- From 21–30 April 2026 (2 Weeks, 6 Classes, 12 Hours)
- Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 12–2 p.m. Eastern Time (all sessions will be recorded and available for replay; course notes will be available for download)
- All students will receive an AIAA Certificate of Completion at the end of the course
- 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, and author of Blind Spots: Why Product Development Projects Miss Their Targets. This is the ONLY course of its kind that teaches business development in the aerospace industry.
- The course teaches essential concepts and actionable techniques, with emphasis on real-world applications that you can leverage immediately. Lessons learned are derived from patterns seen in aerospace and other high-tech industries.
- 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.
OVERVIEW
This course teaches technical and scientific aerospace professionals how to identify innovation opportunities that align with winning value propositions and customer needs, motivating customers to buy and generating sales. The course also addresses difficult problems such as how best to manage sales forecasts and track sales opportunities as they progress through the buying process. The instructor’s experience and expertise are unmatched.
Each class will include a presentation and provide examples and templates. Emphasis is on actionable concepts and techniques in a logical sequence. Students may apply any part of the methodology to their current business situation, whether that’s a blank-slate startup or an existing business.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: KEY COURSE TOPICS
- Describing customer need as desired results.
- Determining which desired results are the most important to customers.
- Measuring customers’ satisfaction with the results they are currently achieving.
- Combining importance and satisfaction to identify the best sales opportunities.
- Defining a value proposition that satisfies customers’ most important desired results.
- Identifying services and support that customers’ need to use your solution.
- Surfacing customers’ experiences before and after your solution is available.
- Writing a positioning statement that summarizes your differentiation.
- Managing the sales funnel to generate accurate sales forecasts, plan sales campaigns, track sales opportunities, and close business.
- Detailed course outline below
AIAA Member Price: $895 USD
Non-Member Price: $1095 USD
AIAA Student Member Price: $395 USD
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OUTLINEStep 1 – Customer Needs and Opportunities Analysis
- Defining customer needs as desired results
- How to identify the customer’s desired results
- Measuring importance of each desired result
- Measuring customers’ satisfaction with how well they are achieving their desired results.
- Combining importance and satisfaction to determine the best sales opportunities.
- Example discussion and optional homework
- Designing a value proposition that satisfies customers’ most important desired results.
- 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
- Identifying services and support customers need to use your product.
- The whole product model – what it is and how it works.
- Example discussion and optional homework.
- Writing a description of customers’ experiences before and after your product is available.
- Target customer scenario content and format.
- Example discussion and optional homework.
- Describe your value proposition’s differentiation in a concise “elevator statement.”
- Positioning statement content and format
- Example discussion and optional homework.
- Planning effective sales campaigns and committing 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
INSTRUCTOR
Paul M. Streit is an expert in business execution for new and growing aerospace companies, and for any firms that manufacture high-tech, engineering-driven, mission-critical, and high-reliability products, particularly in complex and regulated environments.
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-focus
- 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 a 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 the integration of Orbitec, Inc. into SNC Space Systems.
- Grew 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 over 840 plus another 200 contractors.
- Grew facilities and infrastructure from one location to 12 locations across five states.
- Products included actuators, pin pullers, pin pushers, gimbals, satellites, thermal louvers, solar arrays, spacecraft, spacecraft constellations, subsystems, and larger systems.
- 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
"Paul was undoubtedly the most valuable asset of the course. Being instructed by an experienced individual like Paul provided the necessary credentials for such a course"
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Classroom hours / CEUs: 12 classroom hours / 1.2 CEU/PDH
Course Delivery and Materials
- The course lectures will be delivered via Zoom.
- 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.
- 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.
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).