GTM & Outbound Glossary
The concepts, roles and tactics behind modern B2B pipeline generation, explained clearly.
- Account Executive (AE)An Account Executive (AE) is the sales rep who owns deals from qualified opportunity to signature: running discovery, demos, negotiation and closing. AEs typically take over the meetings that SDRs book.
- AI SDRAn AI SDR is software that automates SDR tasks: finding accounts, enriching data, personalizing outreach and following up across channels. It augments or replaces part of the manual prospecting work, but still needs human oversight on strategy and quality.
- BDR (Business Development Representative)A BDR (Business Development Representative) is a rep who develops new business, most often through outbound prospecting into cold accounts. The BDR and SDR titles overlap: many teams use BDR for outbound and SDR for inbound, but usage varies.
- Buyer personaA buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile of a specific person involved in a purchase (their role, goals, pains and objections), within your target accounts. Where the ICP describes the company, the persona describes the human you actually message.
- Buying signalsBuying signals are observable events that indicate a company may be ready to buy, such as funding rounds, new hires, leadership changes, tech-stack changes or website visits. Routing the right signal to the right account at the right time beats spraying wide.
- Cold callingCold calling is phoning a prospect who has had no prior contact with you, to start a conversation and qualify interest. Despite predictions of its death, it remains one of the most direct ways to reach hard-to-access buyers.
- Cold emailA cold email is an unsolicited email sent to a prospect you have not spoken with, aimed at starting a conversation. Effective cold email relies on tight targeting, real personalization and strong deliverability, not volume alone.
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the percentage of prospects that move from one funnel stage to the next, for example from meeting booked to opportunity. Tracking conversion by stage shows exactly where pipeline is won or lost.
- Email deliverabilityEmail deliverability is the ability of your emails to actually land in the recipient's inbox rather than in spam or being blocked. It depends on domain reputation, authentication, sending volume and content quality.
- Email warm-upEmail warm-up is the process of gradually increasing sending volume on a new domain or inbox to build reputation with mailbox providers. Skipping warm-up is a common reason cold email lands in spam.
- Enrichment waterfallAn enrichment waterfall queries several data providers in a set order, moving to the next one only when the previous fails to return a valid result. This maximizes the rate of valid contacts while controlling cost per record.
- Go-to-Market (GTM)A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the plan a company uses to reach its target customers and win them, covering positioning, channels, pricing and the sales motion. In B2B, it defines who you sell to, how you reach them and how a lead becomes a customer.
- GTM EngineeringGTM engineering is the practice of building automated, data-driven systems that generate pipeline, instead of relying on manual, rep-by-rep prospecting. GTM engineers combine sales know-how with technical skills (APIs, automation, enrichment, AI) to turn go-to-market into a repeatable, measurable machine.
- Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from your product and is the easiest to win and retain, defined by criteria like industry, size, geography and tech stack. A sharp ICP is the foundation of efficient outbound: it decides who you target.
- InboundInbound is a go-to-market approach where prospects discover and contact you first, usually via content, SEO, ads or referrals. Inbound and outbound are complementary: inbound captures existing demand, outbound creates it.
- Intent dataIntent data is information that suggests an account is actively researching a solution like yours, such as content consumption, keyword searches or third-party research signals. It helps you reach buyers while they are in-market.
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a lead that has shown enough interest (downloads, demo requests, site activity) to be worth sales attention, based on marketing criteria. It is an early funnel stage, before sales qualification.
- MEDDICMEDDIC is a B2B qualification framework built on six checks: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion. It helps teams qualify complex deals rigorously and forecast more accurately.
- Multichannel outboundMultichannel outbound reaches prospects across several channels (calls, email, LinkedIn, SMS) in a coordinated way, rather than relying on a single one. Combining channels raises response rates because buyers engage differently on each.
- Personalization at scalePersonalization at scale means tailoring outreach to each prospect (their role, company, context, trigger) while still sending at volume, usually with data and AI. Done well, it keeps messages relevant without a human writing each one from scratch.
- PipelinePipeline is the set of open opportunities a sales team is working, usually measured in total value and by stage. Healthy, well-qualified pipeline is the leading indicator of future revenue.
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a lead that sales has vetted and judged ready for active selling, usually because the need, timing and fit are confirmed. It sits further down the funnel than an MQL.
- Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO)A Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO) is a qualified deal that has entered the pipeline as a real opportunity, with a validated need, budget and buying process. It is a stronger commitment signal than an SQL.
- SDR (Sales Development Representative)An SDR (Sales Development Representative) is a sales rep focused on the top of the funnel: prospecting, qualifying inbound and outbound leads, and booking meetings for Account Executives. SDRs generate pipeline; they usually do not close deals.
- Sequence (cadence)A sequence, or cadence, is a scheduled series of outreach steps across channels (email, call, LinkedIn) spread over time. It defines how many touches a prospect gets, on which channel and when.
- SPF, DKIM & DMARCSPF, DKIM and DMARC are DNS records that authenticate your email, proving that a message really comes from your domain. Configuring all three correctly is essential for deliverability and to avoid being flagged as spoofing.