Clear definitions of AI GTM terminology for founders, operators, and buyers evaluating AI sales systems.
48 posts
The right SDR-to-AE ratio depends on meeting volume, sales cycle length, and AE capacity. The most common ratio in B2B SaaS is 1:1 to 2:1 (SDRs to AEs). Here's how to calculate the right ratio for your specific sales motion.
ABM (Account-Based Marketing) is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing focus resources on a defined set of high-value target accounts rather than broad lead generation. Instead of casting wide and filtering down, ABM starts narrow and goes deep.
Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion — rather than sales and marketing doing that work externally. Users try it, get value, and upgrade or invite others.
An MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) is a lead that marketing believes is worth a sales conversation. An SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a lead that sales has confirmed is worth pursuing. The gap between them is where most B2B revenue gets lost.
A discovery call is the first substantive sales conversation with a prospect — its job is qualification, not pitching. You're trying to confirm whether this person has the problem, the budget, the authority, and the timeline to buy. Here's how to run one that does that.
RevOps (Revenue Operations) is the function that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success under a single operational framework — shared data, shared process, shared accountability. Here's what it does, why it exists, and when you need it.
BANT is a sales qualification framework: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline. A prospect that scores well on all four is worth pursuing. One that fails on more than one is worth deprioritising. Here's how to apply it — and where it breaks down.
SDR, BDR, and AE are three distinct sales roles that often get confused. They cover different parts of the pipeline, have different metrics, and require different skills. Here's exactly what each does and where each fits in a B2B sales org.
A junior SDR costs $55,000–$80,000 per year all-in when you include base salary, benefits, recruiting fees, tools, and management overhead. In higher cost-of-living markets, expect $80,000–$100,000.
A new SDR takes 2–4 months to become fully productive, with full ramp typically at month 3–4. The first 6 weeks are spent learning the product, ICP, and tools. Months 2–3 involve building and testing the outreach playbook.
A good cold email reply rate for B2B outbound is 3–8%. Above 8% indicates very tight ICP targeting or strong personalisation. Below 3% usually means the ICP is wrong, the message isn't landing, or both.
Send 4–6 follow-up emails before stopping outbound to a prospect. Most replies come on the 3rd to 5th touch. Stopping after one or two emails leaves a significant portion of pipeline on the table.