You work on an IT management product with a long B2B sales cycle and want to A/B test a change near the top of the lead-to-close funnel. The team hopes the experiment will improve downstream revenue outcomes, but you are concerned that the sales cycle is long, accounts involve multiple stakeholders, and early reads may be misleading.
What are the main pitfalls of running experiments in a long B2B sales cycle, and how would you design the test and analysis so the results are trustworthy enough to make a launch decision?
Choosing a leading indicator when the true business outcome matures slowlyDefining guardrails that prevent low-quality pipeline inflationHandling peeking, sample ratio mismatch, and delayed follow-up windowsRecognizing account-level interference and SUTVA risks in B2B buying committees