62 Common Sales Terms Explained for

Marketers
Definitions of Common Sales Terms
ABC

"Always Be Closing." An antiquated sales strategy that basically says everything a sales rep does
throughout the sales process is in pursuit toward the singular goal of closing a deal. The
implication is that, if a sales rep doesn't close the deal, then everything they did regarding that
opportunity was a failure. In the inbound methodology, the preferred ABCs of selling are:
Always Be Connecting.
Adoption process

Another way of saying "the buying process." The stages a potential buyer goes through, from
learning about a new product or service to either becoming a loyal customer or rejecting it. The
potential buyer may or may not end up purchasing/adopting that product or service.
AIDA

An acronym used in Sales that stands for Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. They are
the four steps of the now somewhat-outdated Purchase Funnel (although most agree the funnel is
much more complex than what is represented in this traditional model), wherein customers travel
from awareness to purchase.

Benefit

The value of a product or service that a consumer of that product or service experiences.
Benefits are distinct from features, and sales reps should sell based on benefits that are supported
by features.
Bad Leads

Leads that are unlikely to become paying customers -- and a sales rep's worst nightmare, because
they are a waste of time. A tough challenge for most marketers is how you separate good, highquality leads from the people who are just poking around your site. Learn more about lead
scoring here.
BANT

An acronym used in sales for lead qualification that stands for Budget, Authority, Need,
Timeline. It's a famous tool for sales reps and sales leaders to help them determine whether their
prospects have the budget, authority, need, and right timeline to buy what they sell.

B = Budget: Determines whether your prospect has a budget for what

you're selling.

A = Authority: Determines whether your prospect has the authority to make

a purchasing decision.

N = Need: Determines whether there's a business need for what you're

selling.

T = Timeline: Determines the time frame for implementation.

The BANT formula was originally developed by IBM several decades ago. We don't think
BANT is good enough anymore, though: Learn more here about the better qualifying formula,
GPCTBA/C&I.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

A stage of the buying process leads reach when they're just about to close into new customers.
They've identified a problem, have shopped around for possible solutions, and are very close to
buying.
Buyer Behavior

The ways a consumer identifies, considers, and chooses products and services. Buyer behavior is
often influenced by the consumer's needs, desires, aspirations, inhibitions, role, social and
cultural environment.

Buyer Persona

A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data
about your existing customers. While it helps inbound marketers like you define their target
audience, it can also help sales reps qualify leads. Learn more about developing buyer personas
here.
Buying Criteria

All the information a consumer needs to make a buying decision. It can be written or unwritten,
and often answers questions like, "what is it?; "why should I buy it?"; "what is the price?"; "why
do I need it?" and so on.
Buying Process/Cycle

The process potential buyers go through before deciding whether to make a purchase. Although
it's been broken it down into many sub-stages to align with different business models, it can
universally be boiled down to these three lifecycle stages:
1. Awareness: Leads have either become aware of your product or service, or
they have become aware that they have a need that must be fulfilled.
2. Evaluation: Leads are aware that your product or service could fulfill their
need, and they are trying to determine whether you are the best fit.
3. Purchase: Leads are ready to make a purchase.
Buying Signal

A communication from a prospect indicating they are ready to make a purchase, either verbal or
non-verbal. An example would be them asking the sales rep, "When can it be delivered?"
Churn Rate

A metric that measures how many customers you retain and at what value. To calculate churn
rate, take the number of customers you lost during a certain time frame, and divide that by the
total number of customers you had at the very beginning of that time frame. (Don't include any
new sales from that time frame.)
For example, if a company had 500 customers at the beginning of October and only 450
customers at the end of October (discounting any customers that were closed in October), their
customer churn rate would be: (500-450)/500 = 50/500 = 10%.
Churn rate is a significant metric primarily for recurring revenue companies. Regardless of your
monthly revenue, if your average customer does not stick around long enough for you to at least
break even on your customer acquisition costs, youre in trouble.

