CRM Glossary: 200+ CRM Terminologies You Should Know

If you’re just starting to learn about CRM software, you might feel confused by all the fancy words and short forms people use in this field. Don’t worry, though! The CRM glossary is here to give you simple and clear explanations for the most common words and shortcuts in CRM.

Whether you own a business and want to make your customers happier or work in sales and want to work smarter, you should read this guide. Let’s scroll down the CRM software glossary below and find the CRM terminologies you need to know!

Also Read: What is a CRM System and Benefits of CRM You Might Not Know

Table of Contents

Others

360-Degree Customer View

This means having a complete picture of a customer, including their age, what they’ve bought before, and how they like to communicate.

A

A/B Testing

This is when we test two versions of a webpage or email to see which one works better in getting people to buy something or engage with us.

Account

An account is a company or organization we do business with.

Activity

An activity is when we interact with someone in business, like making a phone call, sending an email, or meeting.

Administrator

An administrator is a person who has special powers in our business software. They’re responsible for setting up user accounts and ensuring the software works correctly.

Analytics

Analytics is the process of looking at data to figure out things and make decisions.

API

An API allows different software programs to talk to each other.

Appointment Scheduling

This is when we use software to automatically set up appointments and meetings with our customers, like product demonstrations or service calls.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think and learn like humans.

Auto-Responder

An auto-responder is a pre-written message sent automatically when something specific happens, like when a customer asks a question.

Automation

Automation is when we use software to do tasks we do repeatedly without having to do them ourselves, like sending follow-up emails or setting up appointments.

B

BANT

A way to determine if someone is a good potential customer is by looking at their budget, authority to make decisions, need for your product, and when they might want it.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Collecting and studying data to understand how a business is doing and make smarter decisions.

C

Campaign

A set of marketing or sales activities aimed at a specific group.

Campaign Management

Planning, carrying out, and measuring how well marketing campaigns work.

Cases

Problems or complaints that customers report and need help with.

CHAMP

A method to figure out if someone might be a good customer by looking at their challenges, decision-making power, budget, and what’s most important to them.

Closed Sale

When someone buys something from your company, the transaction is complete.

Cloud-based CRM

CRM software is hosted on remote servers and accessed through the internet rather than installed on a local computer.

Cloud- or Web-Based

Refers to software accessed and stored on the internet rather than on a specific computer or server.

Collaboration

The ability for different people to share and use the same information in the CRM.

Contact

A person or company a business deals with or wants to deal with.

Contact Center

A central place where customer service folks talk to customers via phone, email, or chat.

Configure/Price/Quote (CPQ)

Software that helps sales teams determine the right product price and create customer quotes.

Contact Database

A collection of information about customers and other contacts, like their contact info and what you’ve discussed with them.

Contact Management

Keeping track of all the information about your contacts and customers.

Contact Role

A person’s job or position in a company, like a decision-maker or an influencer.

Contract Management

Creating, managing, and tracking contracts between your company and customers, partners, or vendors.

Converted Lead

When someone who was a potential customer becomes a customer.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of people who become customers from all the people you talked to or tried to sell to.

Also Read: How to Increase Conversion Rate?

CRM Analytical Reporting

Reports that help you understand customer data and figure out how well your sales and other things are doing.

CRM Software

Programs that help businesses handle customer interactions, sales, and support and look at customer data.

CRM Strategy

A plan for how to use CRM to make customers happier and make more money.

CSV file

A CSV file is a file that holds data in a table with rows and columns, and it’s simple to read.

Customization

Changing the CRM to work better for your business, like adding new fields or making special forms or reports.

Custom Fields

Extra fields you can add to the CRM to keep info about customers.

Customer Data

All the information you have about a customer, like their contact details, what they bought, and how they like to be contacted.

Customer Engagement

How much a customer interacts with and cares about your company.

Customer Experience (CX)

A customer’s whole experience with your company, including what they think about your products services, and how you help them.

