TERMS
Glossary
One hundred and seventeen terms you'll hear in your first fortnight. Sounding native is mostly vocabulary.
Pipeline & process
OpportunityA qualified potential deal, tracked as a record in the CRM with a value and a close date.
StageWhere an opportunity sits in the pipeline. Moving stages requires meeting exit criteria, not optimism.
Forecast categoryCommit, Best Case, Pipeline or Omitted — how confident the business is that a deal closes this period.
SlippageA deal whose close date moves to a later period. Chronic slippage usually means qualification failure, not bad luck.
Technical winThe point where the customer accepts your solution works. Distinct from the commercial win, and the metric pre‑sales is most fairly judged on.
Deal deskThe internal function that approves non‑standard pricing, discounts and contract terms.
Handover / turnoverPassing a signed deal to delivery, with everything promised during the cycle documented.
Land and expandWinning a small initial footprint deliberately, then growing it inside the same account.
ChurnCustomers or recurring revenue lost in a period. The number that makes over‑promising expensive.
QBRQuarterly Business Review — a scheduled session with an existing client covering performance, issues and what's next. Often where the next deal starts.
Qualification & methodology
BANTBudget, Authority, Need, Timeline. The lightweight qualification filter.
MEDDPICCMetrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Implicate the pain, Champion, Competition. The enterprise standard.
SPICEDSituation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Decision. A lighter, momentum‑oriented alternative.
Economic buyerThe person who can release the budget. Not their delegate, not the person who briefed you.
ChampionSomeone with power, credibility and personal motivation who sells for you internally when you're absent.
CoachSomeone who gives you information but can't or won't advocate. Useful, frequently mistaken for a champion.
BlockerSomeone who can't approve the deal but can stop it. Usually has a personal reason worth understanding.
Critical eventA dated external trigger forcing a decision — a contract expiry, an audit, an insurance renewal.
No decisionThe outcome where the customer does nothing. Statistically your biggest competitor.
ChallengerA methodology built on Teach, Tailor, Take Control — leading with insight rather than asking what they need.
SPINSituation, Problem, Implication, Need‑payoff — a question sequence that lets the buyer talk themselves into urgency.
Pain chainHow one operational problem creates consequences for other people up the org chart. What turns a user complaint into an executive priority.
Commercial & finance
MRR / ARRMonthly / Annual Recurring Revenue. The subscription value of a contract, excluding one‑off work.
ACVAnnual Contract Value — what a deal is worth in a single year.
TCVTotal Contract Value — the whole value across the contract term. A three‑year deal has a TCV three times its ACV.
Gross marginRevenue minus the direct cost of delivering it. In managed services, the number that decides whether a deal was worth winning.
Cost to serveWhat it actually costs to support a client each month — labour, tooling, licences. Quietly destroyed by non‑standard environments.
TCOTotal Cost of Ownership — the full cost of something across its life, not just the purchase price.
ROIReturn on Investment — what you get back relative to what you spend, usually with a payback period attached.
Payback periodHow long until cumulative benefit exceeds cumulative cost. The number executives remember.
Capex vs opexCapital expenditure (a purchased asset, depreciated) versus operating expenditure (an ongoing cost). Moving IT from capex to opex is often the real appeal of managed services.
Deal registrationClaiming an opportunity with a vendor or distributor to secure pricing protection and margin on it.
RebateMoney paid back by a vendor for hitting volume or certification targets. Often the difference between a thin deal and a profitable one.
NRRNet Revenue Retention — what last year's customers are worth this year, after churn, downgrades and expansion.
True‑upA periodic reconciliation of licences or seats actually used against those contracted.
MSP & managed services
MSPManaged Service Provider — outsources and runs a client's IT for a recurring fee.
MSSPThe security‑specialist equivalent — managed security services.
PSAProfessional Services Automation — the MSP's operational system of record: tickets, time, contracts, billing (ConnectWise, Autotask).
RMMRemote Monitoring & Management — the tooling that watches and patches client endpoints at scale (NinjaOne, Datto, Kaseya).
EDR / MDREndpoint Detection & Response — the tooling. Managed Detection & Response — the same thing with humans watching it for you.
SOCSecurity Operations Centre — the team monitoring alerts around the clock.
SIEMSecurity Information & Event Management — aggregates logs and raises alerts across an estate.
SOWStatement of Work — what's in scope, what's explicitly out, assumptions, and price. The document you'll be judged on in month eight.
BOMBill of Materials — the itemised hardware and software a solution requires.
Per‑seat pricingCharging per user per month. Simple to sell, but only profitable if cost‑to‑serve per user is genuinely understood.
Block hoursPre‑purchased support hours drawn down over time — the halfway house between break‑fix and fully managed.
