Go-to-Market Glossary

With over 25 years of experience helping Fortune 1000 clients solve the toughest B2C and B2B marketing and sales challenges, we know Go-to-Market®. We created the definitive glossary of go-to-market terms to help your organization get on the same page, whether you work in revenue operations, marketing, sales, product, or customer success. Driving actual growth requires alignment across the organization—and being clear on terms is the first step.

All

Analytics

B2B

B2C

Channel

Marketing

Sales

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted marketing strategy, focused on a set of specific, high-value accounts rather than a broader segment or vertical. In ABM, individual accounts, typically large enterprises with significant revenue potential or strategic importance, are considered a ‘market of one’ and receive highly personalized campaigns to address their specific pain points and strategic objectives.

Yes

Account segmentation

Account segmentation in B2B organizations relates to the process of organizing the universe of current and potential customers into manageable groups based on shared characteristics such as company size, industry, or long-term potential.

Yes

Affinity

Brand affinity represents the emotional connection and loyalty consumers feel towards a brand. Affinity develops when consumers believe a brand is aligned to their personal identity and values.

Yes

Analyst relations

Analyst relations is managing interactions and communications between an organization and industry analysts. This includes providing analysts with information about the company’s products, services, and strategies to ensure accurate and favorable analysis and reporting. The goal is to influence the analysts’ opinions and reports, which can impact market perception and decision-making.

Attribution

Attribution starts with a lead, opportunity, or sale and works backward to understand the factors that drove it. These can include marketing and sales efforts, price, competitive activity, and, in some cases, the “base” (which can be thought of as a proxy for brand equity.)

Yes

Awareness

Brand awareness refers to the extent to which consumers are familiar with the distinctive qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services. It represents how well a brand is recognized by potential customers and how effectively it stands out in the marketplace. High brand awareness is a key goal in marketing as it is often the first step in the buying process, leading to brand consideration and ultimately, purchase decisions.

Yes

B2B

B2B, or business-to-business, refers to transactions, services, or marketing efforts that occur between businesses rather than between a business and individual consumers.

B2C

B2C, or business-to-consumer, refers to transactions, services, or marketing efforts that occur directly between a business and individual consumers.

Barriers to Adoption

Barriers to adoption refer to obstacles or challenges that potential customers face when considering whether to purchase or adopt a product or service. These barriers may include financial constraints, lack of awareness, perceived complexity, cultural resistance, or existing commitments to other products. Understanding these barriers helps organizations tailor their marketing and sales strategies to better address and overcome customer hesitations, thereby enhancing the adoption rate of their offerings.

Brand

A brand is a distinct identity that sets a company, product, or service apart from its competitors. Effective branding is critical as it influences customer perception and can drive business growth by resonating with a given target audience on a deeper level.

Yes

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy creates a framework for making decisions about how the company/product/offering operates and interacts with its stakeholders across all touchpoints. It ensures consistency, builds trust and preference, and differentiates the brand in ways that are relevant and meaningful, contributing to long-term loyalty and profitability.

Buyer journey

A subset of the customer journey, the buyer journey refers specifically to the decision-making process that a potential customer goes through before making a purchase, and is a subset of the broader customer journey. Typically, the buyer journey focuses on stages such as awareness, consideration, and decisions.

Yes

Buying group

In businesses, significant purchase decisions are never made by just one individual. Even where one individual holds the purchase authority, they are influenced by multiple other stakeholders – the board or the C-level or their teams and end users. “Typical” B2B buying groups range from four to more than 12 participants, all of whom have stakes in the buying decision. This group likely comprises people with different roles, priorities and levels of seniority, social capital and confidence. Each of those group members may be separately researching, reading, learning, having conversations and forming opinions.

Channel conflict

Channel conflict occurs when different sales channels (e.g., direct and indirect sales) compete against each other for the same customers, leading to friction between them. This can undermine the overall effectiveness of the company’s distribution strategy, causing inefficiencies, loss of sales, or strained relationships between the organization and its partners.

