Best practices and sales pitches change as time passes, but many sales acronyms are here to stay. Salesmen and their managers coined dozens of acronyms throughout past decades to save time. But with so many acronyms nowadays you might find it difficult to keep them straight. You and your agents likely know the meaning of some of the more common acronyms like B2B or ROI, but a brief refresher might be helpful.
We compiled and defined a list of some of the most-used sales acronyms in the sales world. Refer to this list whenever you or an agent needs a refresher on the difference between the often-used 3-and-4-letter shorthand.
AIDA – Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action
The classic version of the sales funnel, describing each step a prospect goes through before becoming a customer. The goal is to use the outline to encourage prospects down your funnel and into a paying customer.
ABC – Always Be Closing
The goal for any salesman on the phone. Always be closing!
BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
Criteria used to determine whether a prospect is an appropriate candidate for the product.
- Budget determines whether the prospect has the budget for your product.
- Authority determines whether they are in a position to make the purchase decision.
- Need determines whether or not the prospect has a need for the product you offer.
- Timeline determines the time period over which the product is introduced.
B2C – Business to Consumer
Sales from a business to a consumer, such as Target or Amazon.
B2B – Business to Business
Sales from a business to another business, such as Slack or Marketo.
CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
The amount it costs to acquire a customer. Determined by the amount spent during a specific time period, divided by the number of customers acquired during that time period.
CLV/CLTV – Customer Lifetime Value
The monetary estimation of how much a customer will bring in throughout the business relationship.
CPL – Cost-per-Lead
The amount each lead costs to acquire. Related to CAC.
CR – Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who completed the action you wanted them to complete on your website. An example: the amount of people who visited your landing page vs. how many filled out and submitted the form.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
The software used to track the data learned and collected from prospects, leads, and customers throughout the buying cycle and afterwards.
CTA – Call-to-Action
The section of a website, such as a link or a button, which encourages the website visitor to perform a certain action, such as filling out a form or signing up.
CX/UX – Customer Experience/User Experience
The experience your customer or user has while interacting with your business, from the look of your website to the interaction with your sales team.
EOD/EOW – End of Day/End of Week
As simple as it sounds. The end of the day or end of the week. Usually used in email conversations.
KPI – Key Performance Indicator
Performance metrics you set up that help determine whether or not your team is on track. Examples include phone call length, amount of calls per hour, or customers acquiredk
MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue
Used by subscription-based companies to describe the amount of revenue they receive per month.
MTD – Month-to-Date
The period starting at the start of the current month to the present date.
QTD – Quarter-to-Date
The period starting at the start of the current quarter to the present date.
ROI – Return on Investment
Amount of revenue made in return from an investment made, such as the price of a lead list or an advertising campaign.
SAL – Sales Accepted Lead
A lead seen by the sales team as worth pursuing due to potential interest.
SLA – Service Level Agreement
A contract written between two departments which outlines goals and expectations for both parties.
SMB – Small-to-Medium Business
Any business with an annual revenue between $5M and $200M. Also used to describe companies with fewer than 100 employees (small) or between 100 and 999 employees (medium).
SQL – Sales Qualified Lead
Sales has determined this lead as having a potential interest in your product and worth pursuing.
UI – User Interface
The front-facing version of your product or service that a user interacts with. The best UIs are clear and easy to understand.
YTD – Year-to-Date
The period of time from the start of the current year to the present moment.
Did we miss any?
Let us know if we’re missing any important acronyms you or your team use on a daily basis.
