CRM DAILY — YOUR DAILY CRM & GTM INTELLIGENCE
IST
crmdaily
CRM & GTM Intelligence Daily
// CRM_STOCKS_LIVE
← CRM DailyCRM 101 · Glossary · Vol. 01

The
Glossary.

180 terms every CRM, RevOps and GTM operator should know. Written by the desk, updated weekly.

Terms
180
Categories
6
Letters
22/26
Updated
Jul 2026
// Sections

Six beats, one book.

>_180 / 180
A
15 terms
No 00106 Marketing
ABM
Account-Based Marketing, coordinated sales + marketing plays run against a finite named account list.
Read definition→
No 00201 Sales
Accelerator
A comp-plan multiplier that pays a higher commission rate on bookings above quota.
Read definition→
No 00303 GTM
Activation
The moment a new user completes the action that reliably predicts long-term retention.
Read definition→
No 00404 Metrics
Activation Rate
% of new signups who complete the defined activation event within a defined window.
Read definition→
No 00504 Metrics
ACV
Annual Contract Value, normalised annual revenue from a customer contract, excluding one-time fees.
Read definition→
No 00604 Metrics
Adoption
The extent to which a customer's users actually use the product's key features in their daily workflow.
Read definition→
No 00701 Sales
AE
aka Account Executive
Account Executive, the quota-carrying rep who runs deals from qualified opportunity to close.
Read definition→
No 00805 AI
Agent
An AI system that plans, uses tools and takes actions autonomously toward a goal, not just generates text.
Read definition→
No 00905 AI
Agentforce
Salesforce's platform for building and deploying autonomous AI agents inside the CRM.
Read definition→
No 01005 AI
Agentic SDR
An AI agent that autonomously researches, personalises and sends outbound sequences with human oversight.
Read definition→
No 01103 GTM
AI-Native
A product or company whose core value, workflow and pricing were designed around AI from day one, not retrofitted.
Read definition→
No 01204 Metrics
ARPA
Average Revenue Per Account, total recurring revenue divided by number of accounts.
Read definition→
No 01304 Metrics
ARR
Annual Recurring Revenue, the run-rate of contracted subscription revenue at a point in time.
Read definition→
No 01404 Metrics
ASC 606
The US GAAP standard governing revenue recognition from contracts with customers, in force since 2018.
Read definition→
No 01501 Sales
Attainment
The percentage of quota a rep, segment or team achieved in a period.
Read definition→
C
29 terms
No 02304 Metrics
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost, fully-loaded S&M spend divided by new customers acquired in the period.
Read definition→
No 02404 Metrics
CAC Payback
Months of gross profit required to recover the CAC of a new customer.
Read definition→
No 02502 RevOps
Capacity Model
Top-down bookings model: # of reps × ramp-adjusted productivity × attainment assumption × seasonality.
Read definition→
No 02604 Metrics
Cash Collections
The cash actually received from customers in a period, the number CFOs plan runway from.
Read definition→
No 02706 Marketing
Category Creation
The strategic move of defining a new market category and positioning your company as its default leader.
Read definition→
No 02806 Marketing
CDP
aka Customer Data Platform
Customer Data Platform, a unified store of first-party customer data, resolved to a single profile per person or account.
Read definition→
No 02901 Sales
Challenger Sale
CEB's 2011 research: complex-sale winners Teach, Tailor and Take Control, they reframe the buyer's worldview.
Read definition→
No 03001 Sales
Champion
An internal advocate inside the buying org who sells the deal when you are not in the room.
Read definition→
No 03103 GTM
Channel Sales
aka Indirect Sales
Selling through third parties (resellers, VARs, MSPs, SIs) instead of, or alongside, direct sales.
Read definition→
No 03204 Metrics
Churn
The rate at which customers or revenue leave the business in a period.
Read definition→
No 03301 Sales
Clawback
Commission recovered from a rep when a booked deal churns, downgrades or is refunded within a defined window.
Read definition→
No 03405 AI
Clay
GTM data platform that combines 50+ data providers and LLM enrichment for account and contact research.
Read definition→
No 03501 Sales
Closed-Lost
Terminal opportunity stage, the deal did not close. Loss reason is the most-lied-about field in CRM.
Read definition→
No 03601 Sales
Closed-Won
Terminal opportunity stage, signed order form, in bookings, comp payable.
Read definition→
No 03704 Metrics
