Sales Feels Slow? This One Metric Tells You Why

Your pipeline’s not broken. But something’s slowing it down.

Deals feel sluggish. The board wants growth. And the instinct? Hire more reps, ramp up outreach, hope something sticks.

But before you sign off on another £50k+ hire…Have you looked at your Sales Velocity?

It’s one of those metrics that gets mentioned in board decks, then ignored in the day-to-day. But when used properly, it tells you exactly where momentum is stalling - and what to fix first.

📊 What Is Sales Velocity (and Why It’s the Metric That Actually Matters)

Sales velocity measures how fast you’re turning leads into revenue. More importantly - it shows how efficiently your team is operating right now.

Here’s the formula:

👉 Sales Velocity = (Opportunities x Deal Value x Win Rate) / Sales Cycle Length

Each part of that equation is a window into your pipeline’s health. And if one part’s underperforming, your whole system slows down.

Let’s break it down.

1️⃣ Opportunities - Are your reps actually selling, or still prospecting?

This number tells you how many real chances your team has to close business.

Low opportunity volume usually means:

• Reps are stuck doing top-of-funnel work (instead of closing).

• Prospecting isn’t consistent or effective.

• You’ve got a lead gen gap disguised as a “people” problem.

More reps won’t help if they’ve got no one to talk to.

2️⃣ Average Deal Value – Are you optimising for quantity or quality?

Are your team chasing lots of small deals because they’re easy to win or because they’re the only ones in the pipeline?

If this number’s low, it might be time to:

• Rethink your ICP or targeting strategy.

• Give your reps time to focus on bigger, slower-burn opportunities.

• Stop flooding the pipe with low-fit leads just to hit activity metrics.

Bigger deals take time - but they also move the needle faster.

3️⃣ Win Rate - Is your team closing what’s in front of them?

A low win rate usually means one of two things:

• The leads aren’t qualified properly (TOFU is weak).

• Reps are stretched too thin to run a tight sales process.

Either way, you’re leaking potential. Improving win rate doesn’t just mean “sell better” - it often starts before the first call.

4️⃣ Sales Cycle Length - How long are deals sitting in purgatory?

If it takes forever to get to ‘yes’ (or worse - no answer at all), something’s off:

• Are reps following up consistently?

• Are the right stakeholders being involved early?

• Is qualification happening too late?

Shorter cycles don’t mean rushing - they mean momentum. And momentum builds trust.

Why This Matters

Sales velocity isn’t just another metric - it’s a mirror.

It shows you how your pipeline is really working.

Not just what you’re doing, but what it’s delivering.

📉 Low velocity? You’ve got inefficiencies hiding in plain sight.

📈 High velocity? Your team’s spending time where it counts and your pipeline shows it.

The bottom line?

If your pipeline feels slow, it’s probably not about effort - it’s about efficiency.

Sales velocity doesn’t just measure how fast you’re selling.

It shows where you're stuck, why deals are dragging, and how to fix it.

So before you throw budget at another headcount or fire up a new outbound tool, check your formula. Because sometimes the answer isn’t “more leads” - it’s “make better use of the ones you’ve already got.”

And once you see the blockers clearly?

Fixing them gets a whole lot easier.