Average deal size

Average deal size is what one sale brings in on average: revenue from won deals in a period divided by the number of those deals. So you know what a typical sale is worth and can work out how many sales the plan needs. It also shows whether the team is selling to the customers you planned for.

Revenue is the sum of the amount field on deals moved to won in the period. Ideally that is the amount actually paid. The number of sales is the count of the same deals. Use one filter for both parts: won status, close date inside the period. If sellers often leave the amount empty, fix that before you calculate anything.

Count only won deals.

Revenue $9,000 and 3 sales: an average deal size of $3,000.

Read it monthly, or weekly over a rolling quarter: one large sale can swing a single week. The head of sales and the owner look at it together, split by seller and by channel.

It drives the plan arithmetic. Divide the plan by average deal size and you get the number of sales; win rate turns that into the number of decided deals you need. When the size starts to fall, check discounts first, then whether the team has drifted to smaller customers.

Profit per deal sits next to it and shows what is left after direct costs. LTV adds repeat purchases. A big deal with a thin profit earns little. Watch the sales cycle too: larger deals often take longer to decide, so when you change the offer, look at both numbers.

• Dividing by all deals, open and lost included. Count only won deals, or the number drops for no reason.
• Using the quoted amount instead of the paid one. If the customer got a discount on the last call, update the deal amount before you close the deal.
• Letting one large sale hide the trend. Put the median next to the average, or list the largest deals on their own lines.
• Mixing currencies or taxes. Decide whether amounts include tax, keep one currency, and write the rule into the description of the amount field in your CRM.

By Friday, the head of sales pulls the won deals of the last three months and checks each amount against the payment. Correct the ones that do not match. Then calculate average deal size for the whole team and for each channel, and write both numbers next to the monthly plan. If the plan needs more sales than the team closed last quarter, put that on the agenda of the next weekly meeting. Example (invented numbers): a plan of $30,000 with an average deal size of $3,000 needs 10 sales; at a win rate of 27%, that is about 37 decided deals.

Which numbers to check every week, with one definition for the whole team.