Sales terms, decoded.

AE(Account Executive)

The salesperson who runs meetings and closes deals.

AM(Account Manager)

Looks after existing customers and grows what they buy.

ACV(Annual Contract Value)

How much a customer's contract is worth per year.

ARR(Annual Recurring Revenue)

Predictable yearly revenue from subscriptions.

B2B(Business-to-Business)

Selling to companies.

B2C(Business-to-Consumer)

Selling to individual people.

B2B2C(Business-to-Business-to-Consumer)

Selling to a business that passes your product on to its customers.

BANT(Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

A simple checklist to see if a deal is real.

BDR(Business Development Representative)

Finds new potential customers and books meetings. Similar to SDR.

Commission

Extra pay linked directly to what you sell.

Conversion rate

The share of opportunities that become sales.

CRM(Customer Relationship Management)

The tool where you record customers and deals, e.g. Salesforce or HubSpot.

CS(Customer Success)

The team that keeps customers happy so they stay and grow.

CSM(Customer Success Manager)

The person who helps customers get value after they buy.

Lead

A person or company that might become a customer.

MEDDPICC(Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Identify pain, Champion, Competition)

A detailed checklist for qualifying big B2B deals.

OTE(On-Target Earnings)

Your salary plus commission if you hit 100% of target.

Pipeline

All the open deals you could win.

Quota

Your official sales target.

SDR(Sales Development Representative)

Finds and books meetings with potential customers.

SPIN(Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff)

A questioning method for discovery calls.