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Definitions

Definitions: every term we use, and exactly what it means

Published by B2B Lead Growth · First published: September 19, 2026 · Last updated: October 8, 2026

These are the definitions B2B Lead Growth works to. Each term means one thing — on a sales call, in the service agreement, in every report a client receives, and in the code that decides whether something counts.

They are published straight from the operating system that runs the service, so the words on this page are the words the code checks. When a definition changes there, it changes here. The vocabulary was last revised on October 6, 2026.

Want to see the documents these terms describe? Sample deliverables shows each one, produced by the same code that produces a client’s.

Who we work with and who we reach

FIT contractor

An established HVAC contractor that already sells and completes commercial work, has someone who quotes and wins those bids, has room to take on more accounts, and has no consistent way to find target accounts and follow up with them. Each of those points is evidenced from a public source before we contact them, and nothing on record rules them out. A contractor with no commercial work is a decline, not a lower score.

Who decides:
Our fit screen, checked automatically: FIT needs every deciding qualifier evidenced and no disqualifier recorded. The deciding question, answered by a person with a citation: Can this HVAC company successfully convert a genuine conversation with the right commercial buyer into revenue, while currently lacking a reliable way to consistently create those conversations?
On record before it counts:
A cited public source for each qualifier. Missing evidence sends the contractor back to research; it is never permission to contact them.
Applies to:
B2B Lead Growth's own sales, not a client plan
Also read as:
FIT, ideal customer, ICP fit, qualified contractor, qualified company
Not the same as Prospect:
A FIT contractor is who B2B Lead Growth sells its service to. A prospect is a commercial account we contact for a client.

Decision-maker

A named person who can say yes to the work, or whose role buys, specifies or approves it. At a contractor, that is the owner, president, principal or general manager. At a commercial account, it is the property, facility or operations manager, the building owner, or whoever holds that responsibility. A shared inbox such as info@ or office@ is never a decision-maker. When a decision-maker sends us to a colleague, the colleague becomes the contact once that route is on record.

Who decides:
Every contact is graded automatically from its recorded name, title and address (named principal, named decision maker, named contact, role inbox or generic inbox). After a reply, a person records whether the buyer decides or sent us to who does.
On record before it counts:
A named person with an evidenced role, or the buyer's own words naming who decides.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
decision maker, buyer

Prospect

A commercial account, or a contact at one, that matches the targeting requirements the client approved. Always a business: a property manager, a building owner, a facility team or another commercial buyer.

Who decides:
The client approves the targeting — the account types, the area and the exclusions — in their own words. Every researched account is checked against it automatically before it counts.
On record before it counts:
The client's dated authorization, and a cited public source for the account.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
target account, commercial account
Not the same as FIT contractor:
A prospect is a commercial account we contact for a client, not a contractor we sell to.

Commercial need

The HVAC work a commercial account needs, and why, in the buyer's own words: maintenance, repair or service, replacement, or a backup-vendor role. A public signal, such as a new building or a new property manager, is a reason to contact an account; it is not a commercial need until the buyer states one. A request for information or a brochure is not a commercial need, and we never assess equipment or scope — that is the contractor's technical discovery.

Who decides:
The buyer states it. On the Opportunity Engine, a person on our side validates it with the buyer and records their words; on Managed Outbound, the contractor qualifies it after the handoff.
On record before it counts:
The buyer's quoted words and the kind of work.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
business need, need
Not the same as Target-account record:
The reason for contact comes from a public source. The need comes from the buyer.

How a reply becomes an opportunity

Target-account record

What we hold on one prospect before anyone is contacted: the account, its location and type, why it fits the profile the client approved, the decision-maker's role and how we can reach them, the reason to write (why the account fits, quoted from its own page, or a dated trigger where there is one), and the public source that shows it. A reason we cannot cite is not recorded.

Who decides:
Research proposes it. It is registered automatically only if it matches the client's approved account types, area and exclusions, and no other client already holds the account.
On record before it counts:
A source link, with its date, for the reason to contact the account.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
account record, target account record

Interested Prospect

A relevant contact who replied with genuine openness to continuing the conversation, confirmed by a person rather than a keyword match. The step before a Qualified Conversation.

