CRM for machinery sellers: managing a sales cycle that lasts a year
Six months to two years, more decision-makers and months of silence between steps. What a system for selling machinery and technology has to do — and why it isn't pipeline stages.
Selling a machine worth millions isn't e-commerce. Six months to two years pass between the first contact at a trade fair and the signature, several people decide at once, and months of silence yawn between the individual steps. Yet most sales tools are built for sales that take weeks.
What makes a long cycle different
Three traits that change the rules. Budget cycles: the customer often wants it but can only act once the budget is approved — so the deal isn't dead, it's just asleep until a specific date. Multiple players: the technical director wants specs, finance wants the return, the managing director wants certainty — and each remembers a different conversation. And a long tail after signing: handover, warranty service, consumables, a second machine in three years.
The biggest risks: silence and departure
In a long cycle you don't lose on arguments, but on lapses. The first lapse is silence: a trade-fair enquiry starts to age in your inbox, and six months later, when the budget finally clears, the competition is already calling. The second is the salesperson leaving: when a customer's history lives only in their head and their inbox, years of work walk out the door with them.
What a system for long sales has to do
Four requirements. History with no expiry — a note from a trade fair a year ago must be as accessible as yesterday's phone call. Reminders months ahead with a reason — "July, budget being approved." Shared memory — anyone on the team must be able to pick it up. And continuity through the signature — the customer mustn't vanish into the archive after the win, because service and the next machine are still ahead of you.
Notice what isn't on the list: pipeline stages. The deal overview is a useful view of what will close this year — but the backbone of long sales is the memory of the relationship, not columns.
How we handle the four requirements in Lemnio is on the page for machinery sellers. You can try it free — and if you'd like to see the system on your own kind of sales, write to [email protected].