Yes

Channel ecosystem

A channel ecosystem refers to the network of partners that a company engages with to effectively market, sell, and distribute its products or services. This ecosystem typically includes distributors, resellers, consultants, technology partners, and affiliate organizations, each playing specific roles in extending the reach and enhancing the value of the company’s offerings.

Yes

Channel partner

Channel partner broadly refers to third-party organizations that engage with a given organization to market, sell, distribute, or implement products and solutions, increasing the reach and scale without requiring increased investment in direct sales forces.

Yes

Channel preference

Channel preference refers to the preferred methods or platforms customers choose to interact with a business for marketing, sales, or service interactions. Understanding customer channel preferences is crucial for businesses as it helps them to tailor their marketing and sales strategies to align with where customers are most comfortable and engaged.

Yes

Channel strategy

A channel strategy defines how a company will use various sales and distribution channels (e.g., direct sales, resellers, distributors) to reach target accounts. Developing a channel strategy involves evaluating account preferences, market potential, and the cost of using each channel.

Yes

Consideration

Brand consideration refers to the extent to which consumers, already aware of the brand, consider it as a potential choice among alternatives. It represents whether a brand is in the running when a consumer is ready to make a purchase. Effective strategies to boost brand consideration include advertising, public relations, social media engagement, and memorable branding elements.

Yes

Content

Content encompasses any information, messaging, or material created and shared to engage and inform audiences. This includes articles, videos, infographics, blogs, and social media posts. Quality content is essential for attracting and retaining customers, as it provides value, builds brand authority, and supports marketing and sales efforts.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is a critical metric used to measure the effectiveness of various business activities by quantifying the proportion of target actions completed by potential customers or users. This key performance indicator is essential for understanding how well a company’s interactions drive desired outcomes and is particularly valuable in assessing and refining business strategies.

In marketing, conversion rate measures the effectiveness of promotional and outreach campaigns by calculating the percentage of recipients who take a desired action, such as clicking a link, signing up for a newsletter, or engaging with content. This metric helps marketers understand how well their campaigns resonate with the target audience and guides optimization efforts to enhance campaign performance and increase audience engagement.

In sales, the conversion rate tracks the proportion of prospects who become customers, defined by completing a purchase or signing a contract. This rate is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of sales strategies and the sales team’s performance. A high conversion rate indicates that sales tactics are successfully persuading prospects to finalize transactions, whereas a lower rate might prompt a review and adjustment of sales approaches or customer interactions.

Cross-sell

Cross-selling relates to a type of expansion sale within an existing account, that increases account penetration through selling additional products or services to the same buyers, or selling to new business units or geographies. Cross-selling effectively ensures that an organization is capturing the revenue potential of a given account, while also increasing the stickiness of their product set within the customer.

Yes

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost measures the associated cost with acquiring a new customer or account, including both sales and marketing expenses. By understanding the cost of acquiring a new customer, organizations are able to estimate the payback period for each newly acquired customer, a metric that many organizations and investors monitor closely.

Yes

Customer churn rate

Customer churn rate relates to the percentage of customers who cease to do business with an organization entirely during a set time frame, typically annually. Customer churn rate is a critical GTM metric and investigation into the drivers of high customer churn rates can help to identify friction points in the customer experience and increased competitive pressures, and inform targeted retention strategies.

Churn Rate Formula = (Customer Lost / Total Accounts) x 100

Customer journey

The customer journey refers to the complete path a potential buyer takes from their initial awareness of a company or product to becoming a loyal customer. Customer journeys typically involve multiple touchpoints across marketing, sales, and post-purchase engagement, including research, evaluation, and decision-making stages.

Yes

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) refers to the total revenue or profit a company expects to generate from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship.

CLV = Net Cash Flows (not including CAC) discounted by the weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

Yes

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategic approach aimed at managing and improving interactions and relationships with customers throughout their lifecycle.

CRM as a Technology Platform: CRM often refers specifically to technology platforms designed to facilitate these efforts.

