B: Sales Buzzwords

Salespodder’s Jargon guide to all that is B:

Bag-Carrying

Where a junior salesrep works as an assistant to a senior one, carrying their bags.

Bath

If you have a ‘bath’ it means you’ve sold nothing that period.

Bean Counter

This is what most salesreps call those within our potential customer organisations that control the purse strings. Whilst it does show that most of such people are the polar opposite of salesreps in terms of personality, their importance is massive, so treat them right or beware…

Benchmark

Usually refers to the process where competing offerings are tested against specific criteria to see which is most relevant or how good one individual one is. If you don’t set the criteria, don’t take part. You’ll lose the business.

Benefit

The reason why a particular aspect of your offering (from a technial/operations viewpoint) will change the life of the potential customer.

Big Three Objections

Time, Mail, Money. When you are given a barrier to progressing on the basis of any of these three.

Biscuit-Dunkers

We hate these, with a passion! Salesreps that do not actually sell.

Blob

To ‘blob’ is to not do any business that period.

Blocker

Similar to (but not exactly the same as) a Gatekeeper, someone whom prevents you from moving elsewhere, usually higher, within their organisation.

Blown Out

Rejection. You have crashed and burned.

BlueBird

I have absolutely no idea where this phrase came from! A BlueBird is simply an order that flies in out of the blue! Unforecasted and probably only using up a fraction of the work you would normally expect to have to do to win a deal, it was a ridiculously short sales cycle too.

Blue-Sheet

One of the many names given to a standard corporate sales process. More prevalent in the early nineties than nowadays. Every sales process should have something akin to this concept.

Board Meeting

A mystical get-together where decisions are made by potential customers that can change your life. All senior executives meet in such forums to make decisions regularly, predominantly monthly. You need to strive to become an agenda item at such meetings.

Bonus Scheme

The details which set out what you will be paid for your troubles.

Book Price

See List Price.

Business Value Proposition

An extremely ballsy close. You are extremely confident that your offering will make or save the potential customer more money than they thought humanly possible. You exude such confidence in fact, that you offer to provide the offering for absolutely nothing. All you ask is for a share of the gain or saving when it comes in. That’s a Business Value Proposition. It always flushes out true objections and is virtually never taken up!

Buying Process

The steps taken that enable a potential customer to evaluate and decide what to order. It ends with the actual money changing hands.

Buying Signal

Something that the potential customer does that reading between the lines tells you they want to buy from you. Can be vocal or visual, direct or indirect. Tend to be subconscious acts by potential customers, but not exclusively.