The Revops Glossary
A Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions
We get it. Revenue Operations (aka RevOps) sounds like just another one of those corporate buzzwords... But for us at With Scale, we think RevOps is way more important—and cooler—than it sounds.
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So if you’ve ever found yourself nodding in a meeting while secretly Googling “What is RevOps?”, we’re here to help you.
We’ve put together a handy glossary: a jargon-busting, BS-free guide to all the key RevOps terms and definitions to help you understand what it’s all about…and to nod in confidence during your next strategy session!
Content and overview
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What is RevOps
Revenue Operations (RevOps) aligns your people, processes, and data systems across go-to-market teams to drive revenue more effectively.
Done well, it saves time and reduces costs.
GTM Teams
GTM (Go-To-Market) teams are the departments responsible for acquiring and retaining customers. These include:
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Business Development (BD)
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Sales
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Marketing
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Customer Success
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Product
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Engineering
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Finance (for pricing strategy)
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Legal (contract negotiation)
In short, they’re the frontline teams that take your product or service to market and grow the business.
Lead Scoring and Routing
Lead Scoring
Lead Scoring is how you rank leads based on how likely they are to convert.
Lead score can combine both, or is often split into:
Engagement Score
Usually, this sums pre-assigned scores for certain engagement signals (like email clicks, content views, or webinar attendance)
Often used for inbound leads, or to surface ‘in nurture’ leads to sales if they meet a ‘threshold of activity’.
Fit/ Demographic Score
Usually sums pre-assigned scores for certain demographic criteria, such as job title, company size, or industry.
This can be used for inbound or/and outbound targeting.
Lead Routing
Lead Routing assigns those leads to the right rep or team quickly.
Routing rules can be based on things like territory, deal size, or account ownership. In short, the goal is to get the right lead to the right person without delay.
Here’s our blog on lead routing ‘how-to’s’.
Round Robin
Round Robin is a common routing method where leads are distributed evenly across reps. It can be done equally or weighted based on things like seniority or capacity.
Key customers
ICP
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is a clear definition of the type of company that’s the best fit for your product.
It’s based on factors like industry, size, revenue, or tech stack, and acts as a guide on who you target and why.
Persona
Persona refers to the specific roles or individuals you’re selling to within those companies: their goals, pain points, and buying triggers.
TAM
TAM (Total Addressable Market) represents the total market demand for a product or service.
Think of it like a whole universe of potential customers who could buy your product, assuming no limit on reach or resources.
It’s your way of understanding the potential revenue opportunity of a certain segment or your ICP.
The Funnel
TOFU
We see TOFU (Top of Funnel) as lead acquisition through to conversion to a sales-qualified opportunity.
Everything from awareness (blog posts, ads, and social content) through to the lead providing their email (gated content, webinar sign-up, form fills) to the conversion of this lead into a sales-qualified opportunity.
In many companies, this is represented by Marketing and SDR (Sales Development Rep) activity.
MOFU
MOFU (Middle of Funnel) is where qualified opportunities are nurtured and encouraged to “closed won” (i.e. a ‘sale’).
In many companies, this is represented by Account Executive activity.
BOFU
BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) is where we look at Closed Won opportunities/deals, and importantly Closed Lost deals too (and their contributing reasons).
In many businesses with recurring revenue, the concept of a ‘bottom’ of funnel doesn’t necessarily exist; instead, BOFU represents ‘won revenue’ at the central point of two funnels—the ‘new business’ funnel and the ‘existing business’ funnel, focused on retention and upsells.
Lead
A lead refers to anyone who has shown interest, and in many businesses, given you their email or signed up for something.
This could involve filling out a form, signing up, or clicking around on your website. Not all leads are created equal.
MAL
We see MAL (Marketing Accepted Lead) as a lead that marketing has handed over to sales, and sales has accepted. Sometimes, even with a robust automated MQL process, bad leads can slip through.
The MQL:MAL conversion can be important for sales to give feedback to Marketing on the quality of the inbound leads.
Often we look at MAL:SQL conversion for SDR teams because it’s a fairer reflection of their work—i.e. Conversion of leads that they can actually convert.
SQL
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) refers to a lead that a TOFU salesperson (SDR or BD) has vetted and believes is a real opportunity worth pursuing.
SAL
SAL (Sales Accepted Lead) refers to the point where sales (often an Account Executive) formally accepts the lead into the pipeline.
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SALs are only required if one time is handing off an SQL to another team (i.e. if an SDR hands off an SQL to an AE, the AE has an opportunity to reject the lead). Much like ‘MAL’, the SAL allows for Account Executives to ‘feedback’ to SDRs on the quality of the leads.
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SQL:SAL conversion is often tightly monitored to ensure SQL quality.
MQL
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) refers to a lead that meets your marketing criteria for quality, based on engagement score, fit score, or both.
