Glossary
B2B outbound, in plain words
54 terms from targeting to deliverability and pipeline, each defined in a sentence or two. Where a number or a rule is stated, the source is linked with the day it was read.
Targeting and accounts
Account-based marketing (ABM)
Treating a chosen list of companies as markets of one: research each account, then reach several people there with coordinated email, ads and calls.
Account-based marketing (ABM), explained →
Related: Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Multi-threading · Intent data · Lookalike audience · Pipeline
Buyer persona
A short profile of a role that takes part in buying from you: what they are responsible for, what worries them and what they need to see before they agree.
Related: Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Decision maker · Champion · Multi-threading
Buying signals
Observable events that make a company more likely to need what you sell soon, such as hiring for a role, raising money or changing tools.
Related: Trigger event · Intent data · Technographics · Personalization
Champion
Someone inside the buying company who wants your product to win and argues for it when you are not in the room.
A champion has influence and a personal reason to see the problem solved: a target they are measured on, a process they own. They explain your product to colleagues, warn you about objections and help you reach the decision maker. A friendly contact who likes you but has no influence is not a champion. When a champion changes jobs, their new company is often a good account to contact.
Related: Decision maker · Multi-threading · Buyer persona
Decision maker
The person who can say yes to a purchase and commit the budget, as opposed to those who influence or use it.
In a small company the founder is often the decision maker for everything; in a larger one, the decision maker for a sales tool may be a VP of sales while a RevOps manager runs the evaluation and IT signs off on security. Outbound usually aims at the decision maker or at the person one level below who feels the problem most, and finds the others once a conversation starts.
Related: Buyer persona · Champion · Multi-threading
Firmographics
Facts that describe a company as a whole, such as its industry, size, location, revenue band, age and ownership.
Related: Technographics · Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Data enrichment · Buying signals
Ideal customer profile (ICP)
A description of the companies most likely to buy from you and stay: their industry, size, situation and the problem you solve for them.
Ideal customer profile (ICP), explained →
Related: Buyer persona · Firmographics · TAM, SAM and SOM · Lookalike audience · Lead scoring
Intent data
Signals that a company is researching a topic or a product category right now, collected from the web, review sites or your own website.
Related: Buying signals · Trigger event · Account-based marketing (ABM) · Lead scoring
Lookalike audience
A list of companies or people chosen because they resemble a set you already know works, such as your best customers.
You start from a seed list, for example your ten best customers, and find others that share their traits: industry, size, technology, growth pattern or the way they describe themselves. Ad platforms build lookalike audiences of people from your uploaded lists; in outbound, the same idea is applied to accounts. The quality depends on the seed: a seed of customers who churned produces more customers who churn.
Related: Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Account-based marketing (ABM) · Firmographics
Multi-threading
Building relationships with several people at a target account instead of relying on a single contact.
Related: Champion · Decision maker · Buyer persona · Account-based marketing (ABM)
TAM, SAM and SOM
Three nested market sizes: everyone who could use what you sell (TAM), the part you can serve today (SAM), and the share you can realistically win (SOM).
Related: Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Account-based marketing (ABM) · Firmographics
Technographics
Facts about the software and technology a company uses, such as its CRM, its email provider, its website platform or its cloud.
Related: Firmographics · Buying signals · Data enrichment · MX record
Trigger event
A specific change at a company, such as a new leader, a merger or a launch, that opens a window for a conversation.
Trigger events are buying signals tied to a moment. A new head of sales often reviews the tools and vendors they inherited in their first months; a company that just raised money is hiring and buying; a merger means two of everything. Outbound built on trigger events contacts fewer companies, at a better time, with a reason to write that the reader recognises.
Related: Buying signals · Intent data · Decision maker
Data and research
Catch-all domain
A domain whose mail server accepts mail for any address, real or not, so a verifier cannot tell whether a particular mailbox exists.
Related: Email verification · Bounce rate (hard and soft) · Sender reputation
CRM sync
Keeping records in your CRM and in another tool the same, by copying changes between them automatically.
A sales tool that is not synced with the CRM creates two versions of the truth: contacts emailed twice, customers prospected by mistake, meetings nobody logged. A good sync states which system owns each field, which direction changes flow, and how often. It should read your customers and open deals before any outreach so they are skipped, and it should write back what happened, such as replies and meetings, to fields of its own.
Related: Suppression list · Lead scoring · Pipeline
Data enrichment
Adding missing details to a company or contact record, such as a work email, a job title, a headcount or the technology the company uses.
