B2B Sales and Outbound Glossary

This glossary defines the B2B sales and outbound terms that actually affect results: ICP, SQL, MQL, sequence, warm up, deliverability, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, RevOps, pipeline velocity and nineteen more, each in plain English with the detail that matters in practice.

The 30 definitions

ABM, Account Based Marketing. A strategy that treats individual accounts as markets of one. Instead of casting a wide net, you select a defined list of target companies and build personalised campaigns for each. Most effective where contract values are high and the addressable market is small, which describes most Nordic B2B.

Appointment setting. The practice of booking qualified sales meetings on behalf of a sales team. Distinct from lead generation, which produces interest. Appointment setting produces a calendar entry with a named decision maker who has agreed to a specific conversation.

Bounce rate (email). The percentage of sent emails that could not be delivered. Hard bounces mean the address does not exist. Soft bounces are temporary. Above three percent, mailbox providers begin throttling. Above five percent, expect blocking.

Buying committee. The group of people involved in a B2B purchase. Typically includes a champion, an economic buyer, a technical evaluator and at least one blocker. Average size for a considered B2B purchase is six to ten people.

Catch all domain. A mail server configured to accept email to any address at the domain, whether or not the mailbox exists. Verification tools cannot confirm these addresses, so they should be segmented and sent to cautiously.

Churn rate. The percentage of customers lost over a period. In agency contexts, the number that determines whether growth is real. Winning ten clients while losing eight is not growth, it is replacement.

Cold email. An unsolicited email sent to a prospect with no prior relationship. Legal for B2B in some European countries and effectively banned in others. Where it is allowed, it relies on legitimate interest, subject to GDPR requirements including a clear identity, a stated purpose and a working opt out.

Conversion rate. The percentage of people who take a desired action. In outbound, tracked at each stage: sent to opened, opened to replied, replied to booked, booked to attended, attended to closed. A single overall figure hides where the problem is.

CRM, Customer Relationship Management. The system holding your pipeline, contacts and deal history. Its value is entirely dependent on discipline. An out of date CRM is worse than no CRM because it produces confident wrong forecasts.

Deliverability. Whether your email reaches the inbox rather than spam or the promotions tab. Governed by authentication, sending reputation, list quality and engagement. Distinct from delivery rate, which only confirms the server accepted the message.

Demand generation. Creating awareness and interest in a category or solution before a buyer is actively searching. Broader than lead generation, which captures existing demand. Demand generation builds the market, lead generation harvests it.

DKIM, DomainKeys Identified Mail. A cryptographic signature proving an email genuinely came from your domain and was not altered in transit. Published as a DNS record. Frequently generated and then never published, which causes silent authentication failure.

DMARC. A policy telling receiving servers what to do when an email fails SPF and DKIM. Also produces reports showing who is sending mail claiming to be you. Start at p=none, then move to quarantine once legitimate mail is confirmed passing.

Enrichment. Adding data to a contact or company record beyond name and email: headcount, funding, technologies used, hiring signals. What turns a list into a targeted campaign.

ICP, Ideal Customer Profile. A definition of the company most likely to buy, stay and be profitable. A useful ICP removes companies from consideration. If it does not let you say no quickly, it is a market description rather than a profile.

Intent data. Signals suggesting a company is actively researching a solution. Includes content consumption, review site activity and search behaviour. Useful for prioritisation, unreliable as a sole trigger.

Lead scoring. Assigning numeric values to leads based on fit and engagement to prioritise follow up. Works when the inputs are grounded in closed deal data, fails when the weights are guessed.

MQL, Marketing Qualified Lead. A lead that has engaged enough with marketing to warrant sales attention. Definition varies wildly between companies, which is why MQL counts are almost never comparable across organisations.

Open rate. The percentage of recipients who opened an email, measured by a tracking pixel. Increasingly unreliable due to privacy protections that pre load images, and the pixel itself harms deliverability. Reply rate is the metric worth watching.

Outbound. Sales activity initiated by the seller: cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, direct mail. The opposite of inbound, where the buyer initiates.

Pipeline velocity. How quickly deals move through the pipeline, calculated from number of opportunities, average deal value, win rate and sales cycle length. Improving any one of the four improves revenue without adding leads.

Product market fit. The point at which a product satisfies strong market demand, visible in retention, referral and repeat purchase. Outbound cannot manufacture it. Scaling outbound before it exists reliably wastes money.

Reply rate. The percentage of recipients who reply to a cold email. The single most useful outbound health metric, since it is not distorted by privacy protection. Positive reply rate, excluding rejections, is more useful still.

RevOps, Revenue Operations. Aligning sales, marketing and customer success operations under one function covering process, tooling and data. Exists because the handoffs between those teams are where most revenue leaks.

Sales cycle. The elapsed time from first contact to closed deal. Knowing yours precisely is what makes pipeline forecasting possible and what determines whether an outbound campaign can be judged in month two or month five.

Sequence. A planned series of outreach touches across channels and days. A typical B2B sequence runs four to seven touches over four to five weeks. Follow ups produce around four in ten replies, which is why sequences abandoned after the first email underperform.

SPF, Sender Policy Framework. A DNS record listing which servers may send email for your domain. Limited to ten DNS lookups. Exceeding that limit breaks authentication permanently and silently.

SQL, Sales Qualified Lead. A lead the sales team has accepted as worth pursuing, having met agreed criteria on fit, need, authority and timing. The handoff point where marketing responsibility ends and sales responsibility begins.

TAM, Total Addressable Market. The full revenue opportunity if you captured every possible customer. Useful for strategy, dangerous for planning, since realistic serviceable market is usually a small fraction of it.

Warm up (email). The process of gradually building a new sending domain and mailbox reputation by sending small volumes with high engagement before any cold campaign begins. Takes three to four weeks. Skipping it is the most common cause of outbound failure.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?

An MQL has engaged enough with marketing to warrant sales attention. An SQL has been accepted by sales as worth pursuing against agreed criteria on fit, need, authority and timing. The handoff between the two is where most pipeline leaks.

What does ICP stand for in sales?

Ideal Customer Profile. It defines the company most likely to buy, stay and be profitable, using firmographics, technographics and buying triggers. A useful ICP removes companies from consideration rather than describing a market.

What is email warm up?

Gradually building a new sending domain and mailbox reputation by sending small volumes with high engagement before any cold campaign begins. It takes three to four weeks. Skipping it is the most common cause of outbound failure.

What is RevOps?

Revenue Operations aligns sales, marketing and customer success operations under one function covering process, tooling and data. It exists because the handoffs between those three teams are where most revenue quietly leaks.

What is pipeline velocity?

How quickly deals move through the pipeline, calculated from number of opportunities, average deal value, win rate and sales cycle length. Improving any one of the four increases revenue without adding a single new lead.