Pipeline Velocity
How fast money moves through your funnel. Most teams obsess over pipeline size when velocity is what actually predicts revenue. A $10M pipeline means nothing if deals are stuck in stage 2 for 90 days.
50 opportunities × $25,000 avg deal × 20% win rate ÷ 60 days = $4,166/day in pipeline velocity. If you need $500K this quarter (90 days), you need velocity of at least $5,555/day. You're short.
You can have a massive pipeline and still miss quota. If deals take 120 days to close but you're forecasting based on 60-day assumptions, your "healthy" pipeline is a fantasy.
Four levers: opportunities, deal size, win rate, cycle length. Most teams default to "more opportunities" because it feels like progress. But adding more top-of-funnel when deals are stalling at proposal stage? You're just creating more stalled deals.
Smart teams fix the sales cycle first. It's usually the biggest drag and the easiest to improve with better process.
Define ItOther Definitions
“How quickly opportunities move through your pipeline and turn into revenue, calculated by multiplying opportunities by average deal value and win rate, then dividing by the length of the sales cycle.”
“A metric that shows how fast deals progress through the sales funnel to closed-won, using a formula that combines qualified opportunities, average deal size, win rate, and sales cycle length.”
“Measures how rapidly you generate revenue from qualified deals in your pipeline, derived from the count of opportunities, average deal amount, close rate, and the time it takes to close.”
“A revenue operations metric indicating the rate at which qualified pipeline converts to closed-won business over a given period, factoring in deal volume, size, win rate, and cycle time.”
Every source agrees on the formula: opportunities × deal size × win rate ÷ sales cycle. The difference is in emphasis. Salesforce and HubSpot focus on "speed to revenue." InsightSquared emphasizes "movement through the funnel." Clari frames it as a RevOps conversion metric.
Here's what matters: velocity gives you four levers to pull. Most teams default to "more opportunities" because it feels like progress. But if your cycle is 90 days and deals are stalling at proposal stage, adding more top-of-funnel just creates more stalled deals.
The smart move: diagnose which variable is dragging you down, then fix that one. Usually it's cycle length or win rate. Both fixable with better process, not more leads.
MistakesCommon Mistakes
Only tracking pipeline size without measuring velocity
Trying to increase velocity by adding more unqualified opportunities
Using company-wide averages when velocity varies dramatically by segment
Not breaking down velocity by sales stage to find bottlenecks
Your pipeline velocity tells the real story.
We calculate your actual velocity and show you which lever to pull first. No generic benchmarks.
Experience across