Closed Opportunities

An umbrella term that includes both closed-won and closed-lost opportunities, although some
people use it to mean only closed-won opportunities.
Closed-Won

When a sales rep closes a deal in which the buyer purchases the product or service.
Closed-Lost

When a sales rep closes a deal in which the buyer does not purchase the product or service.
Closing Ratio

The percentage of prospects that a sales rep successfully close-wins. This ratio is usually used to
assess individual sales reps on their short-term performance, but it can also be used to evaluate
profits, forecast sales, and so on. Improving a closing ratio usually requires efforts to bring
better-qualified leads into the funnel.
Cold Calling

Making unsolicited calls in an attempt to sell products or services. It's also a very inefficient way
to find potential customers -- learn more about how cold calling compares to demand creation
here.
Commission

The payment a sales rep gets when they successfully sell something; usually a percentage of
sales revenue. If you want more info on commission structures, check out this blog post.
Consumer

A person who uses a product or service. They may not be the actual buyer of that product; for
example, if I buy my brother a pair of basketball shoes, then my brother is the consumer of those
shoes, not me.
Conversion Path

The "events" on a company's website that help companies capture leads. In its most basic form,
it'll consist of a call-to-action (typically a button that describes an offer) that leads to a landing
page with a lead capture form, which redirects to a thank-you page where a content offer resides.
In exchange for his or her contact information, a website visitor obtains a content offer to better
help them through the buying process.
Conversion Rate

The percentage of people who completed a desired action on a single web page, such as filling
out a form. Pages with high conversion rates are performing well, while pages with low
conversion rates are performing poorly.

Cross-Selling

When a sales rep has more than one type of product to offer consumers that could be beneficial,
and s/he successfully sells a consumer more than one item either at the time of purchase or later
on. An example is when Apple sells you an iPhone and then successfully sells you an Apple
iPhone case or a pair of Apple headphones. In this case, a sales rep identifies a need the customer
has, and fulfills that need by recommending an additional product. (Cross-selling differs from
up-selling; see up-selling.)
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

This is your total Sales and Marketing cost. To calculate, follow these steps for a given time
period (month, quarter, or year):
1. Add up program or advertising spend + salaries + commissions + bonuses +
overhead.
2. Divide by the number of new customers in that time period.

For example, if you spend $500,000 on Sales and Marketing in a given month and added 50
customers that same month, then your CAC was $10,000 that month. (Learn more here.)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Software that let companies keep track of everything they do with their existing and potential
customers. At the simplest level, CRM software lets you keep track of all the contact information
for these customers. But CRM systems can do lots of other things, too, like track email, phone
calls, faxes, and deals; send personalized emails; schedule appointments; and log every instance
of customer service and support. Some systems also incorporate feeds from social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. The goal is to create a system in which sales reps have a
lot of information at their fingertips and can quickly pull up everything about a prospect or
existing customer.
Data Entry/Processing

The process of obtaining, recording, and maintaining information you can retrieve and use later.
In Sales, this usually mean inputting potential buyers' information into a Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) tool to track activity, correspondence, and progress on open opportunities.
Decision-Maker

The person who, or role that, makes the final decision of a sale. They are often "guarded" by a
gatekeeper.
Discovery Call

The first call a sales rep makes to a prospect, with the goal of asking them questions and
qualifying them for the next step.

Feature

A function of a product that can solve for a potential buyer's need or pain point; usually a
distinguishing characteristic that helps boost appeal.
Forecasting

Estimating future sales performance for a forecast period based on historical data. Forecasted
performance can vary widely from actual sales results, but helps sales reps plan their upcoming
days, weeks, and months, and helps high-level employees set standards for expenses, profit, and
growth. Learn more about sales forecasting here.
Gatekeeper

A person who, or role that, enables or prevents information from getting to another person(s) in a
company. For example, a receptionist or personal assistant.
GPCTBA/C&I

Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority, Negative Consequences, Positive

Implications. The lead qualification criteria sales reps should use to qualify prospects -- it's a
better tool than BANT to help sales reps and sales leaders to determine whether their prospects
have the goals, plans, challenges, and right timeline to buy what they sell.

G = Goals: Determines the quantifiable goals your prospect wants or needs

to hit. An opportunity for sales reps to establish themselves as an advisor by
beginning to help prospects reset or quantify their goals.

P = Plans: Determines the prospect's current plans that they'll implement in

order to achieve those goals.

C = Challenges: Determines whether the sales rep can help a prospect

overcome their and their company's challenges; ones they're dealing with
and ones they (or the sales rep) anticipate.

T = Timeline: Determines the time frame for implementation of their goals

and plans, and when they need to eliminate their challenges.

B = Budget: Determines how much money a prospect has to spend.

A = Authority: Determines who in the organization will help champion

and/or decide to make a purchase.

