1. Lead
A potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service in some way — like signing up for a newsletter or visiting your site.
2. Prospect
A lead that’s been vetted and matches your target customer profile — worth pursuing actively.
3. Cold Calling
Reaching out to a prospect (usually by phone or email) who hasn’t expressed prior interest. It’s about introducing your solution and starting a conversation from scratch. (View Cold Calling Scripts)
4. Conversation Opening
The first moments of a sales conversation. This sets the tone, builds rapport, and sparks curiosity. A strong opening can be based on a mutual connection, a shared problem, or a quick insight into their business.
5. Sales Hook
A detail or pain point mentioned by the prospect that you can use to make your pitch more relevant. For example, if they say, “We’re tired of switching between apps,” you can hook them with your product’s all-in-one features. (View Sales Hooks)
6. Buying Signal
A verbal or behavioral cue that shows a prospect is seriously considering a purchase. (Example: “How long is your contract term?”)
7. Pain Point
A specific frustration, inefficiency, or goal the customer wants to solve. Your product should address this directly. (View Identified Pain Points)
8. Value Proposition
A short, clear statement of how your product helps the prospect — by solving a pain point, saving money, saving time, or making life easier.
9. Dealing with Objections
Handling concerns the prospect raises — about price, timing, features, or competitors. Objections aren’t “no” — they’re opportunities to clarify value, educate, or adapt your pitch.
10. Call to Action (CTA)
A clear next step you ask the prospect to take — like “Book a demo,” “Try the free trial,” or “Let’s schedule a follow-up.”
11. Discovery Call
An early conversation to understand the prospect’s goals, needs, and problems. This helps tailor your pitch and build trust.
12. Pipeline
A visual or tracked representation of all prospects and where they are in the sales journey — from first contact to close.
13. Sales Funnel
The broader customer journey: Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Decision → Purchase.
14. Qualified Leads
A lead that fits your ideal customer profile and has potential to buy soon — based on MTNUT.
MTNUT is a structured method to qualify leads quickly and effectively, ensuring your time is spent on the right prospects.
Money Does the lead have the budget or financial capacity to afford your solution?
Timeframe Is there a timeline or urgency for implementation? Are they looking to solve this now, next quarter, or “someday”?
Need Do they actually need what you offer? What’s their pain point? Are they aware of it?
Urgency How critical is the need? Are there consequences for inaction? Can your product help them avoid risk or seize an immediate opportunity?
Trust Do they trust you, your company, and your solution? What’s their perception of your brand or past experience with similar vendors?
15. Close
When a prospect becomes a customer — the deal is finalized.
16. Upsell
Encouraging a customer to purchase a higher-tier product or additional features.
17. Cross-sell
Selling a related product or service that complements what the customer is already buying.
18. Churn
When an existing customer stops using your product or cancels their subscription. Keeping churn low means keeping customers happy.
19. Conversion Rate
The percentage of leads that become paying customers — an important metric for evaluating sales performance.
20. Sales Enablement
Resources, training, and tools provided to help salespeople (and others!) succeed. This can include sales decks, objection-handling scripts, video tools, and onboarding materials.