Glossary
B2B acquisition terms explained in plain language, with practical examples.
AI SDR agent
What an AI SDR agent is, which prospecting tasks it automates — research, personalization, sequencing — and why human strategy and supervision stay essential.
B2B prospecting
What B2B prospecting is, the stages from list building to first conversation, and how to turn sporadic prospecting into a repeatable system.
Buying signals
What buying signals are in B2B, the main types of observable signals, and how to use them to decide which accounts to contact and when.
CAC (customer acquisition cost)
What CAC is, how to calculate customer acquisition cost honestly, and how the CAC-to-LTV relationship governs B2B channel and growth decisions.
Cold email
What cold email is in B2B, how it differs from spam, and the infrastructure, targeting and personalization that make unsolicited outreach work.
Data enrichment
What data enrichment is, how firmographic and contact data get appended and verified, and why enriched records are the fuel of segmentation and personalization.
Deliverability
What email deliverability means, the technical and behavioral factors that determine inbox placement, and how to protect it in B2B cold email programs.
DKIM
What DKIM is, how cryptographic signatures prove an email was not altered, and why it is required for inbox placement in B2B outbound programs.
DMARC
What DMARC is, how it builds on SPF and DKIM to stop domain spoofing, and which policy to publish to protect deliverability in B2B email.
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
What an ICP is in B2B sales, how to build one from real data, and why it determines the quality of every prospecting and outbound campaign.
Intent data
What intent data is in B2B, the difference between first-party and third-party signals, and how to use research behavior to prioritize outbound accounts.
Legitimate interest (GDPR)
What legitimate interest means under the GDPR, the three-part balancing test, and how B2B prospecting programs rely on it responsibly. Not legal advice.
Mailbox warm-up
What mailbox warm-up is, how progressive sending builds sender reputation, and why skipping it sends B2B cold email campaigns straight to spam.
Multichannel sequence
What a multichannel sequence is in B2B outbound, how email, LinkedIn and phone touches combine, and how to orchestrate them without harassing prospects.
Outbound vs. inbound
The real differences between outbound and inbound in B2B — control, speed, cost dynamics — and why mature companies run both instead of picking sides.
Personalization at scale
What personalization at scale means in B2B outbound, how AI makes researched, account-specific messages viable at volume, and where the limits are.
Qualified lead (MQL & SQL)
What a qualified lead is, the difference between MQL and SQL, and how clear qualification criteria keep B2B pipelines clean and forecasts honest.
Reply rate
What reply rate means in B2B outbound, why it beats open rate as a health metric, and the levers — targeting, relevance, deliverability — that move it.
Sales pipeline
What a sales pipeline is, how to define stages that reflect buyer commitment, and how pipeline discipline turns B2B forecasting from guesswork into math.
Secondary domain
What a secondary domain is in outbound, how it isolates cold email risk from your corporate domain, and how to set one up without hurting your brand.
SPF
What SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is, how the DNS record authorizes sending servers, and why it is a baseline requirement for B2B email deliverability.
Target account
What a target account is in B2B, how to build and prioritize a target account list from your ICP, and why named-account focus beats spray-and-pray.