Why do my Sales Velocity numbers look off?

Sales Velocity metrics depend on how your team uses your CRM. If the numbers look wrong, the cause is usually in the opportunity data. Here's what to check.

Common causes

• Missing or non-standard opportunity data: key values like amount or dates are empty, or kept in custom fields.

• Artificial or inflated opportunities: opportunities created to meet quotas distort sales cycle length and velocity.

• Mixed deal types: very small transactions mixed with normal deals inflate win rates and lower average deal size.

• Stalled or forgotten deals: opportunities left open without updates make the sales cycle look longer.

• Backdated or incorrect close dates: close dates changed to fit a reporting period distort velocity.

• Duplicate or overlapping opportunities: several records for the same deal inflate pipeline and distort conversion rates.

• Misclassified opportunities: deals marked Won too early, or without real purchase intent, make velocity look better than it is.

• CRM data hygiene: inconsistent entries, missing timestamps or wrong values lead to miscalculations.

• Changes in your sales process: new qualification criteria or methods make comparisons with older periods unreliable.

Check which opportunities you're looking at

The date range selects opportunities by close date: those closed won or lost in the period, plus those still open during it. If you expected different deals, check the Cohort and Date filters in How to read the Sales Velocity dashboard.

Still looking off?

If your team uses the CRM in a way specific to your business, ask your Solutions Engineer to look at it with you.

What's next

• How to read Progression analytics

Need help? Reach out to your Solutions Engineer via the chat in the bottom-left corner of the N.Rich platform, by email or Slack.