Cohort Analysis
Grouping customers by signup period and measuring retention, expansion or LTV over time.
Read definition→
No 03801 Sales
Commit
Forecast category: deals a rep is personally staking their number on. Historical close rate 90%+.
Read definition→
No 03901 Sales
Comp Plan
The written document governing how a rep is paid, base, variable, rate, accelerators, SPIFFs and clawbacks.
Read definition→
No 04006 Marketing
Content Marketing
Creating written, video and audio content that attracts, educates and converts a target audience over time.
Read definition→
No 04104 Metrics
Contraction ARR
ARR lost from existing customers via downgrades, seat reductions or plan changes, short of full churn.
Read definition→
No 04205 AI
Copilot
An AI assistant that suggests, drafts and summarises inside a human workflow, the human stays in the loop.
Read definition→
No 04306 Marketing
CPA
aka Cost Per Acquisition
Cost Per Acquisition, paid spend divided by paying customers acquired. The bottom-of-funnel efficiency metric.
Read definition→
No 04406 Marketing
CPL
aka Cost Per Lead
Cost Per Lead, paid spend divided by leads generated. The top-of-funnel efficiency metric.
Read definition→
No 04501 Sales
CPQ
aka Configure Price Quote
Configure, Price, Quote, software that produces a valid, priced quote from a product catalogue and rules engine.
Read definition→
No 04601 Sales
CRM
aka Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management, the system of record for accounts, contacts, opportunities and activities.
Read definition→
No 04701 Sales
Cross-sell
Selling an additional product or SKU into an existing customer.
Read definition→
No 04804 Metrics
CSAT
Customer Satisfaction Score, post-interaction 1–5 or 1–7 survey, reported as % top-box.
Read definition→
No 04901 Sales
CSM
aka Customer Success Manager
Customer Success Manager, post-sale owner of adoption, retention and (often) expansion.
Read definition→
No 05006 Marketing
CTR
aka Click-Through Rate
Click-Through Rate, clicks divided by impressions. The primary engagement metric for ads and email.
Read definition→
No 05106 Marketing
CVR
aka Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate, completed actions divided by total sessions or clicks.
Read definition→
D
10 terms
No 05206 Marketing
Dark Funnel
aka Dark Social
The un-attributable buyer research that happens off your properties, podcasts, Slack groups, LinkedIn, ChatGPT.
Read definition→
No 05302 RevOps
Data Warehouse
The central analytical database (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift) where all business data is consolidated.
Read definition→
No 05401 Sales
Deal Desk
Cross-functional team (finance, legal, product, RevOps) that reviews and approves non-standard deal terms.
Read definition→
No 05501 Sales
Deal Review
A manager-led inspection of an open opportunity against a qualification framework and MAP.
Read definition→
No 05601 Sales
Decelerator
A comp-plan modifier that pays a lower rate below a threshold, protecting the business from paying full commission on weak performance.
Read definition→
No 05704 Metrics
Deferred Revenue
aka Unearned Revenue
Cash collected for services not yet delivered, sitting on the balance sheet as a liability until earned.
Read definition→
No 05806 Marketing
Demand Gen
aka Demand Generation
The marketing discipline of creating and capturing buyer intent, paid, content, events, community.
Read definition→
No 05901 Sales
Demo
A tailored product walkthrough tied back to the specific pain uncovered in discovery. Not a feature tour.
Read definition→
No 06001 Sales
Discovery Call
The first substantive sales conversation, where qualification, pain and process are established, not product pitched.
Read definition→
No 06104 Metrics
DSO
aka Days Sales Outstanding
Days Sales Outstanding, average days to collect cash after invoicing. A working-capital efficiency metric.
Read definition→
M
10 terms
No 09404 Metrics
Magic Number
Net new ARR in a quarter divided by S&M spend in the prior quarter. A payback proxy.
Read definition→
No 09503 GTM
Marketing Waterfall
SiriusDecisions' funnel model: Inquiry → MQL → SAL → SQL → Opp → Closed. Conversion at each gate.
Read definition→
No 09603 GTM
Marketplace
Cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP) or SaaS platform (Salesforce AppExchange) storefronts for third-party software.
Read definition→
No 09703 GTM
MDF
aka Market Development Funds · Co-op Funds
