Sales and marketing terminology
Terminology / Acronyms ABC figures: This is the independently
audited sales figure for all recognised publications in the UK.
By using the ABC figure, you can quickly establish how much the
advertising will cost per 1,000 readers.
Account Managers: These are sales people who have great skills
in getting repeat orders and maximising revenue returns from
existing accounts. It is very rare that a good “Account Manager”
will be good at winning new clients.
Blue Bird: This is an unexpected sales opportunity that has a
high chance of turning into profitable business.
BRAD: This book lists every UK publication including magazines,
newspapers, vertical publications etc. It also contains key
information i.e. “ABC figures”, advertising deadlines etc and is
one of the most useful tools available if you are looking to
place advertising or embark on DIY PR.
Comfort Factor Statements: Also known as credibility statements
they show that you can deliver exactly what you say you can.
They must not be emotive i.e. include words like “the best”,
“fantastic”, “amazing”, “superior” or contain anything that
cannot be proven i.e. “high level of customer satisfaction”,
“unparalleled support”, unless supported by facts.
Commission Plans: This is how a salesperson is paid for their
efforts. It is strongly advised that you include a minimum
contribution and ensure that if you plotted a graph of gross
margin and percentage of target it would create an incremental
curve.
CRM: “Customer Relationship Management” This is software that
organises all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is
used in targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales
operations and there are many packages to choose from costing
anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT! Goldmine etc.
Previously known as TCM.
Double Bubble: Sales slang for two people being paid out the
full amount of commission on a specific deal / incentive or the
same person being awarded double the amount of commission.
Elevator Pitch: This term comes from the theory that if you are
in a lift on the 10 th floor of a building you should be able to
explain what you do before it gets to the ground floor i.e.
about 10 seconds. This is often the opening statement of any
form of communication and is predominantly used in lead
generation and marketing activities.
Farmers: These are sales people who have great skills in getting
repeat orders and maximising revenue streams from existing
accounts. It is very rare that a good “Farmer” will be good at
winning new clients.
Gross Margin: The difference between your buy price and your
sell price.
Hunters: These are sales people who are very good at winning new
accounts and getting the first order but tend to lose interest
when they know that the new customer will continue to buy, this
often makes them very bad farmers. Also known as New Business
Sales Exec’s.
Kick Back: This is when a company gets an extra soft margin when
they buy sufficient numbers / value of a product. i.e. if you
buy 10 cars we will give you / or the company free servicing.
Minimum Contribution: This is the account value that all sales
staff are required to reach, in gross margin terms, before any
commission. This is put in place to ensure that commission is
not paid before staff have covered their basic salary plus all
other costs i.e. NI, travel, phone, expenses etc.
New Business Sales Exec’s: These are sales people who are very
good at winning new accounts and getting the first order but
tend to lose interest when they know that the new customer will
continue to buy, this often makes them very bad farmers. Also
known as “Hunters”.
OTE: “On Target Earnings” This is how much the sales person will
earn if they hit their sales target. Please note that when the
person has achieved 50% of target they should not earn more than
30% of their OTE. By using this method it creates a further
incentive for the salesperson to hit the their sales target.
Over Ride: This is the term used when a sales person over
achieves his target and hence is given a large bonus. Remember
the bigger the “over rider”, the bigger the incentive and hence
this increases the motivation to over achieve the gross margin
sales target.
PPC: “Pay Per Click” This is a much-targeted method of
advertising and enables sponsored links to be placed at the top
of search engine results when your particular key words or
phrases are encountered. For each sponsored link placed you are
charged from as little as 10 pence upwards.
Prospect: A company / person that you know will require your
services and they are looking to purchase. Particularly if you
have been asked to bid for the work
RTR: “Ready to Run” This is the term used mainly by advertising
agencies or company’s for an advert which is ready to be placed.
It is then common practice to place the advert on the deadline
in order to get the lowest possible price.
Sales Forecast: The system that sales people and managers use to
look at how much business is likely to be won each month,
unfortunately these are often misleading due to sales processes
that minimise inaccuracies not being implemented.
Sand Bagging: This is a tactic used by sales people who hold
back orders so that as many as possible fall in the same month
or quarter and hence they over achieve the target to win a large
Over Rider. This is not only expensive because extra commission
is paid but can also have very negative effects on cash flow. By
having a properly implemented Sales Forecast it is very easy to
establish if this is occurring.
SEO: “Search Engine Optimisation” This is the method of making
sure that your website gets lots of traffic and enables your
company to be listed higher in the search engines for specific
key words and phrases i.e. car hire Newcastle, buy discount
fishing rods, mortgage advice etc. The downside of this
methodology is that it takes several months for your website to
get a good position on the major search engines i.e. Google,
Yahoo etc.
Soft Margin: This is most commonly found in the reseller market
and generally provided by the manufacturer in form of marketing
assistance i.e. for every £10,000 of product x sold we will
provide you with y amount of money that must be spent on
promoting our product / service.
Suspect: A company / person that you know will require your
services but nothing else is known.
TCM: “Time Contact Management” This is software that organises
all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is used in
targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales
operations and there are many packages to choose from costing
anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT, Goldmine etc.
Now known as CRM.
TMUP: “Target Market User Profile” this is the type of company /
person that would be a prime target for your business i.e.
single male 30 - 40 and divorced or SME services based companies
with staff of between 3-10 people based within 5 miles of
central London etc. Finding and Targeting your prime TMUP will
reduce the cost of sales and increase marketing and new business
efficiency’s.
Tyre Kicker: This is a company / person who pretends to be
interested in your product / service. This term comes from the
motor trade when customers would kick the tyres to fain interest
when they had no intention of buying a car and were just
browsing / looking for a test drive. Sales people who are not
performing and wish to give the impression that their sales
pipeline is strong often put this type of prospect on their
sales forecast.
USP’s: Unique Selling Points i.e. what makes your company
different from its competitors. This is used predominantly in
lead generation and marketing activities and therefore is a MUST
HAVE for any sales strategy to work.