C = Negative Consequences: Discusses the negative things that'll happen

if a prospect doesn't meet their goal.

I = Positive Implications: Discusses the positive outcomes that'll happen if

a prospect meets their goal.

Read about GPCT in more detail here.

Lead

A person or company who's shown interest in a product or service in some way, shape, or form.
Perhaps they filled out a form, subscribed to a blog, or shared their contact information in
exchange for a coupon.
Generating leads is a critical part of a prospect's journey to becoming a customer, and it falls in
between the second and third stages of the larger inbound marketing methodology, which you
can see below.

Landing pages, forms, offers, and calls-to-action are just a few tools to help companies generate
leads. Learn more about lead generation here.
Lead Qualification

The process of determining whether a potential buyer has certain characteristics that qualify him
or her as a lead. These characteristics could be budget, authority, timeline, and so on. Popular
lead qualification criteria acronyms are GPCTBA/C&I and BANT.
Lifetime Value (LTV)

A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. To
calculate LTV, follow these steps for a given time period:
1. Take the revenue the customer paid you in that time period.
2. Subtract from that number the gross margin.

3. Divide by the estimated churn rate (aka cancellation rate) for that customer.

For example, if a customer pays you $100,000 per year where your gross margin on the revenue
is 70%, and that customer type is predicted to cancel at 16% per year, then the customer's LTV is
$437,500. (Learn more here.)
Loss Leader

Used in retail to refer to a product sold at a low price (either at break-even or at a loss) for the
purpose of attracting customers into the store. The goal is for customers who go into the store to
buy other items that are priced to make a profit.
LTV:CAC

The ratio of lifetime value to customer acquisition cost. Once you have the LTV and the CAC,
compute the ratio of the two. If it costs you $100,000 to acquire a customer with an LTV of
$437,500, then your LTV:CAC is 4.4 to 1.
Margin

The difference between a product or service's selling price and the cost of production.
Mark-Up

The amount added to the cost price of goods to cover overhead and profit.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

The stage that a lead enters after identifying a problem. Now theyre looking to conduct further
research to find a solution to the problem. Typical middle of the funnel offers include case
studies, product brochures, or anything that brings your business into the equation as a solution
to the problem the lead is looking to solve.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

The amount of revenue a subscription-based business receives per month. Includes MRR gained
by new accounts (net new), MRR gained from up-sells (net positive), MRR lost from down-sells
(net negative), and MRR lost from cancellations (net loss).
Net Promoter Score (NPS)

A customer satisfaction metric that measures, on a scale of 0-10, the degree to which people
would recommend your company to others. The NPS is derived from a simple survey designed
to help you determine how loyal your customers are to your business. To calculate NPS, subtract
the percentage of customers who would not recommend you (detractors, or 0-6) from the percent
of customers who would (promoters, or 9-10).

Regularly determining your companys NPS allows you to identify ways to improve your
products and services so you can increase the loyalty of your customers. Learn more about how
to use NPS surveys for marketing here.
Objection

A prospect's challenge to or rejection of a product or service's benefits, and a natural part of the
sales process. Common objections often have to do with budget, authority, need, and timing (see
BANT). How sales reps handle objections plays a big role in determining whether a prospect will
buy. Learn how to tackle common B2B sales objections here.
Opportunity

Though every company has different processes for defining what criteria make
someone an opportunity, it's basically when a qualified lead is being worked by Sales. See
Qualified Lead for more information.
Pain Point

A prospect's pain point, or need, is the most important thing for a sales rep to identify in the
selling process. Without knowing a prospect's pain points, they can't possibly offer benefits to
help resolve those pain points.
Performance Plan

Also "Performance Improvement Plan" or "PIP." A sales rep is put on a performance plan if s/he
doesn't make a certain percentage of quota over a certain period of time. Performance plans vary
from company to company, but it usually starts with a written warning and further disciplinary
action, including termination if necessary. The purpose of performance plans is to set clear and
specific performance goals, provide a means for feedback, and develop sales skills.
Pipeline

The step-by-step process sales reps go through to convert a prospect into a customer. The sales
pipeline is often divided into stages for each step in the sales process, and the sales rep is
responsible for moving opportunities through the stages. It can also refer to a visual
representation of the sales process, where every open opportunity is arranged based on the sales
stage they're in.
Positioning Statement

Statements and questions that sales reps use when opening a sales call to engage the prospect in
conversation around their pain points. Many sales reps are trained to start off every sales call
with these statements. Here's an example of positioning statements on a sales call
from Advanced Marketing Concepts:

Sales Rep: I help marketing leaders who are frustrated with the inability of
the sales team to differentiate their products in a crowded market.

