.