UK B2B sales glossary

129 terms across UK B2B sales: methodology, pipeline, roles, compensation, customer success, outbound, regulatory, tech stack, procurement, and hiring. Plain-English definitions; sourced where the term has a citable origin; cross-linked to editorial.

Every entry is anchor-linkable. Right-click any term to copy a deep link.

Methodology and qualification

BANTalso: Budget Authority Need Timeline: Sales qualification framework: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline. Originated at IBM in the late 1950s. Works at SMB transactional scale; over-simplifies enterprise deals where the buying centre is wider and the decision process longer. See MEDDPICC for the enterprise alternative.
BANT-lite: Inbound-qualification structure derived from BANT but compressed to four short questions. Used by SDRs to triage inbound leads before AE handoff. Yes/no on budget; surface the buying centre on authority; the trigger event on need; a date on timeline.
Buying centre: The collection of stakeholders involved in a buyer-side purchase decision. UK enterprise buying centres typically include economic buyer, champion, technical evaluator, procurement, legal, security, finance. Mapping the buying centre is a primary AE discovery objective.
Champion: An internal advocate at the buyer who has both the willingness and the influence to push the deal through their organisation. The C in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. Champion behaviour test: can name the buying-centre stakeholders unprompted, has discussed internally, can articulate company-side value (not just personal value).
Competitionalso: C (second C in MEDDPICC): Other vendors and the status quo being evaluated. The second C in MEDDPICC. Includes 'do nothing' as a competitor (typically the largest single competitor in UK B2B SaaS). Mapping competitive position determines play sequencing.
Critical event: The dated thing forcing the buyer to act. Without one, the deal will slip regardless of how positive conversations feel. The defining concept of SPICED. AEs who can't name a critical event for a deal are at high risk of no-decision loss.
Decision criteriaalso: DC: What the buyer says they are evaluating against. Distinct from decision process (how the buyer actually makes decisions). The first D in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. Often shifts during evaluation; surfacing the evolution is a primary win/loss insight.
Decision processalso: DP: How the buyer's organisation actually approves the spend. Procurement, legal, security, financial signoff, in what order, on what timeline. The second D in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. Most stalled UK enterprise deals fail because the AE qualified the criteria and ignored the process.
Demo: Sales engineering demonstration of the product to the buyer. 2026 strongest practice: bespoke construction against the buyer's actual data context, not canned product walkthrough. AE-SE pair from first meeting on deals above 30k pounds ARR.
Discovery: The conversational process of surfacing the buyer's situation, problem, decision criteria, decision process, and critical event. Done well, it determines whether a UK B2B deal closes. Most teams systematically under-invest in it.
Economic buyeralso: EB: The named individual at the buyer with budget authority for the purchase. The E in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. Often not the day-to-day champion. AEs who haven't met the economic buyer by MEDDPICC stage 3 are typically working a deal that won't close in their forecast window.
Identify painalso: I (in MEDDIC): The specific operational consequence of the buyer's current state. The I in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. Surfaced through SPIN's implication and need-payoff questions. Pain that the buyer can quantify is materially more closeable than pain framed in vague terms.
MEDDICalso: Metrics Economic-buyer Decision-criteria Decision-process Identify-pain Champion: Sales qualification framework developed at PTC in the 1990s by John McMahon and Jack Napoli. Six axes: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion. The dominant enterprise-SaaS framework before MEDDPICC extended it.
MEDDPICC: MEDDIC plus Paper Process and Competition. The standard UK enterprise SaaS qualification framework in 2026. Eight axes covering everything from buyer-side metrics to procurement-paper workstream to competitive positioning. Applied as required CRM fields on every Stage-2+ opportunity.
Metrics: The quantified outcome the buyer will achieve. The M in MEDDIC/MEDDPICC. A specific number, time-bound, that the buyer would point to as proof the purchase worked. Without metrics, ROI conversations and renewal arguments are weaker.
Paper process: The contractual and procurement workstream specifically: MSA negotiation, DPA, vendor onboarding, security questionnaire response. The first P added in MEDDPICC. Most often discovered late and slips deals at the back of the cycle.
Qualification: The structured process of determining whether a deal is real, winnable, and worth working. Run by SDRs at inbound triage (BANT-lite) and by AEs throughout the cycle (MEDDPICC). A qualified deal has named answers to load-bearing questions; a tyre-kicker has plausible-sounding answers to none of them.
SPICEDalso: Situation Pain Impact Critical-event Decision: Sales qualification framework developed by Winning by Design as a buyer-centric reframing of MEDDPICC. Six axes: Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Decision. The Critical Event axis is the strongest concept; many UK SaaS teams add it to MEDDPICC even without adopting full SPICED.
SPIN sellingalso: Situation Problem Implication Need-payoff: Discovery framework from Neil Rackham's 1988 Huthwaite research (35,000-call dataset). Four question types: Situational, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff. Implication and Need-payoff questions correlate most strongly with progression; teams over-index on Situational.

