Lead Generation
Definitions of the B2B lead generation terms sales teams use. To see how SalesHive runs a full outbound pipeline, visit our Lead Generation page.
Outbound Lead Generation Agency
An outbound lead generation agency is an outside team that picks target accounts, contacts buyers by phone, email and often LinkedIn, and books qualified B2B sales meetings for your sellers.
Learn moreCold Email Lead Generation Agency
A cold email lead generation agency is an outside team that builds prospect lists, protects separate sending domains, writes and sends outbound email, answers replies and books B2B sales meetings for your sellers.
Learn moreAppointment Setting
Appointment setting is the outbound work of finding the right buyers, contacting them by phone and email, confirming they have a reason to talk and booking a sales meeting on a seller's calendar.
Learn moreAppointment Setting Company
An appointment setting company is an outside team that finds target buyers, contacts them by phone and email, qualifies their interest and books sales meetings for your team. A booked meeting is not the same as a held meeting or a sales opportunity.
Learn moreLead Source
A lead source is the primary channel or touchpoint through which a prospect first enters your pipeline, such as a search engine, paid campaign, referral, event, cold call, or email. In B2B sales development, accurately tracking lead source in your CRM helps sales and SDR teams see which channels create the best opportunities and optimize prospecting strategies and budgets accordingly.
Learn moreCost-Per-Meeting
Cost-Per-Meeting (CPM) is a B2B sales development metric that calculates the total cost required to generate one held, qualified sales meeting. It includes SDR salaries, tools, data, management, and/or vendor fees divided by the number of qualified meetings completed, and is used to compare channels, vendors, and strategies for building pipeline efficiently.
Learn moreMulti-Channel Marketing
Multi-channel marketing is the coordinated use of several channels, such as email, phone, social, paid media, and content, to reach and engage an audience consistently. In B2B sales development, SDR and marketing teams orchestrate personalized messaging across these channels, instead of relying on a single touchpoint, to increase response rates, pipeline, and deal velocity.
Learn moreOutbound Lead Generation
Outbound lead generation is the proactive process of identifying, contacting, and qualifying potential B2B customers who have not yet expressed direct interest in your solution. Using channels like cold calling, cold email, and social outreach, outbound sales development reps (SDRs) systematically target ideal accounts and decision-makers to create new sales opportunities and feed a predictable pipeline for account executives.
Learn moreSales Operations
Sales Operations is the function that designs, manages, and optimizes the systems, processes, data, and infrastructure that support B2B sales development. It ensures SDRs and AEs spend more time selling by standardizing workflows, managing tech stacks, owning reporting, and aligning outbound motions like cold calling and email outreach with clear, data-driven playbooks across the entire lead generation funnel.
Learn moreOutbound Marketing
Outbound marketing is the practice of proactively reaching out to potential buyers rather than waiting for them to come to you. In B2B sales development, it reaches targeted accounts and decision makers through cold email, cold calling, and social outreach, using structured campaigns, data-driven targeting, and personalization to start conversations, book qualified meetings, and build a predictable pipeline.
Learn moreMarketing Channel
A marketing channel is the medium or route used to reach, engage, and convert an audience. In B2B sales development, a marketing channel is how you reach target accounts, for example cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn, events, or partner referrals. In lead generation, channels are selected, tested, and orchestrated to build pipeline efficiently while matching the buyer's preferred ways of interacting.
Learn moreDirect Mail Follow Cadence
Direct Mail Follow Cadence is a structured, multi-touch outreach sequence that begins after a prospect receives a physical direct mail piece in a B2B context. It coordinates timely follow-up via phone, email, and sometimes social touches so SDRs can reference the mailed item, reinforce the message, and convert offline interest into booked meetings and qualified pipeline.
Learn moreCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the fully loaded cost of winning a new customer, typically calculated by dividing all sales and marketing spend over a period by the number of new customers acquired. In B2B sales development, CAC includes SDR salaries, tools, data, and outbound programs, and is a core metric for judging how efficiently your sales engine converts prospecting effort into revenue.
