Glossary
Twenty B2B sales development terms explained in plain English, with what each one means in practice when the market you are selling into is Germany.
This glossary explains the terms used every day in B2B sales development and understood differently by almost everyone using them. Each entry opens with the answer to what the term means, then says what it means in practice when the market you are selling into is Germany.
The order follows a sales process rather than the alphabet: first the activities, then how contacts get assessed, then the roles on the buyer’s side, and finally the ways sales work gets organised. Use the list to jump straight to a single term.
The glossary grows in rounds. This first round covers twenty terms in English, German and Dutch, each version written for its own readers rather than translated.
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Appointment setting means arranging a meeting between your sales team and a person who has confirmed a need, the authority to act on it and a rough timeframe. The meeting is a result, not a promise. Germany raises the bar, because a buyer who agrees to a date has usually already checked internally whether the topic is worth an hour. See Appointment Setting.
Back to the listCold calling is the first approach to a company you have no existing relationship with, usually by phone. Cold describes the relationship, not the preparation. In Germany the opening sentence carries more weight than in most markets, because a caller who cannot say why this company and why now is read as unprepared rather than as persistent. More on Cold Calling.
Back to the listLead generation covers every step that turns a defined target group into contacts with visible interest. In B2B it is rarely one channel but a sequence of approach, conversation and follow up. The number worth watching is not how many contacts you collected, but how many your sales team can work on without redoing the groundwork. See B2B Lead Generation.
Back to the listLead qualification is the check on whether a contact actually fits your offer before it reaches your sales team. Need, authority, timeframe and internal conditions are the usual criteria. The catch is that strict qualification costs you contacts today and saves wasted meetings months later, which is why most teams end up qualifying too loosely. See Lead Qualification.
Back to the listA qualified lead is a contact where need, authority and a realistic timeframe have been confirmed rather than assumed. The difference from a plain contact is evidence: somebody said it in a conversation and it is written down. Without that, a lead is an address with hope attached to it. Criteria both sides can live with: When is a lead qualified?
Back to the listSDR stands for Sales Development Representative. The role runs the first conversations, checks need and authority, then hands over to the person who closes. When the market is Germany the role changes shape: more time per account, more people to reach, and long silences that do not mean refusal. What the role does day to day: What does an SDR do?
Back to the listBANT is a qualification frame built on four questions: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing. It is old and blunt, but it still works in a first conversation because you can cover it in minutes. Its weakness shows in Germany, where budget is often the last thing confirmed rather than the first, particularly in mid sized family owned firms. See Lead Qualification. Which frame fits which sale: BANT vs MEDDIC in Germany.
Back to the listMEDDIC is a qualification frame for complex deals: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion. It asks how the decision gets made and who argues for you internally, not just whether somebody wants to buy. That makes it a better fit than BANT for German buying groups, and too heavy for a first call. See MQL and SQL. Which frame fits which sale: BANT vs MEDDIC in Germany.
Back to the listMQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead: a contact whose behaviour suggests interest, such as a download, a sign up or repeated visits. Interest is not need, and it is certainly not authority. One caution for the German market: engagement measured on an English language page is a noisy signal, because comfort with English varies widely. See MQL and SQL in Germany.
Back to the listSQL stands for Sales Qualified Lead: a contact your sales team accepts as workable after a conversation. The direction of proof is what separates it from an MQL. With an MQL somebody did something; with an SQL somebody confirmed something. The honest measure of where the line sits is the share of leads sent back with a reason. See MQL and SQL.
Back to the listLead nurturing is the planned follow up with contacts who have a need but are not buying yet. The aim is to be present at the right moment without being tiresome in between. In Germany that moment is usually tied to an event: an investment, a new site, a change of responsibility. See Customer Base Activation.
Back to the listICP stands for Ideal Customer Profile: a description of the companies your offer works best for, by size, sector, structure and trigger. It is an analysis of your existing customers, not a wish list. For a company entering Germany it is the cheapest correction available, because it removes half the conversations before they start. See Market Entry Sales Support. How the ICP decides which market to enter first: Germany, the Netherlands or the UK? How to build one for Germany: ideal customer profile for the German market.
Back to the listThe buying centre is everyone involved in a purchase decision: technical review, commercial approval, the people who will use the thing, and often somebody with a quiet veto. German buying groups are usually wider than foreign sellers expect, and the technical check normally comes before the commercial one. How we work through it: Process.
Back to the listA decision maker is the person who can approve or stop a project, which is not always the person who signs. In German mid sized companies the two often sit apart: a department head decides on substance, the managing director signs. The first conversation almost always belongs to the department head, because the need starts there. See B2B Telemarketing.
Back to the listA gatekeeper is the person who sorts incoming calls, usually on reception or in an assistant role. They are a filter rather than an obstacle, and filtering is their job. A caller who can say what the matter is and why it concerns the named person usually gets through. A caller who evades does not. Sector by sector: Industries.
Back to the listSales outsourcing means an external partner takes over a defined part of the sales process, in B2B usually the first approach and qualification. Closing stays with you. The arithmetic works when the alternative would be hiring, counting onboarding, tools and the months before a new hire is productive. Both routes compared: In-house SDR vs outsourced.
Back to the listInside sales is selling from the office by phone, video and email, without travel. It is not a smaller version of field sales but a different rhythm: more conversations, shorter units, tighter follow up. For a company without a German office it is usually the only realistic way to hold the first fifty conversations. See Sales Outsourcing.
Back to the listOutbound is sales work where you make the first move: a call, a letter or an email to a company you chose. The advantage is control, because you decide which companies hear from you and when. The cost is effort per contact. When the channel is the wrong one for Germany: When telemarketing is the wrong way in.
Back to the listInbound is the reverse: the buyer contacts you after finding you through search, a recommendation or your content. The conversations are easier, the volume is not steerable and the build up takes time. For a company new to Germany, inbound starts from zero, so outbound carries the first year. Overview: Services.
Back to the listA sales pipeline is the ordered view of every open opportunity by stage, from first conversation to decision. It is a planning tool rather than a result: a full pipeline with no movement between stages tells you less than a smaller one that moves. We do not work inside your system, we hand over in a structured form. See CRM and Sales Pipeline Support.
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How this glossary is built, and how it is meant to be used.
Because the terms sound the same and are used differently. A buying centre is called a DMU in the Netherlands and is usually smaller there. Each language version is written for its own readers rather than translated, so the practical notes differ from one market to the next.
In rounds of about twenty entries. The order follows what people actually search for rather than the alphabet. Terms that draw steady search interest later get a page of their own, with a fuller explanation and worked examples instead of a second definition.
Enough for a shared vocabulary, not enough to act on. Every entry links to the page or article where the term is explained in context, including what changes when the market is Germany rather than your home market.
Qualified lead. Thresholds calibrated at home travel badly, because a German buyer researches before making contact and stays quiet for longer between steps. Agreeing the criteria in writing before the first handover prevents most of the argument.
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