Funnel

Lead-gen is the process of attracting targeted leads through advertising, forms, and bots. The first stage of the sales funnel.

Funnel - the customer’s path from the first contact to the purchase: awareness → interest → consideration → decision → action.

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) - a lead that meets the ICP criteria and has shown interest: registered, downloaded materials, visited the site.

SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) - a lead ready to talk with sales. Passed the marketing qualification and demonstrated sales readiness.

Conversion Rate - the percentage of users who completed the target action. It is calculated at each step of the funnel separately.

Churn is the percentage of customers who stopped using the product during the period. The main negative metric for subscriptions.

Retention — the percentage of clients who remained active during the period. The inverse metric to churn (retention = 100% − churn).

AIDA is a classic funnel model: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action. Skeleton for advertising texts and sales scripts.

Hunt's ladder - 5 stages of customer awareness: from “no problem” to “I choose a product.” Each stage has its own content and offer.

Lead magnet is a free benefit (checklist, guide, calculation) in exchange for a contact. Converts anonymous traffic into top-of-funnel leads.

Tripwire is an inexpensive first product (from RUB 100–500) that turns a lead into a buyer. The goal is not profit, but the first transaction.

Upsell - sale of a more expensive version, cross-sell - additional sale of a related one. Cheapest revenue growth: the client has already purchased.

CTA (call to action) - call to action: what exactly to do next. One page - one action, otherwise the client does nothing.

Pipeline - sales funnel in CRM: transactions by stages from “new lead” to “payment”. Shows where deals are stuck and how much money is “in the works.”

Cold/Warm/Hot - three-level audience segmentation based on readiness to buy: strangers, familiar with the brand, ready to buy.

Cross-selling is an offer of related products or services at the time of or after the main purchase to increase the average order value.

Onboarding is the process of initial activation of a new user: from registration to the first key action that confirms the value of the product.

Activation is the first key action of the user in the product, after which he is highly likely to stay and return.

An Aha moment is the moment when the user first realized the real value of the product and felt: “this is why I need it.”

Lead Scoring is a numerical system for assessing the “hotness” of a lead based on behavior and demographics, allowing sales to focus on those who will buy.

Lead Nurturing is the systematic “warming up” of cold leads through a series of useful touches until they are ready to buy.

Drip Campaign is an automatic series of messages (email/SMS/push) that is sent based on triggers - actions or timers - without manual launch.

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is the annual recurring revenue of a SaaS product from active subscriptions, without one-time payments and professional services.

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) is monthly recurring revenue from active subscriptions, the operational pulse of a SaaS business.

BANT is a classic B2B lead qualification based on four criteria: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline.

Sales Cadence is a structured schedule of contacts with a lead: calls, letters, LinkedIn messages in a certain sequence and timing.

Win-back is a campaign to return lost customers or unsubscribed leads through a personalized offer at the right time.

SDR is an employee who qualifies incoming leads and transfers only those that are suitable to the profile to the manager.

Evergreen funnel is an automatic funnel that works continuously without reference to a launch date, unlike campaigns with a sales window.

Reactivation is the return of customers who have stopped buying through segmentation of the dormant base and targeted offers.

SQL is a lead that the sales department has verified and found ready for a deal: there is a need, budget and authority.