50 Marketing And Sales Terms Every MBA Aspirant Should Know!

50 Marketing And Sales Terms Every MBA Aspirant Should Know! Have you ever been in a business meeting or on a sales call, and the potential customer or business associate says a marketing or sales team in the middle of their fast sentence and you find yourself pondering what the heck they are talking about? Well, here is a jump start with 50 Marketing and Sales Terms Every MBA Aspirant Should Know! Advertising – Gaining recognition to a product, service or business through paid broadcasting, print or digital. Aided recall – Respondents are asked if they remember a commercial for the brand being tested. Alternative hypothesis – A competing hypothesis to the null. Attitude – A learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object. Barter (A.K.A. ‘Cow Trading’) – Exchanging products or services for the benefit of not having to use cash assets. (Not something we recommend doing unless under contract.) Brand – Anything that gives recognition to a specific product, service or business while separating it from other establishments. Business to Business (B2B) – The means of a firm selling to another organization rather than selling to an individual consumer. Business to Consumer (B2C) – The means of a firm selling to an individual consumer rather than another organization. Buyer Persona – A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Comparative Advertising – The type of advertising in which a company makes a direct comparison to another brand, firm or organization. Corporate Identity – All symbols, colours, logos, etc., that make up the public image of an organization. Cost-Based Pricing – A strategic form of pricing purposed to cover the expenses of running your business. Customer Loyalty – When a consumer is a repeat buyer of a product, service or brand. Demographics – A specific profiling aspect that takes into consideration age, gender, income, family life, social class, etc. Often used in segmentation or for focal points in marketing and advertising strategies. Digital Marketing (Online Marketing) – Marketing to a target audience solely via the internet. Could be email marketing, content marketing, etc. Direct Competition – Competitors that provide the exact same services as your establishment of firm. Direct Mail – A means of advertising communication that reaches a consumer, where they live or their place of business, through the mail. Often based on demographics and/or geographical location. Direct Marketing – Dealing directly with the ‘end user’ rather than a third party or a middle man. Also can be seen as directly communicating with your primary target audience. Can come in the form of advertising, marketing or communications. E-Commerce – The means of selling products digitally on the internet. Franchise – The act of buying a license to sell a product or service from the original owner to the consumer. Geographic Segmentation – Segmenting a group of audiences based on where they live or where they are located. Inbound Marketing – Advertising your company via content marketing, podcasts, video, eBooks, email broadcast, SEO, Social Marketing, etc., rather than paid advertising. Internal Marketing – Efforts to market a marketing plan to individuals and executives with-in your own firm to gain their approval and/or support. Lead – An individual or a company that has shown interest in one of your products or services. Could be either a MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) or an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead). Lifetime Customer Value – A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. Margin – The profit gained from a product or service after all expenses for selling that product or service are covered. Marketing Qualified Lead – A lead that is ready to be handed over to the sales team. An MQL has had some sort of positive interaction with the company such as a discussion, downloading a marketing products, etc., that deems them worth to move to the next level of the sales funnel. Market-Based Pricing – Similar to competitive based pricing in the sense that this type of pricing is based off of the streamlined/current pricing for a specific product or service within the same industry. Market Develop – The act of taking an existing product or service to a new market. Market Penetration – A strategy used to sell more of an existing product with in the current markets it is sold. Market Research – High Intelligence research and development of a specific industry for the betterment of sound business decisions. Marketing – The process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements, in a profitable way. New Product Development – The development of a new product that involves research, development, product testing and launching. Niche Market/Business – A very specific segment of a market in which you are trying to meet the needs of that market. Personal Development Plan – Developed for individuals who are looking to evaluate their S.W.O.T. analysis to plan their future achievement and success. Portfolio – A series of case studies that provide proof of value to potential customers. Public Relations – A series of media releases, conferences, social image, etc., that make up and maintain the reputation of an organization and its brands. Research and Development – The process of discovering and developing new products and services. Referral – A prospect or lead generated from someone who may be interested in what the salesperson is selling. Relationship Marketing – Establishing relationships with intentions of developing long term association with a prospect or potential customer. Much less expensive that gaining new customers. Sales Funnel – The entire sales process as a whole from prospect to paying customer, and all marketing, advertising and sales processes in between. SWOT Analysis – An internal study often used by organizations to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The practice of enhancing where a webpage appears in search results. By adjusting a webpage’s on-page SEO elements and influencing off-page SEO factors, an inbound marketer can improve where a webpage appears in search engine results. There are a ton of components to improving the SEO of your site pages. Search engines look for elements including title tags, keywords, image tags, internal link structure, and inbound links — and that’s just to name a few. Search engines also look at site structure and design, visitor behavior, and other external, off-site factors to determine how highly ranked your site should be in the search engine results pages. Target Marketing – A group of customers that a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise towards. Unique Selling Proposition – A factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the low cost, the quality, etc. User Experience (UX) – The overall experience a customer has with a particular business, from their discovery and awareness of the brand all the way through their interaction, purchase, use, and even advocacy of that brand. To deliver an excellent customer experience, you have to think like a customer, or better, think about being the customer. Upfront Advertising Purchase – The name given to television advertising purchasing, where television networks make certain ad space available many months before a television program will be broadcast.  This differs from scatter advertising purchasing, where ad space is withheld until a time that is closer to when a show will air. Viral Marketing – A method of product promotion that relies on getting customers to market an idea, product or service on their own.