Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
A B2B strategy targeting specific high-value accounts with personalized outreach rather than broad campaigns. ABM aligns marketing and sales around a defined target account list.
Annual Contract Value (ACV)
The average annualized revenue from a single customer contract. High ACV (>$10K) typically justifies a sales-led motion; low ACV (<$1K) favors self-serve or PLG.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
The total annualized value of all active subscription contracts. The primary revenue metric for SaaS.
Bottom-Up GTM
A motion where product adoption starts with individual users or small teams and expands upward to organizational contracts. Common in PLG companies like Slack and Figma.
Buyer Journey
The stages a prospect moves through before purchasing: Awareness → Consideration → Decision. GTM strategy maps messaging and channels to each stage.
Buyer Persona
A semi-fictional profile of the individual decision-maker at your target company. Distinct from ICP, which is company-level. Personas capture role, goals, pain points, and objections.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired in a period. A key efficiency metric — lower CAC relative to LTV signals a healthy GTM.
CAC Payback Period
How many months of customer revenue it takes to recover acquisition cost. Under 12 months is healthy for SaaS; under 6 months is excellent.
Champion
The internal advocate at a prospect company who drives the purchase decision. Finding and enabling the champion is often more important than reaching the final decision-maker.
Churn
The rate at which customers cancel or stop subscribing. Monthly churn = customers lost ÷ total customers at start of month. Churn is the most destructive force in SaaS unit economics.
Channel Strategy
The plan for how you'll reach and acquire customers: organic search, paid, outbound email, partnerships, content, community, events.
Deal Stage
Where an opportunity sits in the sales pipeline. Common stages: Prospect → Qualified → Demo → Proposal → Negotiation → Closed Won / Lost.
Discovery Call
An early sales call focused on understanding prospect pain, situation, and fit — before presenting a solution.
Expansion Revenue
Revenue from existing customers through upsells, cross-sells, or seat additions. Net revenue retention above 100% means expansion offsets churn.
Freemium
A pricing model with a permanent free tier and paid upgrades. Differs from a free trial (time-limited). Common in PLG companies.
Funnel
The stages from awareness to purchase. Top of funnel (ToFu) = awareness; Middle (MoFu) = consideration; Bottom (BoFu) = decision.
Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy
The complete plan for how a company brings a product to market and acquires customers — covering ICP, positioning, channels, messaging, and execution timeline.
GTM Health Score
A composite metric measuring the readiness and effectiveness of your GTM across multiple dimensions.
GTM Motion
The primary mechanism for customer acquisition: Product-Led (PLG), Sales-Led (SLG), Marketing-Led, or Community-Led. Most companies combine motions as they scale.
GTM Playbook
A structured, week-by-week execution plan covering ICP, positioning, channels, tasks, and KPIs across a defined timeframe.
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
A description of the perfect company most likely to buy, get value from, and retain your product. Typically defined by firmographics (industry, size, revenue) and behavioral signals.
Inbound Marketing
Attracting customers through valuable content, SEO, and organic channels rather than outbound prospecting. Generates leads who self-identify with your solution.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A measurable value showing how effectively key objectives are being met. GTM KPIs include CAC, LTV, win rate, pipeline velocity, MRR growth, and churn.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
Total expected revenue from a customer over their full relationship with your company. LTV:CAC above 3:1 is a healthy SaaS benchmark.
Lead Qualification
Determining whether a prospect has the fit, intent, and timing to buy.
Market Fit
Short for Product-Market Fit (PMF): the degree to which your product satisfies strong market demand. Sean Ellis benchmark: >40% of users would be “very disappointed” if the product went away.
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
A prospect who has engaged with marketing content in a way suggesting buying intent, but not yet qualified by sales.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Total predictable monthly subscription revenue. The foundational SaaS financial metric.
NRR (Net Revenue Retention)
Revenue retained from existing customers including expansion, minus churn. NRR >100% means existing customers grow revenue even without new customers.
Outbound Sales
Proactively reaching prospects who haven't expressed intent — via cold email, calling, LinkedIn, or direct mail.
Pipeline
All active sales opportunities at various stages. Total pipeline value = sum of all deal values currently being worked.
Pipeline Velocity
How quickly deals move through your pipeline. Formula: (Number of Deals × Win Rate × Avg Deal Value) ÷ Sales Cycle Length.
PLG (Product-Led Growth)
A GTM motion where the product drives acquisition, activation, and expansion. Users adopt before sales is involved. Examples: Slack, Figma, Dropbox.
Positioning
How your product occupies a distinct place in customers' minds relative to alternatives. Strong positioning makes the right customers self-select immediately.
Retention
The ability to keep customers subscribed over time. Retention rate = (customers at end - new customers) ÷ customers at start. The most important lever for compounding SaaS growth.
Sales Cycle
Time from first contact to closed deal. Short cycles (days to weeks) favor PLG/SMB motion; long cycles (months) are typical for enterprise SLG.
SLG (Sales-Led Growth)
A motion where the sales team drives acquisition through outbound prospecting, demos, and negotiation. Typical for high-ACV, complex products.
TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Total revenue opportunity if your product achieved 100% market share. SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) and SOM (Obtainable) are realistic subsets.
Value Proposition
A clear statement of the benefit your product delivers, to whom, and why better than alternatives. The foundation of all GTM messaging.
Win Rate
Percentage of pipeline deals that close as won. Win Rate = Closed Won ÷ (Closed Won + Closed Lost). A leading indicator of ICP accuracy and sales effectiveness.