Who decides:
A person reads the reply and confirms the interest. A keyword match never counts.
On record before it counts:
The reply itself, and who confirmed it.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
interested reply, Tier A reply
Not the same as Qualified Conversation:
An interested prospect replied with openness. A Qualified Conversation was also screened, and the buyer agreed to talk with the contractor's team.

Qualified Conversation

A Qualified Conversation is a commercial account that fits the profile, area and exclusions you approved, where the person who replied chooses the HVAC contractor — or sent us to the person who does — showed genuine interest in their own words and agreed to talk with your team. A named person on our side confirms it from the buyer's own words in the conversation, never from a keyword or an automatic reply. It is what Managed Outbound hands off, and what the Opportunity Engine carries further.

How it is measured:
We measure the work first by the Qualified Conversations you take on — the ones you confirm are yours to pursue — shown beside every Qualified Conversation handed off: buyers at accounts that fit your profile who choose the HVAC contractor (or sent us to who does), showed genuine interest and agreed to talk with your team, confirmed by a person. One waiting for your answer is never counted as taken on, and the work at your existing customers is measured in full on its own (conversations, opportunities taken on and the value you report), never counted as new. They are shown against the accounts contacted and the messages sent. It is a count of what happened, not a commitment to a number.
Who decides:
A person on our side confirms it from the buyer's own words, never from a keyword or an automatic reply; it counts only once every required fact is on record.
On record before it counts:
The client's agreement is signed and paid, so the work may run; the account is inside the approved area and work types, clear of the client's exclusions, and on no do-not-contact list; who decides is on record; the interest is confirmed by a person; the reply is screened; and the buyer agreed, in their own words, to speak with the contractor.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Not the same as Interested Prospect:
A reply with openness is an interested prospect, not yet a Qualified Conversation.
Not the same as Accepted Sales Opportunity:
A Qualified Conversation is what Managed Outbound hands off. The Opportunity Engine carries it further before it hands anything off.
Not the same as Qualified commercial opportunity creation:
The category is what B2B Lead Growth does; the Qualified Conversation is one stage of it.

Acceptance criteria

The written list an opportunity must meet before the Opportunity Engine hands it over, agreed with the client at onboarding and dated. The starting list: a commercial property or business inside the agreed service area; work you perform: maintenance, repair or service, replacement, or a backup-vendor role; an account size or job value inside the range you agreed is worth your estimator's time; work your team has the capacity to take on in the buyer's timing; a named buyer who decides, or who has sent us to the person who does; a stated need and a timing window, in the buyer's words; none of the exclusions you named: an existing customer, an active bid, or an account type you do not take. We check every criterion, with evidence, before the handoff.

Who decides:
The client agrees them. A named person on our side checks each one before handoff.
On record before it counts:
The agreed list with its date, and a pass or fail with evidence for each criterion.
Applies to:
Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
opportunity criteria, agreed criteria

Next sales step

A concrete step the contractor's team takes with the buyer, set on a date and confirmed by the buyer: a call with the contractor's estimator, a sales meeting, a site assessment by the contractor's team, a walkthrough or an invitation to bid. The Opportunity Engine coordinates it before the handoff; the contractor's team carries it out.

Who decides:
The buyer confirms the step and the date; a person on our side records who coordinated it.
On record before it counts:
The kind of step, the date, who it is with, and the buyer's confirmation.
Applies to:
Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
next step
Not the same as Appointment:
The next sales step is the contractor's step with the buyer. It becomes a client appointment once it is on a calendar.

Accepted Sales Opportunity

A Qualified Conversation whose business need was validated, whose property, account and buyer information was gathered, that was accepted against the client's agreed criteria, and whose concrete next sales step was coordinated. What the Opportunity Engine hands off.