Pipeline and forecasting

Best case: Forecast category for deals the AE believes can close in the period if everything goes right. Lower probability than commit; higher than pipeline. Best-case-to-actual conversion is a key forecast accuracy metric.
Commit: Forecast category for deals the AE is committing to close in the period. Highest probability bucket; tracked weekly against actual close. AEs over-committing get challenged in forecast calls.
Conversion rate: Percentage of opportunities at one stage that progress to the next. Stage-by-stage conversion analysis surfaces where deals stall. Marketing-side conversion rates (visit-to-lead, lead-to-MQL) follow the same pattern.
Cycle timealso: Sales cycle: Elapsed time from first qualified meeting to closed-won. UK mid-market SaaS typically 60-150 days; enterprise typically 90-300 days; SMB typically 14-60 days. UK fintech runs 60-90 days longer than equivalent SaaS due to regulatory gates.
Forecast: The predicted revenue outcome for a defined period (typically the quarter). Built bottom-up from named-deal probability, not from coverage ratio. Forecast accuracy is the single most-watched manager metric for AE credibility.
No decision: Loss category where the buyer chose not to choose. Consistently the largest UK B2B SaaS loss category in 2026 (30-50% of losses by deal count). Distinct from competitive loss; addressed by critical-event discovery, not by competitive positioning.
Pipeline coveragealso: Coverage ratio: The ratio of qualified pipeline at the start of a period to the quota for that period. The 3x heuristic is rarely the right target; the actual ratio depends on the team's realised close rate (coverage = 1 / close rate).
Sandbagging: AE practice of hiding pipeline or under-forecasting to control expectations and produce favourable variance at quarter-end. Manager defence: monthly forecast review focused on 'what's actually in your gut for the quarter'.
Stagealso: Deal stage, Pipeline stage: CRM-tracked progress markers through the sales cycle. Common UK SaaS pattern: Stage 1 (qualifying), Stage 2 (qualified), Stage 3 (proposal), Stage 4 (negotiation), Stage 5 (verbal commit / paper). Each stage should have explicit exit criteria; without them, stage data is noise.
Win rate: Percentage of qualified opportunities that close-won within the target close window. Mid-market UK SaaS commonly 20-40%; enterprise commonly 15-25%; SMB commonly 35-50%. Drives the coverage ratio calculation.

