What a Pipeline Forecast Usually Leaves Out
Most SaaS forecasting models run on stage-to-stage conversion rates and average deal velocity, discovery to demo, demo to proposal, proposal to close. Legal review, the MSA redline stage a deal enters once both sides agree on terms in principle, rarely gets its own line. It gets absorbed into “close,” as if signature were a single event rather than a negotiation with its own timeline.
The Trend Data Behind “Deals Are Taking Longer”
Bridge Group’s 2026 State of Sales research, surveying 158 B2B companies, found near-majorities of respondents reporting increases in stakeholder count, sales cycle length, discounting pressure, deal slippage, and required pipeline coverage, all in the same direction at once. That is not one anecdote about one slow legal team, it is a measured, current, industry-wide pattern that a forecast ignoring it is choosing to model against.
Why No Specific Redline-Duration Number Belongs in This Guide
It would be convenient to state MSA negotiation typically adds a specific number of weeks and build a forecasting buffer directly around that figure. No independently sourced number for a typical redline cycle could be confirmed, so none is asserted here. The forecasting argument below rests on the sourced deal-slippage and cycle-length trend instead, not an invented duration.
The Same Formality Trend Shows Up on the Security Side Too
That lengthening is not isolated to legal review alone. KPMG’s 851-organization Third-Party Risk Management Survey found 71% of organizations plan further integration between vendor risk management and enterprise risk management over the next three years, and 83% of executives plan to expand their vendor networks over the same window. Legal review is one piece of a buying process that is getting more procedural everywhere, not just at the contract stage.
What Ramp Time and Quota Attainment Add to the Same Picture
The same Bridge Group research found AE ramp time reached 6.2 months in 2026, the highest figure in the program’s history, while quota attainment fell to 48%, down from 51% in 2024. A forecast that assumes a rep hits number on the same timeline as a few years ago is building on two more outdated assumptions on top of an already-optimistic close date.
Where the Buffer Belongs in the Forecast Math
The practical fix is not a single universal number added to every deal. It is a distinct forecasting stage, legal and contract review, tracked with its own historical cycle time inside a specific company’s own pipeline data, rather than folded silently into “close” as if it took no time at all. A company that starts tracking that stage separately will have a real, own-data-based number to forecast against within a quarter or two, a stronger foundation than any industry-wide estimate could provide anyway.
Keeping new meetings landing on the calendar during a lengthening legal-review stage matters just as much as forecasting around it. Human + AI SDRs keep qualified SaaS demos booked while a legal team works through its own timeline, so a longer contract stage does not also mean a quieter top of funnel.
What this means for you
- Bridge Group’s 2026 research found near-majorities of 158 B2B companies reporting increases in stakeholder count, sales cycle length, discounting pressure, deal slippage, and required pipeline coverage, all at once.
- No independently sourced average MSA redline-cycle figure exists to cite here. Build a forecasting buffer from your own tracked contract-stage cycle time, not an industry-wide estimate.
- AE ramp time reached 6.2 months in 2026, the highest figure in the program’s history, and quota attainment fell to 48% from 51% in 2024, two more reasons a forecast needs more room, not less.
Sources
The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- Bridge Group, State of Sales: 2026 AE Models, Motions, and Metrics Research
- KPMG, 2026 Global Third-Party Risk Management Survey