Short answer
This glossary explains the sales words you'll hear most, from ICP and buying signal to warm-up and reply rate. Some say who to sell to, some say when to reach out and some say how email reaches the inbox. Where Mach uses a word, the entry says how.
ABM (account-based marketing)
Picking a short list of companies first, then reaching several people at each one. The opposite of writing to a long list of single contacts.
In Mach, an ABM campaign starts from companies. Mach then finds someone for each role in the buying committee.
Account
A company you sell to, or want to. Sales teams say account when they mean the company, and contact when they mean a person in it.
Account research
Reading up on a company before you contact it: what it does, what changed lately and who works there. Good research ends with a reason to write now, or a reason not to.
In Mach, research gives each company a fit score, an intent score, a plain verdict and the reasons against. Every fact links to the page where Mach saw it.
AE (account executive)
The seller who runs the deal after the first meeting. The AE does the demo, the proposal and the close. An SDR books the meeting the AE takes.
AI SDR
Software that does the work of a sales development rep: research, first messages, reading replies and booking meetings. Some vendors call it an AI BDR or an AI sales agent.
Mach is an AI SDR that shows its work, and a person approves each message by default.
Approver
The buying committee role that checks a purchase: finance, procurement, security or a technical evaluator. An approver rarely says yes, but can say no.
Bounce
An email that comes back because it couldn't be delivered. A hard bounce means the address doesn't exist. A soft bounce is a short-term problem, such as a full inbox.
Mach stops writing to an address that bounces. It pauses all sending when bounces pass 2% over 7 days.
Buyer persona
A role inside an ICP company who buys, uses or approves. It's described by the role, the titles that usually hold it and what that person cares about.
In Mach, each offering has its buyer personas, and together they make its buying committee. Mach changes the angle and the proof of each message to suit the role.
Buying committee
The people who decide on a B2B purchase together, because one person rarely buys software or services alone.
Mach uses 4 roles: decision maker, champion, user and approver. Read the buying committee guide for what to say to each.
Buying signal
Something visible that shows a company has a pain point now. A job ad for the role you'd replace is one. A new leader who owns your area is another.
Mach dates each buying signal and keeps its source, and older signals count for less than new ones.
Case study
A named customer, the work you did, and what changed. Without a named customer, it's a claim, not a case study.
Mach picks the case study that fits each buyer and cites it in the message. See how Mach keeps your proof.
Champion
The buying committee role that wants what you sell and pushes for it inside the company. Champions do the selling when you're not in the room.
Decision maker
The buying committee role that owns the budget and says yes. Often a head of a team or a founder.
Deliverability
How much of your email lands in the inbox, not in spam. It depends on your domain's records, your volume, your bounces and how many people mark you as spam.
Enrichment
Filling in missing details about a company or person, such as a job title, an email address or a company's size. The data comes from outside sources and should say where it came from.
In Mach, enrichment proposes people for each role. You accept or reject each name, and a rejection asks for the next best.
First-party and third-party data
First-party data is what you collect yourself: your CRM, your emails, your website visits. Third-party data is bought or gathered by someone else. First-party data is usually more accurate, because you saw it happen.
When the two disagree, Mach trusts your own data first, then the most recent.
Fit
How well an account matches an ICP. Fit uses facts that change slowly, such as industry, size, region and the tools a company uses.
In Mach, fit runs from 0 to 100 for each ICP, and a fixed formula sets the number. Read fit and intent to see how the two scores work together.
ICP (ideal customer profile)
The kind of company that is your best customer. Companies only: people belong in the buyer persona.
Mach drafts your ICPs from your website and documents, and you correct them in the Brain.
Inbound and outbound
Inbound is when a buyer comes to you, through a form, a demo request or a reply to content. Outbound is when you write first, and an SDR may do both.
Mach does outbound work, and it doesn't route inbound leads to your team.
Intent
The buying signals an account or person shows now. High intent means the timing may be right, but it doesn't mean the company fits.
In Mach, intent runs from 0 to 100, and each signal fades with time.
Lead
A person or company that might buy, before anyone has checked. Teams use the word loosely, so ask what it means in yours.
Mach's lead search finds people who ask in public for help with a problem you solve. You then add, save or dismiss each one.
Meeting rate
The share of people or companies you reached who agreed to a meeting. For an SDR team, it's the number that matters most.
Mach judges a campaign by meetings booked, not by emails sent.
Objection
A reason a buyer says no, with your answer. Common ones are "we have a vendor", "no budget" and "not now".
Mach spots objections in replies and drafts the answer from your Brain and a matching case study.
Offering
A product or service you sell. A company can have several offerings, each with its own buyers, pain points and case studies.
In Mach's Brain, the offering is the centre. Pain points, ICPs, personas and case studies all connect to it.
One-click unsubscribe
A way to opt out of marketing email in one click, from the inbox. Google and Yahoo ask bulk senders for it.
Opt-out
A request to receive no more messages, which you should honour at once and for good.
Mach keeps every opt-out for your whole workspace. A reply asking to stop counts as an opt-out.
Outcome
A measurable change a case study shows, with its source. "Live in 6 weeks" is an outcome, but "happy client" isn't.
Mach keeps each figure exactly as the source states it, and never rounds or guesses one.
Pain point
A problem your buyer has, in their words. "Our releases keep slipping" is a pain point, while "delivery optimisation" is a line from a sales slide.
Mach writes pain points the way a buyer would say them, and listens for those words in public posts.
Pipeline
The open deals your team is working, and what they're worth. A healthy pipeline has deals at every stage, not just at the start.
Reply rate
The share of people you wrote to who wrote back. Count only real replies, not out-of-office notes or bounces. A high reply rate with few meetings means the message is interesting but the offer isn't clear.
SDR and BDR
A sales development rep or business development rep. The person who starts conversations and books first meetings for the sellers who close deals. Some teams use BDR only for outbound work.
Sending domain
A separate domain used only for sales email, such as a sibling of your main one. If something goes wrong, your company's everyday mail keeps working.
Mach sends only from a sending domain, never from your main domain or a rep's own mailbox.
Sequence
A planned set of messages to one person over days or weeks, across email, LinkedIn and calls. Each step has a wait and a rule for what happens on a reply.
In Mach, a person builds the sequence and Mach writes each step for each person. A reply stops the automatic steps for that person.
Spam rate
The share of your emails that people mark as spam. Google asks senders to stay below 0.10% and never reach 0.30%.
Mach pauses all sending when complaints pass 0.1% over 7 days.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC
Records that prove an email really comes from your domain. SPF lists who may send, DKIM signs each email and DMARC says what to do when a check fails.
Mach checks all 3 on your sending domain.
User
The buying committee role that will work with what you sell every day. Users rarely sign, but a user who hates the tool can stop the deal.
Value proposition
How an offering solves a pain point, and why you rather than a rival or doing nothing. Keep it to a few lines a buyer would believe.
Warm-up
Raising the number of emails a new sending domain sends, slowly, so mailbox providers learn to trust it.
Mach warms up a new domain over 28 days, from 20 emails a day to 500. Read how to warm up a sending domain.
Sources
Checked on 17 October 2026.