Yes

Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation in B2C organizations is the process of dividing customers into groups based on shared characteristics to inform broad go-to-market motions. Typically leveraging demographic, geographic, behavioral, and/or psychographic dimensions, customer segmentation should be layered-in from strategic planning to last-mile marketing execution.

Yes

Customer success

Customer success is a function within the commercial organization that seeks to execute proactive, strategic support for existing customers to achieve their desired outcomes through the use and adoption of the products or solutions purchased.

Yes

Demand generation

Demand Generation is a marketing strategy aimed at creating awareness and interest in a company’s products or services, with the ultimate goal of generating qualified leads that can be nurtured into customers. Demand generation plays a crucial role in both B2B and B2C, where the focus is on educating, engaging, and converting leads, ensuring the marketing efforts build a strong pipeline of potential customers for long-term business growth.

Drivers of choice

Drivers of choice are the various factors that influence a customer’s decision to select one product, service, or brand over another. These factors can be broadly categorized into internal and external drivers.

Yes

Earned media

Earned media is the intangible byproduct of marketing efforts, i.e., brand building not tied direct to a specific outreach or paid advertising. Typical examples are online discussions around your business, product, or service, whether it materializes organically or via third-party.

Earned media value (EMV) is a metric that captures this unpaid customer engagement to allow for marketing measurement. By tying this elusive concept to data, marketers can capture the full impact of their marketing, particularly social and brand efforts.

Experiential marketing

Experiential marketing is a strategy that engages existing or potential customers though interactive, memorable experiences. Unlike traditional advertising, experiential marketing allows users to interact with a brand’s products, fostering emotional connection and enhancing brand affinity. Common examples include in-store makeup trials and video game demos.

Global/key account strategy

Key account strategy relates to the process of identifying an organization’s key accounts and differentiating the commercial motions and service levels to account for the unique needs and nuances of these accounts. Typically, key accounts are the highest value existing customers, both from an existing revenue and long-term opportunity perspective, and have a high strategic importance to the company due to the potential for joint innovation or market influence.

Yes

Go-to-market (GTM)

Go-to-market is a broad term that refers to the overall process of bringing an organization’s products, services, or solutions to the market and reaching end customers. It encompasses all activities required to deliver value to customers, such as product launches, sales and enablement, marketing campaigns, and distribution.

Yes

Go-to-market (GTM) strategy

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy details how an organization will engage with customers to convince them to buy their product or service and to gain a competitive advantage. GTM strategy includes in its scope customer segmentation and targeting; positioning; product pricing; brand, demand generation, earned media, and demand capture marketing; sales channels and routes-to-market; and customer engagement, retention, and upsell―essentially the entire scope of marketing and sales.

Yes

Growth pathways

A growth pathway is a structured, strategic approach to identifying and capturing new revenue opportunities. It aligns three core elements: the right markets to pursue, the right buyers to target, and the right go-to-market motions to engage and convert them. More than a static plan, a growth pathway is dynamic and scalable—bridging insight and execution.

Yes

Ideal customer profile (ICP)

Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) are detailed descriptions of the type of company, and often the individual buyer profile, that would benefit the most from a business’s product or service, and in turn, provide the most value to the business. An ICP helps companies focus their marketing, sales, and customer success efforts on the most valuable opportunities.

Yes

Incrementality

Incrementality is the purest way to think about a marketing or sales channel’s contribution to a lead, opportunity, or sale. The most common error made by marketers is overestimating the incrementality of marketing, leading to overinvestment in lower-funnel channels like affiliate and branded paid search.

Yes

Influencer marketing

When brands collaborate with individuals who have significant following on social media or other platforms to promote their products or services. Influencers can leverage their credibility and reach to create authentic content that resonates with their audience, helping brands increase awareness, engagement, and sales.

Key performance indicator (KPI)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are established, measurable values used to track the effectiveness of an organization’s commercial strategies and operations across functions such as sales, marketing, and partnerships. By establishing key performance indicators, businesses can evaluate the performance of given initiatives and make data-driven decisions on how to improve commercial outcomes. Typically, sales and marketing KPIs are related, but often each has a standard set.

