Heroes Behind the Scene: Meet Jetcraft’s Sales Engineering Team

The process of buying and selling private jets is not a simple one. There are many moving parts, including market research, aircraft valuations, visual reviews, logbook research, and marketing coordination that each play a pivotal role in the purchase or sale process. As each transaction usually totals in the millions, attention to detail is crucial at every stage.

Often, this whole process falls on the shoulders of a single sales representative. But Jetcraft has a dedicated team of eight professionals standing ready to undertake this arduous – but critical – mission.

“Clients expect one-to-one service when buying or selling a high value asset such as a jet,” says Jetcraft Sales Director Chris Brenner. “Our sales engineering team performs the necessary legwork, market research, value summaries and reviews involved with every transaction. This frees up the sales representative to focus exclusively on the customer and guide them through the transaction cycle, along with any potential buyer/seller that may become involved in the process.”

Since business aviation is a global industry, Jetcraft’s sales engineering team maintains a global presence with representatives in North America, Europe and Asia. With a ratio of one sales engineer to every two or three sales representatives, the team is able to give personalized attention and support to each representative who, in turn, is able to give more dedicated attention to each client.

While the sales engineering team provides an important function for both clients and sales representatives, the benefits are not a one way street. “Aviation is my passion and I get to see many great places,” said Sales Engineer John Schwartz. “My degree is in aviation management and I have a strong love of airplanes, so this position is truly a perfect fit.”

The job of sales engineer is not for everyone. It is fast paced, like the industry itself, and can require juggling several responsibilities at once. “People want the information now – not tomorrow,” remarks Schwartz.

A typical day for a sales engineer involves sorting through multiple email requests first thing in the morning. “I try to prioritize numerous requests based on who needs what and when they need it,” says Marius Breitenbach, a sales engineer based in Dallas. “When I am awake I am working.”  Breitenbach notes that given its global nature, business aviation is a 24/7 industry.

In addition to prioritizing ad-hoc daily requests from each of their assigned sales leads, a sales engineer is also responsible for regularly monitoring the marketing of each of their assigned listings and compiling consistent updates of such efforts for each seller. This also includes quantifying the value trends of their aircraft in the marketplace, researching inventory, creating various reports, and performing targeted industry research as needed.

Given the nature of the position, quite a bit of travelling may be required. Jetcraft reviews each and every jet that is being listed for sale prior to releasing it to the market, and every jet that is being purchased by a buyer represented by Jetcraft prior to the Letter of Intent being signed. “It is very important to see the aircraft yourself in order to educate the rest of the team as to the condition of the interior and exterior, records and logs, etc…” remarks Brenner.

A key component of the Jetcraft experience is a Value Thoughts Analysis. This packagae, compiled by the sales engineering team, has one goal – to determine a fair market value for aircraft being bought or sold, and in the process educate the buyer or seller as to how this value was arrived at. Included in the package is information on the aircraft’s overall history, value added options, condition and time on the market, current book values and market trends, recent sale comps, and predicted future trends. Once this is provided to a client they have a well-rounded view of the market as a whole and where their aircraft sits amongst the competition, and most importantly, what the recommendations are to be the next to sell and to achieve the greatest value.

Many of the sales engineering team members are recruited out of college or early on in their careers. Jetcraft is not afraid to invest in the training of talented and motivated people for the sales engineering team. “We see value in building our team from the ground up, our Sales Engineers are potentially the next sales people and leaders of this industry,” notes Brenner.

Sales engineers have their finger on the pulse of the business aviation industry and are a critical component of the Jetcraft team.

Pictured at top: The Sales Engineer team has a round table meeting with the Marketing team at the annual staff retreat. The two groups work together very closely.

Pictured top right: Chris Brenner and Marius Breitenbach review aircraft logs for a client.