The B2B prospecting glossary
The key terms behind data, CRM and sales prospecting for agencies, media owners and publishers, explained simply, with links to our articles to go further.
The full glossary, A to Z
ABM (Account-Based Marketing)
An approach that focuses marketing and sales efforts on a small number of high-value target accounts, rather than casting a wide net across a broad audience.
It combines scoring, intent data and personalised messaging to maximise impact on the accounts most likely to convert, particularly useful when the pool of key decision-makers is limited.
Automated Sales Prospecting
The use of software and workflows to automate repetitive prospecting tasks: email sequences, follow-ups, CRM updates and meeting scheduling.
Done well, it saves time while preserving personalisation, freeing reps to focus on conversations that actually move deals forward.
Business Development
The set of activities focused on identifying, structuring and growing new commercial opportunities, often sitting at the intersection of marketing, sales and strategic partnerships.
A well-structured prospecting process, built on qualified data, is its operational foundation.
Business Intelligence
A method aimed at collecting, analysing and presenting relevant information to support commercial or strategic decisions.
In prospecting, it helps teams understand a prospect's needs before the first point of contact, rather than discovering them mid-conversation.
CRM
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system centralises all information and interactions with prospects and customers: contact details, conversation history, open opportunities, shared documents.
For agencies, media owners and publishers, a CRM only becomes valuable once it's fed with reliable, up-to-date data. A poorly maintained CRM slows teams down instead of speeding them up.
CRM Integration
The process of connecting your CRM to your other sales and marketing tools (emailing, billing, customer support) to unify data and automate workflows.
A well-executed integration removes manual data entry and improves the end-to-end customer experience.
Cold Emailing
Sending a prospecting email to a contact you've never interacted with before, with the aim of starting a business relationship.
Success depends less on volume and more on precise targeting, message personalisation and solid deliverability practices.
Competitive Intelligence
The ongoing monitoring of competitors' activity (new clients, pitch wins, positioning, staff moves) in order to adjust your own commercial strategy.
In B2B, it often reveals an opportunity right at the moment a competitor loses a client or a budget.
Closing (Sales Closing)
The final stage of a sales process, the moment a prospect decides whether or not to sign.
A strong close depends less on a last-minute technique and more on the quality of the work done earlier: right targeting, real understanding of the need, and the right timing.
Database (B2B)
A structured collection of information on companies and their key contacts: company name, sector, size, identified decision-makers.
Its value depends less on volume than on freshness and accuracy. A stale database, however large, wastes more time than it creates opportunity.
Data-Driven Marketing
A marketing approach that bases decisions on the analysis of real data rather than intuition.
It allows for better segmentation, more personalised messaging, and a precise measurement of each campaign's real impact.
Data Hygiene
The set of practices that keep a contact database clean and reliable: removing duplicates, correcting errors, updating stale contact details.
A poorly maintained database undermines campaign deliverability and skews your performance metrics.
Data Decay
The natural degradation of a database over time as people change jobs, companies relocate, or contacts move on, quietly making your records inaccurate.
Left unchecked, data decay erodes both sales pipeline quality and marketing ROI.
Drive-to-Store
A strategy that turns a consumer's digital interest into an actual store visit, by combining location data with digital advertising.
It's a central piece of omnichannel retail strategies that bridge the gap between online and physical shopping.
Decision-Maker Job Changes
A move (arrival, departure or promotion) of a decision-maker within a company. It's a strong sales signal: a new lead often means new vendors and new priorities are on the table.
Tracking these changes lets you reach out to the right contact exactly when they're most receptive.
Engagement (B2B)
Measures how much a prospect or customer interacts with your brand: email opens, repeat website visits, event attendance, conversations with your sales team.
Rising engagement is often a more reliable signal than a simple lead when it comes to prioritising outreach.
European Prospecting Database
A database spanning multiple European markets, letting a commercial strategy scale internationally from a single, consistent source.
It centralises company and contact data by country while maintaining consistent data quality across borders.
Read the full article on the European prospecting database >
Sales Funnel
The sequence of stages a contact moves through, from first awareness to paying customer: awareness, consideration, decision.
A well-fed funnel, backed by a qualified database, strengthens every stage of that journey.
GDPR (Data Privacy)
The General Data Protection Regulation is the European legal framework governing the collection, processing and storage of personal data since 2018.
Compliant prospecting means working with traceable data and a simple opt-out mechanism, a compliant database is also, in practice, a more reliable one.
Intent Data
The signals that reveal a company is actively looking for a solution: reading specific content, comparing vendors, searching for precise keywords.
Unlike declarative data, intent data captures a purchase intention in progress, in real time.
In-Market Accounts
Companies showing concrete signals that they're actively shopping for a solution in your category, even before any contact has been made.