Roles

Account Executivealso: AE: Quota-carrying sales rep who owns qualified opportunities through close. Sub-titles: SAE (Senior AE), AAE (Strategic AE), Enterprise AE. UK SaaS pattern in 2026: AE owns discovery + demo + deal management + procurement workstream + closing.
Business Development Repalso: BDR: Often used interchangeably with SDR; some organisations distinguish (BDR for outbound new-business, SDR for inbound triage). Compensation and seniority typically equivalent; structural responsibilities sometimes differ.
Chief Revenue Officeralso: CRO: C-level role owning the entire revenue-generation function: sales, often customer success, sometimes marketing. The 'CRO' designation became standard in UK SaaS through 2018-2024 as the integrated-GTM model spread.
Customer Success Manageralso: CSM, CS Manager: Post-sale relationship and outcome-delivery role. UK SaaS in 2026 increasingly carries retention and expansion quota; pure-relationship CSM role is dating. Comp pattern shifting from 80/20 to 70/30 base/variable with NRR-tied variable.
RevOpsalso: Revenue Operations: Function owning systems, data, and process for the GTM organisation: CRM, sales tech stack, comp operationalisation, forecasting, territory design, GTM analytics. Strongest reporting line in UK SaaS 2026 is to CEO/COO rather than CRO/CFO.
Sales Development Repalso: SDR: Outbound-focused early-career sales role that generates qualified pipeline for AEs. UK SaaS pattern in 2026: 1:1 to 1:2 SDR-AE ratios, lower per-week volume (20-50 prospects), per-prospect personalisation, metric shifting to qualified-pipeline-passed.
Sales Engineeralso: SE, Pre-Sales, Solutions Engineer, Solutions Consultant: Technical-first role paired with AEs from first meeting on deals above 30k pounds ARR in UK SaaS 2026. Owns demo design, technical discovery, POC scoping, information security workstream. Typical 1:1 or 1:2 SE-AE ratio.
Sales Leadership: Director, VP, and C-level (CRO) sales roles. Comp pattern in UK SaaS 2026: 60/40 base/variable typical, multi-year accountability windows, equity material at growth-stage. Quota-to-OTE ratios 5-8x at this level.
Sales Operations: Sales-side specialisation within RevOps focused on field enablement, sales tooling, and CRM administration. At smaller scale often interchangeable with RevOps; at larger scale a sub-function reporting into RevOps or directly to CRO.

Compensation

Accelerator: Higher commission rate paid above 100% attainment. UK SaaS standard: 1.5x rate from 100-150% attainment, 2x above 150%. The cheapest motivation lever in comp design because cost is bounded by over-attainment.
Attainment: Percentage of quota actually achieved. Average attainment in mature UK SaaS sales teams is 60-80%; quota math should assume this band, not 100%.
Base salary: The fixed component of total compensation, paid monthly through PAYE. UK sales 2026 typical base/variable splits: 60/40 for AEs, 70/30 to 80/20 for SDRs and SEs, 80/20 to 90/10 for partner-level consulting BD.
Base/variable split: Ratio of fixed base to on-target variable in OTE. UK SaaS 2026 typical: 60/40 for AEs, 70/30 for SEs, 75/25 to 80/20 for SDRs, 90/10 for partner-level consulting. Lower base means greater downside on under-attainment.
Clawback: Contractual provision requiring repayment of commission paid if a customer does not pay or churns within a defined window. Standard in UK SaaS; window typically 6 months. Wording in the comp plan determines enforceability.
Comp planalso: Compensation plan: Document defining how variable comp is calculated against quota and outcomes. The single most-read document in any sales organisation. Five principles for design: pay for the outcome the company cares about; simplicity beats elaborate mechanisms; accelerators are cheap; pay frequency matters; leaver and clawback wording must be explicit.
EMI optionsalso: Enterprise Management Incentives: UK government tax-advantaged share option scheme for SMEs. Most tax-efficient equity instrument for UK sales hires at qualifying companies (CGT on disposal rather than income tax on exercise). Conditions: company under 250 employees, gross assets under £30m, certain trade restrictions; £250k cap per employee.
Growth shares: Separate share class participating in company value above a defined hurdle. Sometimes used at growth-stage UK companies as equity-like upside without option-tax complexity. Tax treatment varies and HMRC scrutiny has tightened; specific advice needed before relying on headline value.
Kickeralso: Spiff: One-off payment for a specific commercial outcome (e.g. multi-year contract, new logo in target sector, fastest deal of quarter). Sits outside the standard plan; not part of OTE. Used sparingly at strong teams; over-used signals comp-plan misalignment.
On-target earningsalso: OTE: Base salary + on-target variable, paid when an AE or SDR hits 100% of quota. The single most-cited number in UK sales conversations and the most commonly misread. Excludes bonus, equity, pension, accelerators above 100%, and benefits.
Quota: Annual or quarterly target the AE is paid against. Quota-to-OTE ratio is the key check: 4-5x at mid-market AE level, 5-8x at enterprise, 3-5x at SMB. Outside the band: closer look needed.
Ramp: Period for a new AE to reach full productivity. UK SaaS typical: 3-6 months guaranteed variable at some percentage of on-target, then drop to plan. 'No ramp' or 'full quota from month 1' is a red flag in any role with cycle longer than the ramp window.
RSUalso: Restricted Stock Unit: Equity instrument most common at US-listed parent companies operating UK subsidiaries. Vests over time (typically 4 years with 1-year cliff). Each vested share is taxable as employment income at vesting (PAYE + NI).
Trigger event: The contractual moment commission is earned. Three options: booked (signed contract), billed (first invoice), collected (cash received). UK SaaS mid-market typically pays on booked with clawback for non-payment.
Variablealso: Variable comp, Commission: Performance-tied component of total comp. Paid against quota attainment per the comp plan. Frequency varies (monthly for SDRs, quarterly for AEs typical). Trigger event matters: booked vs billed vs collected determines when commission is earned.

