Sales Glossary
Precise, source-based definitions of the most important terms in modern B2B sales — from pipeline metrics and ICP to AI-SDR and intent data. Written for VP Sales, CRO and revenue operations leaders in the DACH industrial mid-market. Every entry combines a clean definition, a worked example from German industrial B2B and links to the relevant practitioner guides.
Why a B2B sales glossary
Sales terminology drifts between teams, tools and seniority levels. A shared glossary saves hours of misalignment per week and turns vague slogans into measurable categories.
- Alignment. Sales, marketing, RevOps and the founding team use the same words for the same concepts — so forecasts, dashboards and weekly reviews compare apples to apples.
- Onboarding. New SDRs, AEs and managers ramp 30–50 % faster when the vocabulary of the function is documented, not transmitted as tribal knowledge.
- RFP language. Procurement teams in DACH industrial accounts increasingly ask for clear definitions (e.g. "what exactly is an AI SDR?"). The glossary doubles as a buyer-facing reference.
- AI-prompt vocabulary. Modern sales workflows are partly LLM-driven; the prompts that produce good outreach use the same terms you find here.
How each entry is structured
- Definition. One precise sentence — what the term means in 2026 B2B sales practice.
- Context & example. A worked example from DACH industrial B2B (mechanical engineering, medical technology, chemicals, automotive, electronics, packaging).
- Related terms. Cross-links to neighboring concepts in the glossary so a reader can follow the topic in depth.
- Further reading. Links to the relevant Amplifa practitioner guides and industry studies.
Topic areas covered
- Outbound & prospecting — cold email, LinkedIn outreach, multi-channel sequences, deliverability, opt-out flows.
- Pipeline & forecasting — pipeline coverage, win rates, sales cycle, conversion ratios, capacity planning.
- Intent & signals — job-change signals, funding signals, hiring signals, technology signals, RFP triggers.
- ABM & targeting — Ideal Customer Profile, persona mapping, account tiering, buying committee, decision-maker units.
- AI & tooling — AI SDR, large language models in sales, waterfall enrichment, CRM automation, workflow orchestration.
- Metrics — meeting rate, reply rate, positive-reply rate, cost per meeting, CAC, payback period, NRR.
- Legal & GDPR — Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, § 7 UWG, legitimate interest, data residency, Art. 21 GDPR objection, DPA, sub-processors.
All entries
Currently 209 terms, sorted alphabetically. Click any entry for the full definition, example and related links.
- ABC Analysis
- ABM Tiering
- Account Executive (AE)
- Account Management
- After-Sales Service
- AI in Sales
- AI SDR
- AI Voice Agent
- Alleinstellungsmerkmal
- Angebotsrate
- Annual Contract Value (ACV)
- Argumentation Technique
- ARPA – Average Revenue per Account
- ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
- Außendienst
- B2B Sales
- BANT Method
- Benefit Selling
- Bookings vs. Revenue
- Buying Center
- CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
- Challenger Sale
- Champion
- Channel Sales
- Churn Rate
- Closed Lost
- Closed Won
- Closing Techniques
- Cold Calling
- Cold Calling
- Cold Email
- Command of the Message
- Competitive Intelligence
- Consultative Selling
- Contact Person Mapping
- Conversation Intelligence
- Conversion Rate
- CRM System
- Cross-Selling
- Customer Acquisition
- Customer Success
- Data Enrichment
- Deal Desk
- Deal Pipeline
- Deal Velocity
- Decision Maker
- Demand Generation
- Demo
- Discount Strategy
- Discovery Phase
- Domain Warmup
- Dringlichkeit
- Due Diligence
- Economic Buyer
- Einwandbehandlung
- Einwandbibliothek
- Elevator Pitch
- Email Deliverability
- Email Outreach
- Entscheidungsträger
- Existing Customer Management
- Expansion Revenue
- FAB – Feature, Advantage, Benefit
- Field Sales
- Follow-Up
- Funnel Management
- GAP Selling
- Gate
- Gatekeeper
- Gebietsplanung
- Geschäftsentwicklung
- Gesprächsleitfaden
- Go-to-Market (GTM)
- Großkundenvertrieb
- GRR – Gross Revenue Retention