Customer Experience Management (CXM / CEM)

Make sure customers have a great experience with your company and try to improve it.

Customer Journey

All the times a customer deals with your company over time.

Customer Loyalty

How much a customer likes your company and wants to keep buying from you.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Keeping track of your customer interactions and relationships, like sales, support, and marketing.

Customer Retention

Keeping customers over time and not losing them to other companies.

Customer Satisfaction

How happy a customer is with your company’s products, services, or overall experience.

Customer Satisfaction Score

A number that shows how happy a customer is with your company or brand.

Customer Service Management

Making customer service better and helping customers.

Customer Success Management

Ensure customers are happy and successful with your products or services.

Customer Valuation

Figuring out how valuable a customer is to your business.

D

Data Analysis

Looking at data, cleaning it up, changing it if needed, and using it to find important information and insights.

Data Insights

Understanding and knowledge that you get from analyzing data.

Data Enrichment

Adding more data to your CRM, like information about a person’s age, job, or company size, to make it better for sorting and personalizing.

Data Protection

Making sure data is safe from people who shouldn’t have it, like keeping it from being seen, used, changed, or deleted by the wrong people.

Data Privacy

Keeping personal info, like customer data, safe by following the rules and being ethical when collecting, using, and sharing it.

Dashboard

A visual screen that shows the most important information and numbers from your CRM system.

Dead Lead

A person or company that’s not interested or doesn’t respond anymore because they didn’t answer when you tried to contact them.

Demand Generation

Getting people interested in a product or service by marketing and finding potential customers.

Detail View

Looking at all the information about a customer, like their name, contact info, and history, in one place.

Document

A digital file, like a PDF or Word, can be stored and shared inside the CRM.

Drip Campaign

Send emails to possible customers every so often (like every day or every week) to keep them interested and help them decide to buy.

Duplicate

When you have more than one record for the same customer in your system, like having two entries for the same person.

E

Email Marketing

Sending emails to people, like leads and customers, to share news deals and invite them to events.

Email Response Management

Handling and replying to customer emails, typically using tools or pre-made messages.

Email Reminder

An automatic message that reminds someone about an upcoming event or task.

Email Template

A ready-made email message you can start with and change for different people.

Entity

Different kinds of information are kept in a CRM, like customer details, leads, and customer issues.

Escalations

Making a customer problem or request go to higher-level support or management.

Event

A planned meeting, call, or something happening in the CRM.

Extension

Adding extra features to your CRM, like connecting it to other software or creating special fields.

F

Field

Specific information you can save about a customer, such as their name or email.

First Touch

The first time a customer talks to a company or salesperson.

Follow

Keeping an eye on what a customer does and says in the CRM.

Formula

A way to calculate a value using other things in the CRM.

Formula Field

A field that gets its value from a formula, not from typing it in.

Forecast

Guessing what sales or money will be like in the future.

Funnel Velocity

How fast leads move through the sales process, measured by how many become customers and how quickly.

G

Gamification

Making work fun using points, badges, and scoreboards, often in a CRM.

H

Helpdesk

A service that helps customers by answering questions and solving problems.

Helpdesk System

Software that handles and tracks customer support requests and interactions.

Helpdesk Ticketing System

A specific helpdesk system that uses “tickets” to manage customer support requests.

History

A record of what a customer did and talked about in the CRM.

Home Page

The first page you see when you use a CRM, usually shows what’s happening recently.

HTML

A computer language used to make web pages.

I

Instance

A specific setup or version of a CRM system, like a test or a real-use version.

Integration

Make the CRM work with other software, like email tools, accounting software, or social media platforms, so that they can share data.

Invoice

A document that lists what a customer bought and how much they must pay.

K

Kanban

A way to manage work visually, like using cards or columns to track tasks or projects.

Kanban View

Visually seeing tasks or leads in a CRM, like cards on a board.

Knowledge Management

Keeping and sharing info about customers, products, and services inside the CRM.