Customer success and retention

Churn: Revenue lost when customers cancel or fail to renew. Distinct from contraction (downgrade within an existing contract). UK SaaS sales motion in 2026 increasingly treats renewal as a procurement event requiring sales discipline; pure-relationship CSM run renewal poorly.
Expansionalso: Upsell, Cross-sell: Additional ARR from existing customers via seat growth, tier upgrade, or additional product purchase. Drives the gap between GRR and NRR. UK SaaS organisations targeting NRR above 110% typically need a dedicated expansion sales function with quota tied to expansion ARR.
Expansion AEalso: Account Manager, Customer Sales Manager: Dedicated role with quota tied to expansion ARR within a defined book of existing customers. Distinct from CSM (relationship + retention) and from new-business AE (closed-won net-new). Pays back within 12-18 months at most UK SaaS scales above 100 customers.
Gross Revenue Retentionalso: GRR, Logo retention: Percentage of revenue retained from existing customers excluding expansion. GRR cannot exceed 100% by definition; the gap to 100% measures churn and contraction. Mature UK SaaS targets GRR above 90%.
Net Revenue Retentionalso: NRR, Net Dollar Retention, NDR: Percentage of revenue retained from existing customers including expansion (upsell, cross-sell) net of churn and contraction. Above 110% means existing customer revenue is growing; below 100% means it's shrinking. The single most-watched SaaS metric for growth-stage and public companies.
Renewal: Re-signing of an existing customer contract at end of term. Increasingly a procurement event in mature UK SaaS rather than an automatic continuation. CSMs running renewal as a sales motion (with explicit MEDDPICC qualification of the renewal opportunity) retain better.

