This is a course of "Marketing to Business Customers". Nearly half of the world's economic exchanges take place between businesses. Nearly as much as the economic value of exchanges between businesses and consumers. A well-rounded marketer must learn how to strategize and execute marketing towards this half of the world, that generates so much value, so many jobs, and requires significantly different marketing concepts, skills, tactics and practices.

To bridge this gap, this course will bring you through a fascinating journey of understanding the complexity of business buying behavior, business needs, and how Marketing is crucial in supporting Sales and make a difference in the success of Industrial and B2B companies.

The overarching objective of the course is to provide the theoretical backbone of today’s Industrial/Business to Business Marketing, complemented by tools and practices can be used in day-to-day management, as well as real-world experience and examples from my 25 years of work across companies.

The course content is organized around the following areas:

In the first one, we will explore Business marketing and the differences vs. Customer marketing. This section includes an in-depth understanding of business customers, their needs, their complex decision making process, how to segment and target them. All of this requires skills that are never covered in any B2C marketing course.

The second one will cover a fundamental aspect of Industrial/B2B marketing: the alignment between Marketing and Sales. It is a deep dive into the real world of supporting Sales in closing deals. This relationship is nowhere as strong as in Industrial/B2B contexts. The section will bring you through a learning journey of understanding Sales Enablement by marketing, the Sales pipeline, the key activities that Marketing does to support Sales through every step of the sales process, from generating lists of potential customers, to customer qualification, to deal closure.

The third section will cover key, specific tactics of Industrial/B2B marketing such as content marketing, Account-Based Marketing, effective use of email and social media, importance of events to generate leads for Sales. We will also talk about data-drive marketing, measurement of the success of marketing efforts, which will be explored in further details in the following section.

The final section will look into the future and investigate the global nature of Industrial/B2B marketing and its evolutions as well as how new technologies will impact the future of Industrial/B2B Marketing.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

- Understand the characteristics of B2B marketing vs B2C Marketing

- Understand challenges and opoportunities in B2B Marketing

- Understand business buyer's behavior and decision making process

- Analyze the elements of a B2B marketing strategy

- Understand the fundamental role of B2B marketing in the sales process

- Understand key B2B marketing tactics and use of channels

- Learn how to use analytics in B2B marketing

- Understand the global context and the emerging trends of B2B marketing

Class attendance is highly recommended as most of the topics are covered in-class with instructor's slides, discussions, exercises.
An 80% participation rate is mandatory.
After 6 unexcused absences, the student will be unable to participate in the final project, losing all the points assigned to the final project.
Responsible and active contribution to group projects is mandatory. A student peer-review, to measure contribution of each team member to group projects might be part of the assessment of group assignments.
In case of an unexcused absence on the day of a graded assignment, the student will lose all the points of the graded assignment, unless absence is excused through a petition to the Dean's Office prior to the assessment day.

The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. 

Week 1: Sept 3 & 5

Introduction to the course and to B2B Marketing
Opportunities and challenges in B2B Marketing 

Week 2: Sept 10 & 12

The role of B2B Marketing and key elements of a B2B Marketing Strategy

Understanding Business Customers: Segmentation, targeting and positioning

Week 3: Sept 17, 19 & 20 (make up day for Thanksgiving)

 Understanding the B2B Customer: needs, motivations and behaviors part 1   

Understanding the B2B Customer: needs, motivations and behaviors part 2

Understanding Sales, the notion of "most important customers" and the relationship between Marketing and Sales

Week 4: Sept 24 & 26

First test (Sept 24)

The Sales Pipeline and Sales Enablement by B2B Marketing part 1

Week 5: Oct 1 & 3        

The Sales Pipeline and Sales Enablement by B2B Marketing part 1 cont'd: the scoring models

Exercise: building a scoring model

Week 6: Oct 8 & 10

The Sales Pipeline and Sales enablement by B2B Marketing - part 2; real-world example of research on an important prospect

"Golden rules" for best practice Sales enablement and short case study

Week 7: Oct 15 & 17

Review day before mid-term exam

Mid-Term exam (October 17)

Week 8: Oct 22 and 24

Data-driven B2B marketing
Introduction to Marketing tactics

Week 9: Oct 29 & 31

Content Marketing & marketing collaterals

Social Media Marketing

Week 10: Nov 5 & 7

Email Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

Events, Sponsorships and Industry Associations

Week 11: Nov 12 & 14

Account-based Marketing
Researching a key Account context, pain points and opportunities: class reading and discussion

Week 12: Nov 19 & 21

Briefing on the final case 
B2B in a global context 
Emerging digital and tech trends in B2B marketing

Week 13: Nov 26
Q&A session on the final case study

Key take-aways from the course

Course feedback  

Week 14: Dec 3 & 5

Reading and discussion: Communication, interactivity and satisfaction in B2B Relationships // Omnichannel in B2B Sales. The new normal in a year that has been nothing but

Presentations of final case study (Dec 5)

Finals week: Feedback on the case study