GTM Glossary
Go-to-Market Terms & Definitions
A reference guide to the key terms, frameworks, and metrics used in B2B go-to-market strategy, sales qualification, and revenue operations.
This glossary covers the essential terminology used in B2B GTM strategy, revenue operations, and sales qualification. Each definition includes benchmark data, authoritative sources, and links to related implementation guides, research studies, and in-depth articles. Use it alongside our free GTM audit to understand the metrics behind your GTM Health Score.
All Terms
GTM Terms
Sales Frameworks
Metrics
Growth Motions
ACV (Annual Contract Value)
ACV- The annualized revenue value of a customer contract. For multi-year deals, ACV = Total Contract Value / Contract Length in Years. ACV is a key input to pipeline velocity calculations. See SaaStr's guide to ACV for SaaS benchmarks.
ALG (AI-Led Growth)
ALG- An emerging GTM motion using AI agents to automate buyer engagement, qualification, and outreach at scale. Reduces CAC by 40-60% through instant response and personalized outreach. Andreessen Horowitz explores AI's impact on the sales cycle. See how de-anonymization powers AI-led growth.
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
ARR- The annualized value of recurring subscription revenue. ARR = Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) x 12. The primary growth metric for SaaS companies, used to measure scale and forecast future revenue. SaaStr's ARR guide covers benchmarks and growth rate expectations by stage. See which ARR metrics your board cares about.
BANT
BANT- Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline. Sales qualification methodology developed by IBM. How to structure a sales process using BANT.
BPTA
BPTA- Business Problem, Timeline, Authority. A modern qualification framework building on principles from Sandler's sales methodology, simplified for faster sales cycles. Compare with BANT and MEDDIC. Learn how to choose the right qualification framework.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
CAC- Total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing spend, sales costs, tools, and overhead. Calculated as total acquisition spend divided by number of new customers in a period. Andreessen Horowitz's 16 startup metrics explains how CAC fits into overall unit economics. See the RevOps metrics that matter for CAC efficiency.
Churn Rate
CHURN- The percentage of customers or revenue lost over a given period. Logo churn measures customers lost; revenue churn measures dollars lost. Benchmark: best-in-class B2B SaaS companies maintain annual gross churn below 10%. Paddle's churn rate benchmarks provide industry-specific retention data. Related: Net Revenue Retention (NRR).
Conversion Rate
CVR- The percentage of prospects who complete a desired action at each stage of the funnel. Key B2B benchmarks: website visitor-to-lead (2-5%), lead-to-MQL (15-30%), MQL-to-SQL (25-40%), SQL-to-opportunity (40-60%), opportunity-to-close (20-30%). HubSpot's marketing benchmarks provide conversion rate data across industries.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
CRM- Software that manages all company interactions with current and potential customers. Centralizes contact data, deal pipeline, activity history, and reporting. The backbone of sales and marketing operations. Salesforce's CRM overview explains core capabilities, while HubSpot's CRM platform offers a free tier for getting started.
Demand Generation
DEMGEN- The practice of creating awareness and interest in a product or service across the entire buyer journey. Unlike lead generation, demand gen focuses on building brand affinity and educating buyers before they enter the pipeline. Forrester's B2B Revenue Waterfall maps how demand generation feeds into the full revenue funnel.
Discovery Call
DISCO- The first substantive sales conversation with a prospect, focused on understanding their pain points, goals, decision process, and timeline. Effective discovery follows structured frameworks like MEDDIC or SPIN to qualify the opportunity. Gong's research on discovery calls reveals the data-backed behaviors that separate top performers. Learn how to structure your discovery process.
Flywheel Model
FLYWHEEL- A business model where customer experience drives growth through a self-reinforcing cycle of attract, engage, and delight. Replaces the traditional funnel metaphor by emphasizing momentum from happy customers who become promoters. HubSpot's flywheel model explains how the concept applies to modern GTM strategy.
Go-to-Market (GTM)
GTM- The strategy and operational plan a company uses to bring a product to market and reach its target customers. Encompasses positioning, pricing, sales model, distribution channels, and marketing approach. McKinsey's go-to-market insights outline the strategic frameworks used by leading companies. Assess your GTM strategy with a free audit.
GTM Health Score
GTM-HS- A 100-point metric measuring go-to-market maturity across 7 dimensions: ICP definition, lead response time, conversion rates, sales-marketing alignment, tech stack integration, data quality, and process documentation. Scores 70+ indicate optimized operations. McKinsey's growth and sales research provides frameworks for measuring GTM maturity. Learn how to calculate your GTM Health Score.
GTM Motion
GTM-MOTION- The combination of sales model and buying journey that defines how a company acquires customers. Common B2B motions: sales-led, product-led growth (PLG), hybrid. McKinsey's go-to-market strategy insights explore how leading companies design their GTM motions. Assess your GTM motion with a free audit.