Identifying these accounts through intent signals lets you focus prospecting on those closest to a decision.
KPI
A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable metric that evaluates the effectiveness of an action against a goal: conversion rate, number of meetings booked, cost per acquisition.
A handful of truly actionable KPIs beats an overloaded dashboard every time.
Lead
A contact or company that has shown interest, explicit or implicit, in your offer.
Qualifying a lead, confirming it fits your target and has a real need, is a key step before any sales outreach.
Lead Generation
The set of marketing and sales actions aimed at attracting and capturing new, qualified commercial contacts.
It combines content, SEO, automation and quality data to keep the sales pipeline consistently fed.
Lead Qualification
The process of verifying that a contact truly fits your commercial target (right sector, right role, real need, available budget) before moving them into a sales process.
It stops your reps from spending time on contacts with little real potential.
Lead Scoring
Assigning a score to each prospect based on defined criteria (behaviour, profile, engagement) to gauge their readiness and commercial potential.
It lets sales teams prioritise outreach toward the most promising contacts first.
Machine Learning
A branch of artificial intelligence that lets a system learn from data to improve its predictions, without needing to be reprogrammed each time.
In B2B prospecting, it's mainly used for lead scoring and automatically prioritising the accounts most likely to convert.
Media Account Wins
The moment an agency secures the management of an advertiser's media budget, often following a competitive pitch.
Tracking these wins in real time lets you quickly identify which agency handles which brand.
Multichannel Prospecting
Combining several outreach channels (email, phone, social) into a single coordinated sequence, rather than relying on just one touchpoint.
It increases the odds of reaching a decision-maker at the moment they're actually receptive.
New Business
The set of actions aimed at winning new clients, as opposed to managing existing accounts (account management).
An effective new business strategy relies on reliable data, precise targeting and a structured process, from first contact to closing.
Org Chart
Maps the hierarchical structure and roles within a client or prospect organisation: who decides, who influences, who actually uses the product or service.
Understanding it is essential in B2B for reaching the right contacts at every stage of a complex sale.
Outbound Marketing
Actions where the company reaches out proactively to the prospect (cold email, calls, ads), as opposed to inbound marketing, where the prospect comes to you.
In B2B, it remains an essential lever to reach decision-makers who aren't yet actively searching for a solution.
Push Alerts (B2B)
A notification sent directly to a user's device to inform them of news, an offer or an event, without them needing to open an app or an email.
Used well, it re-engages an audience at exactly the right moment, provided it stays relevant and isn't overused.
Prospecting (B2B)
The set of actions taken to identify, contact and convert potential business customers.
It rests on three pillars: quality data, precise segmentation, and a structured follow-up process through the CRM.
Prospecting Email
An email sent to a contact to start or continue a business relationship, aimed at convincing them to consider your services.
Success depends less on volume sent and more on the precision of targeting and message personalisation.
Platform (Sales Intelligence)
A tool that centralises market data (budgets, pitches, decision-makers, moves) to help commercial teams prioritise their prospecting.
It replaces the scattered use of multiple CRMs, outdated databases and spreadsheets with a single, up-to-date view of the market.
Retail Media
The advertising space offered by retail chains on their website, app or in-store, powered by their own first-party customer data.
It's a fast-growing media category that lets brands reach shoppers close to the point of purchase.
Sales Enablement
The set of resources, tools and content made available to sales teams to help them sell more effectively.
Combined with intent data, it lets reps approach every prospect with the right information at the right moment.
Sales Automation
Software and workflows that automate repetitive sales tasks: email sequences, follow-ups, CRM updates, meeting scheduling.
It frees up reps to spend more time on negotiation and relationship-building.
Time-to-Market
The time between identifying an opportunity and actually converting it into a customer, or more broadly, the time needed to launch an offer.
Shortening it in prospecting comes down to fresh data, fast lead qualification and smooth commercial processes.
User (Persona)
A semi-fictional representation of a typical decision-maker or target contact, built from real data: role, goals, buying behaviour.
It helps tailor messaging and outreach channel to each profile, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
Value Proposition
The clear statement of the concrete benefit your offer delivers to a specific prospect, and why it beats the alternatives.
A sharp value proposition is what turns a cold outreach message into a conversation worth having.
Warm Lead
A contact who has already shown concrete interest (download, exchange, information request) but isn't yet ready to commit commercially.
It sits between the cold lead, barely identified, and the hot lead, ready to buy.
eXport of Data
Extracting data from a platform like andzup into another tool (CRM, spreadsheet, emailing solution) to use it in a campaign or follow-up.
A good export preserves the structure and freshness of the data being transferred.
Yield (Media)
A metric that measures the revenue generated by an ad space or media inventory relative to the volume available.
Central for media owners and publishers, it helps balance volume sold against price achieved.
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