Glossary
The sales outreach glossary.
Plain definitions of the words used in AI SDRs, cold email, LinkedIn outreach and deliverability, from A/B testing to white-label.
A
- A/B testing
- Sending two versions of a message to similar groups to see which gets more replies, then keeping the winner.
- Account-based marketing (ABM)
- Treating a short list of target companies as markets of one, with outreach written for each company and the people in it.
- AI SDR
- Software that does a sales development rep's work with AI: finding leads, writing personal outreach, following up and handling replies. Some send on their own; others wait for a person to approve. How ZOROSDR does it
- AI cold calling
- Phone calls placed by an AI voice agent. In many countries the same consent and calling-hour rules as for recorded calls apply. How ZOROSDR does it
- Approval mode
- Whether outreach waits for a person to approve each message or sends on its own. How ZOROSDR does it
B
- Bounce rate
- The share of emails that couldn't be delivered. Hard bounces (the address doesn't exist) should never be emailed again; a high rate hurts your sender reputation.
- Buyer intent data
- Signals that a company may be looking to buy: hiring for a role, new funding, a leadership change, researching a topic, or visiting your website. How ZOROSDR does it
- Buying signal
- One event that suggests a good time to reach out, such as a job change, a funding round or a post about a problem you solve.
C
- Catch-all domain
- A mail domain that accepts mail for any address, so you can't tell in advance whether a particular mailbox exists.
- Cold email
- A first email to someone who hasn't asked to hear from you, usually B2B. Laws such as CAN-SPAM, PECR and CASL set what it must include and when consent is needed.
- Conversion rate
- The share of people who take the next step, for example from reply to meeting, or from meeting to customer.
- CRM
- Customer relationship management: where a team keeps its leads, companies, deals and conversations. How ZOROSDR does it
D
- DKIM
- DomainKeys Identified Mail: a signature added to each email that proves it came from your domain and wasn't changed on the way.
- DMARC
- A DNS record that tells mail providers what to do with email that fails SPF or DKIM checks, and where to send reports.
- Do Not Call Registry
- A list of numbers that marketing calls must not ring. The UAE's is run by the TDRA; the US has the National Do Not Call Registry. How ZOROSDR does it
- Domain warm-up
- Raising the number of emails a new domain or inbox sends gradually over a few weeks, so providers learn to trust it.
E
- Email deliverability
- Whether your emails land in the inbox rather than spam. It depends on authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), sender reputation, list quality and content.
- Enrichment
- Adding missing details to a lead, such as a work email, a mobile number, a job title or company size.
F
- Follow-up
- A later message to someone who hasn't replied. Most replies come after the first follow-up, so sequences usually have several.
H
- Hyper-personalisation
- Writing each message for one person from facts about them and their company, rather than filling a template's blanks.
I
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)
- A description of the companies that get the most value from you: industry, size, location, technology and the problems they have.
- Inbox rotation
- Spreading sends across several inboxes so none goes over a safe daily limit.
- Intent data
- Data that suggests which companies are actively researching a purchase. First-party intent comes from your own site; third-party intent comes from elsewhere.
L
- Lead
- A person you might sell to. A lead becomes qualified once you know they fit and have a need.
- Lead enrichment
- See enrichment: adding a lead's missing contact and company details.
- Lead scoring
- Ranking leads by how well they fit and how engaged they are, so the best ones get attention first.
- Lookalike audience
- Companies or people who resemble your best customers, found by matching their traits. How ZOROSDR does it
M
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- An open standard that lets AI assistants such as Claude or Cursor use outside tools and data. How ZOROSDR does it
- Meeting booked rate
- The share of contacted leads who book a meeting. A common way to judge outbound.
- Multichannel outreach
- Reaching the same person on more than one channel, such as email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and phone, in one plan. How ZOROSDR does it
O
- Open rate
- The share of emails opened. Privacy features in mail apps make it unreliable, so replies are a better measure.
- Opt-out
- A person's request to stop receiving messages. It must be easy and honoured quickly; good tools stop every channel at once. How ZOROSDR does it
- Outbound sales
- Sales that start with you reaching out, rather than with the buyer finding you (inbound).
P
- Persona (buyer persona)
- A description of a type of buyer: their role, goals and problems. In some tools, also the brand voice the AI writes in.
- Pipeline
- All the open opportunities a team is working on, usually grouped by stage.
- Prospecting
- Finding and researching people who could become customers.
R
S
- Sales cadence
- The schedule of touches in a sequence: which channel, on which day, and how many in total.
- Sales development representative (SDR)
- The person who finds and qualifies leads and books meetings for account executives, who then close the deals.
- Sales engagement platform
- Software for running outreach sequences across channels and tracking the replies.
- Sender reputation
- How much mail providers trust your domain and sending address, based on bounces, spam complaints and engagement.
- Sequence
- A planned series of messages and actions sent to a lead over days or weeks, stopping when they reply. How ZOROSDR does it
- Soft opt-in
- In the UK and EU, a rule that lets you email existing customers about similar products if they were given a chance to opt out.
- Spam trap
- An email address used to catch senders who mail lists they shouldn't. Hitting one damages your reputation.
- SPF
- Sender Policy Framework: a DNS record listing which servers may send email for your domain.
T
- Total addressable market (TAM)
- Everyone who could buy what you sell. Your ICP is the part of it you focus on.
W
- White-label
- A product an agency sells under its own brand and domain. How ZOROSDR does it
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