Outbound and prospecting

Account-Based Marketingalso: ABM: Marketing-side discipline aligned to ABS named-account lists: target advertising, custom content, account-level event invitations. ABS without aligned ABM is consultative outbound; the marketing partnership is what makes the model produce ABS-shape outcomes.
Account-Based Salesalso: ABS: Sales motion focused on a small named-account list with disproportionate per-account investment in research, multi-stakeholder mapping, and personalised engagement. Works at deal sizes above 75-100k pounds ARR with cycles 6+ months. Fails at smaller deal sizes (per-account investment doesn't pay back).
Cadencealso: Sequence: Structured series of outreach touches over a defined window. 2026 standard: 5-7 touches over 14-21 days, multi-channel. Pre-2024 standard: 14 touches at high volume. The cadence-length compression is one of the biggest structural shifts in UK B2B outbound.
Ideal Customer Profilealso: ICP: Documented description of the customer the sales motion is built around: sector, size, growth stage, technology stack, buying-centre shape. ICP discipline determines which outbound efforts compound and which leak.
Inbound: Sales motion where the prospect initiates contact (form fill, demo request, content download). Triaged by inbound SDRs running BANT-lite before AE handoff. Inbound volume rising as a percentage of UK SaaS pipeline as outbound conversion has fallen.
Lead: Prospect with whom contact has been initiated but not yet qualified. Pre-MQL pipeline. Term varies in usage: marketing teams treat all-form-fillers as leads; sales teams typically reserve for prospects who pass triage.
MQLalso: Marketing-Qualified Lead: Marketing's qualification gate for a lead. Increasingly seen as a dated taxonomy in UK B2B 2026; replacement language is field-defined ('pipeline accepted', 'pipeline qualified', 'opportunity'). MQL/SQL persists at marketing-led organisations.
Outbound: Sales motion where the seller initiates contact with prospects who have not previously expressed interest. UK 2026 motion: 5-7 touches over 14-21 days, multi-channel (LinkedIn-first), per-prospect personalisation, 20-50 prospects per SDR per week. Replaces 14-touch high-volume cadence that stopped working post-2024.
Persona: Documented description of the buyer-side individual within an ICP-fit account: role, seniority, day-to-day priorities, common objections. Discovery and demo design vary by persona.
Personalisation: Tailoring outreach to the specific prospect. Genuine personalisation (5-10 minutes of research surfacing a specific public reference) lifts response rates materially; templated personalisation (first name + company name) does not. The test: would a stranger reading the email recognise it as bespoke?
Prospect: Account or person being approached for sales engagement. Distinct from a customer (already buying) and from a lead (passive contact). The unit of analysis for outbound metrics (prospects per SDR per week, prospect-to-meeting conversion).
SQLalso: Sales-Qualified Lead: Sales's qualification gate for an MQL. Companion to MQL; same dating concerns. AE-accepted-pipeline is the increasingly preferred field-defined replacement.
Touch: Individual outreach attempt (email, LinkedIn message, phone call, voicemail). 2026 channel hierarchy: LinkedIn-after-connection > phone with voicemail > targeted personalised email > LinkedIn InMail > cold email at scale.

