Before joining Cirrus Insight as a copywriter, I had very little experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. As a beginner to the world of Salesforce, I quickly found myself having to wade through waves of new terminology and jargon that I didn’t know. I’ve been working through figuring it all out, but I still have plenty to learn. 
I’m sure I’m not the only one trying to understand the basics. That's why I’ve put together a list of useful Salesforce jargon and terms for true beginners. People like to throw these words/abbreviations around, but assume they don’t need to define them, because of how simple they assume it is to everyone else. All of the terms on the list below are things I needed to look up or clarify for myself. 
However, even the smartest people need the simplest things explained at some point, so here we go:
Basic Salesforce Jargon
CRM - The first new abbreviation I came across stands for customer relationship management. Salesforce is a CRM platform meaning it manages all customer relationships related to sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support all from one centralized location.
B2B and B2C - Two terms that are short-hand for business to business and business to consumer, usually in relation to what group your business is selling to. It took me longer than it should have to realize what they stood for when I first saw them.
ROI - Abbreviation for return on investment(s). This is a performance measured by dividing the gains/returns from an investment by the cost of the investment. Your company’s ROI can often be boosted through using different apps or services with Salesforce.
API - Abbreviation for application programming interface which is a system used by a piece of software for connecting/talking to other pieces of software. Salesforce has an API that allows it to connect to other marketing or email tools.
Contact - A contact is any individual associated with a business account you have in Salesforce. A contact could be a lead, an opportunity, or a customer.
Lead - A lead is a contact at an early stage of the sales process and is usually someone who has expressed interest in your product or service, or someone your marketing team has identified as likely being interested.
Opportunity - An opportunity is a lead that has turned into a potential sales deal. Specific information about cost, dates, and probability/stage of deal should be known. If the opportunity turns into successful customer then it is considered “closed won” status.
Marketing Cloud - Similar to Cloud stored data, but different since it actually refers to the analytical tools used to examine data stored in the Cloud and manage/monitor social media.
Workflow Rule - A tool in Salesforce that allows certain actions to be automated such as sending email notifications, updating databases, or adding tasks to a record in Salesforce.
AppExchange - Salesforce’s app marketplace which has hundreds of third-party apps that can be bought to help improve ROI, analytics, workflow, or anything else related to Salesforce. Reviews for apps, such as Cirrus Insight, can also be found in the AppExchange.
Cirrus Insight - A Salesforce app that connects your Gmail or Outlook email client with Salesforce to quickly transfer information into Salesforce from your email inbox.
Cirrus Insight is currently the third most reviewed app on the AppExchange (800+ reviews) and has an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars.
I’m sure I’m not the only one trying to understand the basics. That's why I’ve put together a list of useful Salesforce jargon and terms for true beginners. People like to throw these words/abbreviations around, but assume they don’t need to define them, because of how simple they assume it is to everyone else. All of the terms on the list below are things I needed to look up or clarify for myself. 
However, even the smartest people need the simplest things explained at some point, so here we go: