The tech sales glossary

Sales Development Representative: finds and books meetings with potential customers.

The most common first job in tech sales. You research companies, reach out by phone, email and LinkedIn, and book meetings for an Account Executive. You usually don't close deals yourself.

Example: “I'm an SDR at Gong. I booked 14 meetings for my AEs last month.”

Business Development Representative. Almost always the same job as an SDR.

Some companies use BDR for outbound (cold) prospecting and SDR for following up on inbound leads; others use the words the other way around, or interchangeably. Read the job description, not the title.

Account Executive: runs demos and closes deals.

AEs take the meetings SDRs book, run discovery and demos, negotiate and sign the contract. Most AEs started as SDRs. SMB and “associate” AE roles are the usual next step after 12–24 months as an SDR.

The technical half of a sale: discovery, demos and proofs of concept, next to the AE.

Also called solutions engineer or solutions consultant. SEs answer the hard technical questions, tailor demos and run trials. Common landing spot for engineers, IT folks and technical support people who like talking to customers.

Customer Success Manager: keeps customers happy and growing after they've bought.

A CSM owns a group of existing customers (a “book of business”): onboarding, adoption, renewals and spotting chances to sell more. Less cold outreach than an SDR, more relationship work.

On-target earnings: base salary plus the commission you'd earn if you hit 100% of quota.

OTE is the headline number in sales job posts. It's not guaranteed: if you hit half your quota, you earn roughly your base plus half the commission. Ask what percentage of the team hit quota last year.

Example: $55k base + $25k variable = $80k OTE. A 50/50 split means half your OTE is commission.

The fixed part of your pay, whatever happens with your numbers.

In SDR roles the base is usually 60–70% of OTE. AE roles are often closer to 50/50.

The part of your pay tied to results.

SDRs are usually paid per qualified meeting or per opportunity that turns into pipeline; AEs on a percentage of the deals they close. “Variable” and “commission” mean the same thing in most job posts.

The target you're measured on each month or quarter.

For an SDR it's usually a number of qualified meetings or opportunities; for an AE it's revenue closed.

Example: “My quota is 12 qualified meetings a month. I hit 115% last quarter.”

How much of your quota you hit, as a percentage.

100% means you hit your target exactly. It's the number interviewers ask about, and the one you should ask them about: “What share of the team hit quota last year?”

A higher commission rate once you pass 100% of quota.

Good comp plans pay you more per deal after you hit your number, which is how top reps earn well above OTE.

Your first months, when your quota is reduced while you learn.

A typical SDR ramp is 2–3 months: maybe 25% of quota the first month, 50% the second, full quota after. Ask how long ramp is and whether pay is guaranteed during it.

You do every step yourself: find the customer, run the demo, close the deal.

Common at startups and in SMB sales, where there's no SDR team booking meetings for you.

Ideal Customer Profile: the kind of company most likely to buy and succeed with the product.

Usually described by industry, company size, location and the tools or problems they have. SDRs use the ICP to decide who's worth calling.

Example: “Our ICP is US finance teams at companies with 200–2,000 employees that still close the books in spreadsheets.”

The type of person you sell to inside the ICP company.

The ICP is the company, the persona is the person: a CFO, an IT director, a head of HR. Different personas care about different problems, so you pitch them differently.

Finding and reaching out to potential customers who haven't contacted you.

Research, list building, cold calls, emails and LinkedIn messages. It's most of an SDR's day.

You reach out first: cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn.

Outbound roles are harder and often pay more. Job posts that say “mostly outbound” mean a lot of cold outreach.

The customer reached out first: filled in a form, asked for a demo, started a trial.

Inbound SDRs respond quickly to those leads, check whether they're a fit, and book the meeting.

Calling someone who doesn't know you and isn't expecting the call.

The core skill most SDR interviews test with a role play. Good cold calls are short, honest about being a cold call, and about the other person's problem.

A planned series of touches to one prospect over a few weeks.

For example: call and email on day 1, LinkedIn on day 3, call on day 5, email on day 8, and so on. Tools like Outreach and Salesloft run cadences.

Example: “I put the 40 accounts on a 12-touch, 3-week cadence.”

Someone between you and the decision maker, like an assistant or a front desk.

