Learn English – word for a condescending, snarky, yet awkward and jealous, person

I think in your sentence that "potential customers" or "our target customer/audience" work.

When I am developing sales apps though the common buzz terms are:

• lead
• opportunity
• prospect

And based on the comments I would like to add some content. Potential customer has the best connotation. As target customer isn't bad at all either. However I find lead and prospect to be dehumanizing. Opportunity kind of falls in between and I would surely never call a potential customer an opportunity to their face.

To give perspective to the general rules of using lead, opportunity, and prospect my company (LOTS of employees globally) uses the following rules (which my programs abide by):

1. lead - information that we obtain through research or outside companies researching. Think of these as more or less cold call lists.

2. prospect - these people were obtained because they showed interest or were referred. So if someone goes to one of our many websites and fills out a form asking for info on something then they become a prospect. [Side note: you went to a website 5 years ago and filled out a form. That company goes out of business. Before they close the doors they make an extra 20K selling all of their contact info to a research company. People can't sue them for privacy laws because their business is gone. - that prospect is now a lead at (many) other companies.] Also if you are talking to Jack at XYZ and he says Lisa at ABC would want the product, same thing.

3. opportunity - these people are usually people who work for businesses that we already have relationships/contracts with. For instance if a sales person is auditing an account and sees that all of company XYZs finance department uses one of our products but that finance department has three more head count - those are opportunities. Tons of examples on these. It could be simply someone who uses a product and we can upgrade them to new product or different product.

I am not saying the three descriptions above are written in stone. They are an example of what a very large company uses and I am sure that many companies are similar. But there is variation and there are a lot of grey areas - and I am constantly having to fine tune my apps because of disagreements in management on how to classify a certain instance. In the sales world the difference is a big deal because each has its own %-to-sale. So if we label something an opportunity which revenue is more likely to happen and it is actually a lead then if a set of sales reps encounter this their trend numbers will be down - and they could get fired.

The adverbial yet stands at the junction of past and future, expressing the persistence of action in time:

...used as an adverb, yet defines an action's persistence in time. The word can define an action in the past, present or future:

• I have never yet been late.

• I yet stand.

• I will yet arrive.

_{Wikipedia.org}

1. The first example from Wikipedia is persistence through the past into the present with implications of the future. Examining my past performance I have never been late, and that past performance offers an implicit promise of the future.

2. The second example is persistence in the present with implications of the past. I am still standing, but the larger context indicates that the past circumstances have not necessarily been favorable.

3. The third example is persistence in the future with implications of past and present. Through the past and up to the present, I have not arrived, but I will eventually arrive in the future.

The polarity behavior of yet requires a specific licensing context, which is a pivot between negative and positive polarity. Toward the past yet tends to be a negative polarity item, but it tends to pivot into a positive polarity item toward the future. This polarity pivot can happen in the present, depending on its connection to the context of past and future. Examining the Wikipedia examples:

1. I have never yet been late expresses negative polarity in the past and in the present--I have never been late and implies a pivot to positive polarity toward the future--[I will continue that performance].
2. I yet stand implies negative polarity toward the past--[Against implied opposition]--and expresses a pivot to positive polarity in the present--I stand.
3. I will yet arrive implies negative polarity toward the past and in the present--[Though I have not arrived], and expresses a pivot to positive polarity toward the future--I will arrive.

Examining the polarity of yet in definitions at Oxford Dictionaries Online:

adverb

1.0 Up until the present or a specified or implied time; by now or then:
I haven’t told anyone else yet
aren’t you ready to go yet?
I have yet to be convinced

_{Emphasis added}

The expressed polarity toward the past is consistently negative, and a pivot to positive polarity toward the future is consistently expressed or implied, while the polarity in the present is determined by its connection to past and future.

• I haven't told anyone, [but I may tell someone in the future].
• You may not be ready to go yet, [but you may be ready in the future].
• [I am not convinced], but may be convinced in the future

[WITH SUPERLATIVE]: the congress was widely acclaimed as the best yet

_{Emphasis added}

Within the historical perspective of the statement, the comparison of the "current" congress to those of the past creates a negative polarity toward the past and pivots to positive polarity in the present.

• [Other congresses were not as good], but this one is the best.

1.1 [WITH NEGATIVE] As soon as the present or a specified or implied time:
wait, don’t go yet

_{Emphasis added}

The polarity in the present is expressed as negative, while the pivot to a positive polarity toward the future is implied--[you may go in the future].

I hope to continue for some time yet

_{Emphasis added}

An negative polarity in the present is implied--[there are forces that might oppose my hope] and yet pivots to a positive polarity toward the future.

1.3 Referring to something that will or may happen in the future:
further research may yet explain the enigma I know she’s alive and I’ll find her yet

The polarity toward the past or in the present is implied as negative--[past research has not explained the enigma]...[there may be reasons to believe she is dead], and yet pivots to positive polarity toward the future.

2.0 Still; even (used to emphasize increase or repetition):
snow, snow, and yet more snow
yet another diet book
the rations were reduced yet again

3.0 In spite of that; nevertheless: every week she gets worse, and yet it could go on for years

The positive-negative comparisons create a pivot, extending the normal licensing context for yet.

Examining the examples of the OP:

1. A: We've got to hurry! B: Oh, calm down. It's early yet.

The context implies a negative polarity in the present rush and pivots to a positive polarity toward the future.

2. A: Is he coming back soon? Has he finished his job in Beijing? B: No, he has two years yet.

No creates a negative polarity in the present time frame, and yet pivots into a positive polarity toward the future--he will come back after two years.

3. We have a long time yet. We still can go to the gym.

The context implies a negative polarity in the present time frame--[we don't need to go to the gym now], and yet pivots into a positive polarity toward the future--we can go to the gym sometime in the future.

4. We are only thirty minutes into the work yet. But I'm already tired.

Only creates a negative polarity toward the past and the conjunction but extends the negative polarity in the present, but the necessary pivot into a positive polarity is missing. The pivot would have been expressed by yet as a conjunction, if the sentence had been written:

We are only thirty minutes into the work, yet I'm already tired .

Conclusion

In the OP, the fourth example is not idiomatic--even thought the definitions fit-- because the context defies the licensing context for yet, which expresses or implies a pivot in polarity between past, present and future.