Yes

Lead generation

Lead generation refers to the process of attracting and capturing potential customer interest in a product or service to build a pipeline of qualified prospects. Effective lead generation focuses on targeting the right audience, using data-driven insights to find and engage prospects with high conversion potential, and nurturing them throughout the sales funnel.

Yes

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing occurs in both B2B and B2C settings. In B2B, it is the process of building relationships with potential buyers at every stage of the marketing and sales funnel, with the goal of guiding them toward making a purchase. In B2C, lead nurture is handled by marketing and may include content or offers and discounts.

Yes

Market development funds (MDF)

Market Development Funds (MDF) are financial resources provided by a company to their channel partners (partners, resellers, or integrators) to support joint marketing efforts and help drive demand for their products or services. In the B2B context, MDF is typically used for co-branded marketing campaigns, promotional activities, events, or sales enablement programs designed to grow market share and reach new customers. In B2C, MDF is primarily used with retail partners and can include brand placement (e.g., endcaps), rebate offers or other promotions. Proper utilization of MDF can strengthen channel relationships, improve partner performance, and boost overall revenue. Effective MDF programs require strategic planning, clear metrics for success, and alignment between vendors and partners on marketing goals.

Market entry strategy

A market entry strategy is a planned approach a business uses to introduce its products or services into a new target market. It involves assessing market opportunities, understanding competitive landscapes, and determining the most effective channels and tactics for reaching potential customers.

Yes

Marketing automation

Marketing automation refers to the use of software and technologies designed to automate and streamline marketing tasks and workflows. Marketing automation helps companies increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster by enabling more personalized, meaningful engagement with audiences at scale.

Yes

Marketing campaign

A campaign is a coordinated series of marketing activities and initiatives designed to achieve a specific goal, such as promoting a product, increasing brand awareness, or driving lead generation. Campaigns often utilize multiple channels and tactics to reach target audiences and are typically time-bound with defined objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Yes

Marketing effectiveness

Marketing effectiveness refers to the ability of marketing activities to achieve desired outcomes, such as increased brand awareness, lead generation, or sales growth. It is measured through various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that evaluate the impact of marketing strategies on business objectives. Understanding marketing effectiveness helps organizations refine their approaches and optimize resource allocation.

Yes

Marketing funnel

The marketing funnel represents a prospect’s progression from Awareness (top of funnel), to Interest and Consideration (middle of the funnel), and finally to Intent or Purchase (bottom of the funnel). Increasingly, in B2B and B2C, prospects do more of their own research before raising their hand to request a demo or make a purchase, which makes parsing intent signals even more important.

Yes

Marketing program

A program is a broader, ongoing initiative that encompasses multiple campaigns or activities aimed at achieving long-term strategic goals. Programs often focus on specific themes or objectives, such as customer engagement, brand loyalty, or product education, and are designed to deliver consistent value over time.

Marketing qualified lead (MQL)

Marketing Qualified Leads, colloquially referred to as MQLs, are prospects who have shown clear interest in an organization’s products and/or services through interactions with marketing collateral or demonstrating buying signals such as filling out forms to request gated content. MQLs are generated through the marketing organization and typically require further nurturing or engagement prior to being passed to the sales organization to become a sales qualified lead.

Marketing tactic

A tactic is a specific action or approach employed to achieve a particular goal within a marketing strategy or campaign. Tactics may include social media advertising, email marketing, content creation, or events. Effective tactics are aligned with overall objectives and are selected based on their ability to resonate with target audiences and drive desired outcomes.

Market research

Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing data about a target market to inform business decisions. It involves both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand customer preferences, behaviors, and market trends.

Yes

Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the practice of dividing a broad market into distinct groups of consumers or businesses that share common characteristics, such as demographics, behaviors, or needs. This allows companies to create targeted marketing strategies, tailored products, and personalized customer experiences for each segment.

Yes

Market share

Market share is a key indicator of a company’s position in a market relative to its competitors. Market share can be calculated relative to the total market of a given product or solution, or more specific industry or geographic cuts.

