Sales Glossary

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a contact who has shown enough interest and fit — through content, behaviour and firmographics — that Marketing deems them worth sales follow-up, but who hasn't yet been vetted by Sales. The MQL is a handoff signal, not a guarantee the lead is ready to buy.

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that Sales has reviewed and accepted as worth actively pursuing. It's the stage after an MQL: where Marketing said “worth a look,” Sales confirms “worth my time” — usually after a conversation establishes fit, need, timing and authority.

A product qualified lead (PQL) is a user who has experienced meaningful value in your product — usually during a free trial or freemium plan — making them more likely to convert to paid. PQLs are the signature lead type of product-led growth, based on usage signals rather than marketing engagement.

A sales accepted lead (SAL) is a lead that Sales has formally agreed to accept and work, sitting between MQL and SQL. The SAL stage makes the handoff explicit — Sales acknowledges receipt and commits to follow up — before qualifying the lead into an SQL.

Lead scoring is the practice of assigning points to leads based on their fit (firmographics) and engagement (behavior) to rank how sales-ready they are. A good scoring model focuses reps on the leads most likely to convert and triggers the MQL handoff at the right threshold.

Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with leads who aren't yet sales-ready, through relevant, well-timed content and touches — usually automated — until they're ready to buy. It keeps early-stage leads warm so they convert later instead of going cold.

A sales pipeline is the visual representation of where every open deal sits in your sales process, organized by stage. It shows what's in play, what each stage is worth, and where deals are progressing or stalling — the operating view managers run forecasts and coaching from.

Pipeline velocity is the rate at which deals move through your pipeline and convert into revenue, expressed as revenue per day. It uses the same four inputs as sales velocity — open opportunities, average deal size, win rate and cycle length — to quantify how quickly your pipeline turns into closed revenue.

Sales cycle length is the average time it takes to close a deal, from first qualified contact or opportunity creation to closed-won. It's a key efficiency and forecasting input — shorter cycles mean faster cash and higher sales velocity, while long cycles tie up pipeline and rep capacity.

Win rate is the percentage of deals you close successfully out of those that reached a decision. It's a core sales-efficiency metric: low win rates point to weak qualification or poor fit, and tracking it by segment reveals exactly where your team competes well and where it doesn't.

Average contract value (ACV) is the average annualized revenue per customer contract, normalizing deals to a yearly figure. It helps compare deal sizes, segment customers and size your go-to-market — and is often confused with TCV (total contract value) and ARR, which it's distinct from.

Sales velocity is how much revenue your pipeline generates per day. It combines four levers — number of opportunities, average deal value, win rate and sales cycle length — into a single number, so you can see exactly which lever to pull to grow revenue faster.

A deal stage marks where an individual opportunity sits in the sales pipeline, from first meeting to closed. Each stage typically carries a win probability used for weighted forecasting, and clear exit criteria keep stages meaningful rather than a matter of rep optimism.

A sales forecast is a prediction of how much revenue a team will close in a future period, built from pipeline, historical conversion and rep judgment. It drives hiring, budgeting and board expectations — so forecast accuracy is one of the most scrutinized outputs of a sales org.

A forecast category is a label applied to a deal that reflects the rep's confidence it will close in the period — typically Commit, Best Case, Pipeline and Omitted (or Closed). Unlike deal stage, which tracks process, forecast categories capture judgment, giving managers a confidence-weighted revenue roll-up.

Quota attainment is the percentage of their sales target a rep or team actually achieves in a period. It's the headline measure of sales performance — used for compensation, capacity planning and coaching — and the distribution of attainment across reps reveals whether quotas are set realistically.

Sales ramp time is how long it takes a newly hired rep to reach full productivity — typically defined as consistently hitting quota. It scales with sales-cycle length and deal complexity, and accurate ramp assumptions are essential for capacity planning and realistic forecasting of new hires.

On-target earnings (OTE) is a sales rep's total expected compensation if they hit 100% of quota — combining base salary and target commission or bonus. Usually expressed as a base/variable split (e.g. 50/50), OTE sets pay expectations and ties earnings to performance.

A sales cadence is a structured, repeatable sequence of outreach touches — calls, emails, social, voicemails — spaced over a set period to engage a prospect. Cadences make prospecting consistent and persistent, so reps follow a proven rhythm instead of giving up after one or two attempts.

A discovery call is the first substantive conversation between a rep and a prospect, focused on understanding the prospect's situation, problems and goals — not pitching. A strong discovery call qualifies the opportunity and uncovers the pain and impact that the rest of the deal is built on.

Cross-selling and upselling are both expansion tactics, but they differ: upselling moves a customer to a higher tier or larger version of what they already buy, while cross-selling adds a different, complementary product. Both grow account value and lift net revenue retention.

Land and expand is a go-to-market strategy of winning a small initial deal (the “land”) and then growing the account over time through upsell, cross-sell and new teams (the “expand”). It lowers the barrier to the first sale and relies on delivering value to drive expansion revenue.

An account executive (AE) is the salesperson who owns deals from qualified opportunity to close. AEs run discovery, demos and negotiation, and carry a revenue quota — typically taking handoffs from SDRs and working with Customer Success after the win.

SDRs and BDRs are both sales development reps who handle early-pipeline prospecting, and the titles are often used interchangeably. The common distinction: an SDR (sales development rep) qualifies inbound leads, while a BDR (business development rep) focuses on outbound prospecting to net-new accounts.

A buying group (or buying committee) is the set of people inside an organization who collectively influence a B2B purchase — economic buyers, champions, end users, technical evaluators and blockers. Modern B2B deals are won by engaging the whole group, not a single point of contact.

An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from your product and is most profitable to serve — defined by firmographics like industry, size, geography and tech stack. It focuses Sales and Marketing on the accounts most likely to buy and stay.

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile of an individual involved in buying your product — their role, goals, pain points and objections. Where an ICP describes the target company, personas describe the people inside it, so Marketing and Sales can tailor messaging to each.

TAM, SAM and SOM are three nested measures of market size. TAM (Total Addressable Market) is total demand if you had 100% share; SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) is the portion your product and model can actually serve; SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) is the share you can realistically capture.