Learn moreConversion Path
A conversion path is the sequence of steps a person takes from first interaction to a desired action, like a purchase or signup. In B2B sales development, a conversion path moves a prospect from initial contact (a cold email, call, or list entry) to a qualified outcome like a booked meeting, opportunity, or closed deal, connecting prospect behavior, SDR activities, and funnel stages into a measurable journey.
Learn moreDirect Marketing
Direct marketing is advertising that reaches a specific audience with a measurable, one-to-one message and a clear call to action, rather than broad brand awareness. In B2B sales development, it means targeted outreach to specific decision-makers and buying committees across email, cold calling, LinkedIn, and direct mail. The focus is personalized messages, trackable responses, and calls to action that generate pipeline.
Learn moreCustomer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) estimates the value an account contributes over the customer relationship. For the CLV-to-CAC comparison used here, it is measured after delivery and support costs but before customer acquisition cost, which is tracked separately as CAC. In sales development, CLV helps SDR and revenue teams prioritize prospects, justify Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and design outbound programs that focus on acquiring and expanding high-value, long-term customers rather than one-off deals.
Learn moreSales Consultant
Sales consultant has two common meanings. It is often the job title of a salesperson who advises customers and sells to them, and US occupational data lists it as a reported title for retail and wholesale sales roles. It can also mean an outside adviser hired to improve a company's sales strategy, process, and team performance, for example by diagnosing pipeline bottlenecks and coaching SDR and AE teams.
Learn moreMarketing Budget
A marketing budget is the planned amount of money and resources a company sets aside for marketing over a period. In B2B sales development, it funds generating and nurturing qualified leads across channels like outbound SDRs, paid media, content, and events, setting clear guardrails for how much you can spend on pipeline, campaigns, tools, vendors, and sales support to hit revenue targets.
Learn moreSDR Lead Generation
SDR lead generation is the process of using Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) to systematically identify, contact, and qualify B2B prospects into sales-ready meetings and opportunities. It combines targeted outbound activities, like cold calling, personalized email outreach, and multi-channel follow-up, with consistent qualification criteria so Account Executives receive a steady pipeline of high-intent conversations they can convert into revenue.
Learn moreProduct Demo
A product demo is a live or recorded walkthrough that shows a prospective buyer how a product works and how it solves their problems. In B2B sales development, demos are tailored to the buyer's use cases, usually follow discovery, and are used to qualify opportunities, align stakeholders, and move deals toward a clear next step.
Learn moreCost-Per-Click (CPC)
Cost-Per-Click (CPC) is a pricing model used in digital advertising where a B2B company pays each time a prospect clicks its ad, regardless of whether that click converts. In B2B sales development, CPC is a core efficiency metric that links paid media spend to pipeline impact, helping teams understand how much they are paying to drive high-intent traffic into SDR sequences and outbound motions.
Learn moreCorporate Gifting
Corporate gifting is the practice of sending thoughtful, compliant gifts to build and strengthen business relationships with prospects, customers, partners, or employees. In B2B sales development, gifts are used sparingly alongside outbound and account-based work to show appreciation, mark milestones, and make relevant outreach more memorable, always within the recipient’s gift rules and never as payment for a meeting.
Learn moreInbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy for attracting people to your brand through helpful content and experiences instead of interruptive outreach. In B2B sales development, it earns attention through channels like search, social, and webinars, then converts that interest into qualified leads that SDRs nurture into sales meetings and opportunities.
Learn moreDirect Sales
Direct sales means a company sells to its customers through its own people instead of through retailers, distributors, resellers, or marketplaces. In B2B, the focus of this page, it is a go-to-market model where a company’s own sales team (SDRs, AEs, account managers, field reps) sells directly to business customers. It relies on one-to-one outreach and conversations, via phone, email, video calls, or in-person meetings, to generate, qualify, and close revenue opportunities in complex B2B buying cycles. It is different from consumer direct selling, where independent sellers offer products to consumers person to person.
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