Sales cycle
The sales cycle is the time it takes a deal to travel from first contact to closed, measured in days. It's both the length of the journey and the set of stages a buyer passes through, typically discovery, demo, proposal, negotiation and close. Your average sales cycle is one of the most important numbers to know because it shapes everything downstream: how much pipeline you need, when revenue will actually land, and how long your cash has to last.
For a founder, a long sales cycle isn't a failure, it's a planning input. If your average deal takes 90 days, the leads you generate today are next quarter's revenue, so you can't fix a slow month by working harder this week. Knowing the cycle lets you forecast cash honestly and spot deals that have stalled past their normal length, which usually means a missing decision-maker or an unaddressed objection.