Buyer: Yes, that's always been a problem. (If you've done your job well and
targeted the buyer effectively with that first positioning statement, then you'll
get an engaging signal like this one.)

Sales Rep: I talk to a lot of marketing leaders, and lately I'm hearing the two
biggest problems are weak sales pipeline and an inability to differentiate
from competitors. Do these problems sound familiar?

Learn more about positioning statements here.

Profit Margin

A ratio of profitability that measures how much money a company actually keeps in earnings. It's
calculated either as a) net income divided by revenues, or b) net profits divided by sales.
Prospecting

The process of searching for and finding potential buyers. Sales reps (or "prospectors") seek out
qualified prospects and move them through the sales cycle.
Qualified Lead

A contact that opted in to receive communication from your company, became educated about
your product or service, and is interested in learning more. Marketing and Sales often have two
different versions of qualified leads (MQLs for Marketing, and SQLs for Sales), so be sure to
have conversations with your sales team to set expectations for the types of leads you plan to
hand over.
Quota

A sales goal; a set amount of selling a sales rep is expect to meet over a given time frame,
usually a month and/or quarter. It's very, very common for sales reps to have quotas, also the
form they take can vary from company to company and from role to role.
Sales Methodology

"The 'how' of selling as a skill set," according to John Kenney of Sales Benchmark Index. There
are many sales methodologies out there, a few of which are particularly popular, and sales
leaders often choose one and use it to teach and motivate his or her team. Popular sales
methodologies include SPIN selling, Conceptual Selling, SNAP Selling, The Challenger Sale,
Sandler Sales, and CustomerCentric Selling. Read more about these sales methodologies here.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)

For salespeople, an SLA is an agreement between a company's sales and marketing teams that
defines the expectations Sales has for Marketing and vice versa. The Sales SLA defines the
expectations Marketing has for Sales on how deeply and frequently Sales will pursue each
qualified lead, while the Marketing SLA defines expectations Sales has for Marketing with
regards to lead quantity and lead quality.

SLAs exist to align Sales and Marketing. For companies to achieve growth and become leaders
in their industries, it is critical that these two groups be properly integrated. Learn how to create
an SLA here.
Smarketing

Used to refer to the practice of aligning Sales and Marketing efforts. In a perfect world,
marketing would pass off tons of fully qualified leads to the sales team, who would then
subsequently work every one of those leads enough times to close them 100% of the time. But
since this isn't always how the cookie crumbles, its important for Marketing and Sales to align
efforts to impact the bottom line the best they can through coordinated communication.
Social Selling

When sales reps use social media to interact directly with their prospects. They provide value by
answering prospects' questions and offering thoughtful content until the prospect is ready to
buy. Learn more about social selling here.
Sound Bite

A series of words or phrases sales reps use to respond to and overcome a customer objection.
Stage

Parts of the sales pipeline representing each step in the sales process. It's the sales rep's
responsibility for moving opportunities from stage to stage. Different companies define their
sales stages differently, but each one has behind it a set of requirements that need to be
completed in order for an opportunity to move from one stage to the next. Names for sales stages
are usually things like "Prospect," "Qualified Lead," "Demo," "Proposal," "Closed."
Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

The very first stage of the buying process. Leads at this stage are identifying a problem they have
and are looking for more information. At this point, marketers create helpful content that aids
leads in identifying this problem and providing next steps toward a solution.
Up-Selling

When a sales rep sells an existing customer a higher-end version of the product that customer
originally bought. For example, if you bought a cell phone plan and a sales rep successfully
persuaded you to upgrade to a plan with more minutes or data, then that's an up-sell.
Value Proposition

"Value prop" for short. A benefit of a product or company intended to make it more attractive
to potential buyers and differentiates it from competitors.

