Key Concepts with Definitions

Before going into a step-by-step breakdown of the system, we want to highlight a few key terms and concepts that will aid everyone—administrators, managers, and users alike—in maximizing the potential of the InsideSales.com™ system.

Some of these terms may differ from those used by your company. If this is the case, feel free to substitute your company's terms in their place; in most cases, it is the concept that is important not the actual word itself. Many of these terms may not make sense outside of the context of the system. That's okay, the idea is to get used to the basic terminologies, and how and when they are used.

Key Concepts and Definitions

Account—Typically refers to a Lead that has been qualified as a potential customer, or is already an existing customer (in many organizations, converted leads are referred to as “prospects”; we will use the general term “Accounts”). Accounts are monitored using an account type, designating the type of account and its current status. The best way to understand an account in InsideSales.com is to think of them like a bank account, which stores a file of information and usage activity. For example, bank accounts can be for businesses (ABC Company checking account), or for individuals (the Robert A. Smith checking account). Account files are the primary link between the Contacts and Deals sections of the system.

Account Type—When a Lead is converted to an Account, it is given an account type to designate the type and status of that account. Common account types might include Active Prospect, Customer, On Hold, Partner, and so on.

Campaign—A Campaign is a group, or sub-group of common leads. Campaigns are created to organize Leads for work flow, reporting, and organizational reference. The most common use of campaigns is to by the targeted offering, for example, “The Health Insurance Renewal campaign,” or “The Adjustable Rate Mortgage campaign.”

Contacts—Contacts are personal contact information records. Contacts are created during the lead conversion process. Contacts are used somewhat infrequently, mainly for reference purposes rather than actual day-to-day usage.

Contact Group—A Contact Group is a stored list of a specific group of Contacts. Contact Groups are used to manage lists of people who may need to be contacted in a common fashion. The primary function of Contact Groups is to create mass email lists.

Deal—An information file that attaches to an Account. Many organizations refer to Deals as “opportunities.” Deals are designed to assess the value of a particular account. They do not replace Accounts, nor are Accounts “converted” to a Deal. Deals provide the basis for all revenue charting, projections, and sales system features.

Deal Stage—Defines the current status of a Deal. When updated accurately during the sales cycle, deal stages provide a host of usable sales tracking information.

Dialer—Used most often in reference to the standard outbound power dialer, but may refer to any number of telephony tools, including the power dialer, inbound dialer, ratio / predictive dialer, and JabberDog™.

Dialer Initiative—The core software program that runs the InsideSales power and ratio dialer systems. Dialer Initiatives define which Leads are being targeted for dialing, how frequently, and the order the leads are delivered to be called.

ELF (Electronic Labor Force)—Refers to the InsideSales.com™ Response Loop tool, used to automate common lead qualifying and sales cycle activities.

Event—A calendar activity, commonly linked to a record of some kind (Lead, Account, Deal, etc.). Events are activities that take place on a specific date, at a specific time. Common examples would include an appointment or conference call.

Impression—An action that is automatically logged and recorded when using the dialer. These are simple, short actions that are tallied and reported without the user having to do anything to log the action. Common impressions are the number of dials made, emails sent, voice messages left.

JabberDog™-InsideSales.com’s integrated voice message broadcasting system. Can be used to voice broadcast to records within any area of the system, including Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and Deals.

Layout—The tool that defines the physical properties of a particular type of record in the system. All data that is viewable by a user must be included as part of the record layout.

Lead—A new, unqualified “blank slate” file in the system. Leads typically have not been contacted at all, or are just in the beginning phases of qualification. All records originate as a Lead before being converted to an Account.

Lead Conversion—Once a lead is qualified, it is typically converted to an Account. During the conversion process, the Lead information is first copied to the Account file, then key portions of personal contact information (name, address, phone, fax, email) are copied to the Contact file. Once converted, every Account will have at least one related Contact, and every Contact will be linked to an Account.

Lead Status—The primary tracking field for all lead qualifying activity. Designates the current state or disposition of a Lead. Lead statuses should be action-oriented, meaning they should designate either something that has already taken place with the lead, or needs to take place in the future.

Owner—For the InsideSales system, Owner does not refer to the owner of a company or business. Owners and ownership refer to the user of InsideSales.com™ who has been assigned control of a particular set of data, whether they be Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Deals, and so on. Common usage would be, “I assigned John Smith as the owner of that batch of leads. He’s now going to call them,” or “Who is the owner of that deal we just closed?”

Task—The second type of calendar activity, along with Events. Tasks are action items that are commonly “To Do” list activities. Unlike Events, Tasks do not have a specific time to be completed, just day. Examples might be, “I need to fax a proposal to a client sometime on Wednesday,” or, “Jim at ABC Company asked me to call him sometime during the day on Monday.”