Business Terms Glossary

Helpful terminology and acronyms used by Richardson Strategy and beyond.

• Automation

A mechanized process which used to be a manual task; data entry, emails, form submissions, database values.

• Bottleneck

A process which causes a slow down or mistakes.

• Buyer Persona

A template of common buyers with their characteristics, budget, and position in the market. It’s encouraged to make several of these as a roadmap for sales and marketing.

• Chatflow + ChatBot

Website or Facebook chat window which offers an automated Menu to help leads and customers find answers to their questions.

• Close Rate

The amount of deals won VS deals lost in a sales pipeline. You can calculate volume and quantity.

• (CLV) Customer Lifetime Value

Average volume and frequency of purchases by a customer throughout their duration of business.

• (CRM) Customer Relationship Management

Software to centralize and automate sales, marketing, and customer service.

• (CTR) Click Through Rate

Percentage of impressions which click on your content.

• (CVR) Conversion Rate

The percentage of clicks that accomplish your goals, such as form submissions or purchases. Close rate. midsize enterprise is defined as organizations that make more than $50 million, but less than $1 billion in annual revenue

• Enterprise

Midsize enterprise is defined as organizations that make more than $50 million, but less than $1 billion in annual revenue.

• (ERP) Enterprise Resource Planning

The central database for an enterprise business using hub and spoke model, connects to CRM, accounting, project management, resource management, etc… Typically implemented after scaling to enterprise level using a CRM.

• Escalation

Any situation, particularly customer service, where the customer, client, or partner is unhappy with current service.

• Flywheel

The concept that with a robust value proposition and referral program, customers who have bought not only buy again but also generate new business, in an every spinning circle.

• Friction

Internal or external factors that cause problems in your business.

• Funnel

A marketing and sales journey which begins with awareness and ends with a sale.

• Ideal Customer Profile

The best fit customer from your Buyer Personas. Focus your sales and marketing efforts on targeting these customers.

• Impressions

The amount of times a piece of content has been seen or scrolled over.

• (KPI) Key Performance Indicator

Metrics that track goal achievements. Identify and set KPIs to guide your improvements of your processes.

• Lead

Once a prospect has been contacted and right party contact as been established, a potential customer.

• LiveChat

Website or Facebook chat window which allows leads and users to chat in real-time with company. (also see Chatflows)

• (MQL) Marketing Qualified Lead

A potential customer who is engaging with marketing content, or who is ready to start receiving marketing communications.

• Open Rate

The percentage of contacts that opened an email.

• Pixel

Google and Facebook tracking algorithm which retargets users who interact with your paid advertisements.

• (P&L) Profit and Loss

The calculation between revenue and expenses to determine gross and net profit margins.

• Prospect

A contact who has yet to be determined if they are a potential customer.

• Protocol

A repeatable way of handling a situation, escalation, or workflow determined by policy to ensure compliance and reduce risk.

• (ROAS) Return on Ad Spend

How much you have profited from your advertisement spending.

• (ROI) Return on Investment

How much you have profited from investing in a new team member, software, product/service line, inventory, etc…

• Scaling

Scaling a business means setting the stage to enable and support growth in your company. It means having the ability to grow without being hampered. It requires planning and the right systems, processes, and technology.

• Small-Mid-Large Cap Corporation

Small-cap corporations earn between $300 million and $2 billion. Mid-cap companies earn between $2 and $10 billion. Large-cap corporations earn $10 billion and greater.

• (SMB) Small Business

Small business is usually defined as organizations with less than $50 million in annual revenue.

• (SQL) Sales Qualified Lead

A potential customer who has engaged with marketing material and expressed interest in your product/service.

• Scrum

A framework for project management by creating a Backlog, a Sprint Backlog, and a Sprint of 2 weeks. It encourages teams to meet daily for 15 minutes to quickly review the work for the day.

• (SOP) Standard Operating Procedure

Process and protocol in departments which the team follows for uniform quality control.

• Workflow

An established and shared process, step by step, which achieves a desired result - operations, marketing, sales, customer service.