Account-Based Marketing. The application of demand creation programs and messaging on either a company-by-company or account-by-account (for larger customers/prospects with multiple business units/geographic locations) basis.

Business-to-Business. The selling and marketing of goods and services to other businesses; a transaction between companies.

Business-to-Consumer. The selling and marketing of goods and services to consumers; a transaction between a company and a consumer.

Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline. One of three core families of a lead scoring system (the others are demographics and activity).

Business Development Reps

Business Intelligence

Business Process Management

A six-stage cycle of actions that a prospect team (made up of champions, CXOs, users, influencers and ratifiers) drives as they evolve from a cold lead to a closed deal. The six stages of the buying cycle are:

• Loosening of the Status Quo
• Committing to Change
• Exploring Possible Solutions
• Committing to a Solution
• Justifying the Decision
• Making the Selection

Center of Excellence

The total score of all leads for a specific company. This may also be calculated by average. Also known as Account Score.

The strategy of pushing new products to current customers based on their past purchases.

Customized Sales Communications

A central or regional hub of shared marketing services, infrastructure and process that enables organizations to bring programs to market by leveraging key corporate assets and best practices.

The kind of demand that a product/service creates driven by its position in the market. There are three types of demand:

• New Concept. A disruptive product or service with no budgetary line item within target organizations. New concept marketing and selling is highly evangelistic and requires significant ability to create or uncover issues/problems, and find highly influential, highly motivated prospects. Establishing market leadership is the primary objective.
• New Paradigm. A product or service that promises to retool or optimize an existing process, or solve a known issue more effectively than currently believed possible. The replacement (or augmentation) of an existing product or serviceís budget line item will typically be required. Changing a process or existing solution is the primary objective.
• Established Market. A product or service that is accepted by the majority of organizations to be necessary. The market for these products is typically served by a few powerful providers that battle with each other for market share. Competitive positioning is the primary objective.

Schematic that depicts a shared view between marketing and sales of net new business health. There are five stages in the waterfall, including:

• Inquiry. A raw response to a marketing tactic; a hand raised by a prospect.
• Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). A lead has been deemed worthy of handoff to sales. Characteristics may or may not include attributes such as demographics or activity and/or an assessment of the viability of the prospect as an opportunity.
• Sales Accepted Lead (SAL). An acknowledgement by sales that they have received the MQL and that it meets agreed-upon criteria; as a result, it will act on it within a previously agreed upon timeframe.
• Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). The decision from sales, after a series of interactions (phone, Web or in-person), that opportunity with a dollar value and a timeframe exists.
• Closed Business. A deal that has been approved by a customer as a commitment to purchase.

The ability to automatically lower a lead score due to inactivity, status change, or any other attribute that signifies a decrease in the level of interest - sometimes known as Lead Degradation and Score Decay.

Enterprise Content Management

Information that a prospect provides that is unambiguous such as title, industry, company, etc.

Incentive Compensation Management

Information that is revealed by a prospectís online behaviour such as pages visited, and recency or frequency of visits

The practice of targeting unknown individuals with value-added content that drives them to self-identify.

Inside Sales Reps

Key Performance Indicator. These are measurements that indicate the health of the business, typically focused on aggregate growth, costs, market share and profit.

A multi-step process that regulates the flow of leads between functions, particularly in the early stages of the demand waterfall, to ensure that prospects are truly ready to interact with sales (not too early or too late). Requires a collaborative, disciplined effort that is backed by technology. Three types of nurturing exist: pre-MQL, recycled and reconstituted.

The methodology for ranking prospects against one another including the designation of lead flow, assigning ownership, and implementing agreed upon business rules for follow-up. There are three main categories of scoring attributes: demographics, activity and BANT.

The attributes that sales and marketing have agreed upon as the definitive characteristics of a lead. Typically includes attributes that fall into four categories: demographics, attributes, activity and buying status.

• Demographics. Includes company characteristics such as revenue size, industry, sub-industry, geographical region and employees. Also includes individual characteristics of the prospect such as: title, function, power level and buying role.
• Attributes. Pieces of information that when known help to determine the viability of one lead vs. another. Sample attributes could include knowledge such as: employee number, functional budget allocations, parent vs. subsidiary, installation of legacy systems, unique technical requirements and competitive situation.
• Activity. Specific activities that a prospect engages in, such as downloading a white paper, attending a live event, submitting a survey or completing a needs template. Best practice includes assigning significance, frequency and recency of activity.
• Buying Status. May include budget-authority-need-timeline (BANT) characteristics. Always consider if this information can be reliably collected by marketing or if itís better suited for teleprospecting or sales interactions.