Sales Cycle Length
Average number of days from opportunity creation to closed-won
What is Sales Cycle Length?
Sales cycle length is the average number of days from an opportunity being opened to it being closed. It shows how long it takes to win a deal.
Shorter cycles mean faster revenue and lower selling cost, while a lengthening cycle is an early warning of problems.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Sales
- Sub-function
- Pipeline Management
- Industry
- All Industries
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- Efficiency
- Unit
- days
- Measurement frequency
- Monthly / Quarterly
- Formula
- Sum of days from opportunity open to close / Number of closed deals
How to calculate it
Add up the days from opportunity open to close for closed deals and divide by the number of closed deals.
For example, if 20 deals took 1,200 days in total to close, the average cycle is 60 days.
Include only won deals, or report won and lost separately, and split by deal size, since larger deals take longer.
Where it is used
Forecasting timing
Estimate when deals will close.
Finding delays
Identify stages where deals stall.
Planning cash
Match expectations to revenue timing.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Compare deals of similar size.
- A shorter cycle is not always better if quality falls.
- Watch for a lengthening trend.
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