Glossary

Short, plain definitions for the terms that come up around CRMs, MCP and outbound. The term first, then why it matters.

app.salescrew.io/inbox

The unified reply inbox with classified threads

Each entry defines the term first, in a sentence that reads correctly on its own, then explains why it matters with one concrete number or example. Where a definition touches something SalesCrew does, that link is separate from the definition itself.

Sales Cadence vs Sequence: What Is a Cadence?

A sales cadence is a timed run of touches over email, calls and LinkedIn that stops when a contact replies. See how it differs from a sequence, in 4 rows.

Weighted Forecast: Meaning, Formula and Example

Weighted forecast meaning: multiply each open deal's value by its stage's win probability, then add the results. See the formula and a 3-deal example.

What Are AI Credits?

AI credits are a unit a SaaS product deducts per model call, priced above the provider's raw cost. Why it pays to ask what one credit actually costs.

What Are SPF, DKIM and DMARC?

SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the DNS records that authenticate outbound email. Why leaving DMARC at p=none forever is monitoring, not a policy.

What Is 10DLC?

10DLC is the US carrier framework for application-to-person SMS from local numbers, requiring business and campaign registration before traffic is allowed.

What Is a Call Disposition?

A call disposition is the outcome code logged at the end of a call, like reached, voicemail, booked, or not interested, that drives what happens next.

What Is a ChatGPT Connector?

A ChatGPT connector links ChatGPT to an outside app, often through a remote MCP server, so it can read and write data. See the 2 transports it accepts.

What Is a Confidence Threshold?

A confidence threshold is the score below which an automated action routes to a person instead of running. Why it should be set from outcomes, not guesses.

What Is a Context Window?

A context window is the maximum text, in tokens, a model can consider at once. Why pasting an entire history to be safe degrades answers past a point.

What Is a CRM Snapshot?

A snapshot is an exported bundle of a working CRM configuration that can be applied to a new account to reproduce the setup in hours, not days.

What Is a Deal Stage?

A deal stage is a named state in a pipeline with a defined entry condition and a probability of closing, meant to be an observable event, not a feeling.

What Is a DNC List?

A Do Not Call list is a registry of phone numbers that must not receive telemarketing calls, scrubbed against before every calling campaign.

What Is a Guardrail (AI Agents)?

A guardrail is a fixed rule an AI agent cannot override, like a daily send cap or a confidence floor. Why it has to live in the system, not the prompt.

What Is a Hallucination (AI)?

A hallucination is a confident, plausible AI statement not backed by fact. In a CRM it means an invented meeting, quote or commitment. Learn to catch it.

What Is a Mailbox Pool?

A mailbox pool is a set of sending mailboxes on secondary domains that a system rotates to stay under volume limits. Keep it apart from customer email.

What Is a Power Dialer?

A power dialer places calls one after another from a list as soon as the previous call ends, with a rep on the line each time. No abandoned calls.

What Is a Prompt Pack?

A prompt pack is a curated, versioned set of prompts tuned to one business's voice and rules. Why it turns prompt writing into a shared, reviewable asset.

What Is a Record Summary?

A record summary is a short model-written digest of a contact, company or deal, regenerated from its timeline. Why the timeline stays the source of truth.

What Is a Remote MCP Server?

A remote MCP server runs at a web URL so AI clients connect over HTTP with nothing installed. How it differs from a local stdio server, in 5 steps.

What Is a Sales Pipeline?

A sales pipeline is the ordered set of stages a deal moves through from qualification to won or lost, making every open deal visible and forecastable.

What Is a Scheduled Action?

A scheduled action is work stored with a due time and payload that a worker claims when due. It's the mechanism behind cadences, reminders and agent runs.

What Is a Segment?

A segment is a saved filter over contacts or companies that yields a current list whenever it runs, the unit a campaign is built from.

What Is a Sender Pool and Sender Rotation?

A sender pool is the set of mailboxes cold email rotates through, one send at a time, under daily caps. See the 4 rules that pick the next sender.

What Is a Sending Domain?

A sending domain is the domain in the From address and authentication records of outbound mail. Mailbox providers score its reputation, not your website's.

What Is a Single-Tenant CRM?

A single-tenant CRM gives each customer its own database, not rows in a shared one. See how it differs from multi-tenant and self-hosted in 5 rows.

What Is a SIP Trunk?

A SIP trunk is a virtual phone line connecting a phone system to the public network over the internet. It's how a voice agent gets real phone numbers.

What Is a Suppression List?

A suppression list is the set of contacts who must never receive outreach: unsubscribes, bounces, complaints, holds. It has to be checked twice, not once.

What Is a Tool Call?

A tool call is a structured request from a model to run a specific function, like creating a task. How tool calls let a model act, not only talk.

