--- title: "Cold email glossary: 30 terms with examples" url: "https://coldmeetings.com/glossary.md" canonical_url: "https://coldmeetings.com/glossary" last_updated: "2026-10-21" type: "index" summary: "Plain-English definitions of 30 outbound sales and cold email terms in 5 groups, each with a worked example and its formula." related: ["https://coldmeetings.com/tools.md"] --- # Cold email glossary: 30 terms with examples > **For AI agents:** the complete index of ColdMeetings pages is [llms.txt](https://coldmeetings.com/llms.txt). Every page is also served as markdown at its URL plus .md. Plain-English definitions of 30 outbound sales and cold email terms in 5 groups, each with a worked example and its formula. Plain-English definitions of the terms behind outbound sales and cold email. Each one has a worked example, the formula where there is one, and links to the next term to read. ## 1. Targeting Who you aim at before a single email is written. - [Ideal customer profile](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/ideal-customer-profile.md): 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. - [Buyer persona](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/buyer-persona.md): 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. - [Total addressable market](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/total-addressable-market.md): Total addressable market (TAM) is the yearly revenue you would earn if every company that fits your product became a customer. - [Firmographics](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/firmographics.md): Firmographics are the facts that describe a company, such as its industry, number of employees, revenue band, location and age. - [Intent data](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/intent-data.md): 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. - [Account-based marketing](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/account-based-marketing.md): 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. ## 2. Lists and qualification How a list is built, enriched and sorted into leads worth a conversation. - [List building](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/list-building.md): 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. - [Lead enrichment](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/lead-enrichment.md): 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. - [Lead qualification](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/lead-qualification.md): 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. - [Marketing qualified lead](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/marketing-qualified-lead.md): 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. - [Sales qualified lead](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/sales-qualified-lead.md): A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that the sales team has reviewed and accepted as a real opportunity worth active selling. - [BANT](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/bant.md): 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. - [Lead scoring](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/lead-scoring.md): 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. ## 3. Outreach The shape of the messages and the people and steps behind them. - [Cold email](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/cold-email.md): 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. - [Sales cadence](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/sales-cadence.md): 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. - [Call to action](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/call-to-action.md): 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. - [A/B testing](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/a-b-testing.md): 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. - [Multichannel outreach](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/multichannel-outreach.md): Multichannel outreach means contacting one prospect on several channels, for example email, LinkedIn and the phone, following a plan for which comes when. - [Sales development representative](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/sales-development-representative.md): A sales development representative (SDR) is a person who researches prospects, reaches out to them and books meetings for account executives. ## 4. Deliverability What decides whether a message reaches an inbox at all. - [Sender reputation](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/sender-reputation.md): 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. - [Domain warm-up](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/domain-warm-up.md): 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. - [SPF](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/spf.md): 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. - [DKIM](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/dkim.md): DKIM, short for DomainKeys Identified Mail, signs each outgoing message with a private key held by the sender. - [DMARC](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/dmarc.md): A DMARC policy is a DNS record you publish for your domain. - [Bounce rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/bounce-rate.md): Bounce rate is the portion of the emails you sent that came back undelivered. ## 5. Pipeline measures The rates and costs that turn sent email into pipeline. - [Open rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/open-rate.md): Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that registered an open. - [Reply rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/reply-rate.md): Reply rate is the portion of delivered emails answered by the recipient. - [Meeting booked rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/meeting-booked-rate.md): Meeting booked rate is the share of replies that end with a meeting on the calendar. - [Cost per meeting](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/cost-per-meeting.md): Cost per meeting is everything you spend on outbound in a period divided by the number of meetings that actually took place in it. - [Pipeline coverage](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/pipeline-coverage.md): Pipeline coverage compares the deals you have in play with the revenue you want to close. ## Formulas - [Total addressable market](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/total-addressable-market.md): TAM = number of fitting companies x yearly revenue per customer - [Lead scoring](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/lead-scoring.md): lead score = fit points + behavior points - [Bounce rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/bounce-rate.md): bounce rate = bounced / sent x 100 - [Open rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/open-rate.md): open rate = opened / delivered x 100 - [Reply rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/reply-rate.md): reply rate = replies / delivered x 100 - [Meeting booked rate](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/meeting-booked-rate.md): meeting booked rate = meetings booked / replies x 100 - [Cost per meeting](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/cost-per-meeting.md): cost per meeting = all outbound spend / meetings that took place - [Pipeline coverage](https://coldmeetings.com/glossary/pipeline-coverage.md): pipeline coverage = open pipeline value / revenue goal Questions about outbound for your own company? Email hello@coldmeetings.com. ## Related - [Free cold email calculators](https://coldmeetings.com/tools.md)