Business Development for Aerospace Professionals – Online Short Course (Starts 11 February 2025) 11 February - 20 February 2025 Online

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  • From 11–20 February 2025 (2 Weeks, 6 Classes, 12 Hours)

  • Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 1–3 p.m. Eastern Time (all sessions will be recorded and available for replay; course notes will be available for download)

  • Taught by a former Senior Vice President at Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems and Program Executive at Airbus US, with vast experience and expertise in the field, this is the ONLY course of its kind that teaches business development in the aerospace industry.

  • This course is ideal for aerospace technical and scientific people transitioning to new business roles with responsibility for generating and growing sales. This includes company founders, business development staff and leaders, general managers, business owners, and CEOs. If your company is experiencing flat or declining sales, struggling to figure out what customers want, conflicted about which product development projects to fund, this course is for you.

  • For each key discipline, essential concepts and actionable techniques are discussed in detail. The focus is on real-world applications that you can leverage immediately and consistently. Lessons learned are derived from patterns seen in aerospace and other high-tech industries.

  • All students will receive an AIAA Certificate of Completion at the end of the course

OVERVIEW
This course is designed to teach smart technical and scientific aerospace professionals how to identify innovation opportunities that that match winning value propositions with customer needs. This motivates customers to buy which, in turn, generates sales.  The course also tackles difficult problems like how best to manage sales forecasts and track sales opportunities as they progress through the sales funnel. The experience and expertise of the instructor is unmatched in this field. The goal is to pass on business development expertise to students so they can ensure business success. 

Each class will include a presentation and provide examples and templates. Before each class students will be sent a white paper that explains key concepts, and which can be used as a reference later.  Emphasis is on actionable concepts and techniques in a logical sequence. Students may apply any part of the methodology to their current business situation. This is not a course on product development, program management, operations management, or other technical disciplines. This is all about motivating the customer to buy, by systematically identifying and then satisfying the customer’s needs.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: COURSE KEY TOPICS
 
  • How a customer need is actually a desired outcome
  • How to determine which desired outcomes are the most important to the customer
  • How to measure the customer’s satisfaction with current outcomes
  • How to combine importance and satisfaction to prioritize which desired outcomes to address
  • How to define a value proposition that matches the highest priority customer desired outcomes
  • How to determine what services and support the customer will expect when using your solution
  • How to capture and assess the customer’s experiences before and after the solution is available
  • How to write a positioning statement that captures competitive position and provides focus for marketing and sales efforts
  • How to manage the sales funnel to generate accurate sales forecasts, plan sales campaigns, track sales opportunities, and close business
  • Detailed course outline below
AUDIENCE:  This course provides comprehensive aerospace business development training for anyone responsible for generating and growing sales. It is ideal for smart technical and scientific people that have become, or will become, company founders, general managers, CEOs, business development staff, or business development leaders. The advanced senior executive or business development professional will gain valuable insights from the many lessons learned.

COURSE FEES (Sign-in to register)
AIAA Member Price: $795 USD
Non-Member Price: $995 USD
AIAA Student Member Price: $295 USD

Classroom hours / CEUs: 12 classroom hours / 1.2 CEU/PDH

Cancellation Policy: A refund less a $50.00 cancellation fee will be assessed for all cancellations made in writing prior to 5 days before the start of the event. After that time, no refunds will be provided.

Contact: Please contact Lisa Le or Customer Service if you have questions about the course or group discounts (for 5+ participants).

Outline

Step 1 – Customer Needs and Opportunities Analysis

  • Defining customer needs as desired outcomes
  • How to identify the customer’s desired outcomes
  • Measuring importance of each desired outcome
  • Measuring the customer’s satisfaction with current solutions for each desired outcome
  • Combining importance and satisfaction to determine the best sales opportunities
  • Example discussion and optional homework for Step 2

Step 2 – Value Propositions

  • Figuring out how to satisfy customer needs with a value proposition
  • The value proposition model – what it is and how it works
  • How to use opportunities analysis from Step 1 to develop your value proposition
  • Example discussion and optional homework for Step 3

Step 3 – The Whole Product

  • Identifying services and support the customer will need to use your product
  • The whole product model – what it is and how it works
  • Example discussion and optional homework for Step 4

Step 4 – Target Customer Scenarios

  • Identifying the customer’s experiences before and after your value proposition is available, as a reality check that your value proposition delivers what customers need
  • Target customer scenario content and format
  • Example discussion and optional homework for Step 5

Step 5 – Positioning Statements

  • Describe your value proposition’s competitive position in a concise and memorable positioning statement to focus marketing and sales activities
  • Positioning statement content and format
  • Example discussion and optional homework for Step 6

Step 6 – Sales Funnel Management

  • How to plan effective sales campaigns and commit accurate sales forecasts
  • The sales funnel model – what it is and how it works
  • Special cases and how to manage them
  • Tracking sales opportunities as they progress through the sales funnel
  • Example discussion
  • Course wrap-up
Materials
 Course Delivery and Materials
  • The course lectures will be delivered via Zoom. You can test your connection here: https://zoom.us/test
  • Access to the Zoom classroom will be provided to registrants near to the course start date.
  • All sessions will be available on-demand within 1-2 days of the lecture.Once available, you can stream the replay video anytime, 24/7.
  • Includes copies of white papers for each topic
  • All slides will be available for download after each lecture. No part of these materials may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted, unless for course participants. All rights reserved.
Instructors

Paul M. Streit is an expert in business execution for new and growing aerospace companies or other firms that manufacture high-tech, engineering-driven, mission-critical, high-reliability products, especially in a complex, regulated environment.

Experience:

  • General Management: P&L management experience with strong focus on revenue, profitable growth, performance metrics, executive management, customer development and satisfaction, product and market development, negotiation and conflict resolution
  • Project Management: Program management, product development, product lifecycle management, earned value, contract management, scope management, government contracting, metrics, PMI PMP Certification
  • Marketing & Sales: Direct (territory) sales, understanding customer demand, market segmentation, sales lead generation, sales team leadership, sales operations, key account management, customer relationship management, customer development and satisfaction, customer-focused
  • Operations/Manufacturing: Process design, JIT metrics, supply chain design and development, inventory strategies, outsourcing, world class manufacturing

As Program Executive at Airbus US:

  • Led planning and execution of satellite factory expansion for production on major contracts
  • Led an Airbus US business specializing in flying payloads on the ISS
  • Consulted to executive management on program management performance measurement

As SVP at Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems:

  • Led the integration of MSI, Inc. and SpaceDev, Inc. to form SNC Space Systems
  • Subsequently led integration of Orbitec, Inc. into SNC Space Systems
  • Helped grow equity value 35x without debt to an independent valuation of $1.2B
  • Grew revenue 15x from $34M to over $500M with over $3B backlog
  • Grew employment 17x from 60 employees to currently over 840 plus another 200 contractors
  • Grew facilities and infrastructure from 1 location to 12 locations across 5 states
  • Products included actuators, pin pullers, pin pushers, gimbals, satellites, thermal louvers, solar arrays, spacecraft and spacecraft constellations, subsystems, and larger systems

At SpaceDev, VP Operations:

  • Responsible for business execution on all programs
  • Turned around the business from losing $150K/month on $36M of revenue to breaking even within 18 months of arrival

 

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