sales CRMGlossaryShort definitions of sales, marketing, finance, care and data protection terms, with no fluff and a note on where each one matters in practice.
Terms are grouped by topic: sales first, then marketing, money, healthcare and care, teamwork, and security and technology. You can link to any term directly; the link jumps straight to its definition. If a term relates to a CRM feature, there's a link to the page that covers it in detail.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system for managing customer relationships: one database, inquiries from every channel, a pipeline, tasks and reports. It makes sure no inquiry is lost and shows how much revenue each channel and employee brings in. Learn more in our guide what is a CRM.
An MIS, or medical information system, handles electronic medical records, prescriptions, clinical protocols and medical documentation; in English it is often called an EHR or practice management system. A CRM handles patient flow, sales and money, while an MIS handles full medical documentation and eHealth; 95sales CRM also keeps doctor notes with ICD-10, but it is not an MIS. Clinics often use both. See the difference in CRM vs. MIS.
A lead is a potential customer who has left their contact details or reached out: called, filled in a form or answered a quiz. A lead becomes a customer after the first payment or signed contract. In a CRM, every lead is a record with a source, an owner and a next step.
Qualification means checking whether a lead is a fit and ready to buy: is there a need, a budget, a decision-maker, a timeline? A first-call questionnaire is used for this. Qualification keeps reps from spending time on people who won't buy.
A sales pipeline (or sales funnel) is the customer's path through stages from first contact to payment, for example "New → Consultation → Contract → Paid". Some customers drop out at every stage, hence the funnel shape. Learn more in our guide to the sales funnel.
Kanban is a board view where stages are columns and deals or tasks are cards you drag between them. You can see at a glance how many customers are at each stage and where they're stuck. More on pipeline and lead kanban.
Conversion rate is the share of customers who move on to the next stage: from call to booking, from booking to payment. It's calculated as the number who moved on divided by the number who entered the stage, as a percentage. Comparing conversion rates by stage shows the weakest point in your pipeline.
A lost reason is the recorded explanation of why a customer didn't buy: too expensive, too far, no availability, chose someone else. If reasons are picked from a fixed list, after a month or two you can see which losses are fixable. Without a list, lost deals turn into "just didn't call back".
A sales script is a conversation outline: greeting, discovering needs, presenting, handling objections, agreeing on the next step. A script makes call quality predictable. See examples in our guide to clinic front-desk call scripts.
A missed call is an incoming call nobody answered. In service businesses it's one of the biggest sources of lost inquiries: the caller often just dials the next company. How to stop losing them: our guide to missed calls.
Call tracking is technology that shows which ad a phone call came from, usually by using dynamic phone numbers. Without it, calls from ads can't be tied to ad spend. 95sales CRM integrates with Binotel and Ringostat (Ukrainian telephony providers); see telephony and missed calls.
A repeat visit is when a customer or patient comes back for another service or a follow-up appointment. Repeat visits are cheaper than first visits because they need no ad spend. Their share is one of the key health indicators of a clinic or service business.
A no-show is when a booked customer neither arrives nor cancels. In a study of 10 clinics, the average no-show rate was 18.8% (BMC Health Services Research, 2016). How to reduce them: our guide to patient no-shows.
A treatment package (or course of treatment) is a set of sessions sold and paid for as one service, for example 10 massage sessions. You need to see how many sessions are done and how many remain. More on price lists and packages.
A referral source is a doctor, hospital or partner who sends you patients or clients. Tracking referral sources shows who brings in the most patients and revenue, and which relationships are worth investing in. It matters most in rehab, palliative care and diagnostics.
UTM parameters are tags in a link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign and others) that tell you which ad or email a visitor came from. The CRM stores them with the inquiry. Without them, you can't calculate the return on each channel.
gclid is a click ID that Google Ads appends to a link when auto-tagging is on. It lets you tie an inquiry to a specific ad click. Meta's equivalent parameter is called fbclid.
First touch is a customer's very first interaction with a company, for example clicking a Google ad. A first-touch model credits the sale to that source. 95sales CRM remembers which ad first brought the visitor, even if they submit the form later.
Attribution is the rule for crediting a sale to an ad channel: first touch, last touch or several touchpoints. Your attribution model determines which ads you consider effective. More on ad sources.
End-to-end analytics connects data from the ad click all the way to payment: how much you spent, how many inquiries came in, how many bought and for how much. It answers the question of which ads pay off. Learn more in our guide to end-to-end analytics.
CPL (Cost per Lead) is the cost of one inquiry: ad budget divided by the number of leads. CPL shows how cheap your leads are, not how good they are. Cheap leads with low conversion can end up costing more.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is the cost of winning one paying customer: all marketing and sales costs divided by the number of new customers. It's the key metric for seeing whether advertising pays off. How to calculate it: our guide to patient acquisition cost.
LTV (Lifetime Value) is how much revenue a customer brings over the whole relationship. If LTV is several times higher than CAC, acquisition pays off. In care homes and rehab, LTV depends on length of stay.
Average order value (average ticket) is the average amount of one purchase or invoice: revenue divided by the number of payments. Raising it is one of the cheapest ways to grow revenue. It's calculated automatically in analytics.
ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) measures marketing payback: (revenue from ads − ad spend) ÷ ad spend × 100%. ROMI above zero means advertising brought in more than it cost. To calculate it, you need to link each inquiry to its source and payment.
ROI (Return on Investment) is the overall return on any investment: (gain − investment) ÷ investment. Unlike ROMI, it covers any spending: equipment, renovation, a CRM rollout. For example, Nucleus Research in 2014 estimated the average CRM return at $8.71 per dollar invested (Nucleus Research).
Unit economics measures profitability per unit: per customer, patient, bed or specialist. It shows whether the business makes money on every sale or grows at a loss. Learn more in our guide to clinic KPIs and unit economics.
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a key metric of performance: conversion rate, average order value, occupancy, number of calls. A good KPI is measurable, within the employee's control and tied to money. KPIs often drive bonuses in payroll.
Retention is the share of customers who keep using your services after a given period. High retention reduces your dependence on advertising. The opposite metric is churn.
Churn is the share of customers who leave in a given period. For agencies and subscription services, it's a key metric: every lost client means lost recurring revenue. Churn is usually measured monthly.
A P&L (Profit and Loss statement) shows revenue minus expenses equals profit for a period. In a chain, P&L is calculated for each location, with shared costs allocated across them. More on finance and P&L.
The break-even point is the revenue level at which income covers all expenses and profit is zero. For a facility with beds, it's convenient to express it as a number of occupied beds. Below that point, the business runs at a loss.
Margin is profit as a share of revenue: profit ÷ revenue × 100%. Margin lets you compare locations and service lines of different sizes. High revenue with a low margin is a common growth trap.
A cash flow statement shows how much money came in and went out over a period and how much is left in accounts and cash desks. Unlike a P&L, it tracks cash, not earnings: a profitable business can still run short of cash when clients pay late. See cash flow vs P&L.
Budget vs actual (plan vs actual) compares planned income and spending with what actually happened in a month: plan, actual and variance for each category. It flags overspending before month-end, while you can still fix it. More in budget vs actual in the CRM.
A management balance sheet shows what a company owns and owes on a given date: assets (cash, client debts), liabilities (salaries payable, taxes, client advances) and equity as the difference. It's for the owner's decisions, not for tax filing. More in the balance sheet in the CRM.
An expense category is a heading for recording spending: rent, advertising, salaries, software. Categories roll up into groups so you can see your cost structure in the P&L and set budgets in budget vs actual.
A counterparty is any company or person your business exchanges money with: a client, supplier, contractor or service. Counterparties show who pays you and whom you pay. They carry over from bank statements during statement import.
Profitability is profit as a percentage of income (or another base). It shows how much profit each dollar or euro of revenue brings in and lets you compare months and service lines of different sizes.
Accounts receivable (receivables) is money customers owe the company for services already delivered. It's tracked by how overdue it is: the older the debt, the lower the chance of collecting it. Learn more in our guide to patient debts.
A cash flow gap is when there isn't enough money in the account for required payments, even though the business is profitable on paper. It usually comes from late customer payments. A cash forecast and tight control of receivables prevent it.
A cash forecast is a calendar of money expected in the coming weeks: recurring payments, invoices, payouts from payment providers. It reveals a cash flow gap in advance. In 95sales CRM for agencies, the forecast covers 30–60 days.
A charge is the amount a customer owes for a service or a period: a monthly rate, a session, an add-on service. The difference between charges and payments is the balance owed. More on payments and debts.
Card acquiring is accepting card payments through a terminal or online, handled by an acquiring bank. In 95sales CRM, acquiring is tracked as a separate, manually maintained account called "Acquiring · terminals"; there is no integration with acquiring banks.
Cash collection is moving cash from location tills to the bank or a central cash desk. In a chain without cash collection tracking, cash gets "lost" between locations and head office. In the CRM, a cash collection is recorded as a transfer between cash desks.
Payroll costs are all salaries, bonuses and mandatory contributions for a period. In clinics and care facilities, payroll is usually the largest expense. More on payroll.
LOS (Length of Stay) is the average number of days a patient or resident stays. In care homes, rehab centers and hospices, LOS directly affects revenue and bed planning. It's calculated in analytics based on discharged patients.
Bed occupancy is the share of beds occupied over a period, as a percentage. It's the key operating metric for residential facilities. More on bed management.
RevPAB (Revenue per Available Bed) is revenue per available bed over a period: revenue ÷ number of beds. It combines occupancy and price in one number. It helps compare locations of different sizes.
A care plan is an individual schedule of care tasks for a patient: repositioning, feeding, hygiene, blood pressure and temperature checks. Completion check-offs make care verifiable. More on the care plan.
Palliative care is care for people with incurable illnesses, focused on relieving pain and symptoms and supporting the family. It's provided by hospices, palliative units and home care teams. On running such centers: CRM for hospices.
A care home (nursing home) is a long-term residential care facility that provides accommodation, meals and supervision. Its economics depend on occupancy, monthly fees and quality of care. More on CRM for care homes.