Related: Waterfall enrichment · Email verification · Firmographics · CRM sync
Email verification
Checking that an email address exists and can receive mail before you send to it, without sending a message.
Email verification, explained →
Related: Catch-all domain · Bounce rate (hard and soft) · Data enrichment · Sender reputation
Lead scoring
Ranking leads or accounts with a number built from how well they fit and how engaged they are, so the best ones are worked first.
Related: MQL and SQL · Ideal customer profile (ICP) · Intent data · CRM sync
Waterfall enrichment
Asking several data providers in a fixed order for the same field, and stopping at the first one that returns a usable answer.
Waterfall enrichment, explained →
Related: Data enrichment · Email verification · Catch-all domain
Sequences and messaging
A/B test
Sending two versions of a message to comparable groups and keeping the one that performs better on a metric chosen in advance.
In outbound you usually test one thing at a time: the subject line, the opening, the offer or the call to action. Volumes are small, so differences between versions are often noise; judge on replies or meetings rather than opens, wait until each version has reached enough people, and treat a small win as a hint to test again, not a result.
Related: Reply rate · Positive reply rate · Sequence
AI SDR
Software that does the work of a sales development representative: finding accounts, researching them, writing and sending outreach and booking meetings.
Related: Sequence · Personalization · Cost per meeting · Deliverability
Cadence
The rhythm of a sequence: how many touches, on which channels, and how many days apart.
People use cadence and sequence almost interchangeably; cadence puts the emphasis on timing. A cadence that is too tight feels pushy and drives up unsubscribes; one that is too loose lets the prospect forget the first message. Business days, the prospect's time zone and holidays matter more than the exact number of days between steps. Most tools let you set sending windows, so messages arrive during the reader's working day rather than at night.
Related: Sequence · Follow-up · Sending limits
Cold email
A first email to someone who has had no previous contact with you, sent because their company fits the people you sell to.
Cold email is not spam when it is relevant, honest about who sends it, easy to stop and sent at a modest volume to people chosen for a reason. It works best short and specific: why this company, why now, what you offer, and one easy question. The rules on who you may email and what each message must contain depend on the country; see CAN-SPAM and GDPR legitimate interest.
Related: Sequence · Personalization · CAN-SPAM · Deliverability
Follow-up
A later message in a sequence, sent when the prospect has not replied to the earlier ones.
Follow-ups are often sent as a reply in the same thread so the reader sees the context. A good one is shorter than the first email and offers something new: a relevant example, a simpler ask, or permission to stop. Follow-ups end the moment the prospect replies, unsubscribes or books a meeting. A follow-up that only says "bumping this to the top of your inbox" adds nothing and tends to draw complaints.
Related: Sequence · Cadence · Reply rate
Merge tag
A placeholder in an email template, such as {{first_name}}, that the sending tool replaces with each recipient's data.
Merge tags are the simplest form of personalization. Their risk is the empty or wrong field: an email that opens "Hi {{first_name}}," or "Hi ACME CORP LTD," tells the reader it was sent in bulk. Set a fallback for every tag, clean company names before sending, and preview a sample of rendered emails rather than the template. Tags work best for facts that are always present and always correct.
Related: Personalization · A/B test · Sequence
Personalization
Writing each outbound message for its reader, using what you know about their company, role and situation rather than a template with their name filled in.
Related: Merge tag · Buying signals · Cold email · Reply rate
Sales development representative (SDR)
The sales role that finds and contacts new prospects and books first meetings for account executives, who then run the deal.
SDRs research accounts, write and send outreach, follow up, qualify the people who reply and hand over those worth a meeting to an account executive, along with what they learned. They are usually measured on meetings booked or qualified pipeline. Many early-stage companies have no SDR and the founder does this work; an AI SDR takes on part or all of it.
Related: AI SDR · Sequence · Meeting rate
Sequence
A planned series of messages to one prospect, such as a first email and two follow-ups a few days apart, that stops as soon as they reply.
Related: Cadence · Follow-up · A/B test · Reply rate
Deliverability
Blocklist
A public list of domains or IP addresses seen sending spam, which many mail servers check before accepting a message.
Being listed on a widely used blocklist can stop delivery to many companies at once. Listings usually follow spam-trap hits or complaint spikes. Check your sending domains regularly, stop sending from a listed one, fix the cause and request removal through the list's own process. Some lists remove an entry automatically after a period without spam; others need a request, and a repeat listing is harder to clear.
