QUICK ANSWER
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It names both the software that tracks customers and deals and the strategy behind it. Below are 20 more acronyms you’ll hear in sales and marketing meetings.
If the following has ever happened to you, raise your hand: You’re in a meeting at a new company or with a new client. A lot of three-letter acronyms (TLAs) are being thrown around.
You don’t know what some of them mean. You don’t want to appear foolish, so you pretend to understand each abbreviation while discreetly jotting down as many of them as possible on your notepad. When the meeting is over, you rush to your computer or grab your smartphone and search for definitions of the terms you just heard.
You’re not alone—we’ve all experienced acronym confusion at some point. The worlds of CRM and digital marketing are brimming with jargon and acronyms.
To help you get ready for a TLA-rich environment, here’s a quick guide. We’ve helped companies plan and select CRM systems since 2010, and these are the acronyms we hear in those meetings.
Key takeaways
- MQL, SAL, and SQL are lead stages, and every company defines them a bit differently.
- CAC and CLV depend on CRM data, so they’re only as good as what your team enters.
| Acronym | Stands for |
|---|---|
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| SFA | Sales Force Automation |
| xRM | Extended Relationship Management |
| PRM | Partner, Physician, or Patient Relationship Management |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| ICP | Ideal Customer Profile |
| ABM | Account-Based Marketing |
| GTM | Go-to-Market |
| MQL | Marketing Qualified Lead |
| SAL | Sales Accepted Lead |
| SQL | Sales Qualified Lead |
| CTA | Call to Action |
| SDR | Sales Development Representative |
| BDR | Business Development Representative |
| CRO | Chief Revenue Officer |
| RSM | Regional Sales Manager |
| SKO | Sales Kickoff |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
| CAC | Customer Acquisition Cost |
| OKR | Objectives and Key Results |
| SOP | Standard Operating Procedure |
CRM and Related Systems
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
Let’s start with CRM (Customer Relationship Management). The press sometimes misstates this as “Customer Relations Management.” Some firms say “client relationship management” instead.
CRM is a multi-purpose acronym.
Popular CRM software vendors include Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft, and Zoho.
Classic CRM functionality includes sales, marketing, and customer service, but a CRM database and its front-end UX can be extended to automate various business processes.
Beyond the software, CRM also refers to a strategy businesses use to improve customer relationships. This strategy often aims to increase revenue and lower costs.
Another meaning of CRM is the ticker symbol for Salesforce, Inc.
Outside of business software, CRM can mean cause-related marketing, crew resource management (teamwork training for pilots and hospital staff), or cardiac rhythm management (pacemakers and implantable defibrillators).
SFA – Sales Force Automation
SFA is a subset of CRM. As its name implies, it’s software functionality for salespeople.
Often, when a new CRM vendor comes along, such as one of the emerging crop of AI-native vendors, their software is limited to SFA, and they may add functionality for marketing, customer support, and other areas over time.
xRM – Extended Relationship Management
xRM, or Extended Relationship Management, refers to extending a CRM’s database and functionality to manage data outside traditional sales, marketing, and customer service tables.
By creating custom entities, businesses can track specialized information, such as field equipment, properties, or project assets, directly within their primary CRM platform.
PRM – Multiple ‘P’ Options
PRM is a spin-off of the CRM acronym.
‘PRM’ has been used for Partner Relationship Management, Physician Relationship Management, and Patient Relationship Management.
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP software runs the back office: accounting, inventory, purchasing, and order fulfillment. NetSuite and SAP are two well-known examples.
CRM tracks customer relationships, and ERP tracks orders and money. Manufacturers and distributors often want ERP pricing and order history visible in the CRM. See which CRMs integrate with major ERP systems.
Connecting CRM and ERP? Our example CRM requirements document shows how to spell out integration needs.
Marketing and Lead Acronyms
ICP – Ideal Customer Profile
An Ideal Customer Profile defines the specific type of company that realizes the most value from your product or service and provides the highest lifetime value in return.
At the organizational level, this focuses on firmographics like industry, annual revenue, and budget, as well as technographics and specific ‘trigger events’ that indicate a need for your solution.
For individuals within those organizations, the ICP narrows to buyer personas, targeting specific job titles, pain points, and decision-making authority among the stakeholders you need to win over.
ABM – Account-Based Marketing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is an alternative B2B strategy that focuses sales and marketing resources on a clearly defined set of target accounts within a market and uses personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each account.
Think scalpel instead of a shotgun — that’s ABM in a nutshell.