Market Share = Company Revenue / Total Revenue of the Market x 100

Yes

Media

Media refers to the various channels and platforms used to communicate messages to target audiences, including traditional outlets like television, radio, and print, as well as digital channels like social media, websites, and email. In marketing, selecting the right media is crucial for effectively reaching and engaging potential customers.

Yes

Media relations

The practice of managing and nurturing relationships between an organization and the media. This involves communicating with journalists, editors and other media professionals to ensure accurate and favorable coverage of the organization’s activities, products or services. Media relations is a key aspect of public relations aimed at building a positive public image.

Messaging

Messaging is the strategic delivery of information about a brand or product designed to influence and engage target audiences. It’s tailored to communicate specific values and benefits, and can be categorized into several distinct types: brand, competitive, product, marketing, and sales. Effective messaging across these categories ensures a cohesive perception of the brand and drives stronger relationships with consumers.

Yes

Mix media modeling (MMM)

Mix media modeling is a statistical analysis technique used to assess the effectiveness of different marketing channels and their contribution to overall campaign performance. By analyzing historical data across multiple media platforms, businesses can identify the optimal media mix that maximizes reach, engagement, and return on investment (ROI), enabling more informed marketing decisions.

Yes

Multichannel marketing

Multichannel marketing refers to the practice of interacting with customers through multiple channels, both direct and indirect, to sell products or services. The goal of multichannel marketing is to ensure consistency of message and brand experience, so that no matter how or where a customer encounters the brand, the experience is unified and seamless.

Yes

Multi-touch attribution (MTA)

Multi-touch attribution is a method used to evaluate the effectiveness of various marketing touchpoints in influencing a customer’s purchasing decision. This approach assigns credit to multiple interactions across different channels (e.g., email, social media, website visits) throughout the buying journey. By understanding which touchpoints have the most significant impact, businesses can optimize their marketing strategies and allocate resources more effectively.

Yes

Net promoter score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking a single question: “How likely are you to recommend our product or service to others?” Respondents answer on a scale from 0 to 10, and are categorized as Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), or Detractors (0-6). The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

Yes

Opportunity modeling

Opportunity modeling helps organizations prioritize high-value opportunities and develop long-term strategies tailored to specific customer needs. Often starting with the total addressable market (TAM), opportunity modeling uses firmographics such as company size, industry, revenue, and growth potential for B2B organizations, or demographics such as age, income, and geography for B2C.

Yes

Partner enablement

Partner enablement refers to the strategies and tools that a company provides to its business partners to help them successfully market, sell, and support the company’s products or services. Effective partner enablement includes: training programs, sales and marketing materials, technical support, collaborative tools, and performance incentives.

Yes

Partner program

A partner program is a structured framework that a company establishes to collaborate with third-party organizations, such as resellers, distributors, or technology partners, to enhance business growth and reach new markets. Effective partner programs are designed to align the interests of both the company and its partners, facilitating joint marketing efforts, sales initiatives, and customer support activities. Based on the maturity and size of the partner ecosystem, an organization may have multiple variations of their partner program based on the partner type (e.g., MSP vs Reseller).

Yes

Performance marketing

Performance marketing is a marketing strategy where companies pay based on specific trackable actions―such as clicks or conversions―that are tied to marketing. As a lower funnel marketing strategy, it focuses on efficiently converting existing demand into sales rather than generating new interest. Common performance marketing channels include programmatic, paid search, and cost-per-sale affiliates.

Yes

Pricing strategy

A pricing strategy is a systematic approach to setting the price of a product or service, and may be altered to achieve specific business objectives such as maximizing revenue, gaining market share, or enhancing brand positioning. Pricing strategy considers factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, customer perceived value, and market demand to determine the optimal price point for the given strategy.

Yes

Product-market fit

Product-market fit refers to the degree to which a product or service meets the demands and preferences of a specific target market. Product-market fit is achieved when customers derive clear value in the offering, leading to strong demand, repeat purchases, and positive feedback. Product-market fit is often assessed throughout the product development and commercialization lifecycle through a combination of primary customer research, and in market customer interaction intelligence.