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
ICP- A description of the company and buyer characteristics that produce the highest win rates, fastest sales cycles, and longest customer lifetime value. ICP = Ideal Customer Problems (Kevin Dorsey framework). Gartner's guide to defining your ICP outlines a structured approach. How to choose your ICP | Why most B2B companies get ICP wrong.
Lead Nurturing
NURTURE- The process of building relationships with prospects through targeted content and communication at each stage of the buyer journey. Moves leads from awareness to consideration to decision by addressing their specific needs and objections over time. Forrester's research on B2B revenue shows that companies excelling at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.
Lead Routing
LEAD-ROUTE- The automated process of assigning inbound leads to the right sales rep based on territory, industry, deal size, or round-robin distribution. Poor routing causes 15-30% of leads to go to wrong reps. Salesforce's lead routing best practices detail routing automation strategies. See how speed-to-lead automation fixes routing.
MEDDIC
MEDDIC- Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion. Enterprise sales qualification framework originally developed at PTC. Learn the full MEDDPICC methodology | How to apply MEDDIC in your sales process.
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
MQL- A prospect who has shown interest through marketing engagement (content downloads, webinar attendance, demo requests) and meets basic fit criteria. Typical MQL-to-SQL conversion rate: 25-40%. Forrester's B2B Revenue Waterfall defines how MQLs fit into the demand pipeline. See why most MQL-to-SQL handoffs break and how to fix them.
NRR (Net Revenue Retention)
NRR- The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers after accounting for expansions, contractions, and churn. NRR above 100% means existing customers are growing faster than they're churning. Best-in-class B2B SaaS: 120-140%. Bessemer Venture Partners' cloud metrics benchmark NRR across top-performing SaaS companies. See the full set of board-level metrics.
Pipeline Velocity
PV- A measure of how quickly deals move through the sales pipeline. Formula: (Number of Opportunities x Win Rate x Average Deal Size) / Sales Cycle Length. Track pipeline velocity alongside other board-level KPIs. Forrester's B2B Revenue Waterfall provides industry benchmarks.
PLG (Product-Led Growth)
PLG- A go-to-market motion where the product itself is the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion. Users experience value before engaging with sales. Compare with AI-Led Growth (ALG). See OpenView's PLG definition and benchmarks.
Revenue Leak
REV-LEAK- A gap or inefficiency in the go-to-market process that causes quantifiable revenue loss. Common leaks include slow lead response (>5 minutes), poor lead routing, sales-marketing misalignment, missing renewal signals, and broken MQL-to-SQL handoffs. Average B2B company loses $250K-$500K annually. BCG's revenue operations research quantifies the impact of operational gaps on revenue. Learn how a GTM audit uncovers revenue leaks.
Revenue Leak Framework
RLF- A proprietary 47-component diagnostic methodology developed by Artemis GTM that benchmarks B2B go-to-market operations across 5 pillars: Speed-to-Lead, ICP Alignment, Sales Process, Lead Scoring, and Tech Stack. Based on principles from Forrester's B2B Revenue Waterfall. Run a free audit using this framework.
RevOps (Revenue Operations)
REVOPS- The alignment of sales, marketing, and customer success teams under a unified strategy, process, and technology stack to drive predictable revenue growth. Companies with mature RevOps functions grow 19% faster (BCG). Key RevOps metrics your board cares about.
SDR (Sales Development Representative)
SDR- An inside sales role focused on outbound prospecting and inbound lead qualification. SDRs generate pipeline by identifying, contacting, and qualifying potential customers before passing them to Account Executives for closing. The Bridge Group's SDR Metrics Report provides comprehensive benchmarks on quota, ramp time, and productivity. Learn how SDRs fit into speed-to-lead automation.
Speed-to-Lead
STL- The time elapsed between when a lead enters the system and when sales makes first contact. Optimal: under 5 minutes. Companies responding in >5 minutes lose 21x more qualified leads (Harvard Business Review, 2011). How to implement speed-to-lead | Why slow response kills pipeline.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)
SQL- A prospect contacted by sales and confirmed to meet BANT or MEDDIC qualification criteria. Has confirmed budget, authority, need, and timeline. Typical SQL-to-opportunity conversion: 40-60%. Gartner's research on sales qualification details best practices for SQL criteria. Learn how to structure your sales qualification process.
Win Rate
WIN-RATE- The percentage of qualified opportunities that result in a closed-won deal. Calculated as closed-won deals divided by total resolved opportunities (won + lost). Average B2B win rate: 20-30%; top-performing teams achieve 35-50%. Gartner's sales analytics research provides win rate benchmarks across deal sizes and industries. Track win rate alongside other board-level KPIs.
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