What Is a Unified Inbox (Unibox)?

A unified inbox pulls replies from every sending mailbox into one list so no lead waits. How it works in 5 steps, and how it differs from a shared inbox.

What Is a Warm Transfer?

A warm transfer hands a call to a person after briefing them, so the caller does not repeat themselves. A cold transfer connects without the briefing.

What Is a Webhook?

A webhook is an HTTP request one system sends another when an event happens, carrying its data. It's the simplest way to connect systems without polling.

What Is a Whisper Message?

A whisper message is a short audio note played only to the person answering a forwarded call, telling them what they're picking up before it connects.

What Is a White-Label CRM?

A white-label CRM is sold to an agency or reseller who runs it under their own brand. Branding is separate from client data; the database usually isn't.

What Is A2P Messaging?

A2P (application-to-person) messaging is SMS sent by software to people, like reminders and alerts, and carriers route and filter it under separate rules.

What Is Agent Mode?

Agent mode sets how much an AI agent may do on its own: off, draft, review or auto. How teams raise autonomy one step at a time.

What Is an Agent Runner?

An agent runner executes an agent's steps on a schedule or in response to events. Why runs need to be resumable and idempotent, not a laptop process.

What Is an Agent-Operable CRM?

An agent-operable CRM makes every action in the app a tool an AI agent can call, with your permissions and an audit log. See the 5-part test to check one.

What Is an Agentic CRM?

An agentic CRM runs AI agents that plan and carry out multi-step sales work on its records. See the 4 agent modes and where a person approves each step.

What Is an Agentic Workflow?

An agentic workflow lets an AI agent decide its own next steps from intermediate results. When that beats a fixed automation, and when it doesn't.

What Is an AI Approval Queue in Sales?

An AI approval queue holds every email, message or deal change an agent proposes until a person approves it. See the 6 action classes and who signs off.

What Is an AI Field?

An AI field is a CRM field a model fills from a record's data and refreshes on change. Why a model-derived number should be labeled a guess.

What Is an AI Kill Switch?

An AI kill switch stops every automated agent in a system at once. Why one control beats toggling agents off one by one during an incident.

What Is an AI Knowledge Base?

An AI knowledge base indexes a company's own documents so models can retrieve and cite them. Why loading everything makes answers confidently wrong.

What Is an AI Receptionist?

An AI receptionist answers inbound calls: greets, answers routine questions, captures details, books or transfers, and hands the record to a CRM.

What Is an AI SDR?

An AI SDR performs prospecting tasks like research, outreach and booking with little human involvement per message. The risk of skipping approval steps.

What Is an AI Voice Agent?

An AI voice agent holds a real-time spoken call using speech recognition, a language model and speech synthesis together. Built for calls, not chat.

What Is an AI-Native CRM?

An AI-native CRM is built for models to read, write and update records under human review. See how it differs from a CRM with AI features, in 6 rows.

What Is an API Key Vault?

A secrets vault is encrypted storage for credentials an application reads at runtime, never shown again in settings screens, logs or exports.

What Is an Audience Freeze?

An audience freeze turns a dynamic segment into a fixed list for one send, with suppression and dedup applied, so the exact recipients are auditable.

What Is an Audit Log?

An audit log records who did what and when, including AI agents and API tokens. Why the automated actions are the ones most worth logging.

What Is an ICP?

An ideal customer profile describes the company most likely to buy, succeed and stay, used to decide who a sales team prospects first.

What Is an IVR?

An IVR is a phone menu that routes callers by keypad presses or fixed spoken options, like press 1 for sales. It follows a script; it doesn't understand.

What Is an MCP Server?

An MCP server exposes tools, resources and prompts over the Model Context Protocol so AI clients can call them. See its 2 transports and what a CRM needs.

What Is an Opt-Out?

An opt-out is a recipient's instruction not to be contacted again, given by link, reply or keyword, and it has to propagate across every sending system.

What Is Barge-In in Voice AI?

Barge-in is a voice agent's ability to stop talking when the caller starts. It's the behaviour that most separates natural agents from robotic ones.

What Is Bounce Rate?

Bounce rate is the share of sent emails the receiving server rejects. Why a soft bounce that fails three times should be treated as a hard one.

What Is BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for CRM AI?

BYOK means your CRM's AI runs on your own model provider key, billed to your account under your contract. See the 5 setup steps and where the key lives.

What Is CAN-SPAM?

CAN-SPAM is the US law governing commercial email: accurate headers, a physical address, a working opt-out honored within ten business days.

What Is CASL?

CASL is Canada's anti-spam law, requiring prior express or implied consent to send commercial electronic messages, among the strictest in the world.

What Is Cold Email?

