60 Marketing & Sales Acronyms Everyone Needs to Know [Infographic]

Marketing and sales acronyms are an easy way for those within a specific field to communicate about common knowledge, processes, procedures and tasks.

When it comes to marketing and sales acronyms, there are quite a few that it's important to familiarize yourself with, especially if you are new to the profession.

Both of these areas are fertile ground for the use of acronyms and having an understanding of the most important ones can help you to function and communicate better with other professionals in your field, team members and clients.

Here are 60 (30 marketing and 30 sales) of the most important marketing and sales acronyms to know and understand!

30 Marketing Acronyms You Should Know

When it comes to marketing, acronyms are as common as any other form of communication. Here is a quick primer on the most common acronyms you'll hear when conversing with other marketing professionals.

1. B2B: Business to Business
   B2B describes the task of marketing or selling to another business. Many retail stores and services cater to other businesses and most B2B transactions happen behind the scenes, before a product reaches consumers.

2. B2C – Business to Consumer
   B2C is the traditional business model of businesses marketing directly to the consumer. B2C marketing services include, online banking, auctions and travel, not just retail.

3. BR: Bounce Rate
   A bounce rate refers to the action a user takes when on your website. If they land on a page, and leave to go to another site, they've bounced off of your page. It can also refer to email which refers to emails that don't reach an inbox. It is a KPI of the performance of your content and a high bounce rate can signify ineffective marketing content among other issues.

4. CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing
   This is the US law passed in 2003 that prohibits businesses from emailing without permission. You need to include an unsubscribe option is all emails and you should not add names to it without expressed permission.

5. CMS: Content Management System
   This refers to an application that consolidates and facilitates the creation, editing, management and distribution of content. Generally used to refer to a website, examples of CMS are Hubspot and Wordpress.

6. CPC: Cost Per Click
   This is a method publishers use to charge for ad space on a website. Advertisers only pay for the ad when it is clicked, not for exposures. It can show up on hundreds of sites or pages, but unless it is acted upon, there is no charge.

7. CPL: Cost Per Lead
   CPL considers all of the costs that go into generating a lead. Including advertising dollars spent, collateral creation, web hosting fees and various other costs, for example.

8. CPM: Cost Per Thousand
   CPM is another method publishers use to charge for advertising. This method charges per 1000 impressions (M is the Roman numeral for 1000). Advertisers are charged for every time their ad is seen, not how many times it's clicked.

9. CRM: Customer Relationship Management
   CRM is a type of software that allows companies to manage and analyze customer interactions throughout their relationship and lifecycle in order to enhance those relationships. CRM software can help you to convert leads, nurture sales and assist in retaining customers.

10. CTA: Call to Action
    The aim of content marketing is to inform, educate or entertain readers, but ultimately the goal of any content is to get readers to take action on the content they've read. A CTA can be a link, button, image, or web-link that drives the reader to act by downloading, calling, registering or attending an event.

11. CTR: Click Through Rate
    CTR is a KPI related to the CTA... how's that for a little alphabet soup! A web page, or email click through rate measures the percentage of readers who take the next action. For example, in the case of a landing page the CTR would be the total number of people who visit the page divided by the number who take action and move onto the next step.

12. CR: Conversion Rate
    The number of people who act, divided by the number that could have. For example, if your email campaign reaches 100 prospects and 25 reply, your conversion rate is 25%

13. CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
    This acronym is shorthand for taking an objective look at at marketing strategy including websites, landing pages, social media and CTAs to improve the number of prospects that are converted into customers.

14. CX/UX: Customer Experience/User Experience
    Every interaction a customers has with your brand throughout the buying process. Customer experience influences the buyers perception of your brand. A positive experience converts potential buyers into customers, and keeps current customer's loyal.

15. GA: Google Analytics
    This is the Google tool that helps marketers better understand their audience, reach, activity and metrics.

16. GDD: Growth Driven Design
    This is a redesign or development of a website in intentional increments making continuous data driven adjustments.

17. HTML: Hypertext Markup Language
    HTML is a set of rules programmers use to create web pages. It describes the content, structure, text, images and objects used on a webpage. Today, most web construction software runs HTML in the background.

18. KPI: Key Performance Indicators
    KPIs are used across all industries to gauge and evaluate the success of various marketing efforts and strategies. Marketers have a variety of KPIs they use to track and measure progress in campaign goals like lead generation, bounce rate, brand awareness or sales conversions.