Market Development Funds, co-op marketing dollars vendors give partners to drive joint pipeline.
Read definition→
No 09801 Sales
MEDDIC
aka MEDDPICC · MEDDICC
A B2B qualification framework: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion.
Read definition→
No 09905 AI
Model Context Protocol
aka MCP
An open standard (introduced by Anthropic in late 2024) for connecting AI models to tools, data and services.
Read definition→
No 10002 RevOps
MQL
aka Marketing Qualified Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead, an inbound lead that has met a fit + intent threshold and is ready for SDR outreach.
Read definition→
No 10104 Metrics
MRR
Monthly Recurring Revenue, the monthly-normalised version of ARR.
Read definition→
No 10201 Sales
MSA
aka Master Services Agreement
Master Services Agreement, the umbrella legal contract governing all commercial engagements between two parties.
Read definition→
No 10301 Sales
Mutual Action Plan
aka MAP · Close Plan
A shared, dated checklist of steps and owners, buyer and seller, from now to signature and go-live.
Read definition→
P
16 terms
No 11503 GTM
Packaging
How product features are grouped into tiers, editions or add-ons that customers buy.
Read definition→
No 11601 Sales
Parallel Dialer
Software that dials 3–10 numbers simultaneously and connects the rep only when a human answers.
Read definition→
No 11703 GTM
Persona
A named archetype representing a specific role in the buying committee, champion, user, EB, etc.
Read definition→
No 11801 Sales
PIP
aka Performance Improvement Plan
Performance Improvement Plan, the formal 30–90 day plan a rep enters when attainment falls below threshold.
Read definition→
No 11902 RevOps
Pipeline Coverage
Open pipeline in a period divided by the quota for that period. The health check every RevOps team runs on Mondays.
Read definition→
No 12001 Sales
Playbook
A codified set of steps a rep or CSM runs against a specific scenario, deal type or customer signal.
Read definition→
No 12103 GTM
PLG
aka Product-Led Growth
Product-Led Growth, a GTM motion where the product itself is the primary acquisition and expansion driver.
Read definition→
No 12203 GTM
PLG 2026
Shorthand for the post-ZIRP evolution of PLG: usage-based pricing, product-qualified accounts, and hybrid sales-assist motions.
Read definition→
No 12301 Sales
POC / Pilot
aka Proof of Concept · Pilot
A time-boxed, success-criteria-bound trial of the product against the buyer's real data or workflow.
Read definition→
No 12403 GTM
Positioning
The deliberate choice of what your product is, who it's for, and what it's better than. April Dunford's discipline.
Read definition→
No 12506 Marketing
PPC
aka Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click advertising, primarily Google Ads and Bing, where the advertiser is charged per click.
Read definition→
No 12604 Metrics
PQL
aka Product Qualified Lead
Product Qualified Lead, a user or account that has taken product actions predictive of buying intent.
Read definition→
No 12703 GTM
Pricing Page
The public web page that communicates tiers, prices and value. The most inspected page in most SaaS websites.
Read definition→
No 12803 GTM
Private Offer
A cloud marketplace deal with custom pricing, term and terms negotiated 1:1 with a specific customer.
Read definition→
No 12903 GTM
Product-Market Fit
aka PMF
The point where the market is pulling the product out of the company faster than the team can ship.
Read definition→
No 13005 AI
Prompt Engineering
The craft of designing model inputs (system prompts, few-shot examples, output schemas) to elicit reliable outputs.
Read definition→
R
14 terms
No 13405 AI
RAG
aka Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Retrieval-Augmented Generation, grounding an LLM's response in retrieved documents to reduce hallucination.
Read definition→
No 13501 Sales
Ramp
The productivity curve of a new rep from hire to full quota, typically 3–9 months depending on ACV.
Read definition→
No 13603 GTM
Referral Loop
A programmatic incentive that turns satisfied customers into a repeatable acquisition channel.
Read definition→
No 13703 GTM
Reseller
A partner that resells the vendor's product to end customers, taking a margin on each transaction.
Read definition→
No 13806 Marketing
Retargeting
Serving ads to users who previously visited your site or engaged with your content.
Read definition→
No 13905 AI
Revenue Intelligence
Software category (Gong, Clari, Chorus) that captures every rep interaction and mines it for coaching, forecasting and risk.