UK regulatory

Autoclenz testalso: Reality of the relationship test: From Autoclenz v Belcher [2011] UKSC 41. Where contract terms don't reflect operational reality, courts and tribunals may set them aside. Applied to UK sales contractor classifications: contracts designed to look contractor-shaped while the operational reality is employment-shaped lose at HMRC review.
CTPSalso: Corporate Telephone Preference Service: UK statutory register for business numbers that have opted out of unsolicited sales calls. Companion to TPS; lower public profile but equally binding for UK B2B outbound.
DPAalso: Data Processing Addendum: UK GDPR Article 28 contract between data controller and data processor. Required where the vendor processes personal data on behalf of the buyer. Standard component of UK enterprise procurement; pre-built templates compress negotiation.
DUAAalso: Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: UK statute amending UK GDPR. Stage three commencement late 2025 to early 2026 formalised legitimate interest as a recognised lawful basis for direct marketing. Reduces UK GDPR documentation burden but does not relax PECR.
ESGalso: Environmental, Social, and Governance: Disclosure and due-diligence framework increasingly applied at UK enterprise procurement triage. Vendors above modest scale need modern-slavery statement, sustainability position, Scope 1+2 emissions disclosure, and (often) third-party ESG rating.
FCAalso: Financial Conduct Authority: UK regulator for financial services. UK B2B vendors selling into FCA-regulated buyers face additional control-framework workstream (SYSC 8 outsourcing, Consumer Duty, operational resilience). Cycle adds 60-90 days vs non-regulated equivalent.
Garden leave: Employer pays through notice period but doesn't require the employee to come into work. Generally enforceable when contract permits, duration is reasonable, and full remuneration continues. Time on garden leave should set off against post-employment restrictive covenant duration.
ICOalso: Information Commissioner's Office: UK regulator for data protection and electronic communications. Issues PECR penalty notices and UK GDPR enforcement actions. 2024-2026 enforcement focus on TPS-register breaches and broker-collected-consent failures.
IR35also: Off-payroll working, ITEPA 2003 Pt 2 Ch 8: UK tax legislation addressing personal-service-company structures where the worker would, but for the company, be an employee for tax purposes. 2021 private-sector reform shifted assessment liability to engaging client. HMRC enforcement intensified 2024-2026.
LIAalso: Legitimate Interests Assessment: Documented assessment supporting reliance on legitimate interest as a UK GDPR lawful basis. Required once per direct-marketing campaign type, not per send. Three-part test: necessity, proportionality, balance against data-subject rights.
Modern Slavery Act 2015: UK statute requiring annual modern-slavery statement from companies above £36m turnover (s.54). Increasingly cascades to vendor-side requirements via large-buyer procurement clauses. Component of the standard ESG vendor pack.
Non-compete: Restrictive covenant prohibiting work for competitors for a defined period post-termination. Most contestable covenant type; UK courts increasingly strict on enforceability. 6-12 months typical for IC roles; longer rare and harder to defend.
Non-solicitation: Restrictive covenant prohibiting active approach to former employer's clients (non-solicitation of customers) or staff (non-solicitation of employees) for a defined period. Generally more enforceable than non-compete; protects clearer legitimate proprietary interest.
PECRalso: Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003: UK statute governing electronic marketing (email, SMS, phone, automated calls). Regulation 22 governs email; the corporate-subscriber exemption makes most B2B cold email lawful but UK GDPR still engages on named individual recipients.
PIDAalso: Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998: UK statute protecting workers who make protected disclosures about wrongdoing. Inserted Part IVA into Employment Rights Act 1996. Confidentiality clauses cannot gag protected disclosures; retaliation is independently actionable; compensation uncapped for PIDA-related unfair dismissal.
PILONalso: Pay In Lieu Of Notice: Employer's right to pay out the notice period rather than work it. Under UK case law, PILON should include bonuses and commission accruals; exact wording in the contract determines what's included.
Restrictive covenant: Post-employment contractual restriction (non-compete, non-solicitation of clients, non-solicitation of staff). Enforceable under Office Angels test where it protects a legitimate proprietary interest and is no wider than reasonably necessary. Tillman severance doctrine may save over-broad limbs.
SCCsalso: Standard Contractual Clauses: Pre-approved contract clauses for international personal data transfers under UK GDPR. Required where data moves from the UK to non-EEA jurisdictions without an adequacy decision. Component of the standard UK enterprise vendor pack.
SMCRalso: Senior Managers and Certification Regime: FCA framework giving senior individuals at regulated firms personal regulatory accountability. Vendor decisions affecting their remit are personally accountable; procurement contracts route past the relevant Senior Manager for risk-transfer signoff.
SYSCalso: Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls: FCA Handbook section governing how regulated firms run themselves. SYSC 8 specifically governs outsourcing; vendor relationships affecting regulated activities are 'outsourcing' for SYSC 8 purposes with specific contractual requirements.
TPSalso: Telephone Preference Service: UK statutory register of phone numbers that have opted out of unsolicited sales calls. Calling a TPS-registered number without prior consent is a PECR breach. Most-enforced PECR provision; ICO actions against TPS breaches are routine.
UK GDPR: UK adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, retained post-Brexit. Governs processing of personal data including B2B prospect contact data. Lawful basis for direct marketing is typically legitimate interest (formally recognised under DUAA 2025).
Worker status: UK employment-law category between employee and self-employed. Workers gain holiday pay, minimum wage, working-time protections; employees additionally gain unfair-dismissal rights and full employment package. Pimlico Plumbers and Uber Supreme Court decisions reshaped the test.

