How a machinery buyer moves from enquiry to purchase order, and who signs

The plant manager rang twice, asked for a revised quotation, said "it's almost done", and three months later the order went to a maker never mentioned. The plant manager was not lying. They were one of five people, and the other four never heard from you. A machine is bought by a group: the user, the engineer who checks the specification, purchase, whoever holds the budget, and the director who signs. Map each of them by name early, and give each one the document they need.

The five stages, and who holds each one

The need. A production or maintenance head finds that a line is short of output, a machine keeps breaking, or a customer wants a new product, and raises it. The first fork comes here: is the machine in the approved budget, or does it need a fresh approval?

The specification. A process, project or maintenance engineer writes what the machine must do and sends it to three or four makers. The comparison sheet, with your figures beside your rivals', is the most important document in the sale. It decides who reaches the shortlist.

Technical clearance. Trials with the plant's own material, a visit to a running installation, a call to a user. The engineer recommends one maker, sometimes two.

Commercial terms. Purchase takes over the shortlisted quotations and negotiates price, payment schedule, delivery and the penalty for late delivery. Purchase does not usually pick the machine. It can still lose you the order.

Approval and the order. A capex note goes to finance and the owner or board. Once it is signed, the purchase order is released, and the advance is paid. Then the clock on your delivery starts.

The capex note decides more orders than the demo does

The person who signs has never met you. They read a note written by the plant engineer: why the machine is needed, which options were compared, what it costs, what it saves, and what could go wrong. If your quotation gives the engineer nothing to put in that note except a price, the cheapest maker looks safest.

So write a one-page summary for the signer, in plain words. Output per shift, connected load, floor space, operators needed, changeover time, and what is included in your price. Use only figures you will stand behind at the commissioning trial. Send it to the engineer and say it is for the capex note. An engineer is unlikely to refuse it, since writing the note is a chore.

This is where selling a machine differs from selling a catalogue item. The sale is to a committee, through one person who carries your case into a room you will not enter.

Six questions for the first call

Ask these before you quote, in your own words. They are polite, and a serious buyer answers them.

"Who else will look at this before the order is placed?"

"Is the machine in the current budget, or does it need a new approval?"

"What are you comparing us with: another maker, a used machine, or keeping the old one running?"

"When does the line need to be running, and what happens if it is not?"

"What would make your plant head say no?"

"Who signs the purchase order, and who releases the advance?"

Write the answers against the enquiry. A buyer who cannot answer the second question is at the first stage, however urgent they sound. One who refuses the first and last is collecting prices for a comparison you have already lost.

Where the sale stalls, and what moves it

After the quotation, the stall is technical, and calling purchase will not help. Ask which line of the comparison sheet you are weakest on.

After the trial, the stall is the budget. Find out when the capex meeting sits and offer the summary page before it, not after.

At negotiation, the stall is price. Trade terms, not rupees, and keep the engineer informed so they do not hear about it from purchase. Which terms to give and which to hold is covered in price negotiation with industrial buyers.

After the verbal yes, the stall is the advance. Send the proforma invoice the same day, with bank details on company letterhead, and confirm the delivery date runs from the advance.

For example: a mixer maker in Vatva and a plant in Silvassa

Imagine a maker of ribbon blenders and powder mixers in Vatva, Ahmedabad, quoting a detergent powder plant in Silvassa. Its sales engineer dealt only with the plant manager, who liked the machine and said so. The quotation was a brochure and a price. The capex note went to the owner in Mumbai with three prices side by side. The owner asked why not the cheapest. Nobody at the plant could answer, and the decision sat for months. A rival whose engineer had sent a page on power draw and cleaning time between batches got the order.

On the next enquiry the maker's engineer asked the six questions on the first call. The engineer learnt who signed and when approvals were taken, and sent the plant engineer a one-page summary for the capex note, with connected load, cleaning time and what installation included. In this illustration the owner signed the mixer at a price 6% above the lowest quotation, and the summary page was the reason the plant engineer gave. The delivery date was then pushed back a month by the plant's own civil work, which the page could not have prevented.

When you do not need to map the group

Skip it for a small owner-run unit where the owner is the user, the engineer and the signer. Talk to the owner and nobody else. Skip it too for a catalogue machine under a value the plant manager can approve alone, or an identical replacement for one already running. A clear quotation and a delivery date will do. Catalogue machines and machines built to a customer's process sit at opposite ends of industrial machinery and equipment selling, and only the second always needs the full map.

Name the five people on your pending quotations

Open the three largest quotations you have pending and write, for each, the names of the user, the engineer, purchase and the signer. Where a name is missing, that is the call to make before any follow-up on price. If the map is the part you would like help with, see enterprise and solution selling or tell us what you need.