If you don't mind me asking, what does a sales role within the defense industry entails? I am only familiar with the big expos and (sort of) public tenders for specific things like PPE
That is not at all how the defense industry works.
The military invented modern procurement, of which sales is an important part.
There might only be a handful of countries any one country will sell to (50-75) but each country will have multiple armed forces, potentially hundreds of police departments, government agencies etc. etc.
Then there are private companies that may be allowed defence related tech, such as non lethal area denial equipment for shipping or oil in hostile areas.
This is consistent wit my experience. The defense world is very different from the normal market. Defense contractors tend to be very big (Lockmart, Boeing, L3) or very very small and specialized. For example there is a cottage industry around Ft. Campbell that supplies custom gear to Army Special Forces on essentially a walk-in basis. Getting in to either side of the industry isn't exactly easy.
I don't really disagree with your criticisms, but I don't see them as direct rebuttals. For what it's worth, I work in the defense industry.
Edit: I should also mention I was writing this with regards to the challenges a new entrant to the defense industry would face (i.e. a company that wants to start selling to the military with no prior experience doing so).
1. I agree the military knows what they want. The problem is the military does not know what is possible. And they do not know what could be possible. In the past contractors came up with products (e.g. the sidewinder missile) that no one in the military was asking for, simply because they could not conceive of it. The engineers could conceive of it however and were able to build it and then sell it to them. This does not happen today.
The military can only ask about things it can imagine. It can't ask for things it can't imagine, and those are the things that ultimately lead to breakthroughs in warfighting ability.
2. If you are not Raytheon or Lockheed or whoever you aren't going to get in the room with the people who make purchasing decisions. That's why I said you'd need to hire an executive from one of these companies. They have the relationships already and know who to talk to. I'm not saying it's literally impossible, just that it isn't going to happen in practice. If you wanted to sell something to say GM or Tesla you could get on LinkedIn or ask around for someone who could put you in touch with someone high-up there. And if your product was interesting they would probably meet with you. Who do you even contact if you want to sell to the military? There are people, but no one is going to tell you who they are if you're just some random person with a company.
3. With regard to clearances. Let's say I'm developing some new weapon system. We're now dealing with classified information. So now everyone working on that needs a clearance. It is absolutely a barrier to getting new ideas off the ground because you need to wait > 1 year for the clearances to finish processing before they can start doing real work. There are a lot of smart people who could bring new ideas into the industry, but they basically have a choice between making a bunch of money working at a high paying job or doing make-work while they wait for everything to process. No surprise that many talented people choose to go work elsewhere.
Yeah defense contractors are a route I’ve been considering. I’ve sent out applications to a few but haven’t heard back yet. Thank you for the suggestion!
Out of curiosity, how _do_ you feel about having worked for a defense contractor and, separately, working for one again? What tradeoffs have you experienced (good and bad) moving from defense to non-defense industry?
I'm personally beginning to think there is a crossroads coming up for me and would value your perspectives if you have time to share. Thanks!
Not a founder but I'm an early stage employee at a company that manufactures dual use rugged hardware. We know that products like ours get used in defense, but we focus on industrial only. There are some companies out there with nearly identical products that sell exclusively to defense, however unlike us, all of the senior leadership are veterans/former officers and or former employees of 3 letter agencies.
Even if you have a great product, you need people familiar with the culture, the language, the systems, etc.
I recently met with a group of consultants who specialize in helping companies enter defense markets. Theyre selling point was that their customers (companies trying to get into defense) typically get a PO within 12 months of engaging their services.
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