Farming equipment firms shorten their sales cycle with automation

From the manufacturing of farming equipment and tools, to the development and creation of agricultural machinery, the farming manufacturing market has an enormous size and scope across the globe. Farming is an essential industry and with some areas seeing steady growth over the last few years, businesses in this industry need to review their sales processes and make the most of their sales in order to remain competitive. In this article, we look at farming manufacturers and the state of the industry, how the sales cycle for these companies can be long and why, and how automation and the use of technology can shorten the sales cycle and improve conversions.

What does the farming manufacturing industry currently look like?

To simplify this overview, when we speak about farming manufacturing we are talking about farm equipment and agricultural machinery.

According to Market Reports World, the global farm equipment market has been seeing steady growth in the last few years, and is set to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% from $170,980 million (USD) in 2023 to $213,840 million (USD) by 2029.

They list some of the largest manufacturers of farming equipment as being:

• John Deere
• AGCO Corporation
• CNH Industrial N.V
• Kubota Corporation
• Alamo Group Inc.

When it comes to the agricultural machinery market, Mordor Intelligence reveal that the market was estimated at $151.55 billion (USD) in 2024, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.40% to reach $197.19 billion (USD) by 2029.

The market leaders in this segment of farming manufacture are stated to be:

• Deere & Company
• AGCO Corporation
• Kubota Corporation
• CNH Industrial N.V
• Class Group

As you can see, the industry leaders in both segments are often the same large scale global businesses, which means that competition is fierce, and smaller companies are often found to be struggling to get brand recognition and market share.

In such a competitive market, having multiple sales strategies and approaches is often essential, leading to companies to need a multi outreach strategy for sales. TEB Apps is increasingly being used by manufacturing industries across all sectors, to benefit from the simplified processes, ease of access, data-driven accuracy, and deeper understanding of customers.

What are some of the long stages in the farming manufacture sales cycle?

Longer sales cycles can involve a lot of work, time, and company resources. They also allow time for competitors to lure potential customers away from your business, or for customers to lose interest in your products.

Having a long sales cycle might seem unavoidable, especially in an area such as farming manufacturing where certain parts of the process are time-consuming. Some of the areas which often see extended length include:

• Proposals: This can be especially convoluted if you are dealing with large enquiries, or multinational enquiries that need careful review to ensure all legal obligations, customs and taxes, and adaptions to products (such as power supplies) are able to be managed.
• Lead conversions: Determining what temperature your lead is, and the likelihood of conversion is tricky enough on its own. But then you need to understand what your customer wants, their pain points, and what sales techniques are going to be appropriate to ensure they complete the sale. Without the right data, understanding, and tools for outreach, this process can be even more difficult.
• Quote creation: You might have fixed prices for your items, or there might be times when you are applying a discount or reduced rate. Then you have to take into account overheads and material costs, taxes and duties (especially if you are operating on a multi-national level), and ensure the price you are offering your customer covers your costs, is in line with your profit margin goals, and is something the customer will find acceptable to pay.
• Overall pricing: The overall price of your product has to cover everything, from operating and manufacturing costs, to overheads and taxes, business costs such as license subscriptions, and so much more. If you do not have a firm grip on what everything is costing, and how much is being paid at the time (taking into account fluctuations in currency conversions for overseas material purchases or sales), then you are going to struggle to make sure you are pricing your products correctly.

TEB Apps has functionality for thousands of products to be managed and maintained through the data-base, and offers automation for cancellations, returns, and refunds, as well as multi-currency support and invoice tracking. These applications make the process faster, more accurate, and offer companies the ability to create a brand appropriate standard that customers can recognise, relate to, and feel affinity towards, allowing you to enhance the performance of your sales team.

How can smart automation and the right tools improve the sales cycle?

In order to make your sales cycle as efficient and streamlined as possible, you need to make the best use of tools available to you.

Automation, when used correctly can:

• Save time in gathering information, formatting it for use, and making it ready for your team.
• Save money because the data is being used to its fullest, and can allow for more conversions.
• Ensure legal obligations are met by operating with strictly defined standards.
• Increase brand recognition by making quotes, interactions, and communications standardised in format and content.
• Reduce human error and making troubleshooting simpler by having a standard process in place.

Smart automation does not mean you apply automated processes to absolutely everything, regardless of necessity. It means evaluating what you are doing, what your team are doing, and what would benefit from being automated.

The more you can improve on your internal systems, and provide your team with guidance and the right tools to handle their tasks, the more time they can focus on engaging with customers, making more sales, and increasing the lifetime value of your customer base.

How TEB Apps can streamline your entire sales process?

You can streamline your sales process to drive sales, and revenue and accelerate growth with TEB Apps. Farming equipment manufacturing businesses are using TEB to streamline the entire sales process from lead management to closing a sale with features such as:

• Automated lead assigning
• Centralised data at every stage of the sales cycle
• Automated quote templates
• Specification and volumetric pricing
• Kanban-style pipeline management

You are in control at every stage of your process, with smart automation and accurate data-driven reporting to support you. Book a demo today, and discover how TEB Apps will help to grow your farming manufacturing company.