The Industrial Sales Revolution: Selling Equipment the Old Way is Costing Manufacturers Millions
Manufacturing has spent the last decade getting smarter. Factories run on real-time data. Machines predict their own failures. Digital twins simulate outcomes before a single part is made. Operations have been transformed in ways that seemed impossible twenty years ago. And yet, when it comes to selling that equipment, many are still stuck in the ways of the early 2000s. That gap is now costing real money.
Nearly one in five manufacturers report losing business because of customer pushback on pricing and buying experiences – not because the machines aren’t good enough, but because of the buying process.
With AI now featured in nearly all business functions, it’s time we see industrial sales catch on.
The Quiet Shift in Buyer Expectations
Buyers aren’t demanding an Amazon-style checkout on a $300,000 piece of equipment, but expectations have shifted in ways that matter more than manufacturers realize.
As automation and digitization have made other purchasing experiences faster and more transparent, industrial buyers are expecting similar improvements when they’re making equipment-buying decisions.
These buyers want to understand which configurations actually work for their operation, what those choices cost, and how they might finance it. Transparency and critical insights upfront can make the difference between purchasing or moving to a competitor.
What they’re encountering instead is unclear pricing which is delivered late in the conversation, verbal explanations for configuration options, and quotes which must pass through multiple hands over days or weeks. Financing discussions, if they happen at all, come too late.
What’s even more staggering is that 70% of manufacturers are still inputting data manually. Their factories run on systems that predict failures and adjust production schedules in real time, but the sales team is still copying specs into spreadsheets. The same automation and AI-driven intelligence transforming operations could reshape the sales experience.
Converting Tribal Knowledge into Collective Intelligence
What buyers are realizing now is that critical sales knowledge often lives exclusively in the minds of product experts. A buyer’s quote for the same machine can look completely different depending on which rep they reach.
This inconsistency is getting harder to hide as the industry faces a retirement wave. A quarter of U.S. manufacturing workers are over 54, and by 2033, 3.8 million new positions will open with only half likely to be filled. A buyer working with someone for months suddenly has to start over with someone new who has had less exposure to their operation or prior conversations.
Even though 95% of manufacturers have invested in, or plan to invest in, AI and machine learning over the next five years, most haven’t connected those investments to their sales processes. Sales may trail other industries when it comes to adopting AI but now they’re playing catch up, and they’re gaining ground.
Sales reps spend around 25% of their time actually selling to customers but the fact is, AI could double this by minimizing manual work from other areas of the job. AI-powered automations investigate and interpret unstructured product data – the kind which usually lives in PDFs, emails and spreadsheets. This enables sales teams to remove any unnecessary and irrelevant information, helping them focus on the premium product selling points.
Likewise, the potential for streamlining the invoicing-to-contract process is huge. From agentic AI digesting and analyzing contracts for discrepancies, to methodically organizing invoices so nothing is omitted, the potential for core processes to be refined and manufacturing sales and finance teams to benefit is significant. Simply put, AI is the connective tissue between complicated, siloed data and the type of information which is easily accessed, interpreted and produced in actionable insights.
Three trillion dollars in global sales is at risk in 2026 because of poor customer experiences. Unleashing AI in the sales process will enable manufacturers to completely redesign their approach to reaching buyers and even more importantly, the speed with which they do it, salvaging potentially millions of dollars for those taking advantage. This isn’t about replacing expertise. It’s about preserving it. Turning potential business liabilities into a competitive advantage.
Where Competition Will Be Won
Industrial equipment is set to exceed $1 trillion by 2030, yet it remains one of the least digitized markets. Digital transformation delivered enormous value on the factory floor, and the entire customer journey needs to operate with the same level of intelligence. That means applying the same rigor to commercial processes that was applied to operations – using data to surface the right configurations, making pricing transparent earlier, and integrating financing into the buying experience instead of treating it as an afterthought.
Manufacturers aren’t losing deals because their products are inadequate – they’re losing them in the gap between how products are made and how they’re sold. The companies incorporating AI into sales processes will find they have a compelling edge over those still relying on the old way.
About the author
Le’ora Lichtenstein Co-Founder and CEO of Corbel, an AI-powered platform focused on modernizing industrial equipment sales and financing.