Glossary
Letter N
NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)
A standardized system used to classify businesses by industry across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
NAP (Name, Address, Phone number)
Core business information used for local SEO consistency across directories, listings, and search engines.
Narrowing statement
A sales technique that focuses the conversation by limiting choices or clarifying direction (e.g., “Are you more focused on X or Y?”).
National account manager (NAM)
A salesperson responsible for managing relationships with major nationwide customers or accounts.
Natural language processing (NLP)
AI technology enabling machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
Nearshore sales outsourcing
Delegating sales tasks to third-party teams located in nearby countries with shared time zones and communication advantages.
Needs analysis
A diagnostic process used in sales to uncover a prospect’s challenges, priorities, and desired outcomes.
Needs assessment
A structured review identifying the gap between current and desired states to determine necessary actions or solutions.
Needs assessment (sales process)
A sales-specific evaluation identifying customer pain points to position relevant solutions.
Negotiating (sales process)
The stage where buyers and sellers discuss terms, pricing, and conditions to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
Negotiation
A structured conversation aimed at reaching an agreement on value, pricing, terms, or deliverables.
Negotiation skills
The abilities required to reach mutually beneficial agreements, including communication, persuasion, active listening, and problem-solving.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
A customer loyalty metric based on how likely customers are to recommend a brand, measured on a 0–10 scale.
Net revenue retention (NRR)
A SaaS metric reflecting revenue retained from existing customers after accounting for expansions, contractions, and churn.
Network
A system of interconnected devices or a group of interconnected people and relationships.
Network monitoring
Tools and processes used to observe network performance, identifying outages, latency, and security issues.
New accounts (metrics)
KPIs measuring the number of newly acquired customer accounts within a period.
New buy
A purchase situation where a company buys a product for the first time, often involving extensive evaluation.
New logo selling
The process of acquiring entirely new customer logos—i.e., selling to companies that were previously not customers.
New market selling
Sales strategies focused on entering and succeeding in new geographic or vertical markets.
New revenue
Revenue generated from new customers or new products, excluding renewals or expansions.
New user conversion rate
The percentage of first-time users who complete a desired action or become paying customers.
Niche marketing
Targeting a specific, narrowly defined segment with specialized messaging or offerings.
No cold calls
A sales rule or operating model that prohibits unsolicited outbound calls.
Nofollow
An HTML attribute applied to links to prevent search engines from passing ranking authority (link equity) to the target page.
Non-lead
A contact or record that does not meet the criteria for lead qualification and is therefore not pursued by sales.
Non-recoverable draw
A draw against commission that does not need to be repaid if commissions earned fall short of the advanced amount.
Non-sales activities (NSAs)
Tasks performed by sales representatives that do not directly contribute to revenue generation, such as admin work or internal meetings.
NoSQL databases
Databases that store data in non-tabular formats such as key-value stores, document stores, or graph models.
Number of qualified leads
A metric tracking the number of leads that meet qualification criteria (e.g., ICP match, budget, intent).
Nurture
The ongoing process of engaging leads or customers with relevant content to advance their interest.
