A sales slowdown doesn’t need to cause panic amongst dealers according to experts at Pinion, an agricultural based accounting and business advisory firm. Building financial guardrails before facing adverse market conditions allows dealers to protect equity, preserve liquidity and utilize cash appropriately.

Marc Johnson, CPA and Principal and Lead Advisor for Agriculture and Construction Equipment Dealerships at Pinion, saysthat dealers are currently reaching the low point in the sales cycle and expects dealers to be in a better position by 2027.

“We're still seeing 15–30% decreases in sales over last year," Johnson says. “Last year was bad and we're down more from last year. The good news is, though, we're doing that profitably. At worst, I think 2026 is going to look the same as 2025, but with better margins. It does feel like we've reached the bottom of this cycle and we're going to start climbing our way back up.”

Shane Bell and Dari Basore, wealth consultants at Pinion, provided dealers insights on how they can capitalize during times of increased cashflow to prepare for the next downturn in the cycle.

“There are times in our cycle that we are very flush with cash and there are other times that we are shrinking that down,” Bell says. “Even in the shrinking down era in time, it's really important for us to inch out every penny of margin we can.”

Bell warns against holding onto excess cash when investing it could provide a dealer significant returns, despite uncertainty in the stock markets. 

“The stats say it doesn't matter what you're trying to do, just get in,” Bell says. “You'll be rewarded if you can get in and hold on. And if you're owning good stuff, history has said it almost always does get better. It's not timing the market, it's time in the market.”

If a dealer has cash on hand they are willing to put into equities, Basore recommends preparing now by creating an account and investing when there is a dip in the market. However, waiting for that dip is not as important as the cumulative time the investment has to grow. There are several ways to get into the market, and each has its own benefits and drawbacks. 

“We want to get in the game, keep a long-term perspective and take advantage of volatility that we see in the market,” Basore says.

“The U.S. Treasury is an easy way to go out and get some nice risk-free return,” Basore says. In April 2026, the rate for a 1-year U.S. treasury investment of about 3.8% was higher than many CD rates Bell had seen offered at local banks while traveling across Montana, Texas and Colorado.

The Pinion consultants utilize structured income notes with their clients, especially in liquidity crises and periods of low interest rates such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bell and Basore still use them today as they’re seeing more equity market volatility and the return on the interest notes is increasing.

In the hedge type instruments, a client buys protection against a strike price for broad-based indices and so long as none of the indices on the note fall below a specified level of protection, the client receives back the principal and a coupon. These notes are based on equity market volatility rather than interest rates. In this alternative investment, the investor is susceptible to losing some of their principal and the cash is not liquid. 

A similar structured product Pinion uses is tied to individual equities rather than broad-based market indices. This product is significantly more tax-friendly.

“When we buy these, we're holding them for at least 12 months and a day so that we get long-term capital gains treatment,” Basore says.

Both structured product income notes provide a way to diversify a dealer’s portfolio by layering them with different cash strategies. The downside protection barrier is customizable, as is the term of the income notes. 

“Of course, the longer they go, the higher yield you're going to get,” Basore says. “Right now the sweet spot is in the 15-24 month time period.”

Having money tied up for that long may be a concern for some dealers, so a longer term income note may not best suit them.

“Certain strategies have more liquidity,” Basore says. “I think it’s really important to know that if you are going to invest cash that is within the dealership, a lot of these strategies are fully liquid. It depends upon where folks want to take risk, how much risk and their ability to tie up that money that will determine which strategy we would go into so that we can meet those needs.”

Having long term investments and liquid investments allows dealers to have flexibility in their operation to meet financial needs.

“The importance of being prepared is having a diversified portfolio, not chasing returns,” Basore says. “The old days of the buy and hold strategies have gone away. It's important to have a portfolio that is nimble so that you can take advantage of movements as opportunities present and we don't have that knee-jerk reaction to sell out. We just want to be prepared.”

For more information about cash management, watch the full webinar here.