Dark Funnel

Sales team management is the process of leading, coaching, and motivating a sales team to achieve its sales goals and drive revenue growth.

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

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

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract defining the level of service between a provider and a client, including metrics and penalties.

Mobile optimization adapts your website to ensure visitors on smartphones and tablets have a seamless, user-friendly experience.

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

Custom Metadata Types store application configurations as metadata. This makes them easily deployable between different Salesforce environments.

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

A sales territory is a specific group of customers or a geographic area that a salesperson or sales team is responsible for managing.

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

Funnel analysis is a method for understanding the steps users take to complete a goal, revealing where they drop off in the conversion process.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system of integrated software that businesses use to manage and automate their core day-to-day processes.

Sales conversion rate is the percentage of prospects who take a desired action, like making a purchase, turning them into customers.

Learn about B2B sales, including key strategies for B2B success, types of B2B sales models, & B2B vs. B2C sales: understanding the differences.

A canary release is a deployment strategy where new software is rolled out to a small user group first, minimizing risk before a full release.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is a sales strategy where a brand sells its products directly to end customers, bypassing any third-party retailers.

Analytics platforms are tools that collect and analyze data from various sources, helping businesses track key metrics and make informed decisions.

A consumer is an individual or entity that buys products or services for personal use, not for resale. They are the final user in a supply chain.

Learn about ballpark, including estimating with ballpark figures, understanding ballpark estimates in sales, & ballpark estimates vs. precise quotes.

Account-Based Selling is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing treat high-value accounts as markets of one, using personalized outreach.

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.

The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.

Customer experience (CX) is a customer's total perception of your business, based on every interaction across the entire customer lifecycle.

Geo-fencing creates a virtual boundary around a real-world location. It triggers actions on a device when it enters or exits this area.

A landing page is a standalone web page created for a marketing campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after clicking an ad or email link.

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

Sales and marketing alignment means both teams work in sync, sharing goals and data to boost lead quality, conversions, and company revenue.

Upselling is a sales tactic encouraging customers to purchase a higher-end version of a product or related add-ons to boost revenue.

Data warehousing is the process of storing and managing large sets of data from various sources for business intelligence and reporting purposes.

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

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

Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.

An on-premise CRM is a system hosted on a company's own servers, offering complete control over data, security, and system maintenance.

Sales operations analytics is the practice of analyzing sales data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire sales process.

Learn about behavioral analytics, including implementing behavioral analytics successfully, & key metrics in behavioral analytics.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that gathers and organizes customer data from various touchpoints into a single, unified profile.

Closed Lost is a sales term for a deal that didn't go through. The prospect decided not to buy, or the sales team disqualified them.

Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.

Total Audience Measurement (TAM) provides a holistic view of content consumption, tracking viewership across all platforms and devices.

A sales methodology is the framework that guides how your sales team approaches the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing deals.

A sales lead is a potential customer—an individual or organization that has shown interest in your company's products or services.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are websites that look and feel like native mobile apps, offering features like offline access and push notifications.

Expansion revenue is the extra money a business makes from its current customers via upgrades, new products, or additional services.

Win/Loss Analysis is the process of systematically tracking and analyzing the reasons why you win or lose deals with prospective customers.

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a method where all expenses are re-evaluated and must be justified from scratch for each new budget period.

Learn about below the line, including key strategies for below the line marketing, & distinguishing above and below the line tactics.

ClickFunnels is a popular online tool that lets entrepreneurs easily build sales funnels to guide potential customers through the buying process.

Customer data analysis is the process of examining customer information to uncover insights that drive business decisions and improve experiences.

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

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

AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.

Marketing attribution is the process of identifying which touchpoints contribute to a conversion and assigning value to each of them.

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

Rapport building is the process of establishing a connection and mutual understanding with someone, creating a foundation of trust and affinity.

Lead generation is the process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business's products or services.

Payment processors are companies that handle card transactions, connecting merchants with the banks needed to complete a sale.

Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.

An email cadence is a scheduled sequence of emails sent to prospects over a specific period to nurture leads and drive engagement.

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

A stakeholder is any individual, group, or party that has an interest in an organization and the outcomes of its actions.

A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales specialist who finds and qualifies new leads, building a pipeline for the sales team.

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

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

A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.

A Sales Manager leads a sales team, setting goals, analyzing performance, and developing strategies to drive revenue and meet targets.

Average Order Value (AOV) tracks the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order on your website or mobile app.

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

Dark social is the sharing of content through private channels like messaging apps or email. This traffic is hard to track as it lacks referral data.

“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.

LPI, or Lead Per Inquiry, is a key metric that measures how many leads are generated from each inquiry in a marketing campaign.

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

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

Video messaging involves sending short, personalized video clips to prospects or customers, replacing traditional text-based communication.

Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.

Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.

Inbound sales attracts interested prospects who've engaged with your brand, letting sales reps connect with warm leads instead of cold outreach.

A Marketing Qualified Account (MQA) is a target company that has shown significant engagement, indicating it's ready for the sales team to pursue.

A Quarterly Business Review (QBR) is a recurring meeting to assess performance against goals and align on strategy for the next quarter.

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

Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.

High availability (HA) describes a system's capacity to function continuously with minimal downtime, ensuring consistent operational performance.

The decision stage is where a well-researched buyer chooses a vendor. They compare specific products and pricing before making their final purchase.

Sales compensation is the total pay a salesperson receives, including salary, commissions, and bonuses, structured to motivate performance.

Dynamic data is information that updates in real-time. Unlike static data, it reflects the most current state of information automatically.

SFDC stands for Salesforce Dot Com, a popular cloud-based CRM platform that helps companies manage their customer interactions and data.

A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic.

Website visitor tracking collects and analyzes data on user behavior to understand their journey and improve the overall user experience.

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

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

CI/CD, or Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, automates software builds, tests, and deployments for faster, more reliable releases.

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

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

A Marketing Qualified Opportunity (MQO) is a lead vetted by marketing as a genuine sales opportunity, ready for direct sales follow-up.

An account is a company or organization that you're targeting for sales. It can be a prospective, current, or even a past customer.

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

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

Virtual selling is the process of selling to customers remotely using technology like video calls, rather than meeting them in person.

Text message marketing is a strategy where businesses send promotional messages, offers, and updates to customers via SMS or MMS.

Video prospecting is the sales technique of sending personalized videos to potential customers to grab their attention and secure more meetings.

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