L

Landing Page

A webpage to get leads, usually with a form or button to click.

Last Touch

The last time a customer talks to a company or salesperson.

Layout

How the CRM looks and how info is shown.

List View

A way to look at info in the CRM as a list.

Lead

A potential customer or client who has expressed interest in the business’s products or services.

Lead Attribution

Figuring out where a lead came from, like a certain ad or website, to know what works best.

Lead Capture

Getting leads from different places, like website forms or social media, and saving them in the CRM.

Lead Conversion

Changing a lead into a customer, usually through selling or getting them started with a product.

Lead Conversion Process

The steps to turn a lead into a customer.

Lead Conversion Rate

The percentage of leads that become customers.

Lead Deduplication

Taking away extra leads in the CRM so each one is only counted once.

Lead Distribution

Sending leads to the right salespeople based on where they are or what they’re interested in.

Lead Enrichment

Adding more info to a lead’s record, like their age or what they do on social media, to understand them better.

Lead Generation

Finding and getting new leads through different ways, like ads or social media posts.

Lead Magnet

A good piece of content, like a guide or a video, given to someone in exchange for their contact info.

Lead Management

Watching and taking care of leads from when they first show interest to when they buy, including rating them, checking if they’re good, and keeping in touch.

Lead Nurturing

Connecting with leads over time through emails or events.

Lead Qualification

Seeing which leads are most likely to buy based on money, power, need, and timing.

Lead Scoring

Giving a lead a number that shows how likely they are to buy.

Lead Scoring Decay

Lowering a lead’s score if they don’t talk to the company for a while.

Lead Scoring Model

A set of rules to give a lead a score based on who they are and what they do.

Lead Scoring Threshold

The number where leads are called “good enough” and sent to sales.

Lead Scoring Exclusion

Not scoring some leads, like those from specific places or people who don’t want to get marketing emails.

Lead Source

Where a lead comes from, like a friend, a website, or a trade show.

Lead-to-Cash

Turning a lead into a customer and then getting their money for the sale.

M

Machine Learning

A type of computer smarts or AI that helps systems improve by learning from information over time.

Marketing

The process of getting people to know about and buy products or services through ads, deals, and talking to the public.

Marketing Analytics

Using numbers and facts to check how well marketing plans and websites work, like seeing if ads and web pages interest more people.

Marketing Attribution

Figuring out which ads and ways of marketing helped make a sale and which didn’t, to know what works best.

Marketing Automation

Using computer programs to do repetitive marketing jobs, like sending emails, looking after leads, and posting on social media.

Marketing Funnel

A picture that shows how someone goes from hearing about a product to buying it, with different steps along the way.

Marketing Performance Management

Watching and studying how marketing campaigns do, like seeing if they make money, get leads, and turn leads into customers.

Marketing-Qualified Lead (MQL)

A lead that seems likely to buy because they showed interest in marketing.

Mobile CRM

Software that helps with customer stuff, but it works on phones or tablets.

N

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Teaching computers or AI to understand and talk like people do.

Navigation Bar

A menu on a computer screen that helps people move around in a CRM.

Notification

A message or signal from a CRM, like a reminder or news.

Nurture Campaign

Sending automated emails to leads over time to get closer to making a sale.

O

Object

Something special or necessary in a CRM, like a customer or a lead.

On-Premises

When software is on a specific computer or server, not the internet.

On-Premises CRM

A CRM system on a particular computer or server, not the internet.

Open-Source CRM

A system that anyone can change and share because its code is public.

Opportunity

A chance to make money, like a possible sale.

Opportunity Management

Watching and managing possible sales.

P

Personalization

Making things special for each customer using info from the CRM, like showing them unique stuff and deals.

Pipeline

All the steps a lead or chance goes through before they become a customer.

Pipeline Management

Looking after leads and opportunities as they move through the sales pipeline.

Predictive Analytics

Using info, math, and computer learning to guess what might happen in the future based on what happened before.

Probability

How likely something is to happen.