- In Outlevo: Every sending domain is checked daily against Spamhaus and SURBL
Related: Sender reputation · Spam complaint rate · Deliverability
Bounce rate (hard and soft)
The share of sent emails returned as undeliverable. A hard bounce is permanent, such as a missing address; a soft bounce is temporary.
Bounce rate (hard and soft), explained →
Related: Email verification · Catch-all domain · Suppression list · Sender reputation
Deliverability
How reliably your emails reach the recipient's inbox, rather than being rejected, filtered to spam or delayed.
Related: Inbox placement · Sender reputation · Mailbox warm-up · SPF · Spam complaint rate
Inbox placement
The share of your delivered emails that land in the inbox rather than the spam folder or another tab.
Related: Deliverability · Sender reputation · Blocklist · Mailbox warm-up
Mailbox warm-up
Building a new mailbox's or domain's sending reputation gradually, starting with a few emails a day before any real outreach.
Related: Sending domain · Sender reputation · Sending limits · Deliverability
Sender reputation
How much mailbox providers trust mail from your domain and sending IP addresses, judged from its history of bounces, complaints and engagement.
Reputation is built slowly and lost quickly. Providers do not publish exactly how they score it, but bounces, spam complaints, blocklist listings, authentication failures and sudden jumps in volume all lower it, while replies and steady, modest volumes help. Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft's sender programs show part of the picture for your domain. A damaged reputation recovers only with time and clean sending.
Related: Deliverability · Mailbox warm-up · Blocklist · Bounce rate (hard and soft)
Sending domain
The domain your outbound emails are sent from, often a separate one (such as getyourcompany.com) kept apart from your main company domain.
Using a secondary domain for cold outreach protects the reputation of your main domain, which carries invoices, support and customer mail. It needs its own SPF, DKIM and DMARC, its own mailboxes and warm-up, and a website or redirect to your main site so recipients can see who you are. A lookalike name close to your brand helps recipients trust it; a random one looks like spam.
- In Outlevo: Builder includes one sending domain and two mailboxes that Outlevo sets up and warms; Growth includes two domains and four mailboxes, or sends from your own.
Related: Mailbox warm-up · SPF · DMARC · Sender reputation
Sending limits
The maximum number of emails a mailbox or domain sends per day, set by the provider and, more strictly, by the sender to protect reputation.
Mailbox providers cap how much one account can send, but outbound teams keep well below those caps, because a cold mailbox sending hundreds of messages a day looks like a spammer. Volume is usually grown by adding mailboxes and domains rather than by sending more from each one. Spreading sends through the working day, rather than in one burst, also looks more like a person writing.
- In Outlevo: At most 30 a day from each mailbox Outlevo runs
Related: Mailbox warm-up · Sending domain · Cadence
Spam complaint rate
The share of recipients who mark your email as spam. Gmail and Yahoo ask senders to keep it below 0.3%.
Spam complaint rate, explained →
Related: One-click unsubscribe · Sender reputation · Deliverability · Blocklist
Email authentication
BIMI
Brand Indicators for Message Identification: a DNS record that lets supporting inboxes show your logo next to authenticated mail.
Related: DMARC · DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) · SPF
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
A digital signature added to each email, checked against a public key in your DNS, that proves the message came from your domain and was not altered.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), explained →
Related: SPF · DMARC · BIMI · Sending domain
DMARC
A DNS record that tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails authentication for your domain, and where to send reports about it.
Related: SPF · DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) · BIMI · Deliverability
MX record
The DNS record that says which mail servers receive email for a domain.
Without MX records, replies to your outbound emails have nowhere to go and bounce. MX records also show which provider a company uses for email, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for example, which is why they are a common source of technographic data and the first thing an email verifier checks. When you move email providers, the MX records are what you change.
Related: SPF · Email verification · Technographics
SPF
A DNS record that lists which servers may send email for your domain, so receivers can reject mail from anywhere else.
Related: DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) · DMARC · MX record · Sending domain
Compliance
CAN-SPAM
The US law that sets rules for commercial email, including B2B email: honest headers and subject lines, a postal address and a working way to opt out.
Related: Suppression list · One-click unsubscribe · GDPR legitimate interest · Cold email
GDPR legitimate interest
The GDPR lawful basis that lets a company process personal data, including for direct marketing, when its interest outweighs the person's rights.