How it is measured:
We measure the work first by the Accepted Sales Opportunities you take on — the ones you confirm are yours to pursue — shown beside every Accepted Sales Opportunity handed off: Qualified Conversations whose need, timing and fit we confirmed against your criteria, with the next step set. One waiting for your answer is never counted as taken on, and opportunities at your existing customers are measured in full on their own (conversations, opportunities taken on and the value you report), never counted as new. The Qualified Conversations still in validation are shown as the stage before. All are shown against the accounts contacted and the messages sent. It is a count of what happened, not a commitment to a number.
Who decides:
A named person on our side checks every agreed criterion with evidence. It cannot be marked accepted until the need, the timing and the next step are confirmed by the buyer and the brief is complete.
On record before it counts:
The client's agreement is signed and paid, so the work may run; the account is inside the approved area and work types, clear of the client's exclusions, and on no do-not-contact list; who decides is on record; the interest is confirmed by a person; the reply is screened; the buyer agreed, in their own words, to speak with the contractor; the need, in the buyer's words; the timing, in the buyer's words; the property, account and buyer information (unknowns marked unknown); every agreed criterion checked, with evidence, by a named person; a dated next sales step the buyer confirmed; and the opportunity brief, open questions included.
Applies to:
Opportunity Engine
Not the same as Taken on by you:
An accepted sales opportunity is accepted against the client's criteria by us, before the handoff. "Taken on by you" is the client's own confirmation after it.
Not the same as Qualified Conversation:
Managed Outbound hands off at the Qualified Conversation and never produces this.

Contacted account

A commercial account that has actually been sent a first outreach message, confirmed with the mail provider's evidence. A researched account is not a contacted one, and a drafted, approved or queued message is not a sent one.

Who decides:
Our software, only when the send is confirmed; a person never marks an account contacted.
On record before it counts:
The confirmed send in our send record, with the provider's message id.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
accounts contacted, contacted
Not the same as Target-account record:
A target-account record is research, before anyone is contacted.

Reply

A message a person at a contacted account wrote back. An automatic reply, an out-of-office notice and a bounce are not replies, and an opt-out or a complaint is counted on its own, never as engagement.

Who decides:
Our software classifies each inbound message; a person reviews anything unclear.
On record before it counts:
The message itself, matched to the account it answers.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
replies

Positive reply

A reply that shows interest in working together, as classified from its own words. A request to see the work, a question or a not now is a reply, not a positive one.

Who decides:
Our software classifies the reply's words; a keyword alone is never a confirmed interest.
On record before it counts:
The reply's classification and its words.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
positive replies
Not the same as Interested Prospect:
A positive reply is how a reply was classified; an interested prospect is one a person has confirmed.

The handoff, and what happens after it

Warm Handoff

The handoff record, the account, contact, context and conversation history, a warm introduction by name, the booking path where appropriate, notice to the contractor, and ownership of the conversation passed to the contractor — the opportunity is then handed off.

The steps, in order:
create the handoff record; preserve the account, contact, context and conversation history; make the warm introduction; coordinate your booking or calendar path when appropriate; notify you; transfer ownership of the conversation to you; mark the opportunity handed off; keep tracking downstream progress where you report it.
Who decides:
It counts as handed off only with delivery evidence: the email provider's message id, the sent warm introduction, the named owner on the contractor's side and the booking path.
On record before it counts:
The delivered handoff record and the sent introduction.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
handoff, hand-off, Handed off, delivered handoff

Opportunity Brief

The complete written brief that travels with an accepted sales opportunity: the validated need, timing, property, account and buyer information, the acceptance check against the client's criteria, the coordinated next step, and the open questions.

Who decides:
Built automatically from the recorded facts; nothing in it is typed free-hand.
On record before it counts:
Each line is a recorded fact, and unknowns are marked unknown.
Applies to:
Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
client-ready opportunity summary, opportunity summary

Taken on by you

The client confirmed that a handed-off conversation or opportunity is theirs and that they will pursue it. It is recorded only from the client — through a signed link or in their own words — and it is not the same as an Accepted Sales Opportunity, which is our check against the client's criteria before the handoff.

Who decides:
The client.
On record before it counts:
The client's signed action or their quoted words.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
client accepted, taken on
Not the same as Accepted Sales Opportunity:
Ours, before the handoff, against the client's criteria.

Appointment

A meeting on a calendar, recorded with its status: scheduled, held, no-show, canceled or moved. There are two kinds, never mixed: an agency sales call, when a contractor books a call with B2B Lead Growth; and a client appointment, when a buyer's call, meeting or site assessment with the contractor's team is on the calendar — on the Opportunity Engine, that is the coordinated next sales step. An appointment is held only when a named person says so. It is never promised, never a result on its own and never billed.