Break‑fixThe reactive model: the client pays by the hour when something breaks. What most MSP deals are displacing.
Co‑managed ITThe MSP works alongside an internal IT team rather than replacing it. Often the answer that turns an internal blocker into a champion.
Standard stackThe defined set of vendors and configurations an MSP supports. Deviating from it is where margin goes to die.
Onboarding / transitionThe project that moves a new client onto the MSP's stack and documents their environment. The most under‑scoped part of most deals.
CSPCloud Solution Provider — the Microsoft programme through which partners resell and bill cloud licences.
DistributorThe wholesaler between vendor and MSP (Dicker Data, Ingram Micro). Controls pricing, deal reg and often credit terms.
Partner tierYour status with a vendor, earned through certifications and volume. Determines margin, support and what you're allowed to sell.
SLAService Level Agreement — contracted response and resolution targets, with consequences attached.
First‑call resolutionPercentage of tickets closed on first contact. The clearest early indicator of whether onboarding was done properly.
RPO / RTORecovery Point Objective — how much data you can afford to lose. Recovery Time Objective — how long you can afford to be down. Ask for both; most clients have never been asked.
AttestationA formal statement that specific controls are in place — increasingly demanded by cyber insurers, and increasingly a deal trigger.
Essential EightThe Australian Signals Directorate's eight baseline mitigation strategies, scored by maturity level. An audit against it is the most productive lead‑generation instrument in Australian managed services; Cyber Essentials (UK) and NIST/CMMC (US) play the same role elsewhere.
Maturity levelHow thoroughly a control is implemented, not whether it exists. Frameworks score in levels precisely so "we have MFA" can be distinguished from "we have MFA everywhere it matters."
Wallet shareThe proportion of a customer's total IT spend that comes to you. The organising metric of the existing‑customer motion — the estate you aren't touching is the opportunity.
Solution reviewDelivery reading your scope before it reaches the customer, to check the hours and approach are real. Skipping it is how eight hours gets allocated to a two‑day job.
Budgetary estimateA deliberately indicative number issued fast, clearly labelled as not firm, to keep a deal moving while the detailed pricing is assembled. The professional alternative to missing a deadline silently.
Productised offeringA repeatable service with a defined scope and price, built once by the solutions team and sold many times — as opposed to a bespoke scope written from scratch per customer.
Service catalogueThe list of what an MSP has decided it sells. Selling from it is fast and profitable; selling outside it is where deliverability risk lives.
Business unit (BU)A regional or acquired division operating semi‑independently. MSPs that grew by acquisition often carry several, each with its own tooling, until a consolidation programme catches up.
Reserved / committed pricingCloud capacity bought on a one‑ or three‑year commitment at a lower rate than on‑demand. Sold less on price than on budget certainty.
Hyper‑VMicrosoft's hypervisor. Currently the most common destination for small and mid‑size customers migrating off VMware for licensing‑cost reasons.
Intune / EntraMicrosoft's device management and identity platforms. The backbone of most modern‑workplace projects, and a near‑permanent fixture in MSP pipelines.
Hybrid identityDirectory identities synchronised between on‑premises and cloud. Common, fiddly, and a frequent source of scope you didn't anticipate.
Data sovereigntyA requirement that data physically remain within a jurisdiction. Shapes which platforms can even be proposed, and increasingly asked about in the same breath as AI.
Government panel / panel arrangementA pre‑qualified supplier list a public buyer can purchase from without running a full tender — also called a standing offer or framework agreement. Slow to get onto, durable once held, and often the reason one office wins public work its sister offices never see.
Buyer behaviour
No‑decision lossA qualified deal that ends without a purchase from anyone. Typically 40‑60% of a B2B pipeline, and the largest single category of loss.
Status quo preferenceThe customer genuinely prefers what they already have. About 44% of no‑decision losses. Treated with cost of inaction and honest disqualification.
IndecisionThe customer wants to change and cannot commit, from fear of choosing wrongly. About 56% of no‑decision losses, and made worse by urgency pressure.
JOLTJudge the indecision, Offer a recommendation, Limit the exploration, Take risk off the table — the four behaviours that separate high performers on indecisive deals (Dixon & McKenna).
Outcome uncertaintyA buyer accepts the solution works in general but not that it will work in their environment. The specific fear a pre‑sales architect is uniquely able to retire.
Buying jobsGartner's six non‑linear tasks a buying group must complete: problem identification, solution exploration, requirements building, supplier selection, validation, consensus creation.
Consensus creationGetting six to ten stakeholders to agree. Nobody in the buying group is assigned this job, which is why making it easy is such a cheap advantage.
Sense makingHelping a buyer filter and reconcile conflicting information rather than supplying more of it. Gartner's finding on what actually distinguishes winning suppliers.
