Glossary
The agency-prospecting glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms that show up in every prospecting conversation — opportunity score, line type, DNC, TCPA, cadence, attribution. Each entry is what an agency operator needs to know in 200 words.
Scoring
- Close Probability ScoreA statistical estimate of how likely a specific prospect is to close into a paying client, trained on the agency's historical outcome data — the long-run replacement for heuristic lead scoring.
- Market Opportunity ScoreA 0-100 score grading an entire city or zip code on agency-prospecting attractiveness — derived from demographics, business density, and historical close-rate signals.
- Opportunity ScoreA 0-100 composite ranking how marketing-ready a local business is, derived from review volume, web presence, ad activity, and demographic context.
Workflow
- Agency ProspectingThe full process by which a marketing agency finds, qualifies, and converts local businesses into paying clients — distinct from B2B SaaS sales prospecting in tooling, signals, and conversion expectations.
- Cold Outbound CadenceThe structured sequence of touches (call, email, voicemail, SMS, follow-up) an agency runs against each cold prospect — the difference between random outreach and a repeatable conversion engine.
- Lead ScoringThe discipline of ranking prospects by likelihood-to-buy before spending outbound effort on them — produces a prioritized call sheet instead of a flat list.
- Outcome TrackingLogging the eventual disposition of each prospect (closed-won, closed-lost, ghosted) back against the prospect data — the prerequisite for any kind of statistical scoring or attribution analysis.
Phone
- Line Type DetectionClassifying a phone number as mobile, landline, or VoIP by querying carrier databases — critical for distinguishing dialable real numbers from defunct VoIP forwards.
- Mobile vs Landline vs VoIPThe three primary phone-line classifications — mobile (cellular), landline (POTS or modern equivalent), VoIP (internet-routed) — each with different reachability and cost implications for outbound agency calls.
Compliance
- DNC ScrubbingPre-checking phone numbers against federal and state Do-Not-Call lists before outbound dialing to avoid TCPA violations and known-litigator traps.
- Litigator TrapA phone number registered to a known TCPA plaintiff who files lawsuits over unwanted calls — a one-call mistake costs $5,000-$50,000 in settlement demands.
- TCPA ComplianceAdhering to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act — the federal law governing outbound calls and texts in the US, enforcing consent rules, calling-time windows, and DNC respect.
- Cold Email WarmupThe 4-6 week process of gradually ramping email-sending volume on a fresh inbox to build sender reputation with the major mailbox providers — a prerequisite for cold campaigns.
- Reply AttributionLinking an inbound email reply back to the originating cold-outbound campaign and prospect — required for measuring per-prospect close-rate and feeding outcome tracking.
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