GDPR legitimate interest, explained →
Related: CAN-SPAM · Suppression list · Cold email
One-click unsubscribe
An unsubscribe that works with a single action, supported through the List-Unsubscribe headers so the inbox can show its own unsubscribe button.
Gmail asks senders of more than 5,000 messages a day for one-click unsubscribe on marketing messages, and Yahoo asks bulk senders for it and to honour unsubscribes within 2 days. For outbound, a plain unsubscribe link and honouring "please stop" replies at once keep complaints down. An unsubscribe that asks people to log in or confirm by email does the opposite.
Sources: Gmail email sender guidelines (support.google.com, checked oct 22, 2026); Yahoo sender best practices (senders.yahooinc.com, checked oct 22, 2026).
Related: Spam complaint rate · Suppression list · CAN-SPAM
Suppression list
A list of email addresses and domains that must never be emailed, such as people who unsubscribed, addresses that hard-bounced and your existing customers.
Related: CAN-SPAM · GDPR legitimate interest · One-click unsubscribe · CRM sync · Bounce rate (hard and soft)
Metrics and pipeline
Closed-lost
A deal stage in the CRM for opportunities that ended without a purchase.
Closed-lost deals are a good source of outbound. The company already knew you, and the reason it said no, such as timing, budget, a missing feature or a competitor, may have changed. Recording the loss reason honestly makes it possible to contact the right ones again later with a reason to talk, for example when the missing feature ships or a new leader arrives.
Related: Pipeline · CRM sync · Trigger event
Cost per meeting
What a campaign or channel cost, divided by the number of meetings it produced.
Cost per meeting is the number that lets you compare very different ways of filling a calendar: an SDR's salary and tools, an agency retainer, an AI SDR subscription, paid ads. Everything that went into the campaign belongs in the cost: data and enrichment, verification, sending domains and mailboxes, software seats, and the time of the people who wrote, reviewed and followed up.
It is worth calculating per campaign as well as overall, because two campaigns at the same company can differ several times over, and the cheap one tells you which segment and message to scale. Count meetings when they are held, ideally followed through to qualified opportunities. To estimate it in advance, start from the cost per contact and an assumed meeting rate, then replace the assumption with your own results.
- In Outlevo: Each campaign shows what it reached, the replies and the cost per meeting
Related: Meeting rate · Positive reply rate · Pipeline · AI SDR
Meeting rate
The share of contacted people who end up in a meeting with you, usually counted per 100 contacts or per campaign.
Meeting rate is the outcome most outbound is judged on, because a meeting is where pipeline starts. Count only meetings held, not booked, if no-shows are common, and compare it with the cost of the campaign to get the cost per meeting. It depends on the list, the offer and the market at least as much as on the wording, so compare it between campaigns aimed at the same segment.
- Outlevo's estimate: We assume 2 to 6 warm leads (interested replies) and 1 to 4 meetings per 100 contacts: our estimate for researched emails, not a measured average.
Related: Positive reply rate · Cost per meeting · Pipeline
MQL and SQL
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) has enough fit and interest for sales to look at; a sales qualified lead (SQL) has been checked by sales as worth a deal.
Related: Lead scoring · Pipeline · Positive reply rate · Ideal customer profile (ICP)
Open rate
The share of delivered emails that were opened, as measured by a tracking pixel, a measure that has become unreliable.
Related: Reply rate · Positive reply rate · A/B test · Deliverability
Pipeline
The open deals a sales team is working, each at a stage, usually also counted as their total potential value.
Outbound is often measured by the pipeline it creates: the value of the qualified opportunities that started from it. Pipeline is only as good as its stage definitions; a deal should move stage when the buyer does something, such as agreeing to a demo or a proposal, not when the seller feels optimistic. Weighting each deal by its stage gives a more honest forecast than the raw total.
Related: MQL and SQL · Meeting rate · CRM sync
Positive reply rate
The share of contacted people who replied with interest, such as asking for details or agreeing to talk, rather than declining or auto-replying.
Positive reply rate, explained →
Related: Reply rate · Meeting rate · Cost per meeting · Personalization
Reply rate
The share of contacted people, or of emails sent, that got any reply, including "not interested" and out-of-office answers if not filtered out.
Related: Positive reply rate · Meeting rate · Open rate · A/B test
See these terms at work on your own accounts
Outlevo researches each account, verifies every address and stops when bounces or complaints rise.