# Methodology & Bibliography — SDR / Sales Agent Glossary

How this glossary is sourced, what counts as a primary source, how freshness is managed, and the full 38-entry bibliography.

**Data last refreshed:** 2026-05-08. **Next scheduled refresh:** Q3 2026, or sooner on a vendor / regulator / framework trigger.

## Sourcing rule

Every term has a single canonical primary-source citation: a vendor or framework documentation page, an IETF RFC, a regulator publication, an analyst publication where the analyst is the originator of the framing, or a foundational practitioner work (e.g., Aaron Ross's *Predictable Revenue*, David Skok's *SaaS Metrics 2.0*). Wikipedia, Sales Hacker, and other secondary blogs are never the primary citation; if a concept only appears in such surfaces, the term does not yet warrant inclusion.

When more than one canonical source could be cited (e.g., MQL has both HubSpot and Salesforce framings, sequence has both Outreach and Salesloft), the citation is chosen by hierarchy: regulator / RFC > framework body > vendor primary documentation > analyst publication > foundational practitioner work.

## Freshness flags

- **Foundational** — foundational practitioner works that anchor the field (Aaron Ross's *Predictable Revenue* for the SDR/AE split; David Skok's *SaaS Metrics 2.0* for CAC / payback / LTV; the original MEDDIC framework). Refreshed only if substantively revised.
- **In force** — binding standards, RFCs, or regulator text currently in effect, with the in-force date (e.g., RFC 7208 SPF in force 2014-04; FTC CAN-SPAM Act in force 2003-12-16; Google sender guidelines in force 2024-02; EU AI Act Art. 50 in force phased from 2026-08-02).
- **Emerging 2026** — terms that entered mainstream discourse in 2024–2026 and are still stabilising (AI SDR, research agent, sequence-writer agent, reply-classifier agent, signal-based selling, waterfall enrichment, agent fleet for sales). Carried with explicit emerging flags so readers know the framing may evolve.
- **Contested** — terms with named, meaningful disagreement in the field; we carry both positions when they exist (e.g., BDR-out-of-the-box framing; hallucination in sales as the load-bearing risk of AI SDR).

## Refresh cadence

Quarterly term audit (next scheduled: Q3 2026). Trigger-based refresh on any of:

- A canonical-vendor product or pricing page changes a term's framing (Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, HubSpot, Salesforce Agentforce, 11x.ai, AiSDR).
- A new regulator action affects compliance content (FTC, EU EDPB, California AG, ICO, FCA).
- An RFC or sender-guideline update changes deliverability requirements (Google, Yahoo, M3AAWG, IETF).
- A qualification framework gains or loses adoption (MEDDIC vs MEDDICC vs MEDDPICC vs BANT vs NEAT).
- A new AI-SDR vendor reaches material market presence.
- A canonical-source URL 404s (citation rot is the fastest-acting decay).

## Coverage scope

This glossary is intentionally scoped to the SDR / outbound-sales surface, including AI-SDR vocabulary and the deliverability and compliance posture that makes outbound legal and effective. It deliberately excludes general-purpose marketing vocabulary and general-purpose AI vocabulary covered by sibling glossaries. For broader agentic-AI vocabulary see [the deep agentic glossary](https://agentic-glossary.roei-020.workers.dev/); for compliance vocabulary see [the compliance glossary](https://compliance-glossary.roei-020.workers.dev/).

