Summary
A technical services firm with strong engineering, compliance and AI capability in aerospace and defense had no repeatable way to sell it. CBC built the commercial side of the business from research up: market and competitive analysis, defined offerings with packaging and pricing, delivery models, brand and digital assets, marketing material and a sales architecture, organized into a three-year roadmap across three segments and fifteen sub-segments. The firm finished with a plan it could act on the day it was handed over.
The challenge
A small technical services firm had built genuine capability in aerospace and defense. Bespoke engineering, compliance work and AI solutions for LEO, HALO and MDS programs, delivered by people who knew the technical requirements as well as anyone their customers could hire. What they did not have was a commercial side of the business to match it.
Growth had come through relationships. That works until it does not scale, and it leaves the business exposed to whoever happens to be in the room. The firm wanted to grow its presence inside the tiered supplier network and add another prime to its portfolio, and neither of those happens by introduction alone.
Conditions at the outset
- Strong technical capability with no defined commercial approach.
- Growth depended on relationships rather than a repeatable process.
- No clear read on how the firm compared to other providers.
- The offering was described differently in every conversation.
- Packaging and pricing were decided deal by deal.
- The portfolio leaned heavily on a single prime.
Underneath all of it was a simpler problem. The firm could not say, in one consistent way, what it sold, who it sold to, what that cost, or why a buyer should choose it over the alternative. Every proposal started from a blank page, and every conversation set slightly different expectations about scope and price.
Before any of the growth targets were reachable, the business needed a definition of itself that everyone inside it could use.
The solution
We built the commercial side of the business from research up, in the order the firm would need it.
The work started with the market. We researched the segments the firm could realistically serve, mapped the tiered supplier network around the programs it already supported, and analyzed how comparable providers positioned and priced themselves. That research set the competitive position: what the firm is genuinely better at, who that matters to, and where it should not spend its effort.
From there we defined the commercial offering. Distinct service offerings with clear boundaries, packaged into buyable units, with pricing and delivery models behind each one so a conversation about scope does not restart the pricing conversation every time. We worked through how each package is actually delivered, what it takes to staff, and what the firm commits to when it sells it.
How the work was run
- Market research and segment analysis across the supplier network.
- Competitive positioning and a defined value proposition.
- Service offerings with packaging, pricing and delivery models.
- Brand direction, digital assets and marketing material.
- A sales architecture covering the path from first contact to close.
- A three-year roadmap across three segments and fifteen sub-segments.
Then we built the material to carry it. Brand direction, digital assets, and marketing collateral written in the firm's own voice rather than generic industry language. Alongside that, a sales architecture: how opportunities are identified, who owns them, what happens at each stage, and what gets sent when.
All of it was sequenced into a three-year roadmap covering three market segments and fifteen sub-segments underneath them, ordered so the firm knows what to pursue first and what can wait.
The result
The firm finished the engagement with a plan it could act on immediately, not a strategy document that needed another project to become useful. Every piece of material was built to be used as delivered: the packages are priced, the collateral is written, the digital assets are produced, and the sales process is defined step by step.
What it produced
- A single, consistent definition of what the firm sells and to whom.
- Pricing and packaging set in advance rather than per deal.
- Marketing and sales material ready to use as delivered.
- A prioritized order of pursuit across three years.
- A defined approach for winning work with an additional prime.
- A commercial process the firm can run without outside help.
The concentration problem now has a method behind it. Adding a second prime is no longer an aspiration waiting on the right introduction; it is a named target in a specific sub-segment with positioning, material and a sequence of steps attached to it. The same is true of the tiered supplier network, where the firm can now approach a supplier knowing where it fits and what it is offering before the first conversation.
The internal change matters as much. Proposals no longer start from nothing, scope conversations start from a defined package, and everyone in the business describes the company the same way.
We remain engaged with the firm to refine the plan as it meets the market, provide strategic guidance, and produce new assets as the work calls for them.
