The Startup Founder’s Cheat Sheet for Sales Terminology

When you're building a startup, you're juggling everything, from product development to hiring, fundraising, and yes, sales. And if you didn’t come from a sales background, the jargon can sometimes feel like its own foreign language. That’s why I created this cheat sheet: to give founders, CEOs, and leaders at small and medium-sized businesses a quick-reference glossary of some common and useful B2B sales terms.

Whether you're speaking with your first sales hire, pitching investors, or building your GTM (go-to-market) strategy, this list will help you better understand and speak the language.

20 Sales Terms Every Startup Founder Should Know

1. ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) A highly detailed description of the type of company that is the best fit for your product or service. Includes firmographics like industry, size, location, and common pain points.

2. Buyer Persona A semi-fictional profile that represents the individuals within an ICP company who make or influence the buying decision. Think of this as the human version of the ICP.

3. MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) A lead that has shown enough interest or engagement (like downloading content or filling out a form) to be considered ready for initial contact from a salesperson.

4. SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) A lead that has been vetted by the sales team and meets the criteria to enter the sales process, such as budget, authority, need, and timeline.

5. BANT An acronym used for basic qualification of leads based on Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. It's a classic framework to assess if a lead is worth pursuing.

6. Discovery Call An initial, short conversation between a sales rep and a prospect to learn about the prospect’s challenges, goals, and fit for the product or service.

7. Sales Funnel / Pipeline A visual representation of where prospects are in the buying process, from initial interest to closed deal. Helps with forecasting and prioritization.

8. Top of Funnel (TOFU) Leads or activities at the awareness stage of the sales funnel - often marketing-generated - where prospects are just beginning to explore options and learn about your offering.

9. Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) The final stage of the funnel where deals are being closed. Prospects here are deep into conversations and close to making a decision.

10. Lead Scoring A system that assigns numerical values to leads based on behaviors or demographics, helping sales teams prioritize who to contact first.

11. SDR (Sales Development Representative) An entry-level sales role focused on outbound prospecting and qualifying inbound leads before handing them off to a closer or AE.

12. AE (Account Executive) A sales rep responsible for running discovery calls, delivering demos, handling objections, and closing deals.

13. Deal Stages The defined steps in your sales process, such as “Demo Completed” or “Proposal Sent,” used to track progress in the CRM.

14. Churn The rate at which customers cancel or don’t renew your product or service. High churn often signals product-market misalignment or poor onboarding.

15. LTV (Lifetime Value) The projected revenue a customer will generate over the entire span of their relationship with your business. Key metric for SaaS companies.

16. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) The average cost to acquire a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses. Critical for understanding profitability.

17. Sales Velocity A measurement of how quickly deals move through your sales pipeline. Calculated by multiplying number of opportunities, average deal size, win rate, and dividing by sales cycle length.

18. Objection Handling The skill and process of responding to a prospect's concerns or hesitations in a way that keeps the deal moving forward.

19. Land and Expand A sales strategy where you start with a small deal to get a foot in the door, then grow the account over time through upselling and cross-selling.

20. Sales Enablement Tools, training, and content provided to sales teams and reps to help them sell more effectively.

Why This Matters

This is hardly a comprehensive list of sales terms – there are a lot more to know. Knowing this terminology doesn’t just help you sound credible in meetings - it helps you make smarter decisions. If you're hiring your first salesperson, building your first outbound campaign, or refining your GTM strategy, these terms are going to come up repeatedly. The more familiar you are with them, the more effective and efficient your sales function will be.

Need Help Putting This Knowledge Into Action?

If you’re a founder or CEO who’s overwhelmed by the burden of managing your sales function, you're not alone. But you're also not stuck. That’s where fractional sales leadership can be a game changer. Whether you're trying to build a predictable pipeline or coach your first few reps to success, having a partner who knows the path can make a big difference.

At Rev Sales Consulting, I help early-stage and growth-stage companies develop the strategies, processes, and people needed to drive revenue. If you have acquired my expertise to help with your sales organization, you’ll definitely hear some of the words and terms listed above, but after reading this post, you’ll have a basic understanding.