The following KB is designed to help you become familiar with key sales terminology. Also make sure to review standard commission terminology.
================ CRM Systems ================
Most sales activity is tracked in CRM systems such as:
- Dynamic CRM
- SalesForce
- HubSpot
- PipeDrive
- <many other systems>
Those CRM systems always have the same built-in entities such as:
- Contacts
- Individual customers (ex: John Doe at Microsoft).
- Accounts
- Customer as an entity (ex: Microsoft).
- Leads
- Potential opportunities which need more validation
- Lead types include
- SQL = sales qualified lead (ex: the customer has a budget)
- SAO = sales accepted opportunity (ex: a sales person review the lead)
- Often classified as Cold, Warm, Hot
- Opportunities (sometimes Deals)
- Once a lead is qualified, it becomes an opportunity
- Opportunity statuses include
- Open = still actively working on it
- Closed = finalized the opportunity
- Closed won = the deal was won
- Closed lost = the deal was lost
- Often classified as Cold, Warm, Hot
All CRM systems support customizations, such as creating new custom entities, defining new relationships between them, and customizing views & forms. For example, a medical device manufacturer could create a custom entity called "Surgery Room", and rename the built-in "Contact" entity to "Doctor".
================ Job Titles ================
Here are some standard job titles.
BDR / SDR = Business / Sales Development Representative
- Hunters
- Leverage telemarketing, emails, cold calling, web visits, white paper downloads, etc.
- Follow up on received sales enquiries (ex: sales ticket)
- Generate leads
- Leads need to be qualified
- Does the customer have a budget?
- Is the customer a good fit?
- Who qualifies leads varies
- Sometimes, leads are qualified by BDR / SDR, sometimes by AEs, sometimes by marketing
AE = Account Executive
- Most of the sales workforce
- Close deals, facilitate sales
- Typically own specific opportunities
AM = Account Managers
- Post-sale account maintenance
- Ensure good relationships with existing customers
- Same as customer success in technical support, but for sales
- Typically own specific customer accounts
BDM = Business Development Managers
- Expand strategic relationships
- Research new markets or segments
- Grow existing customer accounts
- Sometimes work on "strategic" accounts
TM / TSM = Territory (Sales) Managers
- Manage a territory (ex: South-East) or segment (ex: Government)
- Not necessarily people managers
- May work in a transversal manner
- Typically own a territory or segment
Sometimes, there is some type of pairing between roles. For example, a TSM is paired with an AM. Those job definitions are loose, and many variants exist. In one organization, an AE may be equivalent to a BDM in another organization.