19. MAP: Marketing Automation Platform
    A technology that assists marketers to convert prospects into customers by removing high-touch, manually repetitive processes with automated solutions. MailChimp, and Marketo are examples of MAPs.

20. PPC: Pay Per Click
    A publisher who charges advertisers for each action take (click) on their ad. See also CPC.

21. PR: Page Rank
    Page rank is determined by an algorithm used by Google that gives each website a numerical weight based on a number of different, confidential criteria. The scale used is 0 – 10 and this number is determined by a number of factors including inbound links, and the page rank of the linked sites. The higher your page rank, to more relevant and important your site is considered by Google.

22. PR: Public Relations
    PR's goal is to gain free attention for your business. It strategically presents your business in a way that is newsworthy and interesting and is not a direct sales tactic.

23. RFP: Request for Proposal
    When a company is seeking marketing representation they will issue an RFP. Marketing companies then prepare a proposal based on the guidelines set in the RFP and present it to the potential client.

24. RSS: Really Simple Syndication
    RSS gives marketers and publishers a way to automatically deliver and syndicate their content. Subscribers receive automatic updates whenever new content is published.

25. SaaS: Software as a Service
    SaaS is software hosted on the cloud by a third party company. Marketing firms will often use SaaS to allow for easier collaboration. It stores information on the cloud and examples include Google Apps, Salesforce and Dropbox.

26. SEO: Search Engine Optimization
    The purpose of SEO is to help a website or piece of content “get found” on the internet. Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo scan online content for relevance. Using relevant keywords and long-tail keywords can help them to properly index a site so when a user conducts a search, it is more easily found. There are many factors that influence SEO and the actual algorithmic variables are closely guarded proprietary information.

    We can help you understand what you need to do to rank higher with our Technical SEO Audit.

27. SM: Social Media
    Examples are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. SM sites are platforms which allow users to post content including video and audio. Platforms can be used for business or personal content and allow organic traffic as well as sponsored or paid posts.

28. SMB: Small and Medium Sized Businesses
    Acronym that describes businesses with between 5 and 200M in revenues.Also refers to customers with 100 or fewer employees (small) up to 100 – 999 employees (medium sized)

29. SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound
    Acronym used to define the goal setting process. It helps you clearly define and set goals by outlining the active steps required to achieve them.

30. SMM: Social Media Marketing
    Using the social media platforms as a way to promote businesses. You can use them to network, prospect for new business, post ads, spread the word about new content, testimonials, etc.

30 Sales Acronyms You Need To Understand

While marketing acronyms are extremely common and make conversations between marketers easier, sales acronyms can make communication between these two departments easier. In fact, as a sales person, you should familiarize your self with the above marketing terms as well as these popular sales acronyms.

1. ABC: Always Be Closing
   This is the first of the sales acronyms you should learn as a young sales rep! It's pretty much the way it works. To be an effective sales person means you'll need to ABC.

2. AE: Account Executive
   An Account Executive is a sales team member that closes deals with sales qualified opportunities. They general are the account team member designated as the lead sales person for that account.

3. AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
   This is a motivation method designed to motivate people to buy by gaining their attention, interest, desire for the product and then inspiring them to take action. AIDI is an effect approach to cold calling, and direct response advertising.

4. AM: Account Manager
   An AM is a sales person responsible for managing a large customer account or large group of accounts.

5. ARPA: Average MRR (monthly recurring revenue) Per Account
   This is a figure that incorporates the mean amount of monthly revenue across all accounts

6. ARR: Annual Recurring Revenue
   Used in most businesses that produce annual yearly contracts. ARR= 12 X MRR

7. BANT: Budget Authority Need Timeline
   This is a formula used to determine whether it's the right time to sell to a prospect.

8. BDR: Business Development Representative
   A senior level specialized sales role that is responsible for developing new business relationships, partners, and opportunities.

9. CAC: Customer Acquisition Costs
   One of the sales acronyms for measuring ROI. All costs related to acquire a customer. The formula for calculating CAC is (spend + salaries+ commissions + bonuses + overhead)/ # of new customers during that time period.

