Short, self-contained definitions for the CRM and Cortox terms used across this site.
CRM is both the practice of managing a business's relationships and interactions with customers, and the software category built to support it — tracking contact details, communication history, deals and follow-ups in one place instead of scattered across email and spreadsheets.
An AI CRM is a CRM built around an AI assistant that can read and act on customer, product and proposal data directly — creating a record, drafting a proposal, completing a task — rather than only displaying that data for a person to act on by hand. Cortox is an AI CRM.
A lead is a potential customer who hasn't yet become a paying one — someone who has shown interest but hasn't purchased. Once a lead engages further (a call, a proposal, a signed deal), it typically becomes a tracked customer record.
A pipeline is the sequence of stages a deal moves through from first contact to close — for example new, in conversation, proposal sent, won or lost. Tracking a pipeline makes it possible to see how many deals are at each stage at a glance.
A proposal is a formal offer sent to a customer — a quote, pricing, and terms for a product or service. In Cortox, a proposal is built from the product catalog, sent as a unique link, and tracked through view, accept, reject and revision states automatically.
A proposal revision is a change requested by the customer before they accept — different pricing, quantities, or terms. In Cortox, a revision request comes back with the customer's note attached, so the proposal can be adjusted and resent without starting a new one.
A follow-up is a planned next action with a customer — a call to make, an email to send, a proposal to check on. Tracking follow-ups on a task board (rather than memory or a sticky note) is what keeps a deal from going cold.
A Kanban board organizes follow-ups and to-dos into columns by status (for example, to do and done), so a team can see at a glance what needs attention without opening each customer record individually. Cortox's task board is tied directly to customer records.
Customer lifecycle status describes where a customer currently stands — typically new, active, passive (gone quiet), or lost. Tracking status makes it possible to spot customers who need re-engagement before they're lost entirely.