ACV (Annual Contract Value): The annual value of a customer contract. A key metric for calculating the target lead index and justifying the prospecting scope. Formula: ACV × close rate × gross margin / 10 = maximum profitable lead index.

Apollo.io: A B2B sales intelligence platform providing access to more than 275 million professional contacts with firmographic filters. Used as a data source in AI lead machines.

BDR (Business Development Representative): A sales profile responsible for outbound demand generation (cold calls, emails, LinkedIn). Distinct from the SDR, who qualifies inbound leads. In 2026, BDR functions are partially automated by AI.

Bounced email: An email that was not delivered. We distinguish hard bounce (non-existent address — remove immediately) from soft bounce (full mailbox or temporarily unavailable server — retry). A bounce rate above 3% damages domain reputation.

Cadence: A structured sequence of multi-channel touches (email, LinkedIn, phone) over a defined period. A standard B2B cadence in 2026 includes 4 to 6 touches over 15 to 21 days. Lead-Gene uses cadences of 5 touches over 18 days.

Clay: A B2B data enrichment tool that aggregates more than 100 sources into a single platform. Widely used by growth engineers to build custom enrichment workflows. Requires technical expertise.

Cold email: An unsolicited email sent to a prospect with no prior contact. Legal in B2B under GDPR subject to conditions (legitimate-interest legal basis, professional relevance, functional opt-out). Distinct from spam through its targeting and compliance.

lead index (lead performance): effort per qualified lead. Calculated by dividing total prospecting scope by the number of qualified leads generated. 2026 benchmark: audit-based scopefor an AI machine, audit-based scopefor a human SDR.

CPM (effort Per Meeting): effort per qualified sales meeting. A more precise metric than lead index because it measures the real effectiveness of prospecting. 2026 benchmark: audit-based scopedepending on the sector.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Customer relationship management software. The main ones in B2B: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive. An AI lead machine integrates natively with the CRM to sync data in real time.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): A cryptographic signature attached to every email to prove its authenticity. Required for deliverability in 2026. Minimum 2048-bit key.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance): A protocol that tells mail servers how to handle emails failing SPF/DKIM checks. Mandatory since February 2024 for Google and Microsoft.

Email warmup: The gradual process of increasing sending volume on a new domain to build its reputation. 2026 protocol: week 1 → 5 emails/day, week 8 → 100-150 emails/day maximum per inbox.

Enrichment: The process of adding information to an existing contact (title, professional email, direct number, firmographics, tech stack). Tools: Clay, Apollo, Kaspr, Lusha. Professional email coverage rate: 70-85% in Western European markets.

Firmographics: The set of descriptive data about a company: sector (NAF/SIC), size (headcount, revenue), age, location, legal structure. Core criteria for ICP targeting.

Growth hacker / Growth engineer: A technical profile specialized in building and optimizing acquisition systems. Skills: APIs, automation, data. Required to operate tools like Clay. Lead-Gene removes this need for SMEs.

Hreflang: An HTML attribute that tells search engines the target language and country of a page. Essential for multilingual sites to avoid duplicate content between language versions.

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): The ideal customer profile. Defines the firmographic, technographic and behavioral characteristics of the accounts most likely to sign and stay. The foundation of any scoring system. A B2B ICP includes a minimum of 8 dimensions.

Intent data: Behavioral data indicating an account is in an active buying phase. First-party sources (your site) and third-party (Bombora, 6sense, G2). Accounts with an intent signal convert 2 to 4 times better.

Hot lead: A lead that has shown active interest (positive reply, scope-page visit, demo request). Typical score above 70/100 in a Lead-Gene model. Immediate outreach priority.

Cold lead: A lead matching the firmographic ICP but with no engagement signal. Score below 40/100. A candidate for a nurturing sequence or deeper enrichment.

Qualified lead: A lead validated against BANT criteria (scope, Authority, Need, Timeline) or equivalent. Ready to be handed to a closer for a sales conversation.

Lemlist: An email and LinkedIn outreach tool with built-in AI personalization and automatic A/B testing. A competitor of Instantly and Smartlead. Used as the execution layer in lead machines.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator: LinkedIn's premium tool for B2B prospecting. Access to advanced filters, unlimited InMail, signal alerts. 2026 scope: audit-based scope/month. Required in any serious SDR stack.

Lead machine: A complete automated system integrating multi-source scraping, AI scoring, outbound sequences and automatic booking. Different from a simple tool: the machine runs the entire chain without human intervention.

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead): A lead qualified by marketing on behavioral criteria (download, registration, engagement). Distinct from the SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) qualified by sales.

Multi-channel: An outreach approach using several channels simultaneously (email + LinkedIn + phone + WhatsApp). Multi-channel sequences show response rates 40-60% higher than a single channel.

Opt-out: A mechanism allowing a prospect to unsubscribe from all future communication. Mandatory under GDPR in every email. Opt-outs must be honored immediately and permanently.

Pipeline: The set of active sales opportunities, quantified and tracked in the CRM. Qualified pipeline is the total value of deals weighted by their close probability.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): European regulation governing the processing of personal data. In B2B, prospecting is permitted under the legitimate-interest legal basis (Art. 6.1.f). Applicable since May 2018. Fines up to 4% of global revenue.

Prospecting ROI: Return on investment of the prospecting system. Formula: (Revenue generated − Prospecting effort) / Prospecting effort × 100. Lead-Gene benchmark: 340% to 1,100% depending on sector and ACV.

Scraping: Automated extraction of data from public sources (LinkedIn, Google Maps, professional directories, registries). Legal on public professional data subject to GDPR conditions. The basis of AI enrichment.

SDR (Sales Development Representative): A salesperson responsible for qualifying leads and booking meetings for closers. A senior SDR generates 25-45 qualified leads per month. 2026 total effort: audit-based scope in France.

Outbound sequence: A scheduled series of messages sent to a prospect on a defined calendar. Typical 2026 structure: D0 email, D3 follow-up, D7 LinkedIn, D12 open question, D18 closing email. Beyond 5 touches, the positive-reply/spam ratio deteriorates.

Spam rate: The percentage of emails reported as spam by recipients. Critical threshold: 0.1% (alert), 0.3% (emergency stop). Google and Microsoft permanently penalize domains exceeding 0.3%.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A DNS record declaring the servers authorized to send on behalf of your domain. Mandatory for deliverability. Maximum 10 DNS lookups.

TCO (Total effort of Ownership): The total effort of owning a solution over 12 months. For a senior SDR in France: audit-based scope(salary + charges + tools + ramp-up + amortized recruitment). For a Lead-Gene AI machine: audit-based scope

Technographics: Data on the tools and technologies a company uses (CRM, ERP, marketing stack, hosting). An indicator of digital maturity and compatibility with a solution. Sources: BuiltWith, Clearbit, Apollo.

Warming: see Email warmup.

Xing: The dominant professional network in Germany and Austria (DACH). 20 million members. An alternative to LinkedIn for prospecting in the German-speaking market. Integrated into DACH lead machines.

Industry benchmarks to evaluate a B2B AI outbound campaign (source: Lead-Gene, 127 active clients, 2026): Email open rate → target 35-45%, alarm below 25%. Reply rate → target 6-9%, alarm below 4%. Positive reply rate → target 2-4%, alarm below 1.5%. Meeting booking rate → target 1-2% of sends, alarm below 0.7%. Meeting → deal conversion rate → target 15-25%, alarm below 10%.

These metrics vary by sector, ACV and ICP maturity. An audit of your current lead index lets you calibrate realistic targets for your context.