Be polite and direct, and ask for help: they often know exactly who you should talk to.

The person who can say yes and sign (or approve the budget).

Often not the person who will use the product day to day, which is why deals involve several people.

A person or company that might become a customer.

Leads come from marketing (inbound) or from prospecting (outbound). Most never buy, so reps qualify them.

Marketing Qualified Lead: someone marketing thinks is worth a sales follow-up.

Usually based on what they did: downloaded a guide, attended a webinar, visited the pricing page. An SDR's job is to check whether they're a real fit.

Example: A finance manager downloads a month-end close checklist: that's an MQL.

Sales Qualified Lead: sales has confirmed it's worth an AE's time.

The SDR has talked to them and confirmed there's a real need, the right person, and a reason to act. Turning MQLs into SQLs is often how SDRs are measured.

Example: After a 10-minute call, the SDR learns the team is replacing its tool next quarter and books a demo: that MQL is now an SQL.

Figuring out whether a prospect is a real fit before spending more time on them.

Teams use frameworks like BANT or MEDDIC as checklists. Frameworks and the exact rules vary from company to company, so ask what they use.

Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline: four questions to qualify a prospect.

Is there money for this? Are you talking to someone who decides (or influences the decision)? Do they have a real problem you solve? Are they planning to act soon? You don't ask these as a list; you weave them into the conversation.

Example: Need: “How are you handling month-end close today?” Timeline: “Is fixing that a priority this year?” Authority: “Who else would weigh in on a change like that?” Budget: “Is there budget set aside for tools like this?”

A deeper qualification framework for bigger deals.

Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion. More of an AE tool than an SDR one, but interviewers like hearing that you know it exists.

A conversation to understand the customer's situation and problems before pitching anything.

Good discovery is mostly questions and listening. SDRs do a short version on the phone; AEs run a longer one in the first meeting. Many AE interviews include a mock discovery call.

A reason the prospect gives for not moving forward.

“Not interested”, “no budget”, “we already use X”, “send me an email”. Handling objections calmly, with a question instead of an argument, is a big part of the SDR role play.

Someone inside the customer who wants you to win and helps you sell internally.

Interestingly, it's exactly what a referral is for you: someone inside the company vouching for you.

All the open deals a rep or team is working, and what they might be worth.

SDRs “generate pipeline” by booking meetings that turn into opportunities. Your job search works the same way, which is why we call your tracker a pipeline.

A qualified deal that's officially in the pipeline.

When the AE accepts a meeting as real, it becomes an opportunity, and that's often when the SDR gets credit.

The share of things at one stage that make it to the next.

Sales teams track it at every step: dials to conversations, conversations to meetings, meetings to deals.

Example: 100 calls, 8 conversations, 2 meetings: an 8% connect rate and a 25% meeting rate.

A deal that signed (won) or ended without signing (lost).

AEs are measured on closed-won revenue.

Annual recurring revenue / annual contract value: what a customer pays per year.

Software is usually sold as a yearly subscription, so deals are described by their yearly value.

Churn: customers who leave. NRR: how much revenue you keep and grow from existing customers.

The numbers customer success teams live by. NRR over 100% means existing customers are spending more than last year.

Customer size: small businesses, mid-size companies, and very large companies.

SMB deals are smaller and faster; enterprise deals are big and slow, with many people involved. New reps usually start in SMB or mid-market.

Software as a Service: software you pay for by subscription and use in the browser.

Most of the companies on this site sell SaaS.

The system where sales teams track every customer and deal. Salesforce and HubSpot are the big ones.

You'll live in it. Logging calls and updating deals is part of the job.

Software that runs your cadences: Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo and others.

Job posts list them under “tools”. Don't worry if you haven't used them: they're quick to learn.

Showing the product to a prospect, tailored to their problem.

Usually run by the AE or a sales engineer. SDRs book them.

Proof of concept: a trial where the customer tests the product on their real problem.

Common in technical sales, often run by a sales engineer.

A tested way of saying something on calls, like an opener or an objection answer.

Not a script you read word for word; a structure you make your own.

The set of customers a rep (often a CSM or AM) owns.

“I manage a $2M book of 40 mid-market accounts.”