Weighted Pipeline

A more detailed version of a sales pipeline, in which each opportunity is given a specific value
based on which stage they're in in the sales process. For example, potential buyers in the
prospecting stage could be assigned a 10% chance of closing the deal, demo stage buyers 60%,
closed-won 100%, and so on. A sales rep could say that, instead of having 10 prospects in
her pipeline, she has 10 opportunities at 50% or greater likelihood of closing with a weighted
pipeline value of $50,000.
Barter (A.K.A. Cow Trading) Exchanging products or services for the benefit of not having
to use cash asses. (Not something we recommend doing unless under contract.)
Brand Anything that gives recognition to a specific product, service or business while
separating it from other establishments.
Business to Business (B2B) The means of a firm selling to another organization rather than
selling to an individual consumer.
Business to Consumer (B2C) The means of a firm selling to an individual consumer rather
than another organization.
Comparative Advertising The type of advertising in which a company makes a direct
comparison to another brand, firm or organization.
Corporate Identity All symbols, colors, logos, etc., that make up the public image of an
organization.
Cost-Based Pricing A strategic form of pricing purposed to cover the expenses of running
your business.
Customer Loyalty When a consumer is a repeat buyer of a product, service or brand.
Demographics A specific profiling aspect that takes into consideration age, gender, income,
family life, social class, etc. Often used in segmentation or for focal points in marketing and
advertising strategies.
Digital Marketing (Online Marketing) Marketing to a target audience solely via the internet.
Could be email marketing, content marketing, etc.
Direct Competition Competitors that provide the exact same services as your establishment of
firm.

Direct Mail A means of advertising communication that reaches a consumer, where they live
or their place of business, through the mail. Often based on demographics and/or geographical
location.
Direct Marketing Dealing Directly with the end user rather than a third party or a middle
man. Also can be seen as directly communicating with your primary target audience. Can come
in the form of advertising, marketing or communications.
E-Commerce The means of selling products digitally on the internet
Franchise The act of buying a license to sell a product or service from the original owner to
the consumer.
Geographic Segmentation Segmenting a group of audiences based on where they live or
where they are located.
Inbound Marketing Advertising your company via content marketing, podcasts, video,
eBooks, email broadcast, SEO, Social Marketing, etc., rather than paid advertising.
Internal Marketing Efforts to market a marketing plan to individuals and executives with-in
your own firm to gain their approval and/or support.
Lead An individual or a company that has show interest in one of your products or services.
Could be either a MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead,) or an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead.)
Lifetime Customer Value A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future
relationship with a customer.
Margin The profit gained from a product or service after all expenses for selling that product
or service are covered.
Marketing Qualified Lead A lead that is ready to be handed over to the sales team. An MQL
has had some sort of positive interaction with the company such as a discussion, downloading a
marketing products, etc., that deems them worth to move to the next level of the sales funnel.
Market-Based Pricing Similar to competitive based pricing in the sense that this type of
pricing is based off of the streamlined/current pricing for a specific product or service within the
same industry.
Market Develop The act of taking an existing product or service to a new market.

Market Penetration A strategy used to sell more of an existing product with in the current
markets it is sold.
Market Research High Intelligence research and development of a specific industry for the
betterment of sound business decisions.
Marketing The process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements, in a
profitable way.
New Product Development The development of a new products that involves research,
development, product testing a launching.
Niche Market/Business A very specific segment of a market in which you are trying to meet
the needs of that market.
Personal Development Plan Developed for individuals who are looking to evaluate their
S.W.O.T. analysis to plan their future achievement and success.
Portfolio A series of case studies that provide proof of value to potential customers.
Public Relations A series of media releases, conferences, social image, etc., that make up and
maintain the reputation of an organization and its brands.
Research and Development The process of discovering and developing new products and
services.
Referral A prospect or lead generated from someone who may be interested in what the
salesperson is selling.
Relationship Marketing Establishing relationships with intentions of developing long term
association with a prospect or potential customer. Much less expensive that gaining new
customers.
Sales Funnel The entire sales process as a whole from prospect to paying customer, and all
marketing, advertising and sales processes in between.
SWOT Analysis An internal study often used by organizations to identify their strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Target Marketing A group of customers that a business has decided to aim its marketing
efforts and merchandise towards.

