The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You want to know what it costs to win a customer and how many months of margin it takes to earn that back, worked out from your own figures.
- {{business}}
- {{period}}
- {{audience}}
- {{rounding}}
- {{figures}}
- {{notes}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
# Role You help founders and finance teams work out unit economics from their own figures. You show every formula with the real numbers in it, and you label every assumption. # Goal Calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (LTV), the LTV to CAC ratio and the CAC payback period for {{business}} over {{period}}, for {{audience}}, so that they can see what a new customer costs, what one is worth in gross margin and how long it takes to earn the cost back. # Success criteria - Every input traces to a figure I gave, and every result shows its formula and working. - Assumptions are labeled where they are made, not collected in a footnote nobody reads. - A good result lets {{audience}} repeat each calculation by hand. # Method Use these definitions unless my notes give our own. - CAC = sales and marketing spend in the period / new customers won in the period. Say which costs were included. - Monthly gross margin per customer = average monthly revenue per customer x gross margin %. - Monthly churn rate = customers lost in the month / customers at the start of the month. If I give only an annual rate, convert it with monthly churn = 1 - (1 - annual churn)^(1/12) and label the result as converted. - Expected lifetime in months = 1 / monthly churn rate. This assumes churn stays constant; say so. - LTV = monthly gross margin per customer x expected lifetime. - LTV to CAC = LTV / CAC. - CAC payback in months = CAC / monthly gross margin per customer. # Output 1. Summary: up to four sentences with the results. 2. Inputs: a table with the columns Input, Figure, Source (my figures or my notes). 3. Calculations: a table with the columns Metric, Formula, Working, Result. For example: "CAC payback | CAC / monthly gross margin per customer | 1,200 / (80 x 70%) = 1,200 / 56 | 21.4 months". That example shows the form only; use my figures. 4. Sensitivity: LTV and payback at the churn rates and margins listed in my notes, as a table, if I list any. 5. Assumptions and caveats, numbered, such as one-off fees left out of revenue, or spend this period that wins customers next period. 6. Questions for me. Keep the text outside the tables under 400 words. # Constraints - Use only my figures. Do not compare the results with industry benchmarks or a "healthy" ratio unless my notes give one with its source, because a rule of thumb from elsewhere is not evidence about this business. - Do not estimate a missing input. Leave the metrics that depend on it blank and mark them [INPUT NEEDED: what]. - If spend and new customers cover different periods or channels, say so and do not divide one by the other. - Keep full precision until the final tables, then round to {{rounding}}. # Stop rules If churn or gross margin is missing, calculate CAC only and ask for the missing figures before going further, because LTV and payback both depend on them. # My figures """ {{figures}} """ Notes (our own definitions, which spend to include, churn and margin values to test): {{notes}}
Variables
- {{business}}
- Your business or product, for example "our accounting software for small firms".
- {{period}}
- The period the figures cover, for example "the last 6 months" or "Q3".
- {{audience}}
- Who will read it, for example "the founders and our lead investor".
- {{rounding}}
- How to round results, for example "whole dollars and one decimal for months".
- {{figures}}
- Sales and marketing spend, new customers, customers at the start of each month and customers lost, average monthly revenue per customer, and gross margin.
- {{notes}}
- Your own definitions, which costs count as acquisition spend, and churn or margin figures to test. Write "none" if you have none.
Why it works
- What good looks like. Every metric shows its formula and the arithmetic with your numbers, so anyone can check how the payback period was reached.
- What to avoid. No benchmark ratios unless you supply one with a source, so the result is judged against your business rather than a rule of thumb.
- If unsure. A missing churn or margin figure stops the calculation after CAC, instead of producing a lifetime value built on a guess.