- Handoff
- Hunter vs. Farmer Sales Approach
- Icebreaker
- ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
- Ideal Customer Fit
- Ideal Customer Profile
- Inbound Sales
- Initial Meeting
- Intent Data
- Joint Evaluation Plan
- Kaltakquise
- Kaltakquise
- Käufer-Persona
- Key Account Management
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Kundenakzeptanz
- Kundenreise
- Kundenwert
- Lead Nurturing
- Lead Qualification
- Lead Scoring
- Lead-Qualifizierung
- Lead-Qualifizierung
- Leadgenerierung
- LinkedIn Prospecting
- Loss Leader
- Loss Review
- Lost Deal Analysis
- LTV/CAC Ratio
- Magic Number
- Main Contact Person
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
- MEDDIC
- Meeting Booking
- Miller Heiman Strategic Selling
- MQL vs. SQL
- MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
- Multi-Channel Outreach
- Multi-Threading
- Mutual Action Plan
- Mutual Close Plan
- NEAT Selling
- Needs Analysis
- Negative Churn
- Negotiation Techniques
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Networking
- Neukunde
- New Customer Acquisition
- North Star Metric
- NRR – Net Revenue Retention
- Objection Handling
- Onboarding
- Opportunity Cost
- Opportunity Management
- Outbound Sales
- Outreach Sequence
- Pain Points
- Paper Process
- Partner Enablement
- Payback Period
- Persona
- Personalization in Outreach
- Pipeline Management
- Predictive Lead Scoring
- PreSales
- Price Negotiation
- Pricing Strategy
- Procurement vs. Sales
- Product-Led Growth (PLG)
- Prognose
- Proof of Concept (PoC)
- Qualification
- Quartalsgeschäftsbericht
- Quote Tracking
- Ramp-up-Zeit
- Referral Marketing
- Request for Proposal (RFP)
- Revenue Intelligence
- ROI Justification
- Sales AI Agent
- Sales Automation
- Sales Cadence
- Sales Compensation Plan
- Sales Conversation Management
- Sales Cycle
- Sales Cycle
- Sales Development Representative (SDR)
- Sales Development Representative Manager
- Sales Enablement
- Sales Engagement Platform
- Sales Operations
- Sales Pitch
- Sales Playbook
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
- Sales Velocity
- Sandbagging
- Sandler Selling System
- Service Level Agreement
- Signal-based Selling
- Smarketing
- Social Selling
- Solution Selling
- SPF, DKIM, DMARC
- SPIN Selling
- Stakeholder Mapping
- T&C Negotiation
- Target Achievement
- Target Audience Analysis
- Telemarketing
- Territory Management
- Testversion
- Time to Value
- Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)
- Touchpoints
- Trigger Event
- Umsatzgeschwindigkeit
- Umsatzoperationen
- Umsatzziele
- Upselling
- Value Engineering
- Value Proposition
- Value Selling
- Verlängerung
- Vertriebs-Cadence
- Virtual Selling
- Warm Lead
- Weighted Pipeline
- Wettbewerbsanalyse
- White Space Analysis
- Win/Loss Analysis
- Workflow-Automatisierung
- Zero-Touch Selling
- Zielkunde
How to use this glossary in sales onboarding
- Week 1. New hire reads the entries for Outbound, Pipeline, Intent and ABM — the four pillars of modern B2B sales.
- Week 2. Pair the glossary with the relevant guides — e.g. "Ideal Customer Profile" entry plus the ICP guide.
- Week 3. Run a 30-minute internal quiz with 10 randomly-picked terms; align team vocabulary explicitly.
- Ongoing. Reference the glossary in pipeline reviews and forecast meetings — replace vague language ("looks good") with measured terms ("Stage-3 pipeline coverage at 3.2× quota").
Related resources
- Guides for B2B industrial sales — practitioner playbooks on AI SDR, outbound, ICP, intent data and more.
- Industry studies on AI in DACH B2B sales — evidence-based research with benchmarks.
- Customer success stories from DACH industry — how the concepts apply in real deployments.
- Cold outreach & GDPR — compliant prospecting in Germany — the legal side of the vocabulary.
- Free ICP Playbook Generator — apply the ICP entry to your own company in minutes.
About the editor
The Amplifa Sales Glossary is maintained by the Amplifa research team in Düsseldorf and reviewed by practising VP-Sales / CRO leaders from DACH industrial B2B before publication. Suggestions for new terms: [email protected].