Yes

Product positioning

Product positioning is the process of defining how a product or service is perceived in the minds of customers relative to competitors. It involves identifying the unique value proposition, target audience, and key differentiators that set the product apart in the market. Effective product positioning helps guide marketing efforts and informs messaging, ensuring that the product resonates with the intended audience and meets their specific needs.

Yes

Proof of concept

A proof of concept (PoC) is a demonstration or prototype that validates the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a product, service, or idea. It is typically used in the early stages of product development to test assumptions, gather feedback, and reduce risk before full-scale production or market introduction prior to full scale launch, or as a key step in the pre-sales process, particularly for technology companies. A successful PoC provides evidence that the product or concept can deliver the intended value and meet key customer endpoints.

Prospect

A prospect is a potential customer who that has been pre-identified as a target or who has shown interest in a company’s products or services but has not yet made a purchase. In the sales process, prospects are often identified based on specific criteria, such as their demographics, firmographics, or engagement with marketing or sales efforts.

Public relations (PR)

Public relations (PR) is the strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its various stakeholders, including customers, investors, and the media. PR involves managing a company’s reputation, disseminating information, and handling communications during both positive and negative situations. Effective PR strategies enhance brand visibility, credibility, and trust, ultimately supporting broader marketing and business objectives.

Quota

A sales quota is the target or goal assigned to a sales team or individual for a defined period, typically based on revenue, units sold, or other performance metrics. Quotas serve as benchmarks for measuring sales performance and incentivizing sales personnel. Achieving or exceeding sales quotas is often tied to compensation and recognition, motivating teams to drive results and meet business objectives.

Yes

Retention rate (Account / Customer)

Retention rate is a metric that measures the percentage of customers or accounts that continue to utilize or purchase a company’s products or services over a specified period of time and is a critical indicator of customer loyalty and satisfaction. A high retention rate suggests that customers find value in the offering and are likely to make repeat purchases, while a low retention rate may indicate areas for improvement in post-sales engagement, customer experience or product quality.

Yes

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the ratio of return to cost for an ad campaign. It allows for easy interpretability around how much a profit is being driven by a campaign. A key KPI in the digital marketing world, a ROAS of 5:1 is interpreted as every dollar spent on said campaign provides a return of $5, on average.

ROAS = revenue from ad spend / cost of campaign

Yes

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a financial metric used to evaluate the effectiveness of an investment relative to its cost. ROI can be applied to many metrics such as revenue, profit, etc., and is calculated by dividing the net impact generated from the investment by the total investment cost, often expressed as a percentage. A positive ROI indicates that the investment has generated more value than its cost, helping businesses assess the success of marketing campaigns, product launches, or other initiatives.

Yes

Revenue motion

Revenue motion refers to the strategies and processes a company employs to generate revenue, encompassing all activities related to sales, marketing, customer acquisition, and retention. It includes various models such as subscription, transactional, or recurring revenue streams. Understanding and optimizing revenue motions are essential for aligning business operations with growth objectives, ensuring efficient resource allocation, and maximizing overall profitability.

Yes

Revenue operations

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a strategic function that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success teams within a company to optimize the entire revenue-generating engine. The goal of RevOps is to break down silos between these departments, streamline operations, and maximize revenue growth by focusing on the entire customer lifecycle—from lead generation to customer retention. RevOps is increasingly prevalent in B2B organizations because it integrates technology, processes, and data to create a more efficient, scalable, and holistic approach to revenue management relative to the typically discrete sales operations and revenue operation functions.

Routes-to-market

Routes-to-market refer to the various pathways that a company uses to deliver its products or services to customers. These routes are critical components of a company’s go-to-market strategy and encompass all channels and methods used to engage and sell to customers. Key routes-to-market include: direct sales, indirect sales, online channels, wholesale, and partnerships.