Often, an MQL is a marketing and sales-agreed-upon threshold, which signifies this lead is now worth sales speaking to.
HubSpot Terminology
Custom Object
Custom Objects is a record type you can create in HubSpot to track and store anything that’s not a standard company, deal, or ticket.
These include things like attribution touchpoints, events, or partners.
Data Set
Sequences
Sequences are a sales automation feature that sends a timed series of emails and task reminders to contacts.
Think of it as semi-automated outreach with room for personalisation—used mostly for follow-ups or prospecting.
Data sets are a reusable collection of properties pulled from different objects in HubSpot.
They’re used mainly in reports to keep data clean, consistent, and easy to scale, especially across teams.
Reporting
Conversion
Conversion measures how many prospects complete a desired action, like signing up or buying.
There are two different types: rolling (simple) and cohorted conversion.
Conversion types
Rolling (simple) conversion tracks this over a moving time period, while cohorted conversion groups prospects based on when they entered the funnel to see how they perform over time.
Both have their uses!
Attribution
Attribution assigns credit to marketing or sales efforts that lead to a conversion.
First touch gives all credit to the first interaction, most recent credits the last one, and multi-touch spreads credit across multiple touchpoints to capture the full buyer journey.
The Technical Stuff
API
API stands for Application Programming Interface (but who has ever said that?), and it lets different software systems talk to each other by sharing data and functions securely.
It’s the backbone for connecting tools and automating workflows without manual work.
Integration
Integration is how different systems connect to work together.
Direct integrations link tools natively without extra layers, while third-party integrations use middleware or connectors to bridge gaps between software.
DevOps
DevOps is the collaboration between development and operations teams to build, test, and deploy software faster and more reliably.
It focuses on automation, continuous delivery, and improving system stability.
Sales Qualification Checklists
There are many checklists out there. Essentially, they are there to ensure critical information is collected at the right time, throughout the funnel.
While many pre-existing formats exist, we would always explore creating your own, using these as a template.
BANT
BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline.
It’s a classic framework that helps sales reps quickly assess whether a lead has the budget and authority to buy, a real need for the product, and an appropriate timeline.
MEDDIC
MEDIC covers Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision Process, Identify pain, and Champion.
It helps sales teams qualify deals by identifying measurable outcomes and the right stakeholders involved in buying decisions.
SPICED (our favourite!)
SPICED (Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Decision) focuses on understanding the customer’s current situation and pain points, the impact of those issues, and the urgency around a critical event driving the decision.
It’s great for deeper, consultative sales…hence why it’s a favourite here!
MEDDPICC
MEDDPICC adds Paper process, and Competition to MEDDIC, making it a more detailed qualification tool for complex or enterprise sales.
NEAT
NEAT stands for Need, Economic impact, Access to authority, and Timeline.
It’s designed to focus on the buyer’s real needs and the financial benefits, while ensuring the sales rep can engage the right decision-makers within a realistic timeframe.
Financial Reporting
Decoding what your CFO is after:
ACV
ACV (Annual Contract Value) is the average yearly revenue from a customer contract, useful for understanding the value of subscriptions or deals on a yearly basis.
ARR
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) measures the predictable revenue your business expects to earn annually from subscriptions or contracts, excluding one-time fees.
TCV
TCV (Total Contract Value) is the total revenue a contract will bring in over its full term, including recurring and one-time payments.
MRR
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) tracks the predictable revenue coming in each month from subscriptions, helping to measure growth and stability.
GRR %
NRR%
NRR % (Net Revenue Retention) accounts for revenue lost from churn but also gained through expansions and upsells, providing a fuller picture of customer revenue growth.
Churn
Churn refers to the percentage of customers or revenue lost over a period, a key metric for understanding customer retention challenges.
Revenue Retention
Revenue Retention measures how much revenue from existing customers you keep over time, including upsells but excluding new customers.
Customer Retention
Customer Retention tracks the percentage of customers who stay with your business over a given period, reflecting loyalty and satisfaction.
GRR % (Gross Revenue Retention) shows how much revenue you keep from existing customers before considering any expansion or upsells, highlighting losses from churn or downgrades.
Selling Strategies
Selling strategies are the methods sales teams use to connect with prospects and close deals. They vary from understanding customer needs deeply to using specific approaches suited to the market and product.
ABM
ABM (Account-Based Marketing) is a targeted strategy where marketing and sales focus on specific, high-value accounts instead of broad audiences.
The goal is to tailor messaging and outreach to key stakeholders, increasing the chances of winning and growing those accounts.
Land and Expand
Land and Expand is a sales approach where you first secure a small deal or entry point with a customer (“land”), then grow revenue over time by expanding into more products (Crosselling), services (Upselling), or departments within that account.
Customer Lifecycle
Customer Lifecycle refers to the stages a customer goes through, from first discovering your product to becoming a loyal user or advocate.