Sales Cycle Length
The average number of days a deal takes to move from opportunity creation, or first contact, to a closed outcome.
Cycle length decides when pipeline turns into revenue, so it drives forecast timing, cash planning, quota setting and how early marketing must create pipeline for a given quarter.
A sales team closed 20 deals last quarter that took a combined 1,800 days from opportunity creation to close, so average sales cycle length = 1,800 ÷ 20 = 90 days. Pipeline created in May will mostly close in August, not June.
Averages blend small and enterprise deals, so medians by segment are often more useful. Results depend on the start event chosen, and excluding lost deals hides how long losing opportunities occupy sales capacity.
Sales cycle length is calculated as the sum of days from the agreed start event to close for all deals closed in a period, divided by the number of those deals. Teams must define the start point consistently, for example first contact, lead conversion or opportunity creation in the CRM. Stage-level durations show where deals stall. Cycle length is the denominator of Pipeline Velocity, together with deal count, average deal size and Win Rate.
Data Engineering
Salesforce — Sales cycle length: how it's calculated and why it's important — https://www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/sales-cycle-length-how-it-s-calculated-and-why-it-s-important/; Count — Sales Cycle Length — https://count.co/metric/sales-cycle-length