The words we use on this site and in our reports, explained simply.
| Term | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Account executive (AE) | The salesperson who runs discovery, demos and closing after a meeting is booked. | |
| Appointment setting | Booking qualified meetings or appointments for someone else to run. | |
| Buying group | Everyone involved in a purchase: who signs, who uses it, who judges it technically, and who supports you. | |
| CASL | Canada's Anti Spam Legislation, which sets rules for commercial email: consent, identification and unsubscribe. | |
| Channel partner | A distributor, dealer, integrator or reseller who sells your product to their customers. | |
| Cycle | At Astra, a four week block of work with a report and a decision at the end. | |
| Discovery | The questions that uncover a buyer's situation, problems and reasons to act before any pitch. | |
| Fractional VP of Sales | A part time sales leader who sets strategy, coaches the team and closes key deals. | |
| Ideal customer profile (ICP) | A one sentence description of the companies and people most likely to buy. | |
| Qualification | Checking whether a deal is real: the measurable gain, who pays, how they decide, the process, the pain and who inside is on your side. | |
| Meeting held | A meeting that actually took place. Astra counts these, not meetings booked. | |
| Mystery buyer audit | Going through a company's sales process as a real prospect would, then reporting what happened. | |
| National Do Not Call List | Canada's list of consumers who do not want telemarketing calls. Business to business calls are exempt. | |
| Pipeline | The total value of open opportunities a team is working on. | |
| Qualified meeting | At Astra: the person can make or influence the decision, described a need, has a reason to act, agreed to an agenda, and the meeting happened. | |
| Upfront agreement | Agreeing at the start of a conversation on its purpose, time and what happens at the end. | |
| SDR | Sales development representative: the person who prospects and books meetings. | |
| Question led discovery | Asking about the situation, the problem, what it costs, and what solving it would be worth, before recommending anything. | |
| Two week test | Astra's trial: a real caller on your market for two weeks. If you continue, the fee comes off the 90 day program. | |