F · Unit economicsConvios method toolkit

Tiered LTV:CAC Targets (3/6/9/12)

The blanket 3:1 rule for LTV:CAC only holds when no human sits in the value chain. Each person in the loop raises the required ratio: 3 with none, 6 with one, 9 with two, 12 with three.

When you need this method

You steer toward the much-quoted 3:1 rule and wonder why the math still does not work. The rule comes from a pure self-service model with no humans in the process. As soon as sales or delivery run manually, the model needs buffers for salaries, ramp-up and the inevitable performance spread of new hires.

Approach

  1. 1Count honestly how many manual roles sit in your value chain: attraction, selling, delivery.
  2. 2Assign the target: 0 humans 3:1, 1 human 6:1, 2 humans 9:1, 3 humans 12:1.
  3. 3Calculate LTV as lifetime gross profit, not revenue.
  4. 4Compare your actual ratio against the tiered target instead of the blanket 3.
  5. 5Work on the endpoints: take humans out of the loop, raise LTV, or lower CAC via brand and referrals.

Typical application

A typical case: a sales-driven software business with white-glove onboarding considers its ratio of just over 3:1 healthy because "the rule" says so. In reality two manual roles sit in the process: a sales team and a delivery team. By the tiers, 9:1 would be the appropriate target; the business is calculated far too tightly and has no buffer for growth and hiring. The consequence is a mix of price increases, more automated onboarding and a productized entry offer.

Limits and counter-indications

The tiers are a heuristic from the SMB and service world, not an industry-normalized benchmark; in B2B SaaS, reconcile them with the segmented Skok and Bessemer thresholds. The steps are coarse and do not replace a proper fully loaded cost calculation. For hybrid motions (partly self-serve, partly high-touch), calculate per segment.

How to measure impact

LTV:CAC on a lifetime gross profit basis, compared against the target of the applicable tier.

Related methods

Sources

  1. 1.Every Unspoken Rule of Business Explained, Alex Hormozi (Langform-Video) (opens in a new tab) · YouTube · o. J. · practitioner sourceTrägt die gestaffelte Anforderung selbst, nach der das nötige Verhältnis von Kundenwert zu Gewinnungskosten mit jeder zusätzlichen Person in der Leistungserbringung steigt.

Origin: Hormozi · Adapted from: Alex Hormozi ($100M Offers/$100M Leads, YouTube-Langform)

Last reviewed: 2026-07-25 by Dr. Oliver Gausmann

← Back to the catalog

Work through this method with an AI

ClaudeChatGPTPerplexity