Glossary
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The fully-loaded cost to acquire one new paying customer.
Definition
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) divides all sales and marketing spend in a period by the number of new customers won in that period. Fully-loaded CAC includes salaries, tools, agency fees, ad spend and overhead.
Why it matters
CAC is the denominator under every payback and LTV:CAC calculation. Without honest CAC, channel ROI is a guess.
More terms
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
The exact firmographic, persona and trigger combination of the accounts most likely to buy from you.
SDR (Sales Development Representative)
The role responsible for prospecting and booking qualified meetings for closers.
BDR (Business Development Representative)
An outbound prospecting role, often used interchangeably with SDR.
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
A lead that has shown enough interest in your marketing to be worth a sales follow-up.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)
A lead that sales has accepted and confirmed is worth working toward a deal.
SAL (Sales Accepted Lead)
The intermediate step between MQL and SQL where sales accepts ownership.
Want to apply this to your pipeline?
Book a 20-minute call with Kelly. We'll look at your current outbound and tell you exactly what to fix.
Book a Strategy Call