B2B Sales & Marketing Glossary

An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that succinctly introduces a concept, product, service, or oneself, typically within 30 to 60 seconds.

An electronic signature, or e-signature, is a digital version of a traditional handwritten signature that provides the same legal commitment when it meets specific criteria.

A digital strategy is a plan that maximizes the business benefits of data assets and technology-focused initiatives, involving cross-functional teams and focusing on short-term, actionable items tied to measurable business objectives.

Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is the ideal quantity of units a company should purchase to meet demand while minimizing inventory costs, such as holding costs, shortage costs, and order costs.

An early adopter is an individual or business that uses a new product, innovation, or technology before others, often willing to pay a premium for the perceived benefits.

Dynamic Territories is a process of evaluating, prioritizing, and assigning AE sales territories based on daily and quarterly reviews of account intent and activity, rather than physical location.

A Digital Sales Room (DSR) is a secure, centralized location where sales reps and buyers can collaborate and access relevant content throughout the deal cycle.

A dynamic segment is a marketing concept that leverages real-time data to create fluid groups of individuals who meet certain criteria, allowing for more personalized and effective marketing efforts.

Dynamic pricing is a revenue management strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands.

Dynamic data, also known as transactional data, is information that is periodically updated, changing asynchronously over time as new information becomes available.

Drupal is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) used to build and maintain websites, online directories, e-commerce stores, intranets, and other types of digital content.

A drip campaign is a series of automated emails sent to people who take a specific action on your website, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.

A draw on sales commission, also known as a draw against commission, is a method of paying salespeople where they receive a guaranteed minimum payment that is later deducted from their earned commissions.

Docker is an open-source software platform that enables developers to create, deploy, and manage virtualized application containers on a common operating system.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a technology used to control and manage access to copyrighted material, aiming to protect the intellectual property of content creators and prevent unauthorized distribution and modification of their work.

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a technology platform that collects, organizes, and activates first-, second-, and third-party audience data from various online, offline, and mobile sources.

Discount strategies are promotional tactics that involve reducing the original price of a product or service to stimulate sales and attract customers.

Digital contracts, also known as electronic contracts or e-contracts, are agreements that are drafted, negotiated, and executed entirely online.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) is a retail model where brands sell their products directly to customers, bypassing traditional distribution channels such as wholesalers and retailers.

Digital analytics encompasses the collection, measurement, and analysis of data from various digital sources like websites, social media, and advertising campaigns.

Direct sales are transactions that occur between a brand and the end-user without the involvement of any intermediaries, such as middlemen or distributors.

Data encryption is a security method that encodes information, making it accessible only to users with the correct encryption key.

Digital advertising is a form of marketing that promotes brands, products, or services through online channels, utilizing various media formats such as text, image, audio, and video.

Data-driven marketing is the approach of optimizing brand communications based on customer information, using customer data to predict their needs, desires, and future behaviors.

Data-driven lead generation is a process that leverages data and analytics to create more effective and targeted marketing campaigns, focusing on the quality of leads rather than quantity.

A dialer is an automated system used in outbound or blended call centers to efficiently place calls to customers, eliminating repetitive tasks and maximizing agent-customer interactions.

Data cleansing, also known as data cleaning or data scrubbing, is the process of identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies in datasets to improve data quality and reliability.

Data appending is the process of adding missing or updating existing data points in an organization's database by comparing it to a more comprehensive external data source.

Dark social refers to the sharing of content through private channels, such as messaging apps, email, and text messages, which are difficult to track by traditional analytics tools due to their private nature.

DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) aimed at shortening the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives.

The Dark Funnel represents the untraceable elements of the customer journey that occur outside traditional tracking tools, including word-of-mouth recommendations, private browsing, and engagement in closed social platforms.

Demographic segmentation in marketing is a method of identifying and targeting specific audience groups based on shared characteristics such as age, gender, income, occupation, marital status, family size, and nationality.

A demand generation framework is a set of processes, strategies, and tactics designed to systematically plan, execute, and measure marketing initiatives that drive demand for a company's products or services.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is a business model where manufacturers or producers sell their products directly to end consumers, bypassing traditional intermediaries like wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.

Demand generation is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating awareness and interest in a brand's products or services, aiming to reach new markets, promote new product features, generate consumer buzz, and re-engage existing customers.

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

Demand capture is a marketing strategy focused on attracting and converting the small percentage of your target market that is actively looking for a solution.

Customer Success is a proactive approach to anticipate and solve customer challenges, aiming to boost customer happiness and retention, which in turn increases revenue and customer loyalty.

Demand is an economic concept that refers to a consumer's desire to purchase goods and services, and their willingness to pay a specific price for them.

Customer segmentation is the process of organizing customers into specific groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, or preferences, aiming to deliver more relevant experiences.

A decision maker is an individual who is primarily responsible for making significant choices or judgments in various contexts, such as business, healthcare, and more.

Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers a company retains over a given period of time, serving as a key metric for measuring how well a business maintains customer relationships and identifies areas for improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The Decision Buying Stage is the point in the buyer's journey where consumers are ready to make a purchase, having gathered information, compared solutions, and consulted with others.

Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the cost of keeping an existing customer purchasing.

Customer retention is the rate at which a business keeps its customers over a specific period, and it's a critical metric for assessing customer loyalty and overall business success.

Deal-flow is the rate at which investment bankers, venture capitalists, and other finance professionals receive business proposals and investment pitches.

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is a strategy that focuses on building long-term relationships with customers to increase customer lifetime value, engagement, loyalty, and alignment while reducing costs for a bigger return on investment.

A deal closing is the stage of a transaction when final purchase agreements and credit agreements are executed, and funds are wired to the respective parties.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are tools that help companies manage interactions with current and potential customers, with the goal of improving relationships and growing the business.

RM hygiene refers to the process of maintaining clean, accurate, and up-to-date data within a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

De-dupe, short for deduplication, is the process of identifying and removing duplicate entries from a list or database, ensuring that each piece of data is unique.

Customer loyalty is an ongoing positive relationship between a customer and a business, motivating repeat purchases and leading existing customers to choose a company over competitors offering similar benefits.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a metric that represents the total worth of a customer to a business over the entire duration of their relationship.

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is a financial metric that measures how quickly a company collects payment after a sale has been made.

The customer lifecycle describes the stages a consumer goes through with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty.

Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of every interaction a customer has with a service, brand, or product, including touchpoints like social media, advertising, website interactions, and customer support.

Database management is the process of organizing, storing, and retrieving data from a database using software tools called database management systems (DBMS).

Customer Experience (CX) refers to the broad range of interactions that a customer has with a company, encompassing every touchpoint from initial contact through to the end of the relationship.

Customer engagement is the ongoing cultivation of a relationship between a company and its customers, going beyond transactions to foster brand loyalty and awareness.

Data warehousing is a system designed to support business intelligence (BI) and analytics by centralizing and consolidating large amounts of data from multiple sources.

Data visualization is the process of representing information and data through visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps, making it easier to spot patterns, trends, or outliers in data.

Data security is the practice of safeguarding digital information throughout its lifecycle to protect it from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft.

Data privacy refers to the protection of personal data from unauthorized access and the ability of individuals to control who can access their personal information.

Data pipelines are automated processes designed to prepare enterprise data for analysis by moving, sorting, filtering, reformatting, and analyzing large volumes of data from various sources.

Data mining is the process of searching and analyzing large batches of raw data to identify patterns and extract useful information.

Data hygiene is the process of ensuring the cleanliness and accuracy of data in a database by checking records for errors, removing duplicates, updating outdated or incomplete information, and properly parsing record fields from different systems.

Data enrichment is the process of enhancing first-party data collected from internal sources by integrating it with additional data from other internal systems or third-party external sources.

Customer buying signals are behaviors or actions that indicate a prospect's active consideration of making a purchase.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a business metric that measures the total cost an organization spends to acquire new customers, including sales and marketing expenses, property, and equipment.

Custom Metadata Types are a form of application metadata in Salesforce that is customizable, deployable, packageable, and upgradeable.

A custom API integration is the process of connecting and enabling communication between a custom-developed application or system and one or more external APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in a way that is specifically tailored to meet unique business requirements or objectives.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to control the presentation and styling of documents written in markup languages like HTML.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a type of security vulnerability in web applications, where attackers inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.

The Challenger Sales Model is a sales approach that focuses on teaching, tailoring, and taking control of a sales experience.

Cross-selling is a marketing strategy that involves selling related or complementary products to existing customers, aiming to generate more sales from the same customer base.

A CRM integration is the seamless connectivity between your customer relationship management (CRM) software and third-party applications, allowing data to flow effortlessly between systems.

CRM Enrichment is the process of updating and enhancing existing records in a CRM system, ensuring that contact and account information remains accurate and up-to-date.

CRM data refers to the information collected, stored, and analyzed by a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, encompassing every interaction a business has with its customers across various platforms and channels.

CRM analytics, also known as customer analytics, refers to the programs and processes designed to capture, analyze, and present customer data in user-friendly ways, helping businesses make better-informed, customer-conscious decisions.

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software is a sales tool that helps companies quickly and accurately generate quotes for orders, particularly for configurable products and services.

Cost per impression (CPI) is a marketing metric that measures the expense an organization incurs each time its advertisement is displayed to a potential customer.

CPM, or Cost per Mille, is a pricing model used in digital marketing that represents the average cost a company pays for 1,000 advertisement impressions.

Cost Per Click (CPC) is an online advertising revenue model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked by a user.

Copyright compliance refers to the adherence to copyright laws and regulations that protect the intellectual property rights of creators and owners of original works.

A conversion path is the process by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead, typically involving a landing page, a call-to-action, a content offer or endpoint, and a thank you page.

Conversion rate is a critical metric in digital marketing and analytics that measures the percentage of visitors to a website or users of a platform who complete a desired action.

Conversational Intelligence is the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze vast quantities of speech and text data from customer-agent interactions, extracting insights to inform business strategies and improve customer experiences.

Contract management involves overseeing legally-binding agreements from initiation through execution.

Content syndication is the practice of republishing web content on other websites with permission and attribution, aiming to reach a larger audience.

Content Rights Management, also known as Digital Rights Management (DRM), is the use of technology to control and manage access to copyrighted material, aiming to protect the copyright holder's rights and prevent unauthorized distribution and modification.

A Content Management System (CMS) is an application used to manage digital content, allowing multiple contributors to create, edit, and publish without needing technical expertise.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content, such as HTML pages, JavaScript files, stylesheets, images, and videos.

Contact discovery is the process of finding and verifying the contact information of potential customers or clients, with the goal of gathering accurate and relevant details such as email addresses, phone numbers, social media profiles, and physical addresses.

Content curation is the process of finding, selecting, and sharing excellent, relevant content with your online followers, often with the intention of adding value through organization and presentation.

Contact data refers to the various pieces of information a business holds about its key contacts, such as employees, customers, and vendors.

Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is the combination of practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.

Consumer buying behavior refers to the actions taken by consumers before purchasing a product or service, both online and offline.

A consumer is an individual or group who purchases or intends to purchase goods and services for personal, non-commercial use.

Chatbots are computer programs that simulate and process human conversation, either written or spoken, allowing humans to interact with digital devices as though they were communicating with a real person.

Channel sales, also known as indirect sales, is a sales strategy where a parent company sells its products through another company, which could be a partner, distributor, or affiliate.