Outbound Glossary
Sales cycle
How long a deal takes from first contact to signature. It decides when a campaign can be judged, and it is nearly always longer than hoped.
Sales cycle length is the time between the first real conversation and a closed deal, usually taken as a median rather than an average because a few long deals distort the mean.
In outbound it sets the honest review date. Judging a campaign after six weeks when the cycle is four months measures activity, not outcome, and that mismatch is behind most campaigns that get stopped just before they would have worked.