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B2B Sales & AI Prospecting Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term you'll encounter in outbound sales, AI prospecting, and email deliverability. 25 terms and counting.

ABCDEFILOPS
A
AI Prospecting
The use of artificial intelligence to automate the discovery, qualification, and research of sales prospects. AI prospec…
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AI Voice Sales
The use of AI-powered voice agents to conduct sales conversations with prospects over the phone or internet. AI voice sa…
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Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
A B2B marketing strategy that focuses resources on a specific set of high-value target accounts, treating each account a…
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B
Buying Signal
Observable events or behaviors that indicate a prospect is actively considering a purchase in your category. Buying sign…
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B2B Prospecting
The process of identifying and initiating contact with businesses (not consumers) that are potential buyers of your prod…
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C
Cold Email
An unsolicited email sent to a prospect with whom you have no prior relationship, with the goal of initiating a sales co…
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Contact Database
A structured collection of business contact records used for sales prospecting, including company name, contact name, ti…
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Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
The practice of improving the percentage of visitors or prospects who take a desired action — signing up, booking a call…
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CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Software that manages a company's interactions with current and potential customers. A CRM tracks prospect records, deal…
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D
Discovery Call
An introductory sales call where a rep's primary goal is to understand the prospect's situation, pain points, goals, and…
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E
Email Deliverability
The ability of an email to reach the intended recipient's inbox rather than being filtered to spam or bouncing. Delivera…
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Email Bounce Rate
The percentage of sent emails that could not be delivered to the recipient's mail server. Hard bounces (invalid addresse…
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Email Sequence
A pre-planned series of emails sent to a prospect over time, typically starting with an initial cold outreach and follow…
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Email Verification
The process of validating that an email address is real, deliverable, and safe to contact. Verification checks include M…
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F
Firmographics
Company-level demographic attributes used to segment and target businesses in B2B sales and marketing. Key firmographic …
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I
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
A detailed description of the type of company most likely to buy your product and deliver the highest lifetime value. An…
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ICP Match Score
A numerical score (0–100) indicating how closely a prospect matches your Ideal Customer Profile. Scores are calculated b…
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L
Lead Qualification
The process of determining whether a prospect has the budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT) to become a paying cu…
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O
Outbound Sales
A sales methodology where the sales team initiates contact with potential customers through cold email, cold calling, Li…
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P
Personalization at Scale
The practice of sending highly relevant, individualized messages to hundreds or thousands of prospects simultaneously, u…
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Pipeline Velocity
A measure of how quickly opportunities move through your sales pipeline and generate revenue. Calculated as: (Number of …
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S
Sales Development Representative (SDR)
A sales role focused exclusively on outbound prospecting: finding leads, qualifying them, and booking discovery calls fo…
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Send Ramp
A deliberate strategy of gradually increasing the volume of emails sent from a new domain or IP address to build sender …
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Sales Autopilot
A fully automated sales prospecting loop that continuously discovers new leads, verifies them, researches them, drafts o…
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Sales Engagement Platform (SEP)
Software that automates and tracks sales outreach across channels (email, phone, LinkedIn), manages follow-up sequences,…
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