How Deal Velocity Matters More Than Deal Size

In sales, the allure of the "whale"—the massive enterprise deal—is powerful. Sales teams and leaders often prioritize deal size above all else, believing that bigger contracts automatically equal better business. This is a dangerous misconception. While large deals are great, an obsessive focus on size often ignores a more powerful lever for growth: deal velocity. The speed at which you can move an opportunity through your pipeline and close it is often a more critical driver of revenue and efficiency than the size of the deal itself.

A split image: a fast, small car racing past a slow, large truck.

The Math of Velocity

Consider two scenarios:

• Scenario A (The Whale Hunter): You close one deal worth $120,000, but it takes 12 months to close.
• Scenario B (The Velocity Player): You close one deal worth $20,000 every two months.

At the end of the year, both scenarios result in the same $120,000 of new revenue. However, the business in Scenario B is in a much healthier position. It has more predictable cash flow, six different customer feedback loops instead of one, and less risk concentrated in a single account. The velocity player is building a more resilient business.

Revenue is a function of not just how much you close, but how fast you close it.

The Hidden Costs of Slow Deals

Large, slow-moving deals have hidden costs that don't show up on a spreadsheet.

• Resource Drain: Your best sales reps and engineers are tied up for months on a single opportunity, unable to work on other potential deals.
• Higher Risk of "No Decision": The longer a deal takes, the more likely it is to be derailed by internal changes at the prospect's company—a re-org, a budget cut, or a champion leaving their role. Time is the enemy of all deals.
• Delayed Feedback: It takes a full year to learn if your product and process actually work for that enterprise segment. Faster cycles mean faster learning.

How to Optimize for Velocity

Shifting your focus from size to speed requires a different strategic approach.

1. Target the Mid-Market First: Mid-market companies typically have faster, less bureaucratic buying processes than large enterprises.
2. Standardize Your Sales Process: Create a tight, repeatable sales process. Use Mutual Action Plans to create a clear timeline and assign accountability to both your team and the prospect.
3. Remove Friction: Where are deals getting stuck? Is it legal review? Security questionnaires? Proactively create standardized documents and processes to speed up these common bottlenecks.
4. Qualify for Speed: During qualification, don't just ask about budget. Ask about their purchasing process. "What does your typical procurement process look like for a tool like this?" This can help you disqualify deals that are likely to get stuck in red tape for months.

Conclusion

This is not to say that you should ignore large deals. But you must be aware of the trade-offs. A business built on a foundation of fast, predictable, mid-market deals is often more scalable and resilient than one built on a few slow, risky enterprise contracts. Don't just chase the whales. Build a system that can consistently catch the fast-swimming fish. That's the real path to predictable revenue growth.