Sales terminology is the shared vocabulary for how a deal moves from a name on a list to a paying customer: who you target, how you reach them, what counts as progress and what it costs. If you run or buy outbound in the US or Canada, the terms that matter most are the ones on a weekly funnel report, because each one is a number you can check. This glossary defines them in plain English, with formulas, one worked example and Munzai’s own 2026 figures for reference.
The outbound funnel metrics, with formulas
Start here. These six terms describe every cold-calling campaign, and most disagreements between a sales leader and an SDR team come from two people defining one of them differently.
| Term | Formula | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Dial | One outbound call attempt, answered or not | Raw activity. Says nothing about quality. |
| Connect rate | Connected calls ÷ dials | Quality of the list and phone data, and whether you are calling at the right time |
| Conversation rate | Decision-maker conversations ÷ connected calls | Whether you reach the right person or only gatekeepers |
| Dial-to-meeting rate | Meetings booked ÷ dials | Overall efficiency of list, script and rep together |
| Show rate | Meetings held ÷ meetings booked | How real the meetings were and how well they were confirmed |
| Cost per held meeting | Total program cost ÷ meetings held | The one number that lets you compare a vendor with an in-house hire |
A worked example (hypothetical numbers)
These are made-up round numbers to show the math. They are not a forecast for any campaign.
- 1,000 dials produce 400 connected calls: a 40% connect rate.
- 80 of those 400 are conversations with a decision maker: a 20% conversation rate.
- 10 meetings are booked: a 1% dial-to-meeting rate, or one meeting per 100 dials.
- 8 of the 10 meetings take place: an 80% show rate.
- If the campaign cost $1,200, cost per held meeting is $1,200 ÷ 8 = $150.
What real numbers look like
Across Munzai’s 2026 campaigns, 35% to 48% of dials are answered. From January through August 2026, across all clients, we logged 69,722 connected calls, 7,585 scheduled follow-ups, 5,780 high-quality leads and 1,953 meetings and conversions. Dividing those out, about 8.3% of connected calls were identified as a high-quality lead and about 2.8% ended in a meeting or conversion, roughly one for every 36 connected calls. That is an average across very different offers and lists, so treat it as context, not a prediction for yours. Our B2B cold calling guide covers what moves these numbers.
Targeting terms
- ICP (ideal customer profile): The type of company most likely to buy and stay, described by industry, size, geography and the trigger that makes them need you. It describes companies, not people. See how to find your ICP.
- Buyer persona: The person inside an ICP company you sell to, defined by job title, responsibilities and goals. One ICP can have several personas.
- TAM (total addressable market): Every company that fits your ICP. For outbound, the practical version is the number of accounts you can actually build a contact list for.
- Decision maker: The person with authority to approve the purchase. In B2B there is often more than one, plus influencers who can stall a deal.
- Gatekeeper: The receptionist, assistant or phone menu between a caller and the decision maker.
- Pain point: The specific, costly problem the buyer wants solved. A good script names one, not five.
- Buying intent: Signals that an account is in the market now, such as pricing-page visits, a new hire in a relevant role or a contract coming up for renewal.
Activity and calling terms
- Cold call: A call to someone who has not asked to hear from you.
- SDR (sales development representative): The rep who opens conversations and books meetings but does not close. BDR (business development representative) is often used for the same job; some companies reserve SDR for inbound follow-up and BDR for outbound. The AE (account executive) runs the meeting and closes the deal.
- Cadence (or sequence): The planned series of contact attempts across phone, email and LinkedIn over a set number of days. Our cold calling strategies post shows how to build one.
- Touch: One contact attempt in any channel.
- Disposition: The outcome code logged after each call: no answer, voicemail, wrong number, not interested, call back, meeting booked. A dispositioned list tells you what happened to every lead on it.
- Local presence: Calling from a number with an area code local to the prospect.
- Call recording: The audio of each call, kept so a manager or client can check what was actually said.