Who decides:
The calendar records it; a named person records whether it was held. Software never decides that a meeting happened.
On record before it counts:
The calendar event, and the named person's record of what happened.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
meeting, booked call, Meeting Scheduled, booked meeting, held meeting
Not the same as Next sales step:
A next sales step is agreed with the buyer; it is an appointment once it is on a calendar.
Not the same as Qualified Conversation:
A Qualified Conversation does not need a meeting booked, and a booked meeting is not by itself a Qualified Conversation.

Downstream outcome

What happened after the handoff, as the client reports it: meeting held, the buyer did not attend the scheduled meeting, site visit / estimate requested, proposal or bid sent, won, lost or stalled. Each carries the client's own words and one attribution: "introduced by this outreach", "known to you before; moved by this outreach", "already in progress before this outreach (no credit taken)" or "attribution not established". A buyer who said not now is stalled, which is deferred, never lost. An outcome nobody has reported is unknown, never a loss.

Who decides:
The client reports it. We never infer one.
On record before it counts:
The client's own words, recorded once per stage.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
outcome, deferred

Invalid or duplicate opportunity

A handoff that should not count: it missed its plan's standard, the account was outside the approved profile, or the same buyer and account were handed over twice. The client says so, with a reason, within the make-good window; it then stops counting and is made good with work.

Who decides:
The client raises it with a structured reason; a named person on our side rules on it.
On record before it counts:
The client's reason and the ruling, recorded against the handoff.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
invalid opportunity, duplicate opportunity
Not the same as Taken on by you:
Taken on is the client confirming a handoff is theirs; an invalid one is a handoff that should not have been made.

Replacement (make-good)

How a failure we control is made good: with work, never cash or credit — the step redone, or a replacement account worked through the full follow-up sequence, on top of the month's normal work and within a monthly bound; any more carry into at most the next 2 paid months. A replacement is extra work, never a promised result.

Who decides:
A named person upholds the failure; code counts the replacement against the cap.
On record before it counts:
The upheld claim and the replacement account's own record.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
make-good, make good, replacement account

Plans, price and responsibility

Managed Outbound

$1,500 a month, flat, with no setup fee. We find the right commercial accounts, reach the people who choose the HVAC contractor, run the outreach and follow-up, and hand you each Qualified Conversation with a warm introduction. What reaches you: an email introducing you to a buyer who has agreed to talk, with the whole email thread.

Who decides:
The signed order form names the plan.
On record before it counts:
The executed agreement and the verified first payment.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound

Opportunity Engine

$2,500 a month, flat, with no setup fee. Everything in Managed Outbound, and we keep going: we validate the business need, gather the property, account and buyer information, confirm the fit against your agreed criteria, and coordinate a concrete next sales step before we hand the opportunity over. What reaches you: a buyer whose need, timing and fit have been checked against your criteria, with a next step agreed on a date and a written brief, introduced to you by email.

Who decides:
The signed order form names the plan.
On record before it counts:
The executed agreement and the verified first payment.
Applies to:
Opportunity Engine

Managed outbound (the service)

Outsourced prospecting for a commercial HVAC contractor, for a flat monthly fee: we research commercial accounts in the contractor's area, email the buyer at each one from one dedicated mailbox on the contractor's commercial subdomain (never its everyday inbox, and never ours), follow up, and screen the replies. Each account names the buyer role to approach, and the person where a public source names them. B2B Lead Growth sells it as two plans: Managed Outbound ($1,500 a month) and the Opportunity Engine ($2,500 a month). Written in lower case it is the service; Managed Outbound, capitalised, is the $1,500 plan.

Who decides:
The signed order form names the plan; both plans deliver the service.
On record before it counts:
The executed agreement and the verified first payment.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
commercial HVAC managed outbound, outsourced outbound
Not the same as Managed Outbound:
Managed Outbound, capitalised, is the $1,500 plan. Managed outbound, the service, is what both plans deliver.

Adaptive service

Fixed service commitment + adaptive activity + defined handoff + transparent reporting. You pay a flat monthly fee for a defined service and a defined handoff, not for a number of emails or accounts. How much outreach we do each month adapts to how many genuinely good-fit accounts your market has, the evidence behind each one, the conversations already under way and the health of your mailbox. When there are not enough worthwhile accounts to justify more outreach, your report says so; we never lower the standard or invent activity to fill a number.