Prospects

Possible customers who seem like they might buy.

Q

Qualified Lead

Someone who might buy, picked by marketing, and checked by sales to ensure they fit as a good customer.

R

Raw Leads

Leads that still need checking or talking to.

Relationship Intelligence

Understanding and using the connections between customers, leads, and contacts.

Relationship Management

Keeping and looking after customer relationships, leads, and contacts.

Remarket Lead

A lead talked to before but didn’t buy.

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who visited a website or interacted with a brand before to bring them back and get them to buy.

Revenue

All the money a company gets from sales and business stuff.

Revenue Forecast

Guessing how much money a business will make in the future.

S

Sandbox

A safe place to try out and make changes in a CRM without messing up the real system.

Sales

Selling products or services to customers.

Sales-Accepted Lead (SAL)

A lead that the sales team checked and can follow up on.

Sales Coaching

Helping salespeople get better by training and giving advice.

Sales Compensation

Giving rewards and extras to sales reps, like bonuses or stocks, to motivate them.

Sales Enablement

Giving sales reps what they need to sell better, like product information, case studies, and competition info.

Sales Forecasting

Using CRM data to guess how much money the business will make based on past info, leads, and how many become customers.

Sales Force Automation (SFA)

Using software to make sales tasks easier, like managing leads and opportunities.

Sales Funnel

A picture showing a lead’s stages before buying, like learning, getting interested, checking, and buying.

Sales Optimization

Making sales better by looking at data and finding ways to improve.

Sales Performance Management

Tracking and studying how well sales reps do, like how many sales they make and how they work.

Sales Pipeline

A view of how a lead or opportunity moves towards becoming a customer.

Sales-Qualified Lead (SQL)

A lead that has been qualified by the sales team and is ready to be passed on to the account management team.

Sales Quota

A goal for how much a salesperson or team should sell in a specific time.

Sales-Ready Lead (SRL)

A lead is ready for the sales team because they seem likely to buy.

Sales Stage

The steps a lead goes through before becoming a customer.

Sales Team

The group of people who sell a company’s stuff.

Sales Territory Management

Dividing sales areas into smaller parts and giving sales reps their areas.

Sales Velocity

How quickly a company can make money from sales.

Security

Keeping CRM data safe, like ensuring only the right people can see it.

Segmentation

Dividing customers or leads into smaller groups based on age, what they do, or what they buy.

Self-service Portal

A website where customers can check orders or get help without calling anyone.

Service Automation

Making customer service easier using tech, like handling tickets or getting customer feedback.

Social CRM

CRM that works with social media, like Twitter or LinkedIn, to talk to customers and leads.

Social Integration

Connect CRM to social media, like Facebook or Twitter, to track and manage customers and leads.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Getting software from the internet, not putting it on one computer.

Suspects

People who might not become customers because they’re uninterested.

T

Tasks

Things you must do in a CRM system, like jobs or actions.

Template

A ready-made document, email, or page that you can use as a starting point for making new stuff.

Theme

The way a CRM system looks and its style.

Third-Party Integration

The integration of a CRM system with software or platforms not developed by the same company.

Ticketing

Keeping track of and looking after customer support requests, often with “tickets.”

Ticketing System

Software that handles customer support requests and keeps track of what happens.

Tracking URL

A web link to check how a marketing campaign, specific customer, or lead is doing.

Transactional Reporting

Reports that show detailed info about specific deals or customer talks.

U

User

Someone who uses a CRM system.

User Content

Info or data made or added by people using a CRM.

User Interface (UI)

How a CRM system looks and feels, like the buttons and menus you use.

User Experience

How it feels to use a software system, like if it’s easy and works well.

User Role

What a user can do and what they’re responsible for in a CRM system.

V

Voice of the Customer (VoC)

What customers say and think, is found through surveys, talks, and more.

View

How info looks in a CRM system.

VoIP Integration

The integration of a CRM system with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, allows for voice and video calls to be made directly from the system.