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Sales Playbook Section 7: Axiom Space Facility Tours
All of Axiom Space. These requests are company-wide, and all requests are handled by the Revenue Events Team.
Best Practice: Book your tour a minimum of three weeks in advance. Tour visitors may be approved for more than one Axiom Space facility. They are REQUIRED to be always escorted by their Axiom Space Host.
The Axiom Space Host is the person who requested the tour or someone they've designated. As a salesperson requesting the tour, you should do you best to be present at the tour you've requested and be prepared with a presentation for your group. The tour should enhance our sales goal, not be the main focus.
Axiom Space offers a limited number of onsite, in-person tours for groups and individuals on an advance reservation basis. The approval process is in place to ensure we’re utilizing resources correctly to help achieve sales goals, and make sure we’re not overwhelming our facilities. These are, at best, disruptive to our coworkers at all locations and we try to limit that as much as possible.
In addition, we must be aware that those requesting tours may not always have the best intentions in mind. Tours are classified as a risk to our business for a couple of reasons:
- Corporate Espionage
- Our guests could possibly be exposed to Axiom Space trade secrets or have ill intent to gather intel for one of our competitors.
- Intellectual Property
- If our IP is exposed to too large an audience, there’s a chance it could no longer be considered Axiom Space IP. We want to limit who sees our advancements at SSDF and Gemini as much as possible.
Tour Tiers
- Tier 3: VVIP - Investors, Delegates, Royalty, Customers with a Proposal
- Tier 2: VIP - Current Customers
- Tier 1: Community Groups, Vendors, Educational Organizations, Family & Friends
These requests reach far beyond the Revenue team when it comes to implementation. Depending on the tier, several teams across Axiom are activated to make sure we deliver a great guest experience. The tables below highlight what groups are impacted at each Axiom facility based on tour tier.
Best practice: These requests should be made mindfully with a purpose for moving the sale forward. As such, Revenue should concentrate on Tier 3 requests only.
| Tier 3 | |||
| Executive Team | Headquarters | SSDF | Gemini |
|
Executive EAs Executive Team CEO President CTO VP of Station VP of EVA Executive Director of Station Strategic Partnerships |
Receptionist Revenue Operations MI&O MCC-A Tour Guide Selection |
Receptionist Tour Guides Avionics Lab Manager Machine Shop Lab Manager ECLSS Lab Manager Structures Lab Manager Payloads Lab Manager Propulsion Lab Manger Crew Systems Lab Manager |
Tour Guides Suite Lab Manager Soft Goods Lab Manager Suit Testing Lab Manager SWIMME Lab Manager Facilities Team Security Team |
| Tier 2 | |||
| Executive Team | Headquarters | SSDF | Gemini (dependent on availability) |
|
Executive EAs Executive Team CTO (case-by-case) VP of Station (case-by-case) VP of EVA (case-by-case) Executive Director of Station Strategic Partnerships |
Receptionist Revenue Operations MI&O MCC-A |
Receptionist Avionics lab manager Machine Shop lab manager ECLSS lab manager Structures lab manager Payloads lab manager Propulsion lab manager Crew Systems lab manager |
Suit lab manager Soft goods lab manager Suit testing lab manager SWIMME lab manager Facilities team Security team |
| Tier 1 | |
| Headquarters | SSDF |
|
Receptionist Revenue Operations |
Receptionist Facilities Team Security Team |
Developing and Requesting a Tour
- Determine the Purpose and Sales Objective: First determine the purpose for the visit and identify who the audience is. If an executive is attending the tour, sales objectives are required for the tour brain book. If an executive isn’t attending, you should still have objectives that align with our overall sales goals. Questions to consider:
- How is this tour moving the needle for sales objectives?
- What is the ideal outcome from this tour?
- What specific questions do you need the executive assigned to this tour to ask?
- Identify the Axiom Space Host: The Axiom Space Host (AX Host) is the day-of point of contact (POC) and escort for the visitor. The salesperson requesting the tour should make every effort to be in attendance with the tour guests. If you’re unable to join, it is the responsibility of the requestor to find a suitable alternative and brief them on the objectives of the tour.
- Identify the Participants: Identify the individuals who will be on the tour, including both internal and external guests. This will help identify the group size.
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- For groups greater than 10, they will be divided into smaller groups. One Axiom Space Host will need to be provided per group.
- Check the AX Events calendar to identify dates that are available for tours. Other tours and blackout dates will be noted on the calendar.
Best Practice: No more than three (3) scheduled tours a week, with only one (1) tour scheduled per day.
-
- If you do not have visibility to the AX Events calendar, you may need to add it in Outlook.
- Navigate to your Outlook calendar
- Select “add calendar” icon from the left panel. Depending on your version of Outlook it may also be along the top navigation bar.
- In the pop-up choose “Add from directory”
- Select your email address in the account drop-down
- In the next field, search for “Axevents” and select once it pops up
- Add to your preferred calendar. “Other Calendars” is suggested.
- If you do not have visibility to the AX Events calendar, you may need to add it in Outlook.
- Submit a Request: In the Axiom Space Visitors Request form, provide all details such as preferred date and time and duration of tour, the number and names of the guests, the purpose of the tour, sales objective (if execs are attending) and any other relevant information requested.
Tours approved 48 hours after request submitted.
- Approval Process: The request will be reviewed and approved or denied based on availability of the facilities, team members, clearance of guests and time constraints. Best Practice: The Events and Guest Experience team will respond within 48 hours.
-
- If there are complications with approving the tour, the Revenue Events team will contact the identified AX Host with questions to help with getting the tour approved.
- Scheduled Tour: Once the request has been approved, the tour will be scheduled and the AX Host will be notified of the details, including the date, time, and location of the tour, as well as any additional information or instructions.
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- An agenda will be drafted by Revenue Operations, with provided information from the requestor, based on availability of locations and will be the guide for the AX Host for Tier 2 or Tier 3 tours.
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- Your scheduled tour will be placed on the AX Events calendar.
- Communication with Guests: It is the responsibility of the AX Host to confirm the attendance of their guests and ensure they are aware of the date, time, and location of the tour.
- Communication with Revenue Events Team: It is the responsibility of the AX Host to inform the Revenue Events team of any changes to the Tour visitor schedule.
- Prepare for the Tour: The Tour Requester should prepare for the tour by gathering any necessary material including, but not limited to swag. Please note, any needs beyond that of the tour approval or walking tour agenda falls to the Tour Requester. This includes, but is not limited to booking conference rooms, creating a welcome or post tour program and even providing meals.
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- Note: All tour experiences are conducted in English.
Tour Follow Up
How are you moving the relationship along after the tour? As is the same with any sales conversation, before your guests leave, the next steps should be identified, and all parties should be on the same page about how to move forward.
- Is there a follow-up meeting scheduled?
- Do you owe them a proposal or additional information?
- Have you entered notes and next actions in HubSpot?
By adhering to these best practices, we can ensure that we’re not overloading, and interrupting, our internal resources, and these resources are being used for the most important sales purposes. Thanks in advance for your cooperation with these guidelines.