Sales tech stack

Apollo: Lower-priced sales-data prospecting vendor with integrated sequencing capability. Common at SMB and lower-mid-market UK SaaS scale. Less data depth than Cognism or ZoomInfo at higher tiers but bundle economics often justify.
Call recording: Recording of sales discovery and demo calls for review and coaching. UK law requires notice (not consent) under Investigatory Powers Act business exemptions; UK GDPR governs subsequent processing. Default retention 12-24 months.
Clari: Forecasting tool common at UK SaaS mid-market and enterprise scale. Adjacent products: Clari Copilot (conversation intelligence). Forecast tooling overlap with Salesforce-native and BoostUp; one source-of-truth recommended.
Cognism: UK-headquartered sales-data prospecting vendor. Strong UK and European data quality; alternative to ZoomInfo and Apollo. Often paired with conversation intelligence and CRM in the standard UK SaaS sales tech stack.
Conversation intelligencealso: CI: Tools that record, transcribe, and analyse sales calls. Three vendors dominate UK SaaS in 2026: Gong, Chorus (Zoominfo), Clari Copilot. AI-native entrants (Avoma, tl;dv, Jamie) compete at lower price points.
CRMalso: Customer Relationship Management: System of record for sales-side data: accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities, forecasts. Salesforce and HubSpot dominate UK SaaS in 2026; Attio at smaller scale. The CRM is the single tool every other sales-tech investment integrates with.
Demo library: Reusable structured set of demo scenarios, recordings, scripts, and pre-built demonstration environments. Cuts SE demo prep time from 4-8 hours per demo to 30-60 minutes. Equivalent of 0.4-0.8 of an FTE per SE seat in recovered capacity.
Outreach: Sales engagement / sequencing tool. Dominant UK SaaS sales-tech vendor for sequence orchestration; Salesloft is the principal alternative. Apollo's sequencing capability is increasingly competitive at lower budgets.
ZoomInfo: US-headquartered sales-data prospecting vendor with significant UK market presence. Bundles Chorus conversation intelligence. Higher per-seat list price than alternatives but bundle economics can work depending on data fit.

Pricing and commercial

ACValso: Annual Contract Value: Single-customer annual contract value. May include non-recurring components (implementation, services). Distinct from ARR in that ARR strictly captures recurring portion.
ARRalso: Annual Recurring Revenue: Annualised value of recurring contract revenue. The standard UK SaaS commercial unit. Distinct from MRR (monthly equivalent) and ACV (single-customer annual contract value, may include non-recurring components).
GMROIalso: Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment: Retail-specific commercial metric: gross margin generated per unit of inventory investment. UK retail B2B vendors should reference GMROI in commercial conversations rather than per-seat pricing; matches buyer's metric language.
MRRalso: Monthly Recurring Revenue: Monthly equivalent of recurring contract revenue. ARR / 12. Used at SMB and product-led-growth scale where monthly invoicing dominates.
ROIalso: Return on Investment: Outcome-side commercial framing for vendor purchase. Strong UK SaaS commercial conversations articulate ROI in buyer-relevant metrics rather than vendor-defined ones. Reduces 'cost' framing and elevates 'value' framing.
TCValso: Total Contract Value: Total committed contract value over the full contract term. For a 3-year contract at 100k pounds ARR with no non-recurring components, TCV is 300k pounds. Used in commission triggers and reporting.