Yes

Rules of engagement (RoE)

Rules of engagement (RoE) in B2B sales refer to a set of guidelines and protocols that clearly define how sales teams and representatives interact with prospects, customers, and other internal teams (such as marketing or customer success). These rules are put in place to ensure consistency, efficiency, and fairness throughout the sales process by minimizing conflict between sales reps, preventing overlap, and ensuring a smooth and consistent customer experience. Ultimately, defining the rules of engagement for sales team can help to avoid confusion, improve sales efficiency, and create a better experience for both the sales team and the customers.

Sales compensation

Sales compensation refers to the mechanisms through which sales resources (e.g., account executives, business development representatives, etc.) are paid. Sales compensation is a critical component of activating a go-to-market strategy and should directly connect the methods which sales representatives earn to key strategic objectives of the organization.

Yes

Sales coverage

A coverage model is the formalization of revenue motions, including the specific channels and roles that will perform each task. Well-designed coverage models allow organizations to execute revenue motions at the lowest possible cost (typically measured as E/R or expense / revenue), while maintaining best-in-class customer experience. Coverage models map critical customer touchpoints with the resources required to service them.

Yes

Sales cycle

Sales cycle represents the step-by-step process that sales teams follow to convert a prospect into a customer, typically including stages like prospecting, qualifying leads, presenting a solution, handling objections, negotiating terms, and closing the deal. The length and complexity of the sales cycle can vary depending on factors such as deal size, the number of decision-makers involved, and the customer’s readiness to buy. Understanding and optimizing the sales cycle allows businesses to improve conversion rates and shorten the time it takes to close deals, which in turn drives revenue growth.

Sales enablement

Sales enablement is the strategic process of providing sales teams with the resources, tools, and training necessary to engage buyers effectively and close deals more efficiently. This includes developing relevant content (such as sales playbooks, case studies, and product information), implementing technology solutions (like CRM systems and analytics tools), and offering training and coaching to enhance sales skills. In the B2B environment, effective sales enablement aligns marketing and sales efforts, ensuring that sales representatives have access to the right information at the right time, ultimately improving win rates and customer satisfaction.

Yes

Sales forecasting

Sales forecasting is the process of predicting future sales revenue based on historical data, market trends, and current sales pipeline activity. It provides businesses with valuable insights to guide decision-making, plan resources, set realistic sales targets, and align marketing and sales strategies. Accurate sales forecasting helps companies anticipate demand, manage cash flow, and avoid potential bottlenecks by preparing for both opportunities and challenges in the market. It is a critical tool for driving growth and ensuring that business operations are aligned with future revenue expectations.

Yes

Sales pipeline

The sales pipeline refers to the visual representation of the current sales opportunities within a company, illustrating the progress of leads as they move through various stages of the sales process. Sales pipeline is typically categorized into stages such as identified, qualified, proposed, and closed. It allows sales teams to track the status of deals, assess the potential revenue at each stage, and identify areas that require attention or improvement. Maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is crucial for forecasting revenue, managing resources effectively, and ensuring a consistent flow of business.

Yes

Sales-qualified lead (SQL)

A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that was passed along from the marketing team and the sales team agrees that this prospect is likely to buy. SQLs typically show stronger buying signals compared to marketing qualified leads (MQLs), such as requesting a demo or expressing specific interest in a product. SQLs typically have met key qualification criteria aligned on by both sales and marketing and are considered serious prospects, ready for more advanced conversations and potentially closer to making a purchase decision.

Sales transformation

Sales transformation refers to the comprehensive process of redesigning and improving an organization’s sales strategies, processes, tools, and overall structure to achieve growth objectives. A sales transformation is typically a significant undertaking that begins with defining growth imperatives and objectives, evaluating the market opportunity, and then designing a GTM that will support growth over both the short- and long-term. Focus areas for a sales transformation often include opportunity modeling, account segmentation, channel strategy, sales coverage and job roles, sales compensation, and sales enablement.

Yes

Salience

Brand salience represents the “buzziness” and fame of a brand. When consumers think of a product category, those with high salience are the first to come to mind. High brand affinity is a key goal in marketing as brands with higher salience are more likely to be considered first in a product category, leading to a higher overall conversion rate. Growing salience requires significant “buzzworthy” moments in public relations, social media, or advertising.