An outpatient is a patient who comes in for appointments or procedures without being admitted or staying overnight. In the CRM, outpatients are managed without a bed, through appointments and treatment packages. The opposite is an inpatient.
The ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is the WHO's system of diagnosis codes. ICD codes are used in medical documentation and MIS software. In 95sales CRM the doctor picks an ICD-10 diagnosis by code or name in the doctor note; the note is encrypted. The ICD-10 list is in Russian and Ukrainian, so in the English interface diagnosis names appear in Russian.
eHealth is Ukraine's national eHealth system: patient declarations with doctors, e-prescriptions and referrals. Medical information systems connected to it handle this workflow. 95sales CRM is not integrated with eHealth; see CRM vs. MIS.
A first-call questionnaire is a set of questions the front desk asks at first contact to qualify a customer. In care facilities, that's age, diagnosis, mobility, who makes the decision and budget. Answers are saved in the record.
A customer or patient record is the CRM entry with the full history: contacts, inquiries, calls, documents, charges, payments. A new employee opens the record and sees everything that happened before them. More on patient and client records.
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a commitment to a level of service, for example calling back on an inquiry within 15 minutes. An internal SLA makes response speed measurable. In a CRM, it's enforced through tasks with due dates.
The planner is a CRM section with weekly tasks by department and employee, with due dates and priority. Tasks are linked to a customer or deal, so context isn't lost. More on tasks and planner.
A holding company is a group of businesses with one owner. In the CRM, the "Holding" section combines monthly totals from several businesses into one summary without access to their individual records. More on locations, regions and holding.
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) means each employee sees and does only what their role allows. 95sales CRM has flexible roles and permissions, enforced on the server. More on data protection.
2FA (two-factor authentication) means signing in with a password plus a one-time code from an authenticator app. Even a stolen password doesn't give access to the system. In 95sales CRM, 2FA can be made mandatory for specific roles.
AES-256 is a symmetric encryption standard with a 256-bit key. 95sales CRM uses it to encrypt diagnoses, relatives' details, the care log and call transcripts.
Personal data is any information that can identify a person: name, phone number, address, health data. Health data is a special, highly sensitive category. How to protect it: our guide to medical data protection.
The GDPR is the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, in force since 2018. It requires a lawful basis for processing, data minimization, security, and people's right to access and erase their data. Ukraine has its own personal data protection law.
A DPA (Data Processing Agreement) is a contract between the data controller and a processor that handles the data, such as a CRM vendor. It describes what data is processed, how it's protected and who is responsible. In 95sales CRM, acceptance of the DPA is recorded in a tamper-proof log.
An audit log records every action in the system: who changed, deleted or exported what, and when. It's needed for investigations and to protect your database from leaks. In 95sales CRM, data exports are logged too.
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a web app you install on your phone's home screen like a regular app, with push notifications and no App Store or Google Play. It updates itself. More on CRM on your phone.
A push notification is a message an app shows on your phone or computer screen even when the app isn't open. In a CRM, push notifications alert you to new inquiries, tasks and urgent alerts. They work in the PWA.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is the way software systems exchange data. Through APIs, a CRM receives data from banks, payment providers and other services. Whether an API exists determines how easily systems can be connected.
A webhook is an automatic notification one service sends to another via a URL the moment something happens: a form is submitted, a call ends. That's how inquiries from Tilda, WordPress, Google Ads and quizzes reach the CRM instantly. More on website and ad leads.
An integration is a configured connection between the CRM and another service: telephony, website, payment provider. A good integration works with no manual data entry. Before choosing a CRM, check which integrations actually exist.
Data import means loading customers, leads and employees from Excel, CSV or an old CRM. Column mapping, duplicate checks and the ability to undo an import all matter. More on data migration.
A duplicate is a second record for the same customer, for example after two calls from one number. Duplicates distort analytics and confuse reps. The CRM detects them by phone number.
AI call analysis is the automatic transcription of a call recording and its assessment by an AI model: deal probability, rep score, script stages, next step. It lets you review every call instead of a sample. More on AI call analysis.
A cloud CRM runs in the browser and on your phone, with data stored on the vendor's servers or in the customer's own cloud. No server to install, no software to update. The opposite is an on-premise CRM on your own server.
Most terms are covered in depth in our guides: sales in the sales funnel guide, metrics in clinic KPIs and unit economics, advertising in end-to-end analytics. If you're choosing a system, start with our guide on how to choose a clinic CRM.
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FAQ
A lead is a person who has shown interest and left their contact details: called, filled in a form or answered a quiz. They become a customer after paying or signing a contract.
CPL is the cost of one inquiry; CAC is the cost of one paying customer. CAC is always higher than CPL, because not everyone who inquires ends up buying.
Add up all revenue from a customer over the relationship, or multiply average order value by the number of purchases. For residential facilities, multiply the monthly fee by the average length of stay.
A P&L is a profit and loss statement: revenue, expenses and profit for a period. It shows whether a business or location is actually making money, not just how much cash passed through the till.
RevPAB is revenue per available bed: revenue for a period divided by the number of beds. It combines price and occupancy in one metric.
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