Risk retirementStructurally removing a specific fear — phased commitment, rollback position, customer‑written acceptance criteria, a commitment with teeth — as opposed to reassuring about it.
Channel & vendors
Line cardThe set of vendors a distributor carries, and by extension what a partner can practically quote. No distributor carries everything.
VADValue‑Added Distributor — a distributor that also provides pre‑sales design help, licensing verification and sometimes deployment, not just stock and credit.
Licensing deskThe distributor team that verifies licensing and entitlements before a quote goes out. Using it is the professional posture, not an admission of ignorance.
Vendor SE / channel SEA Sales Engineer employed by the vendor whose job is helping partners win with their product. Free, capable, and consistently under‑used by new pre‑sales people.
MDFMarket Development Funds — vendor money for marketing, events, workshops or assessments. Often available and often unclaimed.
Special bid / DPAA one‑off approved buy price for a named opportunity, usually where the vendor wants a competitive displacement. Someone has to ask for it, early.
Consolidation programmeThe multi‑year effort to migrate acquired businesses onto shared platforms. Common in MSPs that grew by acquisition, and a real drag on scoping and hand‑over while it runs.
RampThe period before a new pre‑sales hire can scope unsupervised. Worth asking about explicitly — it tells you how much structure and mentoring the practice actually has.
Pre‑sales craft
Solution driftThe gap that opens between what was scoped and what gets delivered, one small reasonable change at a time. Pre‑sales is the only function holding both the promise and the design, so nobody else is watching it.
Risk acceptanceA risk formally raised, recorded and knowingly carried by the business. The professional destination for an objection that has been overruled — and a completely different state from carrying the risk blindly.
Phased commitmentStructuring a deal so the customer commits to a first slice that proves the hard part, with the rest following. A delivery convenience on the surface, and a risk‑removal instrument underneath.
DiscoveryThe structured conversation that surfaces and quantifies the problem. Everything downstream depends on it.
Situation slideA restatement of the customer's own situation, shown before any product, to earn agreement before you present.
POC / POVProof of Concept — does it technically work. Proof of Value — does it deliver the outcome. Both need written success criteria.
Bake‑offA head‑to‑head evaluation where two or more vendors run the same test for the same audience.
RFI / RFP / RFQ / ITTRequest for Information (early market scan), Proposal (full solution and price), Quote (price only), Invitation to Tender (formal, usually government).
Compliance matrixA row‑by‑row table tracking every RFP requirement against your response. Missing a mandatory row disqualifies you outright.
Win themeThe two or three specific reasons this evaluator should choose you, threaded through every answer rather than stated once.
BattlecardA living internal one‑pager on a competitor: real strengths, real weaknesses, their attack lines, your proof points.
LandmineA truthful requirement you seed into the decision criteria early that a competitor structurally can't meet.
Reference customerAn existing client who'll take a prospect's call. Relevance beats fame every time.
Canned demoA pre‑built demo with generic data. Efficient, and instantly obvious to a technical buyer who asks about their own data.
Pay & package
OTEOn‑Target Earnings — base plus the variable component assuming target is met. A projection, not a salary.
AttainmentWhat was actually achieved against target, as a percentage. The number that tells you what an OTE is really worth; ask for last year's.
AcceleratorA higher commission rate that applies past a threshold, usually 100% of target. Where the upside in a variable plan actually lives.
MBOManagement By Objectives — variable pay tied to defined non‑revenue work such as POCs delivered, enablement built or demo environments maintained.
Ramp guaranteeVariable pay paid at target for the first one or two quarters while a new hire builds pipeline. Standard, and frequently not offered unless asked for.
Tool of tradeEquipment or a vehicle provided because the job requires it, rather than as a benefit — treated differently for tax than a cash allowance of the same value.
PackageIn Australian usage, base plus superannuation and sometimes allowances. A "package" figure and a "base" figure differ by at least 12%, and which one is being quoted is often left unstated.
Superannuation guaranteeThe compulsory employer contribution in Australia, 12% of ordinary earnings since 1 July 2025 and the final legislated rate.
Roles
SE / SCSales Engineer / Solutions Consultant — the core pre‑sales practitioner titles.
AE / BDMAccount Executive / Business Development Manager — owns the relationship, the commercials and the close.
Value engineerA specialist who builds business cases and ROI models full time, where the work is split out from pre‑sales.
Field CTOThe senior individual‑contributor end of the pre‑sales ladder — the company's external technical voice.
TAM / CSMTechnical Account Manager / Customer Success Manager — post‑sale roles that own adoption and renewal.
Bid managerRuns the RFP response process — timelines, compliance, submission. Your closest ally on a tender.
CROChief Revenue Officer — usually the executive that sales, pre‑sales and sometimes customer success all roll up to.
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