Sales Cycle Analysis: Reduce Time-to-Close

Sales cycle length: Average days from first contact to close. Industry average is 20-45 days. Yours is probably longer.

Stage velocity: How long deals spend in each stage. Where do they get stuck? That's your bottleneck.

Win rate by deal size. $10K deals might close 60% of the time. $100K deals might close 30% of the time. Adjust your targets accordingly.

Days sales outstanding (DSO): Average days from close to cash. If 30 days, your forecast should assume 30-day lag.

Learn to analyze and improve your cycle with a RevOps consultant.

1. Identify bottleneck stages. If deals spend 30 days in demo and 5 days elsewhere, that's your problem.

2. Set stage timeout rules. If a deal hasn't moved in 7 days, escalate to manager. Something's wrong.

3. Build qualification earlier. Bad leads waste weeks in the pipeline. Score leads early to kill bad ones fast.

4. Automate next steps. No rep should wait for admin work. Automation keeps deals moving.

5. Monitor and iterate. Measure the impact of each change. Only keep what works.