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Glossary:
Sales Performance Metrics
Master the essential revenue and financial metrics that drive B2B SaaS success. From ARR and MRR to retention metrics and customer economics, these terms are critical for understanding pipeline health, forecasting growth, and making data-driven decisions.
Deal Velocity
Short Definition
Definition
Deal Velocity tracks how quickly a specific deal moves through your sales stages, typically measured in days from opportunity creation to close. Unlike broader sales velocity or pipeline velocity (which aggregate across many deals), Deal Velocity focuses on individual deal progression to identify bottlenecks, compare rep performance, and optimize stage gates.
Sales leaders use deal velocity to diagnose why certain deals stall while others accelerate. This helps reveal process friction, qualification issues, and rep skill gaps. In B2B SaaS, shorter deal velocity correlates with higher win rates and better forecasting.
How to Calculate Deal Velocity
Individual Deal Velocity Formula
Days = Close Date - Opportunity Created Date (for closed-won deals)
Average Deal Velocity Formula
Average Deal Velocity = ∑ (Close Date - Opp Created Date) for Closed-Won Deals ÷ Number of Closed-Won Deals
Stage Velocity
Days per stage = Exit Date from Stage - Entry Date to Stage
Example
Deal closes in 45 days from Opp creation → Deal Velocity = 45 days
Team average across 20 won deals = 52 days → benchmark for coaching.
Why Deal Velocity Matters
Deal Velocity reveals process efficiency per deal, helping CROs…
- Identify stage bottlenecks: Discovery takes 20 days, but Proposal takes 15.
- Compare rep performance on similar deals: Rep A: 40 days, Rep B: 75 days
- Optimize stage gates: too much time in negotiation signals pricing issues.
- Forecast more accurately: known velocity × pipeline coverage = closes per week
Faster Deal Velocity improves sales capacity, cash flow, and customer satisfaction.
Industry Benchmarks
Rep variance: Top quartile reps often sell 20–30% faster than median.
Real-World Examples
- An Enterprise sales team finds negotiation stage averages 25 days; implementing pricing playbooks cuts it to 12 days across the team.
- A mid-market manager compares reps. High performers average 48 days, and low performers sell in 82 days; coaching focuses on discovery and multithreading.
- RevOps segments by source. Inbound Deal Velocity is 38 days vs. outbound at 68 days; Rev Ops prioritizes inbound motion scaling.
Common Mistakes
- Using all deals (won + lost) instead of closed-won only, inflating velocity beyond revenue-relevant benchmarks.
- Inconsistent stage definitions across reps/teams, making comparisons meaningless.
- Ignoring stage-level velocity, missing specific bottlenecks (legal review takes 40% of cycle).
- Comparing across segments without normalization (SMB 30 days vs. enterprise 120 days).
- Optimizing velocity at expense of deal size, chasing speed over quality.
The Fix: Calculate on closed-won deals only, standardize stage entry/exit criteria, track stage velocity separately, and benchmark reps within similar segments/motions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between deal velocity and sales velocity?
Deal Velocity = speed of individual deals. Sales Velocity = aggregate revenue speed across all deals (opps × size × win rate ÷ cycle).
Should I include lost deals?
No. Focus on closed-won for revenue planning. Track lost deal velocity separately to understand "time wasted."
What's a good Deal Velocity?
- SMB: 30–60 days
- Mid-market: 60–90 days
- Enterprise: 90–180 days
Top reps tend to sell 20–30% faster than average.
How does deal velocity impact forecasting?
Stable velocity × pipeline coverage = predictable closes per week/month. Velocity spikes/drops require forecast adjustment.
Can deal velocity improve without shorter cycles?
Yes. Better qualification skips early stalls, multithreading prevents single-thread death, MAPs accelerate late stages.
Last Updated: December 18, 2025
Reviewed by: Ben Hale