Read definition→
No 14002 RevOps
Revenue Leakage
Contracted revenue that never becomes cash, lost to un-billed usage, missed renewals, discounts or clerical error.
Read definition→
No 14102 RevOps
Revenue Orchestration
Software category (Default, Distribute, LeanData, Chili Piper) that automates handoffs, routing and workflows across the revenue stack.
Read definition→
No 14204 Metrics
Revenue Recognition
aka Rev Rec
The accounting process of recording revenue in the period it is earned, not the period it is billed or collected.
Read definition→
No 14302 RevOps
Reverse ETL
Moving modelled data from the warehouse back into operational tools (CRM, marketing, product) for activation.
Read definition→
No 14403 GTM
Reverse Trial
New signups get the paid tier free for 14–30 days, then drop to freemium if they don't convert. Best of both worlds.
Read definition→
No 14502 RevOps
RevOps
Revenue Operations, the function unifying sales, marketing and CS ops around one pipeline and system of record.
Read definition→
No 14602 RevOps
Round Robin
Fair-share distribution of unassigned leads across eligible reps, one at a time.
Read definition→
No 14704 Metrics
Rule of 40
Growth rate + free cash flow margin should sum to at least 40 for a healthy SaaS business.
Read definition→
S
19 terms
No 14804 Metrics
SaaS Quick Ratio
(New MRR + Expansion MRR) / (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR). Growth efficiency vs. leakage.
Read definition→
No 14902 RevOps
SAL
aka Sales Accepted Lead
Sales Accepted Lead, the AE has confirmed the SQL meets the ICP and is worth working.
Read definition→
No 15001 Sales
Sales Cycle
Median days from opportunity created to close-won.
Read definition→
No 15101 Sales
Sales Enablement
The function that equips reps with the training, content, tooling and process to sell effectively.
Read definition→
No 15201 Sales
Sales Engineer
aka SE · Solutions Consultant
Technical pre-sales partner to the AE, owns demo, POC, technical validation and architecture Qs.
Read definition→
No 15301 Sales
Sales Kickoff
aka SKO
The annual all-hands sales conference that resets strategy, comp, product and territory for the year.
Read definition→
No 15401 Sales
Salesforce
The dominant enterprise CRM platform, founded 1999. The default system of record above ~$50M ARR.
Read definition→
No 15501 Sales
Sandler Selling
A submarine-model methodology built around upfront contracts, pain funnel and 'no' being an acceptable answer.
Read definition→
No 15601 Sales
SDR
aka Sales Development Representative
Sales Development Rep, outbound-focused rep who prospects new accounts and books meetings for AEs.
Read definition→
No 15703 GTM
Seat-Based Pricing
Pricing per named user or active seat. The default SaaS pricing model since 1999.
Read definition→
No 15806 Marketing
SEM
aka Search Engine Marketing · Paid Search
Search Engine Marketing, paid ads on search results, primarily Google Ads.
Read definition→
No 15906 Marketing
SEO
aka Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation, earning organic ranking on Google (and increasingly LLM answers) for target queries.
Read definition→
No 16001 Sales
Sequence
aka Cadence
A multi-touch, multi-channel outbound cadence executed by an SDR, email, call, LinkedIn, over ~2–3 weeks.
Read definition→
No 16101 Sales
Signal-Based Selling
Triggering outbound sales motions from real-time buying signals (job change, funding, tech stack shift, product usage) rather than fixed cadences.
Read definition→
No 16201 Sales
SOW
aka Statement of Work
Statement of Work, a scoped services engagement (implementation, integration, consulting) under an MSA.
Read definition→
No 16301 Sales
SPIFF
aka Special Performance Incentive
A short-term bonus incentive on top of comp plan, usually for a specific product, quarter or behaviour.
Read definition→
No 16401 Sales
SPIN Selling
Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff, Neil Rackham's question-based framework for consultative discovery.
Read definition→
No 16502 RevOps
SQL
aka Sales Qualified Lead
Sales Qualified Lead, an MQL that an SDR has contacted, qualified and accepted for AE handoff.
Read definition→
No 16601 Sales
Stage Gate
Explicit exit criteria a deal must satisfy to move from one pipeline stage to the next.
Read definition→
// Suggest a term

Missing a term?

If it's in a deal review, a board deck or an AE Slack thread and it's not here yet, the desk wants to know.

Email the desk →← Back to CRM Daily