10. CCR: Customer Churn Rate
    A metric used to measure customer retention and value. The formula for determining CCR is: CR= (# of customers at beginning of period - # customers at the end of measurement period) / (# of customers at the beginning of the measurement period)

11. CLTV: Customer Lifetime Value
    A projection that connects the net profit to the entire lifecycle relationship of a customer.

12. CMRR: Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue
    Another sales acronym from the accounting side. This is a formula for calculating the MMR in the coming fiscal year. The formula for calculating CMRR is (Current MMR + future committed MMR, minus the MMR of customers unlikely to renew in the fiscal year.

13. COB: Close of Business
    As in... “We need to meet our May quota by COB.” Often used interchangeably with EOD (End of Day). Historically, COB/EOD means 5 p.m.

14. CX: Customer Experience
    This sales acronyms a measure of all of the contact points and interactions a customer has with your business and brand. This could include usage of your product or service, engaging with your website, and communicating and interacting with your sales team.

15. FAB: Features, Advantages Benefits
    Another of the aspirational sales acronyms, this one reminds sales team members to focus on the benefits a customer will gain from their product or service, rather than what they're selling.

16. FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
    A sales method that is used to get customers to leave, or not choose to work with a competitor by giving information that triggers doubt.

17. ICP: Ideal Customer Profile
    A buyer persona that is created using actual data and inferred knowledge . It is the description of the ideal prospect for your sales team to pursue. Includes demographic information, geographic information and psychographic characteristics.

18. ILV: Inbound Lead Velocity
    The measurement of the rate at which leads are increasing.

19. L2RM: Lead to Revenue Management
    A model for engaging with customers. It incorporates processes and metrics, and includes goals for new customer acquisition, up-selling existing customers, and growing revenue.

20. LAARC: Listen, Acknowledge, Assess, Respond, Confirm
    A sales technique used when encountering negative feedback or objection during a sales pitch.

21. LAIR: Listen, Acknowledge, Identify, Reverse
    Another of the sales acronyms dealing techniques. This one is used to counter objections in a sales pitch. First listen to their concerns, then echo them back to acknowledge your understanding. Identify the primary reason for not buying and reverse their concern by reframing their objection in a positive manner.

22. MoM: Month-Over-Month
    Changes expressed in relation to the previous month. MoM is typically more volatile than quarterly or year-over-year measurements, and reflect events like holidays, natural disasters and economic issues.

23. MQL: Marketing Qualified Leads
    Any individual that has engaged with your firms marketing efforts and indicated they have a greater interest in your offerings and may become a customer is an MQL. Generally found at the top or middle of the funnel, MQLs can be nurtured by both marketing and sales to convert into customers.

24. NPS: Net Promoter Score
    A metric for customer satisfaction with an organization. It measures the likelihood that your customer will recommend your product or service to others. Measured on a scale of 0 – 10 with zero being least likely to recommend.

25. ROI: Return on Investment
    Another of the sales acronyms dealing with accounting, this is a performance metric that measures profitability and is calculated using the formula ROI= (revenue – cost) / cost. ROI can help you to determine if a potential investment is worth the up front and ongoing costs or if an investment or effort should be continue or terminated.

26. SAL: Sales Accepted Lead
    This is an MQL that has officially been passed to sales. It's been reviewed for quality and is worthy of pursuit. Defining criteria for what qualifies and MQL to become an SAL can help sales reps decide whether they should invest time and effort into follow-up.

27. SFA: Salesforce Automation
    Sales acronym for software that automates sales activity like inventory control, sales, tracking customer interactions and analyzing forecasts and projections.

28. SLA: Service Level Agreement
    An SLA is an official internal document that defines the role of both marketing and sales in the lead generation and sales process. It outlines the quantity and quality of leads marketing must generate and how the sales team will pursue each lead.

29. SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need
    A sales technique that is a “hurt and rescue” approach. You discover the prospects pain points and “hurt” them by expanding on potential consequences. Then you come to the “rescue” with your product or service

30. SQL: Sales Qualified Lead
    An SQL is a lead that is ready to become a customer and fits the pre-determined criteria for a high-quality lead. SQLs are generally vetted by both marketing and sales before being designated as an SQL.

Gaining a mastery of these common marketing and sales acronyms can take you from rookie, to grizzled professional in no time! Understanding the language of your profession is an important element to become proficient. Take the time to study and master these 60 acronyms.