- Do Not Call (DNC): In the US, the FTC’s guidance for telemarketers says most sales calls placed to a business are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry provisions, and Canada’s National DNCL site says business-to-business calls are exempt from its rules too. Exempt does not mean you ignore requests: when a prospect asks not to be called again, the number goes on an internal do-not-call list and stays there. This is a definition, not legal advice.
- CRM (customer relationship management system): The system of record for accounts, contacts, calls and deals. If you are choosing one, see best CRM for small business.
Qualification and pipeline terms
- Lead: A person or company that might buy. A lead is unqualified until someone checks it against your ICP.
- MQL and SQL: A marketing qualified lead showed interest through marketing, such as a form fill or download. A sales qualified lead is one a salesperson has confirmed is a fit and willing to talk. The difference between leads that come to you and leads you go get is covered in inbound vs outbound sales.
- BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline. A qualification checklist that works at any company size. On a cold call you can usually confirm need and authority; budget and timeline come out later.
- Discovery call: The first full sales conversation after a meeting is booked, where the AE asks questions to understand the buyer’s situation, problem and buying process. It is not a pitch and not an ICP check; fit should be confirmed before the meeting is set.
- Qualified meeting: A meeting that meets criteria agreed in advance, such as job title, company size and a stated need. Write the criteria down before a campaign starts.
- Opportunity: A qualified deal with a dollar value and expected close date in the CRM.
- Pipeline: The total value of open opportunities. Pipeline coverage is pipeline ÷ quota.
- Sales cycle: The time from first touch to signed deal.
- Quota: The revenue or meeting target a rep is expected to hit in a period.
Revenue and customer success terms
- ACV (annual contract value): Contract value per year. A hypothetical three-year, $30,000 contract has an ACV of $10,000.
- MRR and ARR: Monthly and annual recurring revenue across all customers.
- CAC (customer acquisition cost): Total sales and marketing spend ÷ new customers won in the same period. Hypothetical example: $30,000 of spend and 10 new customers is a CAC of $3,000. CAC on its own is not a comparison with what the customer spends; that comparison is the LTV-to-CAC ratio.
- LTV (customer lifetime value, also CLV): The gross profit you expect from a customer over the whole relationship.
- CAC payback: The number of months of gross profit it takes to earn back CAC.
- Onboarding: Getting a new customer set up and to a first useful result.
- Churn: The share of customers or revenue lost in a period.
- NRR (net revenue retention): This year’s revenue from the customers you had a year ago, including upgrades and minus downgrades and churn, ÷ their revenue a year ago. Above 100% means the existing base grew without any new customers.
- Upsell and cross-sell: An upsell moves a customer to a higher tier or more volume of what they already buy. A cross-sell adds a different product.
Using these terms when you compare outbound options
Before you sign with an SDR vendor or hire in-house, get the definitions in writing. Five questions do most of the work:
- What counts as a connect: a person answering, or any answered line including voicemail?
- What counts as a qualified meeting, and who decides?
- Is show rate reported, or only meetings booked?
- Where are dials and dispositions logged, and can I see them and hear the recordings?
- What is the all-in monthly cost, so I can work out cost per held meeting myself?
For reference, here is what Munzai publishes. We are a Pakistani company: our SDRs are in Pakistan, work US and Canadian business hours, call from local numbers and are recorded. That location is the reason the price is what it is. A dedicated SDR is $1,800 a month for a 40-hour week at 80 to 110 dials a day (roughly 1,700 dials a month), month to month with 30 days’ notice and no setup fee, with work logged in your CRM and a weekly funnel report. To test with one small job first, pay-as-you-go SDR starts at $399 for 150 leads: you supply the script and list, every lead is dialed twice, and you get a dispositioned file with call notes, a summary and a 30-minute debrief in 5 to 7 business days. The in-house vs outsourced SDR comparison works through the cost side.
Want to see these metrics on your own list? Contact Munzai to set up a dedicated SDR or a small pay-as-you-go test.
