Sales cycle: what is the sales journey?

A sales cycle breaks down into successive steps, from first contact to closing. A common breakdown in SMEs:

1. Prospecting: identify and contact potential prospects (inbound or outbound).
2. Qualification: verify that the prospect has a real need, a budget and decision-making authority. This is the filtering step that avoids wasting time on unqualified leads.
3. Proposal: present the offer, submit a quote, demonstrate value.
4. Negotiation: address objections, adjust price and terms.
5. Closing: signing, converting the prospect into a customer.

Each step corresponds to a column in the sales pipeline, the visual representation of ongoing deals. The CRM records the transition from one step to the next, making it possible to track the status of each deal and identify bottlenecks.

Not all sales follow these steps linearly: some skip stages, others move backwards. However, formalising a standard cycle provides a common language for the team and makes performance measurable.

The sales cycle length is the average time elapsed between the first contact and the signature. It is calculated simply:

Average length = sum of the durations of won deals / number of won deals.

This duration varies greatly depending on the context: a B2C transactional sale may be completed in minutes, while a complex B2B sale can span several months. The absolute value is less important than your trend: is your cycle getting longer or shorter?

Why reduce it? A shorter cycle means:

• revenue collected sooner (better cash flow),
• more deals handled with the same workforce,
• less risk of a prospect losing interest or choosing a competitor.

Concrete levers:

1. Better upfront qualification: quickly discarding unripe deals avoids endless cycles that go nowhere.
2. Streamline each step: fast quotes, timely follow-ups, responses within 24 hours.
3. Monitor the pipeline: a CRM identifies deals stuck at a stage and triggers follow-ups.
4. Standardise: a clear sales process reduces back-and-forth and downtime.

Tracking in a CRM turns the sales cycle from an abstract concept into a manageable metric: you see where deals slow down, act where they stall, and the average length decreases.