Glossary
B2B prospecting glossary
The words you run into as soon as you prospect on LinkedIn or anywhere else: what they mean, how to measure them, and the mistakes that cost meetings. Every definition starts from real campaigns and points to the neighbouring terms.
54 definitionsWritten by Mo Alani, founder of MimikFlow
A
- Account executiveAn account executive (AE) is the salesperson who turns an opportunity into a contract: they run discovery and demo meetings, build the proposal, negotiate and sign.
- Account-based marketing (ABM)Account-based marketing, or ABM, is a B2B strategy that targets a short list of companies chosen in advance rather than a broad audience.
- AI sales agentAn AI sales agent is software that carries out sales tasks on its own using a language model: finding prospects, writing to them, answering their messages, qualifying their need, booking a meeting.
- Appointment setterAn appointment setter is the person who turns an interested prospect into a booked call: they start the conversation, ask the qualifying questions and schedule a call with the closer, who runs the sale.
- Appointment settingAppointment setting is the work of getting qualified sales meetings with prospects so that a salesperson or founder can then sell.
B
- B2B prospectingB2B prospecting covers everything you do to find companies likely to buy your offer, reach the right person and get a first sales conversation.
- BANTBANT is a sales qualification method that checks four things before you invest time in a prospect: Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline.
- BDR (Business Development Representative)A BDR (Business Development Representative) is the salesperson who goes after new customers through outbound prospecting, often on a list of target accounts.
- Buyer personaA buyer persona is a portrait of the person who decides on or influences the purchase of your offer: their role, priorities, objections and way of choosing.
- Buying signalA buying signal is an observable, dated fact suggesting that a company or a person needs your offer right now: a new hire, a new role, a funding round, a reaction to a post.
C
- Call to action (CTA)A call to action, or CTA, is the sentence, button or question that tells your reader what to do next: reply, book a slot, download a guide, start a trial.
- CloserA closer is the salesperson who runs the sales call and wins the deal: they take over a prospect already qualified by a setter or an SDR, explore the situation, present the offer and get a decision.
- Cold emailA cold email is a prospecting email sent to someone who has never been in touch with you and never asked to hear from you.
- Conversion rateA conversion rate is the share of people who move from one stage to the next, expressed as a percentage: invitations accepted, replies turned into meetings, meetings turned into customers.
- CRMA CRM, short for customer relationship management, is software that centralizes information about your prospects and customers: contact details, conversations, open deals, next actions.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the average amount spent to win one new customer.
- Customer lifetime value (LTV)Customer lifetime value, written LTV or CLV, is what a customer brings in on average over their whole relationship with your company.
D
- Data enrichmentData enrichment means completing a prospect record with the information it lacks: work email, phone number, company size, industry, exact role, recent news.
- Decision-makerA decision-maker is the person with the authority to say yes to a purchase and commit the budget.
- Discovery callA discovery call is the first real sales meeting with a prospect.
E
F
G
I
- IcebreakerAn icebreaker is the opening line of a first prospecting message, the one that shows the prospect why you are writing to them.
- ICP (ideal customer profile)An ICP (ideal customer profile) describes the type of company and person your offer works best for: industry, size, role and situation.
- Inbound marketingInbound marketing means attracting prospects to you instead of going after them: useful content, search rankings, posts, free resources.
- InMailAn InMail is a LinkedIn message you can send to someone you are not connected with.
- Intent dataIntent data is the trail of online activity suggesting a company is interested in a topic: pages viewed, content read, comparison sites visited, searches.
L
- LeadA lead is a person or company identified as a potential customer that you can reach.
- Lead magnetA lead magnet is a free, useful resource offered to get a contact, a reply or a first conversation: a guide, a template, a study, a video, a calculator.
- Lead nurturingLead nurturing means keeping the relationship alive with prospects who are not ready to buy yet, by regularly bringing them something useful until their need becomes concrete.
- Lead qualificationLead qualification means checking that a prospect deserves real selling time: that they fit your target, have a need you can address, can decide or influence the decision, and that the timing is plausible.
- Lead scoringLead scoring means giving each prospect a score to decide who to contact first and who to set aside.
M
- MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)An MQL, or marketing qualified lead, is a lead that the marketing team considers close enough to the target and interested enough to hand over to sales.
- Multichannel outreachMultichannel outreach means contacting the same prospect on several channels, such as LinkedIn, email, phone or WhatsApp, in one coordinated sequence.
N
O
- Outbound prospectingOutbound prospecting means going after customers instead of waiting for them to come: you choose the companies and people to contact, then approach them by phone, email or LinkedIn message.
- Outreach sequenceAn outreach sequence is the planned chain of messages sent to a prospect: a first contact, then spaced follow-ups, until they reply or the sequence ends.
P
Q
S
- Sales automationSales automation means handing the repetitive tasks of selling to software: finding prospects, sending messages and follow-ups, updating the CRM, scheduling meetings, sending reminders.
- Sales cycleThe sales cycle is the sequence of steps and the time between first contact with a prospect and the signature.
- Sales follow-upA sales follow-up is a message sent to a prospect who hasn't replied yet, to pick up the thread of a first contact or a proposal.
- Sales funnelA sales funnel describes the steps a potential customer goes through between discovering you and buying.
- Sales objectionA sales objection is a reason a prospect gives for not moving forward: too expensive, bad timing, already covered, send me some information.
- Sales pipelineA sales pipeline is the view of every deal in progress, sorted by sales stage: first contact, meeting, proposal, signature.
- Sales playbookA sales playbook is the reference document that describes how your team sells: to whom, with which messages, through which stages, with which answers to objections and which qualification criteria.
- SDR (Sales Development Representative)An SDR (Sales Development Representative) is the salesperson who opens conversations: they prospect, qualify and book meetings for an account executive, who then runs the sale.
- Social proofSocial proof is the tendency to rely on what other people have already done when making a decision yourself.
- Social sellingSocial selling is a way of prospecting in B2B through social networks, LinkedIn first.
- SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)An SQL, or sales qualified lead, is a lead a salesperson has confirmed as a real opportunity after an exchange: the person fits the target, acknowledges a need and agrees to move forward, usually to a meeting.
T
W
Where do the numbers come from?
When a definition quotes a rate, it comes either from a named public source or from the MimikFlow 2026 Observatory, which followed 98,426 prospects and 78,218 real LinkedIn invitations. Anything else is presented as an example, never as an average.
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