## Bibliography (38 unique sources)

1. *11x.ai* — https://www.11x.ai/ — accessed 2026-05-08
2. *6sense — ABM platform* — https://6sense.com/ — accessed 2026-05-08
3. *AgentsBooks — Anatomy of a Firm* — https://agentsbooks.com/anatomy — accessed 2026-05-08
4. *AiSDR — Product* — https://aisdr.com/ — accessed 2026-05-08
5. *Anthropic — Building Effective Agents* — https://www.anthropic.com/research/building-effective-agents — accessed 2026-05-08
6. *Apollo.io — Platform* — https://www.apollo.io/product — accessed 2026-05-08
7. *Apollo.io — AI SDR* — https://www.apollo.io/product/ai-sales-development — accessed 2026-05-08 — Emerging 2026
8. *Bombora — Intent data* — https://bombora.com/data/ — accessed 2026-05-08
9. *California AG — CCPA* — https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2020-01-01
10. *Clay — Learn* — https://www.clay.com/learn — accessed 2026-05-08
11. *Cognism — Documentation* — https://www.cognism.com/ — accessed 2026-05-08
12. *EU AI Act — Art. 50* — https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/50/ — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2026-08-02
13. *EU EDPB — GDPR guidance* — https://edpb.europa.eu/edpb_en — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2018-05-25
14. *FTC — CAN-SPAM Compliance Guide* — https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2003-12-16
15. *Gartner — Future of Sales 2025* — https://www.gartner.com/en/sales/insights/future-of-sales — accessed 2026-05-08
16. *Gong — Revenue intelligence* — https://www.gong.io/ — accessed 2026-05-08
17. *Google — Email sender guidelines* — https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126 — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2024-02
18. *HubSpot — AI sales features* — https://www.hubspot.com/products/artificial-intelligence — accessed 2026-05-08
19. *HubSpot — Sales roles* — https://www.hubspot.com/products/artificial-intelligence — accessed 2026-05-08
20. *HubSpot — State of Sales* — https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing — accessed 2026-05-08
21. *Lavender — Email assistant* — https://www.lavender.ai/ — accessed 2026-05-08
22. *M3AAWG — Sender best practices* — https://www.m3aawg.org/published-documents — accessed 2026-05-08
23. *MEDDIC Academy* — https://meddic.academy/ — accessed 2026-05-08 — Foundational
24. *OpenView (David Skok) — SaaS Metrics 2.0* — https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/ — accessed 2026-05-08 — Foundational
25. *Outreach — Sales Engagement Platform* — https://www.outreach.io/platform/sales-engagement — accessed 2026-05-08
26. *Predictable Revenue — Aaron Ross* — https://predictablerevenue.com/ — accessed 2026-05-08 — Foundational
27. *RFC 6376 — DKIM* — https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6376 — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2011-09
28. *RFC 7208 — SPF* — https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7208 — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2014-04
29. *RFC 7489 — DMARC* — https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7489 — accessed 2026-05-08 — In force 2015-03
30. *Salesforce — Agentforce SDR* — https://www.salesforce.com/sales/agentforce-sdr/ — accessed 2026-05-08 — Emerging 2026
31. *Salesforce — Sales Cloud* — https://www.salesforce.com/sales/agentforce-sdr/ — accessed 2026-05-08
32. *Salesforce — State of Sales* — https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-sales/ — accessed 2026-05-08
33. *Salesforce — State of Sales 7th Edition* — https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-sales/ — accessed 2026-05-08
34. *Salesloft — Cadence* — https://salesloft.com/products/cadence — accessed 2026-05-08
35. *Salesloft — Rhythm AI* — https://salesloft.com/products/rhythm — accessed 2026-05-08 — Emerging 2026
36. *Spamhaus — Blocklist* — https://www.spamhaus.org/ — accessed 2026-05-08
37. *ZoomInfo — Chorus* — https://www.zoominfo.com/products/chorus — accessed 2026-05-08
38. *ZoomInfo — Platform* — https://www.zoominfo.com/ — accessed 2026-05-08

## Privacy and editorial discipline

This site reuses the AgentsBooks portfolio's controlled vocabulary — *agent fleet*, *agentic firm*, *8 primitives*, *complete-not-compete* — and never references private client identifiers. Voice is operator-grade, plural first-person, citation-anchored. Vendor entries quote the vendor's own published documentation; we do not editorialise inside a definition. Where AI-SDR vendor framings are contested in the field we mark the entry with a Contested flag and acknowledge the disagreement.

Updated 2026-05-08.