---
title: "The Typical Startup Saw a 24% Increase in Sales Cycle in 2023"
description: "New data reveals startup sales cycles increased 24% in 2023, with enterprise deals taking 36% longer. Key benchmarks for SaaS founders across market segments."
categories: ["sales","data analysis"]
keywords: ["Theory Ventures","Tomasz Tunguz","startup sales cycle","SaaS sales benchmarks","enterprise sales","data analysis","pipeline management","sales cycle increase"]
ai_summary: "In 2023, startups experienced a 24% increase in sales cycles, with enterprise deals taking 36% longer, impacting pipeline strategies."
date: 2023-03-28
lastmod: 2026-07-28
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/sales_cycle_changes/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

Sales cycles shifted dramatically in 2023. Slower [sales cycles create pipeline shocks](https://tomtunguz.com/pipeline-sales-cycle/) & startups are feeling the impacts.

The average startup saw a 24% increase in sales cycle from early 2022 to 2023. 60 day sales cycles are now 75 days.  

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/zzhwqmfdyinngcjlm8si.png)

But the latency isn't evenly distributed. Startups selling to enterprises have increased 36%, twice those of Mid-Market & SMB focused companies. This figure is statistically significant with a p value of 0.0005.

The distribution chart above shows about one-third of enterprise sales cycles take 50% or longer than last year to complete. Mid-market & SMB distributions skew left with up to 10% of businesses reporting a decrease in sales cycle during the period. 

The VSB chart shows a bi-modal tilt to the data: most companies observe a moderate increase but about one-quarter have seen a doubling. 

| Segment | % increase in sales cycle | 
| --- | ---:|
| Enterprise | 36% | 
| Mid-Market | 18% |
| SMB | 17% | 
| Very Small Business | 26% | 

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/l6ise9vhtycjdqijcoyt.png)
Usage-based companies have suffered greater increases in sales cycle than seat based companies: 29% vs 21% with a p-value of 0.1.

And yes, enterprise focused companies with usage based pricing models have borne the greatest overall increase of 44%. 

These benchmarks suggest startups should plan on materially longer sales cycles into 2023. 

The antidote: greater pipeline-to-quota coverage ratios by either increasing the top of the funnel or reducing the account executive headcount.  

The data analysis uses the results from the [2023 GTM Survey](https://tomtunguz.com/2023-gtm-survey/).