Learning path · For new and junior hires just starting in B2B sales, and sales onboarding managers
10 Terms Every New B2B Sales Hire Should Know
In your first week in sales, half of what’s said in meetings goes over your head. “Is this deal BANT-qualified?”, “What came out of discovery?”, “Let’s do a pipeline review.” This path lays out the 10 core terms of B2B sales in the order a real sales cycle unfolds: define the customer, hold a discovery conversation, qualify, propose, and close.
Feel free to use this as is for new-hire onboarding. At two terms a day, your team’s language starts to make sense within a week.
- 1B2B vs. B2CThe difference between selling to businesses (B2B, business-to-business) and to consumers (B2C, business-to-consumer). The number of decision-makers, the review period, and the buying motivation are fundamentally different.
- 2ICP · Ideal Customer ProfileA profile that defines the traits of the ideal customer company, the one for which your product delivers the most value and sells best.
- 3CRMA system and strategy for managing customer relationships (Customer Relationship Management) that gathers customer, lead, and deal information in one place so you can manage relationships and the sales process systematically.
- 4Discovery CallAn early conversation to understand the customer’s situation, problems, and goals in depth. The aim is to understand before you sell.
- 5BANTA framework that uses Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing to quickly judge whether a sales lead is worth pursuing right now.
- 6SPIN SellingA sales approach that uses questions in the order Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff to help customers realize their own needs.
- 7Objection HandlingThe skill of responding to customer concerns such as “it’s too expensive” or “not right now” with logic and empathy, so the deal keeps moving forward.
- 8Pipeline ManagementTracking the stages prospects move through from first contact to contract, and managing the count, value, and conversion rate at each stage to forecast and improve revenue.
- 9Sales CycleThe stages and time it takes from first contact to a signed contract. B2B cycles are long and involve multiple stakeholders.
- 10ClosingThe final stage, and the skill, of turning a conversation into a contract by guiding the customer toward a decision naturally.
Related programs
📚 B2B sales A to Z📚 Sales ProcessOnce you’ve read all 10, the next step is to put them into practice
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What should new sales hires learn first?
Your company’s ICP (ideal customer profile) and the habit of logging in the CRM. Knowing who to meet and keeping a record of those meetings: without these two, your other skills won’t build up.
Is BANT still used?
Yes, it’s still widely used as a basic qualification framework. However, budget (B) is often undecided early in a deal, so many organizations supplement it with MEDDIC and similar frameworks. Start by building your thinking framework with BANT.
Calls and meetings scare me. Is that normal?
Yes, it’s normal. As the examples on the discovery call and objection handling term pages show, the pressure drops a lot once you redefine the conversation as asking questions rather than persuading.