With a current order backlog exceeding €7 billion and steadily growing order intake, one thing is clear: our Sales team delivers. But what many don’t see – between the first customer contact and the final signature, there are often months, sometimes years of hard work.

Our international Sales team is made up of experts from across the group, focusing on extrusion, detail parts and assembly. The sales team: Paul Andreucci, Alec Detournay, Nathalie Rogister, Kevin Hamesse, Kevin Russell, Ashley Joy, Alexander Sobrino, Paul Setschi and Thierry Dourlies, supported by our dedicated multi-lingual Internal Sales teams and Program Managers, work together across country borders with a focus on Key Customer Account management, Territory management or on specific technologies across our broad portfolio of capabilities. Many of the sales team have been working for UAC and Asco for over 10 years, and since the integration of Asco in 2022, they have been collaborating even more closely, to identify how we can offer a complete end-to-end one-stop-shop solution, utilizing the full power of the Montana Aerospace capabilities.

They know the aerospace customer landscape like the back of their hand and have built strong customer relationships some of which go back decades. Their goal is not just to extend existing programs, but above all to win new profitable work packages that ensure long-term workload for our plants. In recent years, Montana Aerospace has made significant strategic investments in new facilities and equipment – laying the foundation to fully benefit from the growth of the aerospace sector. By 2040, more than 43,000 new aircraft are expected to be built – and we will continue to play a significant part in this successful growth story.

So what does a typical sales process in aerospace look like?

Multiple meetings with customers and our teams to fully understand the scope of the project, complex tenders that can take weeks to complete, supporting documentation to demonstrate, quality, capability, capacity, timeline etc. followed by technical presentations, and detailed price negotiations. All of this takes teamwork! That’s why our Sales team works closely with departments such as Estimating, Engineering, Quality, Production, Logistics, Finance and Legal to ensure we develop robust solutions that deliver value for the long-term.

We sat down with the Sales team to talk about what it takes to win orders – from customer relationships and strategic decisions to the personal motivation behind one of the most exciting jobs in our company:

10 Questions for Our CCO Paul Andreucci

How would you describe our USP to a potential customer – in just one sentence?
Montana Aerospace provides a one-shop-stop solution to meet our customer’s needs.

What are the most important decision criteria customers consider when choosing us as their supplier?
Quality - Producing parts that meet the Customers stringent Quality requirements is vitally important. We all want to fly safely so every piece of the aircraft must be produced to the correct specifications and have full traceability. Delivery – There are hundreds of thousands of parts on an aircraft but it only takes one part to stop production, therefore we must continually meet our committed delivery dates. Cost – We believe that Montana Aerospace has a competitive advantage through its wide capabilities, vertical integration and best-cost-country locations allowing us to meet Customer price targets while generating the highest possible profitability to continue investing for the future. Quality & Delivery performance is a basic non-negotiable customer expectation. Poorly performing suppliers can be disqualified from future bids or rated low during the final award assessment so continued sales growth is completely dependent on meeting these KPI’s.   

How do these criteria differ depending on the customer type – OEM, Tier-1, regional vs. international?
The main criteria don’t change, however sometimes things like proximity to the Customer (Local for Local), or Industrial Offset (compensation to a country who is buying OEM aircraft) can play a part in decision making. The ability to rapidlyindustrialize can also be a deciding factor and Montana Aerospace has a proven track record of delivering NPI (new product introduction) or transfers of work in record time.

Do we also deliberately reject certain RFQ’s (Requests for Quotation)? And if yes – for what reasons (e.g. profitability, strategic fit, capacity)?
We receive a huge amount of RFQ’s which need to be screened to ensure they fit with our core competences and that we can profitably produce the parts for the long-term. We will reject or no-bid packages or certain elements of packages that do not align with our strategy.

What defines a strategically attractive program package – one that secures long-term workload for our plants?
Our first priority is to find work packages that fill existing open capacity, the ideal packages have a high-level of value add on long-term growth platforms that deliver consistent profitability. Profitable contracts mean we can deliver shareholder value and continue to invest in our future growth.

Are there risks we need to consider when taking on new customer programs?
Large contracts typically come with liabilities, relating to quality and delivery performance. We need to ensure we understand these risks and that the complete multi-functional team works together to consistently meet the committed quality and delivery KPI’s.

What role do technical expertise and cross-functional collaboration play in contract negotiations?
The Sales team rely heavily on the expertise of our engineering, quality and operations teams to convince our Customer that we are the best choice for their work package. They are the subject matter experts and their counterparts in the Customer teams expect them to provide robust plans that meet the Customers needs.

How is customer procurement behavior changing – for example due to sustainability targets or geopolitical factors?
As I mentioned earlier there is a stronger focus on local for local to avoid excessive transportation, tariffs etc. In addition, ESG is now one of the criteria that is assessed when making an award decision. The importance and weighting of this in the decision-making process is likely to increase going forward.

Which new markets, customers, or programs look particularly promising for us – and why?
Commercial Space is an exciting and growing market for us, and given the growth in defense spending, we are focused on developing a balanced portfolio where defense and space offset variations in commercial aerospace demand. We aim to continue to secure business on new platforms and of course continue growing our share on the high-running Single Aisle programs.

What makes working in Sales so exciting for you personally?
We get to engage with Customers from across the world with different languages, cultures and working practices, we are the first to find out about exciting new work packages and although we are often the first point of contact when things go wrong, we get the pleasure of seeing an RFQ become part of an aircraft that moves people safely around the world.