Glossary
Quote and sales ops terms.
Plain definitions of the terms we use with sales teams: win rate, hit rate, open quotes and the rest. Teams define some of these differently, so agree yours before you compare numbers.
- CPQ (configure, price, quote)
- Software that builds quotes from product rules and price lists. Useful for configurable products, often more than a distributor needs.
- Hit rate
- Another name for quote win rate, common in manufacturing and distribution. Check which definition your team uses before comparing numbers.
- Human in the loop
- A design where AI drafts or suggests and a person approves before anything reaches a customer or changes a price.
- Open quote
- A quote that has been sent and not yet marked won, lost or expired. An open-quote report lists them with owner, value, age and last contact.
- Quote follow-up
- Contact with the customer after a quote is sent, to answer questions, confirm details and get a decision. Usually a sequence of emails and a call over one to two weeks.
- Quote turnaround time
- The time between receiving an RFQ and sending the quote. Measured in hours or business days.
- Quote win rate
- The share of decided quotes that you won. Usually quotes won divided by quotes won plus quotes lost. Quotes with no answer are left out, which is why it often looks better than conversion.
- Quote-to-cash
- The whole path from quote to order, delivery, invoice and payment. Problems anywhere in it delay revenue.
- Quote-to-order conversion rate
- Orders received divided by all quotes sent in a period, including quotes that never got an answer. It shows how much of your quoting effort turns into orders.
- RFQ (request for quote)
- A customer's request for pricing on specific items, quantities and dates. RFQs arrive as emails, PDFs, spreadsheets or portal entries.
- Speed to lead
- How fast a new inquiry gets a real reply from a person. Often measured from form submission to first human response.
- Stale quote
- An open quote with no customer contact for longer than your follow-up rule allows. Stale quotes are the first ones to flag to a manager.
- System of record
- The system that owns a piece of data, such as the ERP for orders and the CRM for contacts. Integrations need a clear system of record for each field.
- Win/loss analysis
- Recording why each quote or deal was won or lost, then looking for patterns by price, lead time, product, rep or customer.
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