Yes

Serviceable addressable market (SAM)

Serviceable addressable market (SAM) represents the portion of the total market that an organization can realistically target and serve with its products or services. Unlike the broader total addressable market (TAM), SAM accounts for practical factors such as geographical reach, current product offerings, and the company’s sales capacity. Understanding SAM helps narrow the focus to segments where they have the best chance of gaining traction, providing a clearer picture of immediate revenue potential.

Yes

Share of voice (SOV)

Share of voice (SOV) measures the presence or visibility of a company in comparison to its competitors across various marketing channels. SOV is often tracked through metrics like the percentage of media mentions, advertising share, or social media activity that a company commands within its industry. A higher share of voice typically correlates with greater brand awareness and, ultimately, more market share, making it an essential KPI for evaluating the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Yes

Targeting

Selecting specific segments or groups of potential customers, usually based on their likelihood to purchase a product or service. This process uses data like demographics (e.g., age, gender, income, education), firmographics (e.g., company size, industry, and location) and buyer behavior to identify high-value segments. Once these are identified, marketing and sales strategies can be crafted to resonate with these specific audiences. Effective targeting ensures that resources are focused on high-value prospects, improving return on investment and driving growth.

Yes

Territory design

Territory design refers to the structuring and allocation of sales areas, often based on geographic, industry, or account-based criteria. In B2B organizations, properly designed territories ensure that sales representatives are evenly distributed and can efficiently cover their assigned markets without overlap or missed opportunities. Strategic territory design leads to optimized sales performance, as it balances workload and aligns the company’s resources with market demand.

Yes

Testing

Testing is the statistical process of measuring the performance of new marketing campaigns, products, or services on your target audience. There are three key variations often used in the Marketing ecosystem: A/B, incrementality and innovative.

Yes

Total addressable market (TAM)

Total addressable market (TAM) is a high-level estimate of the maximum demand or revenue opportunity for a product or service across an industry or segment. Understanding TAM helps businesses evaluate the overall market potential before making decisions about market entry or expansion, serving as the basis for more focused market sizing efforts, such as calculating the serviceable addressable market (SAM).

Yes

Unique Buying Proposition® (UBP)

Often expressed in the voice of the buyer and always inspired through understanding of their perspective, this is the most compelling, ownable and credible benefit that the buyer receives from your brand. (Unlike the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), a Unique Buying Proposition (UBP) recognizes you can’t simply sell; people need a compelling reason to buy.)

Upsell

Upselling is a type of expansion sales play within an existing account that increases account penetration through increasing the quantity of an existing product, selling additional services such as ongoing maintenance or support, or through offering access to additional features or better performance in a high-cost version of the product.

Yes

Value proposition

A value proposition is a concise statement that explains why a potential customer should choose a company’s product or service over competitors. In B2B, a strong value proposition clearly outlines the specific benefits that solve an organization’s problems, whether it’s cost reduction, efficiency improvements, or addressing a critical business challenge. It is essential for differentiating a company’s offering in the marketplace and influencing purchasing decisions.

Yes

Voice of the customer (VoC)

Voice of the customer (VoC) refers to the collection of customer feedback regarding their needs, expectations, and experiences with a product or service. Gathering VoC insights can involve surveys, interviews, and other feedback mechanisms that provide valuable input for product development, marketing strategies, and customer service improvements. Listening to the VoC allows companies to align their offerings more closely with customer desires, increasing satisfaction and loyalty.

Yes

Win rate

Win rate is a metric used to calculate the percentage of deals that a sales team successfully closes compared to the total number of opportunities in the sales pipeline. For B2B organizations, a high win rate indicates that the team is effectively converting leads into customers, while a low win rate may highlight issues in lead qualification, sales tactics, or product fit. Monitoring the win rate helps businesses refine their sales strategies and improve overall performance.

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We built this glossary to align modern teams on growth. If there’s a term you’re looking for or want to chat about GTM strategy, get in touch!