Cold email is unsolicited business email sent to open a conversation with a stranger. Legal under conditions, often banned by a CRM's own terms of use.

What Is Data Enrichment?

Data enrichment adds fields to a contact or company record from external sources, title, headcount, technology, funding, so scoring can use them.

What Is Data Residency?

Data residency is the requirement that certain data be stored and processed within a specific country or region, driven by law, contract or policy.

What Is Dual Control in Software?

Dual control means every action in the interface is also a programmatic tool with identical effect, and vice versa. Why the manual path has to stay intact.

What Is Email Deliverability?

Deliverability is the share of sent email that reaches the inbox rather than spam or nowhere. Why open rate is an unreliable way to measure it now.

What Is Email Warmup?

Email warmup gradually raises sending volume from a new mailbox so providers learn to trust it. Why reputation is earned over weeks and lost in a day.

What Is GDPR Legitimate Interest?

Legitimate interest is a GDPR lawful basis for processing data without consent, used for B2B outreach when a documented balancing test supports it.

What Is HIPAA for a CRM?

HIPAA, applied to a CRM, means the system storing health information is covered by a signed Business Associate Agreement and required safeguards.

What Is Human-in-the-Loop AI in Sales?

Human-in-the-loop AI in sales lets agents draft emails and deal updates while a person approves each outside action. See the 4 agent modes and their uses.

What Is Intent Data?

Intent data is evidence that an account is researching a category, content consumption, review visits, search behavior, used to time outreach.

What Is IP Warming?

IP warming raises the volume sent from a new dedicated IP over 2 to 6 weeks so inbox providers learn to trust it. See the steps and the common mistake.

What Is Lead Scoring?

Lead scoring assigns each lead a number predicting how likely it is to become a customer. Why a score with no visible reasons gets ignored within a month.

What Is Missed-Call Text-Back?

Missed-call text-back sends an SMS within seconds to any caller a business didn't answer, recovering callers who would otherwise call a competitor.

What Is Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that connects AI models to tools and data through one shared interface. See what it does and doesn't cover.

What Is Multi-Tenant Architecture?

Multi-tenant architecture runs many customers on one shared app and database, split by logic rather than infrastructure. It's how most SaaS is built.

What Is Next Best Action?

Next best action recommends the single most useful thing to do now on a record, based on its state and history. Why it should sit right next to the record.

What Is Provisioning?

Provisioning is the automated creation of a customer environment (database, instance, domain, credentials) from a definition, not a manual checklist.

What Is RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Gen)?

RAG fetches relevant documents at query time so a model's answers are grounded in a specific source. Why it reduces hallucination but never removes it.

What Is Row-Level Security (RLS)?

Row-level security attaches access policies to database rows, so a query returns only the rows the current user may see, enforced by the database itself.

What Is Seat-Based Pricing?

Seat-based pricing charges per named user per month, so the bill grows with headcount, the dominant CRM model and why teams limit who gets a login.

What Is Semantic Search?

Semantic search finds records by meaning, comparing embeddings, not exact words. Why exact identifiers like invoice numbers still need keyword match.

What Is SMS Opt-In and STOP?

SMS opt-in is a recipient's documented agreement to receive texts, and STOP is the universal keyword that withdraws it. Carriers and the TCPA require both.

What Is SOC 2?

SOC 2 is an independent audit report on a service organization's security, availability and privacy controls. It's evidence about controls, not a badge.

What Is Spam Complaint Rate?

Spam complaint rate is the share of delivered email marked as spam. Providers throttle above 0.1% and block near 0.3%. See why it ends programs fast.

What Is Speech to Text (STT)?

Speech to text converts spoken audio into written words. In a voice agent, accuracy on accents, noise and names decides whether it understood the caller.

What Is Speed to Lead?

Speed to lead is the time between a lead's first contact and the first response, and faster response is linked to meaningfully higher conversion.

What Is Text to Speech (TTS)?

Text to speech converts written text into spoken audio. In a voice agent, voice choice and streaming speed set how human it sounds and its per-minute cost.

What Is the TCPA?

The TCPA is the US law restricting automated calls and texts to mobile numbers, requiring prior express consent for most marketing contact.

What Is Two-Party Consent?

Two-party consent is the rule, in some jurisdictions, that every participant must agree before a call is recorded. It follows the caller's location too.

What Is Two-Way CRM Sync?

Two-way CRM sync copies changes in both directions between a CRM and a tool like a cold email sender. See the 5 rules that keep your records in step.

What Is Usage-Based Pricing?

Usage-based pricing charges for measured consumption, messages, minutes or model calls, rather than per user, aligning cost with activity.

What Is Voice Latency?

Voice latency is the delay between a caller finishing speaking and the agent's reply starting. Under 800ms feels natural; over 1.5s feels broken.