Sales has its own language. If you’re new to a revenue role, the alphabet soup of acronyms can feel overwhelming fast. And even experienced reps occasionally nod along in a meeting when a term gets dropped that they’re not 100% sure about.
This is the first in our Revenue Glossary series. Plain language, no filler, no assumptions about what you already know. We’re starting with A through C.
Of course, there are more acronyms and abbreviations than we can list, so if we have missed something, reach out and let us know!
A
ABM (Account-Based Marketing)
A focused strategy that treats specific high-value accounts as individual markets, rather than casting a wide net. ABM aligns sales and marketing efforts to target a select set of companies with tailored outreach. Quality over quantity.
ACV (Annual Contract Value)
The average annualized revenue from a single customer contract, excluding one-off fees. ACV tells you what a deal is worth on an annual basis, which matters for forecasting, prioritization, and understanding deal health over time.
AE (Account Executive)
The salesperson who owns a deal from the point it’s been qualified through to close. In most revenue teams, the AE takes over from an SDR or BDR once a meeting has been booked and the opportunity is confirmed as worth pursuing.
AM (Account Manager)
The person who owns the ongoing relationship with existing customers, focused on retention, satisfaction, and growth. AMs are usually measured on metrics like Net Revenue Retention (NRR) rather than net new bookings.
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
The predictable, recurring revenue a business earns from subscriptions over a year. One of the most important metrics for SaaS businesses, and a core indicator of health and momentum.
ARPA / ARPU (Average Revenue Per Account / Per User)
The average revenue generated by each customer account or individual user over a set period. Useful for tracking whether your average deal size is trending up or down over time.
B
B2B / B2C
Business-to-Business (selling to other companies) versus Business-to-Consumer (selling directly to individuals). Most revenue roles you’ll encounter in SentientPro’s world sit firmly in B2B.
BANT
A classic qualification framework covering Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. It’s used to assess whether a prospect is genuinely worth pursuing. If the budget isn’t there, the authority to decide doesn’t exist, or there’s no real urgency, the deal may not be worth chasing right now.
BDR (Business Development Rep)
An outbound-focused rep whose job is to generate new pipeline by prospecting and booking meetings. The BDR label is functionally very similar to SDR (Sales Development Rep). Which title a company uses tends to be a matter of preference.
C
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total sales and marketing spend required to win one new customer. Understanding CAC helps teams assess efficiency and know whether their growth is actually sustainable.
Cadence / Sequence
A structured, timed series of outreach touches, typically a mix of calls, emails, and LinkedIn messages, used to engage a prospect. A strong cadence is deliberate and personalized. A weak one is just noise.
Champion
An internal advocate at the prospect’s company who believes in your solution and will sell it on your behalf when you’re not in the room. Finding and developing a champion is one of the most valuable things a salesperson can do in a complex deal.
Churn
The rate at which customers cancel or stop paying. Logo churn counts the number of customers lost. Revenue churn counts the revenue lost. High churn is a signal that something isn’t working after the sale.
Closed-Won / Closed-Lost
The final status of a deal. Closed-Won means the customer signed and the deal is done. Closed-Lost means it ended without a sale. Both outcomes are worth analyzing. The lessons from Closed-Lost deals are often the most valuable of all.
Cold Outreach
Contacting a prospect who has no prior relationship with you or your company, typically via cold call or cold email. When done well, cold outreach is targeted, relevant, and respectful of the prospect’s time. When done poorly, it’s just noise.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
The system of record for contacts, deals, and activity. Salesforce and HubSpot are common examples. Your CRM is the backbone of how a revenue team tracks, manages, and reports on everything. A CRM that’s properly maintained is a genuine competitive advantage.
Cross-Sell
Selling an existing customer an additional product or service alongside what they already have.
CS (Customer Success)
The function responsible for helping customers get value after the sale. CS teams focus on adoption, retention, and growth, and are typically measured on metrics like NRR.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
A survey-based metric capturing how happy customers are with a product or specific interaction. Often collected at key moments in the customer journey.
CSM (Customer Success Manager)
The person who owns the post-sale relationship. A CSM ensures customers adopt the product, hit their goals, and ultimately renew. They’re also often well-positioned to identify upsell opportunities.
That’s A through C covered. Check back for Part 2, where we tackle the language of deals, discovery, and how revenue teams are structured.
At SentientPro, we believe every revenue professional should have access to world-class knowledge.