GTM – Go-to-Market
GTM is a company’s sales and marketing strategy and plan.
Steps can include building awareness of your product, driving engagement (proof of concept, demonstrations, free trials), and converting prospects into paying customers.
Here is a deep dive on go-to-market strategies for startups.
MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead
Marketing Qualified Leads are people who have shown signs of interest in buying. They’ve taken an initial step toward engaging with your business beyond a website visit or a social media view. An MQL is primed to receive additional communication.
Marketing Qualified Leads (hopefully) become Sales Qualified Leads, which then become customers.
SAL – Sales Accepted Lead
Sales Accepted Leads are the bridge between Marketing Qualified and Sales Qualified Leads. A ‘SAL’ is a lead the sales team has agreed to pursue but has not yet spoken with to determine whether they are qualified prospects.
If a SAL is contacted and expresses interest in buying, they will likely be converted to a Sales Qualified Lead.
SQL – Sales Qualified Lead
A Sales Qualified Lead is a prospective customer that an organization’s marketing and sales teams have researched and vetted. The lead is deemed ready to move to the next stage of the sales process. In many cases, the CRM system creates an opportunity for an SQL.
Every organization has a slightly different process and criteria for moving an MQL to a SAL — and then to an SQL.
CTA – Call to Action
A call to action is any text, image, video, or other media designed to get an immediate response from the person reading or hearing it. CTAs are widely used in digital marketing strategies to generate leads and drive sales.
Incidentally, the plural of ‘call to action’ is ‘calls to action.’
Sales Roles and Events
SDR – Sales Development Representative
Previously known as “inside sales reps,” Sales Development Representatives focus primarily on outbound prospecting. They may use sales engagement tools such as ZoomInfo, Outreach, or Salesloft. Sales development reps aren’t responsible for closing the business; they focus on moving leads through the pipeline.
BDR – Business Development Representative
Business Development Representatives (BDRs) can overlap with SDRs. In some companies, the two are synonymous. However, other companies differentiate BDRs and SDRs by the type of leads & relationships they handle.
BDRs sometimes own the bigger picture, including strategic relationships and partner development.
CRO – Chief Revenue Officer
The Chief Revenue Officer role is a Silicon Valley acronym. Common in tech companies, a CRO drives revenue growth by leveraging and aligning all revenue-generating departments, including marketing, sales, and customer experience/success.
Many CROs now use revenue intelligence platforms to forecast across those teams.
CRO is also an acronym for Conversion Rate Optimization, which involves maximizing the number of website visitors who submit a web form, send an email, chat, or call.
RSM – Regional Sales Manager
A Regional Sales Manager sells a company’s products or services within a defined geographic region.
In many organizations, field salespeople report to an RSM.
SKO – Sales Kickoff
A Sales Kickoff (SKO) is typically a one- or two-day event held at the start of a fiscal year or quarter to train sales teams on new products, technology, and company initiatives.
The primary purpose of this meeting is to align the organization on upcoming goals while boosting team morale and motivation for the period ahead.
Metrics, Goals, and Processes
KPI – Key Performance Indicators
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a company achieves its key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their progress toward targets.
Examples of KPIs include:
- Return on Investment (ROI)
- Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
- Employee Turnover Rate
- Sales by Region
Unsurprisingly, many KPIs are also three-letter acronyms. If you’re responsible for monitoring and/or organizing your company’s KPI reports, you need to know the acronyms.
CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
CAC is what it costs to win one new customer: sales and marketing spend divided by new customers closed in the same period. If you spend $100,000 in a quarter and close 50 accounts, your CAC is $2,000.
Compare it with CLV to see whether customers are worth the cost. To measure CAC by channel, every CRM record needs a reliable lead source.
OKR – Objectives and Key Results
OKR is another acronym that has gained popularity in recent years.
Objectives are qualitative descriptions of something you want to achieve in business. A CRM-related objective might be ‘reduce customer churn.’
Key Results are metrics that measure your progress toward a defined objective.
SOP – Standard Operating Procedure
In recent years, SOPs have become popular for documenting processes and procedures.
One factor accelerating their adoption is that LLMs can be prompted to generate solid first drafts of standard operating procedures, which humans can then edit.
In turn, a CRM platform can automate processes outlined in SOPs.
We hope this CRM-related acronyms glossary helps you absorb more information in your next meeting or contribute more to an upcoming conversation.
If you’re researching CRM vendors or buying software for your organization, the acronyms will keep coming, and so will the sales pitches. We don’t sell software or take referral fees, so if a CRM decision is on your plate, talk it through with us.