Procurement and closing

CAIQalso: Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire: Cloud Security Alliance security questionnaire. 17 control domains, 200+ questions. Most common UK enterprise security-review format in 2026. Pre-built CAIQ response template compresses security review from 4-8 weeks to 2-3 weeks.
DSPTalso: Data Security and Protection Toolkit: NHS England annual self-assessment for any organisation processing NHS-related data. Required for UK NHS sales at trust level. Free to complete; 2-5 weeks first time.
DTACalso: Digital Technology Assessment Criteria: NHS England assessment framework for digital health technologies. Run by approved assessment bodies; cost typically 8-15k pounds; time 6-12 weeks. Increasingly required for UK NHS sales.
ESG vendor pack: The bundle of ESG-related documents UK enterprise procurement increasingly requires from vendors: modern-slavery statement, sustainability position, Scope 1+2 emissions, Scope 3 plan, ESG rating.
G-Cloud: Crown Commercial Service framework for cloud services. Dominant UK public-sector route to market. 12-month listing cycles; vendor application is 100-300 hours of work. Compresses procurement timelines vs unlisted vendors materially.
ISO 27001also: ISO/IEC 27001:2022: International standard for information security management systems. UK alternative or complement to SOC 2. Time to certify cold: 6-12 months. Component of standard UK fintech and enterprise vendor pack.
ISO 9001also: ISO 9001:2015: International standard for quality management systems. Near-universal procurement gate at UK industrial buyers. Required for most public-sector tender response. Time to certify cold: 6-12 months.
MSAalso: Master Services Agreement: Top-level contract between buyer and vendor governing all subsequent statements of work or order forms. UK enterprise MSA negotiation typically 4-8 weeks; longer for bespoke commercial terms. Pre-built redline-clean templates compress materially.
Procurement: Buyer-side function responsible for vendor selection, contract negotiation, and supplier onboarding. UK enterprise procurement runs in series after commercial alignment; gates include vendor onboarding, infosec, DPA, MSA, financial signoff. Adds 60-150 days to UK enterprise SaaS cycles.
Procurement Act 2023: UK statute replacing the OJEU regime in February 2025. Single Central Digital Platform for public-sector opportunities; framework simplifications; below-threshold transparency obligations. Affects UK industrial and public-sector vendor selection.
SIGalso: Standardized Information Gathering: Shared Assessments security questionnaire. Alternative to CAIQ; more common in UK financial services procurement. Vendors with both CAIQ and SIG response templates have broadest coverage.
SOC 2also: SOC 2 Type II: AICPA-defined assurance report on a service organisation's controls. Type I covers design at point in time; Type II covers operating effectiveness over a period (typically 12 months). UK enterprise increasingly requires SOC 2 Type II at procurement triage.
SOWalso: Statement of Work: Contract document scoping a specific engagement under an MSA. Common in services-led commercial structures (consulting, professional services); less common in pure-SaaS subscription motions where the order form serves the same purpose.
Vendor onboarding: Administrative process to add a new vendor to the buyer's procurement and ERP systems. Typically 4-12 weeks at UK enterprise; includes financial-stability check, modern-slavery declaration, anti-bribery acknowledgements, system registration. Vendors who under-resource onboarding lose first quarter of contracted revenue.

Hiring

30/60/90 plan: Onboarding plan defining specific outcomes by day 30 (fluency), day 60 (independent execution), day 90 (ramp to attainment). One-page document signed by manager and AE on day 1; reviewed at each milestone.
Deal walkthrough: Interview round where the candidate presents a real deal in detail (situation, stakeholders, MEDDPICC, crisis points, save/loss, lessons). The single highest-signal hiring interview format in UK B2B sales. Also used as a coaching cadence with the existing team.
Hiring scorecard: Five-section structured hiring rubric (mission, outcomes, competencies, behavioural cultural anchors, disqualifiers). Written before sourcing; used across every interview to convert hiring from personality-driven to evidence-driven.
Ramp time: Time for a new hire to reach full productivity. UK SaaS AE typical: 4-6 months guaranteed variable then drop to plan. SDR ramp typical 8-12 weeks. Faster ramp claims usually misrepresent the cycle.
Topgrading: Hiring methodology developed by Brad Smart. Underpins the modern UK B2B sales hiring scorecard. Emphasises evidence-gathering against named criteria over conversational vibe; deal walkthrough is the highest-signal interview round derived from this lineage.

Missing a term, or spotted a definition that needs sharpening? Email editorial@salespeople.co.uk. Glossary updates monthly.