Unique Selling Proposition A factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as
the low cost, the quality, etc.
Viral Marketing A method of product promotion that relies on getting customers to market an
idea, product or service on their own.
Affiliate marketing In the Internet age, many companies (such as Amazon) offer consumers
and businesses the opportunity to sell their products for a commission. The commission rate
varies by company and may even be negotiable if the company is small or a start-up.
Bottom line When sales professionals refer to the bottom line, they are usually talking about
net profits. For instance, although a product sells for 100, it could cost the company 90 to
advertise, sell and ship that product. Thus, the bottom line on the product would be 10.
Commission Many sales pros are accustomed to earning a percentage of the bottom line or
purchase price of whatever they sell. This commission can be in addition to a base pay (i.e., the
amount they earn per hour, per project or annually) or in lieu of a base pay.
Conversion rates When a non-customer becomes a customer, the process is referred to as a
conversion. Thus, the conversion rates as determined by a sales marketing manager could be
how many prospects become customers. For instance, if a salesperson approaches 100 prospects
and 2 become customers, the conversion rate is 2%.
Cross-selling Most companies offer more than one product to customers and because it is
usually easier to sell to a current customer than to a new prospect, businesses cross-sell to
clients. An example would be a client who buys regular tea from a company. The salesperson for
the company may contact the client to encourage him or her to also purchase decaffeinated tea as
well. If the customer does add decaffeinated tea to his or her typical order, the salesperson has
succeeded in the cross-sell.
Customer/Client Any individual or business that purchases (or has purchased in the not-toodistant past) from a company is considered that companys customer or client.
Goals Most sales and marketing departments and personnel have goals. These may be in
numerical form, as in Tony is trying to sell 100 widgets this month. They might also be in
percentage form: The marketing department wants to see a 3.5% improvement in sales over last
quarter.
List brokerage Many marketers use lists to gain instant databases from which to use email
addresses, snail mail addresses or telephone numbers. These lists are brokered from a thirdparty who has scrubbed the list for duplicates.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising Companies that want to ensure their Internet advertising is
working often buy web-based ads on a pay-per-click basis. Thus, only when a prospect clicks
through to their site do they have to pay for their ad placement.

Prospect Any person who is not yet a customer or client but fits the profile of the typical
customer or client may be seen as a prospect. Often, sales personnel will talk about
prospecting which simply means they intend to seek out people to whom they havent yet sold
their product(s) or service(s).
Pulling Marketers often refer to the pull of their ads, brochures, flyers or other materials. Pull
basically denotes how many customers signed on as a result of the marketing push. For instance,
if 1,000 brochures are sent out and the average pull for the companys marketing campaigns is
5%, sales personnel can predict that they will probably obtain about 50 customers from the
campaign.
Return on investment (ROI) The return on investment (or ROI) is simply a shorthand way to
distinguish how much something costs to promote as opposed to how much it brings to the
company. For example, if a product or service sells for 50 and it costs 48 to produce, market
and sell, the ROI is a mere 2. Obviously, the higher the ROI, the better. Thus, this same
company may decide to improve its marketing and sales performances to increase the ROI to 5
or higher.
Sales cycle The sales cycle is the time it takes the average prospect to become a customer.
Depending upon the industry, this could be very short. For instance, in a market, the prospect
who comes into the store and buys an apple (thus becoming a customer) is exhibiting a short
sales cycle. However, the business buying a corporate jet will probably not make their decisions
as quickly. Usually, the longer the sales cycle, the higher the potential for ROI, although most
companies want as short a sales cycle as possible.
Scrubbing Most sales and marketing departments maintain prospect and customer databases.
Over time, the information in those databases becomes outdated; thus, they need to be
scrubbed of incorrect information. This scrubbing is usually accomplished by hand, though deduplicating listings may be possible by computer.
SEO Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the hottest trends in Internet marketing. By
inserting popular keywords into web text, advertisements, HTML code and meta tags, a business
can increase its rankings on popular search engines (such as Yahoo! and Google.)
Stretch goals Many sales personnel are encouraged to have stretch goals as well as regular
ones. The stretch goals are typically more challenging. For instance, if Marie has a goal of
selling 20 widgets a month, she may add a stretch goal of 25 to that figure. Some sales
managers use stretch goals as incentives by increasing the commission rates if sales exceed a
certain number.
Up-selling Like cross-selling, up-selling involves selling to current customers. But unlike
cross-selling, it doesnt mean simply selling the client another product. Instead, the client is
enticed to purchase a similar product that has more amenities but which costs more money.
Web analytics Marketing departments commonly analyse the performance of their company
websites, and this process is called web analytics. Web analytics usually involves a critical

assessment of SEO and rankings, visitor conversion rates, visitor traffic patterns and similar
considerations.