The average amount of time it takes for an opportunity to move from first becoming a qualified opportunity to closing (won or lost).
Why it matters
Sales cycle length directly affects cash flow forecasting and how quickly marketing and sales investments translate into revenue — a business with a nine-month sales cycle has to plan pipeline generation many months ahead of a revenue target, unlike a business that closes deals in days.
In a sentence
"Our average sales cycle length is 45 days for self-serve accounts and closer to four months for enterprise deals, which is why we forecast the two segments separately."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Time to close (used almost interchangeably; "sales cycle length" is the more standard term for the full measured average across a cohort of deals).
- Synonyms: Time to close.