Ideal customer profile
An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a written description of the type of company that gets the most value from what you sell and is easiest to win and keep.
Read moreCold email glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms behind outbound sales, each with a worked example you can follow by hand and the formula where there is one.
1. Targeting
Who you aim at before a single email is written.
Buyer persona
A buyer persona is a brief portrait of the individual who evaluates, recommends or signs off on your product, written from real conversations rather than guesses.
Read moreTotal addressable market
Total addressable market (TAM) is the yearly revenue you would earn if every company that fits your product became a customer.
Read moreFirmographics
Firmographics are the facts that describe a company, such as its industry, number of employees, revenue band, location and age.
Read moreIntent data
Intent data is information about what a company or person has been doing that suggests they may be looking for a solution, such as reading about a topic, visiting a pricing page or hiring for a related role.
Read moreAccount-based marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is an approach where you pick a short list of target companies and run tailored outreach to several people at each one, instead of sending the same message to a wide list.
Read more2. Lists and qualification
How a list is built, enriched and sorted into leads worth a conversation.
List building
List building is the work of collecting the companies and contacts you plan to reach, then cleaning and filtering them until every row matches your profile and has an email address you can use.
Read moreLead enrichment
Lead enrichment is the process of adding missing facts to a contact or company record, such as job title, company size, industry and location, from other sources.
Read moreLead qualification
Lead qualification is the step of checking whether a lead is worth a sales conversation: whether the company fits your profile, whether there is a real need and whether the person can act.
Read moreMarketing qualified lead
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a contact who has met an agreed standard of fit and activity, so they are worth passing from marketing to sales.
Read moreSales qualified lead
A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that the sales team has reviewed and accepted as a real opportunity worth active selling.
Read moreBANT
BANT is a qualification checklist built on four questions: does the buyer have budget, does this person have authority to decide, is there a real need, and is there a timeline.
Read moreLead scoring
Lead scoring assigns points to each lead for how well the company and person fit your target buyer and for what they have done, so a team can contact the strongest leads first.
Read more3. Outreach
The shape of the messages and the people and steps behind them.
Cold email
A cold email is a first message to a person you have not spoken with, sent because their role or company suggests you could help.
Read moreSales cadence
A sales cadence is a scheduled series of contacts, spread over days and often over more than one channel, that a seller follows to reach a prospect.
Read moreCall to action
A call to action (CTA) is the one step you ask the reader to take next, such as replying, picking a time or confirming a detail.
Read moreA/B testing
A/B testing sends two versions of a message, differing in one element, to similar groups at the same time to see which version gets the better result.
Read moreMultichannel outreach
Multichannel outreach means contacting one prospect on several channels, for example email, LinkedIn and the phone, following a plan for which comes when.
Read moreSales development representative
A sales development representative (SDR) is a person who researches prospects, reaches out to them and books meetings for account executives.
Read more4. Deliverability
What decides whether a message reaches an inbox at all.
Sender reputation
Sender reputation is the running record a mailbox provider keeps about a sending domain or address, built from how recipients and receiving systems treated its past mail.
Read moreDomain warm-up
Domain warm-up is the practice of raising how much a new sending domain and mailbox send per day in small steps, so mailbox providers see steady, wanted mail before they see volume.
Read moreSPF
SPF, short for Sender Policy Framework, is a DNS TXT record on your domain that lists the servers allowed to send mail using that domain.
Read moreDKIM
DKIM, short for DomainKeys Identified Mail, signs each outgoing message with a private key held by the sender.
Read moreDMARC
A DMARC policy is a DNS record you publish for your domain.
Read moreBounce rate
Bounce rate is the portion of the emails you sent that came back undelivered.
Read more5. Pipeline measures
The rates and costs that turn sent email into pipeline.
Open rate
Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that registered an open.
Read moreReply rate
Reply rate is the portion of delivered emails answered by the recipient.
Read moreMeeting booked rate
Meeting booked rate is the share of replies that end with a meeting on the calendar.
Read moreCost per meeting
Cost per meeting is everything you spend on outbound in a period divided by the number of meetings that actually took place in it.
Read morePipeline coverage
Pipeline coverage compares the deals you have in play with the revenue you want to close.
Read moreFormulas in one place
Every term that has a formula, with the formula as the page works it.
- Total addressable market
TAM = number of fitting companies x yearly revenue per customer - Lead scoring
lead score = fit points + behavior points - Bounce rate
bounce rate = bounced / sent x 100 - Open rate
open rate = opened / delivered x 100 - Reply rate
reply rate = replies / delivered x 100 - Meeting booked rate
meeting booked rate = meetings booked / replies x 100 - Cost per meeting
cost per meeting = all outbound spend / meetings that took place - Pipeline coverage
pipeline coverage = open pipeline value / revenue goal
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