--- title: "Glossary: the commercial architecture vocabulary | Commercial Architects" description: "Plain definitions of the terms behind commercial architecture and B2B revenue: ICP, ACV, pipeline, MQL, SQL, CRO, forecast, churn and more." image: https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/hubfs/raw_assets/public/commercial-architects/images/og/og-image.png --- [![Commercial Architects](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/hubfs/raw_assets/public/commercial-architects/images/logos/logo-primary.svg)](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/?hsLang=en) [Stress Test](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/stress-test?hsLang=en) [Architecture](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/commercial-architecture?hsLang=en) [Platform](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/platform?hsLang=en) [Optimization](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/optimization?hsLang=en) [AI Agents](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/ai-agents?hsLang=en) [Insights](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights#articles) [Podcast](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights/tag/podcast?hsLang=en) [Webinars](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/webinars?hsLang=en) [Shop](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/shop?hsLang=en) [FAQ](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/faq?hsLang=en) [About](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/about?hsLang=en) EN [SV](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/sv/ordlista) [Log in](https://app.commercialarchitects.ai) [Book a Stress Test →](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#book) [Stress Test](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/stress-test?hsLang=en) [Architecture](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/commercial-architecture?hsLang=en) [Platform](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/platform?hsLang=en) [Optimization](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/optimization?hsLang=en) [AI Agents](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/ai-agents?hsLang=en) [Insights](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights#articles) [Podcast](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights/tag/podcast?hsLang=en) [Webinars](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/webinars?hsLang=en) [Shop](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/shop?hsLang=en) [FAQ](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/faq?hsLang=en) [About](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/about?hsLang=en) [Book a Stress Test →](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#book) [Log in](https://app.commercialarchitects.ai) Language EN [SV](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/sv/ordlista) Reference # Glossary One vocabulary for how B2B companies build revenue that lasts. Short, quotable definitions of the terms we use across the site and in a Stress Test. ### Commercial architecture The designed system that produces revenue: who you sell to, what you say, how deals move, who owns what, and the tools that carry it. When it is written down rather than held in the founder's head, growth becomes repeatable. ### The six pillars The six load-bearing parts of a commercial system: Objectives, Customers, Messaging, Process, Organization and Tools. A weakness in one caps the others. ### ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) The precise definition of the customer you are built to serve, tight enough to disqualify. If everyone with a budget qualifies, you do not have an ICP. ### Qualification and disqualification Deciding which deals are real enough to pursue, and deliberately walking away from the rest. Disqualification is a growth lever: it raises revenue per rep by removing deals that were never going to close. ### MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) A lead marketing judges ready to hand to sales, usually based on fit and engagement. The label is only useful if sales and marketing share one definition of it. ### SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) A lead sales has accepted as a real opportunity worth working. The MQL to SQL handoff breaks at the definition, not the routing rule. ### Pipeline The set of open opportunities and the stages they move through. A healthy pipeline is one where a deal changes stage because something true changed, not because a rep dragged it. ### Forecast and forecastability A forecast is next period's revenue explained as a chain of causes: qualified opportunities, at a conversion rate, over a cycle length. If the number cannot be traced to a mechanism, it is hope with a spreadsheet. ### ACV (Average Contract Value) The average annual value of a customer contract. You can lift it by fixing packaging and narrative before you touch the price. ### CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) The total sales and marketing cost to win one customer. It rises quietly when you add people to a system that was never defined. ### Churn The rate at which customers leave. A customer who understands why you matter does not churn over a sensible price increase; one who only saw you as a cost will. ### Win rate The share of qualified opportunities that close won. Read alongside disqualification: a higher win rate on a tighter ICP beats a low one on everybody. ### Sales cycle The time from first qualified contact to closed deal. Knowing it, and why it holds, is what makes a forecast more than a feeling. ### CRO and fractional CRO A Chief Revenue Officer owns the revenue number end to end. A fractional CRO does it part-time. Either runs a system; neither can run one that was never designed. ### RevOps (Revenue Operations) The function that keeps process, data and tools aligned across sales, marketing and customer success. It maintains the system; it does not substitute for designing one. ### Go-to-market (GTM) The whole machine by which a company reaches, wins and keeps customers. Stress testing it means finding where it breaks under load before the market applies the load for you. ### The Stress Test Commercial Architects' diagnostic: a structured read of your commercial system against the six pillars that ends in a map of where revenue leaks, ranked by size. ### Foundation The first phase of the Commercial Architecture Program: the diagnosis that establishes where you actually stand before anything is built. ## Want the diagnosis behind the words? A 20 minute Stress Test applies this vocabulary to your company and shows where the system leaks. [Book a Stress Test →](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/book?hsLang=en) ![Commercial Architects](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/hubfs/raw_assets/public/commercial-architects/images/logos/logo-footer.svg) The system behind predictable revenue. ##### How it works - [Stress Test](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#foundation) - [How it works](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#phases) - [The platform](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#after) - [FAQ](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#faq) ##### Company - [Founders](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#founders) - [Insights](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/insights?hsLang=en) - [Scorecard](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/scorecard?hsLang=en) - [Contact](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/#book) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercialarchitects/) ##### Get in touch - [Contact](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/contact?hsLang=en) - [Book a meeting →](https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/oliver-lopez3) - [oliver.lopez@commercialarchitects.ai](mailto:oliver.lopez@commercialarchitects.ai) - [Book a Stress Test →](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/book?hsLang=en) © 2026 Commercial Architects (Structsales AB · 559130-1667) Stockholm · Marbella · Estepona · Remote · Global[Privacy Policy](https://www.commercialarchitects.ai/privacy?hsLang=en) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "DefinedTermSet", "hasDefinedTerm" : [ { "@type" : "DefinedTerm", "description" : "The designed system that produces revenue: who you sell to, what you say, how deals move, who owns what, and the tools that carry it. 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