Who decides:
Each month's outreach is decided by the checks that come first — suppression and opt-out; legal and compliance restrictions; sender reputation and deliverability; bounce and complaint protection; duplicate prevention; credible evidence — never by a number to reach.
On record before it counts:
The client report shows the work done and, when supply was short, the constraint.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
adaptive service model, adaptive activity

Qualified commercial opportunity creation

What B2B Lead Growth does for HVAC contractors — the category, never a stage. We find the right commercial accounts, identify why they are worth contacting, handle the outreach and follow-up, qualify genuine interest, and hand the HVAC team a sales conversation or developed opportunity worth acting on. The contractor handles technical discovery, estimating, proposing, negotiation, closing and service delivery. Marketing can create awareness and inbound demand. B2B Lead Growth proactively identifies specific commercial accounts worth pursuing and does the outbound sales-development work that starts and qualifies those conversations.

Who decides:
The plan the client signed decides how far the work goes before the handoff.
On record before it counts:
The executed agreement and the verified first payment.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
qualified commercial opportunities
Not the same as Qualified Conversation:
The category is everything we do; a Qualified Conversation is one stage on the way to the handoff.

Paid month

The period every monthly count and report runs on: from the client's billing date to the same date the next month, not the calendar month. The monthly report and the make-good's replacement bound reset on it.

Who decides:
The billing date the client's first payment set, read automatically.
On record before it counts:
The client's billing anchor day on record.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
billing month, paid period

Billable opportunity

There is none. Each plan is one flat monthly price with no setup fee: no per-lead charge, no per-opportunity fee, no acceptance fee, no performance fee and no commission — one flat price per plan. Nothing we count — a reply, a Qualified Conversation, an accepted sales opportunity, an appointment or a won job — is billed on its own.

Who decides:
The plan's flat monthly price, which is set in one place and quoted everywhere from it.
On record before it counts:
The order form and the one Stripe price per plan.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
billable lead, pay per lead, per-opportunity fee

Agency and contractor responsibility

B2B Lead Growth creates the sales conversation and, on the Opportunity Engine, develops it into an accepted sales opportunity. The HVAC contractor does the technical discovery, estimates, proposes and closes. Managed Outbound owns targeting, account research, decision-maker contact, outreach, follow-up, interest screening, Qualified Conversation and warm handoff. The Opportunity Engine adds business-need validation; property, account and buyer information; acceptance against the client's criteria; next sales step coordination; and opportunity brief. On either plan we never perform technical HVAC discovery, inspections or site assessments; diagnose equipment or building systems; engineer solutions, size equipment or specify equipment; determine the final project scope; prepare estimates, quotes, bids or proposals; set pricing or negotiate price or contract terms; conduct technical field sales or close the sale; deliver the HVAC work; or guarantee contracts, appointments, site visits, Qualified Conversations, accepted sales opportunities, revenue or sales.

Who decides:
The plan in the client's signed agreement, checked automatically before any validation, acceptance or scheduling.
On record before it counts:
The signed order form's plan.
Applies to:
Managed Outbound and Opportunity Engine
Also read as:
agency vs. contractor responsibility, responsibility boundary, contractor boundary

The stages a client sees in a report

Every opportunity in a client report sits at one of these stages, named the same way everywhere it appears.
  • Researched
  • Replied
  • Qualified Conversation
  • Validation in progress
  • Accepted Sales Opportunity
  • Handed off
  • Taken on by you
  • Sent back for review
  • Declined
  • In your sales process
  • Won
  • Lost
  • Not now
  • Not a fit
  • Do not contact

Older names you may see in search results

There are only two plans: Managed Outbound ($1,500 a month) and the Opportunity Engine ($2,500 a month). Managed Outbound hands you a Qualified Conversation; the Opportunity Engine carries it further and hands you an Accepted Sales Opportunity.

Show the 4 older names
  • Qualified Opportunity → Qualified Conversation. The earlier name for the same standard, now called a Qualified Conversation: one name everywhere. The standard did not change.
  • Prospecting (plan) → no current equivalent. An earlier plan name. It was discontinued, not renamed: no plan by that name is sold now.
  • Managed Pipeline (plan) → Managed Outbound. An earlier plan name. Its price now buys Managed Outbound.
  • Qualified Opportunity Engine (plan) → Opportunity Engine. An earlier plan name. Its price now buys the Opportunity Engine.

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