This is a course on Marketing strategies and techniques to win business customers over. It is designed to provide marketing (and management) students with a full set of marketing competencies, beyond the traditional business-to-consumers marketing. In addition, it provides a window in how companies really work and think about their success. In today's globalized economies, Business-to-Business marketing is a fundamental knowledge asset for any marketer and business students; a competence in high demand, as companies need professionals with this knowledge. Previous students of this course have found internships across various industries and functions very quickly.

This course will bring students through a fascinating journey, from understanding business buying behavior, their needs, their decision making process, and the crucial impact that the Business-to-Business Marketing has by collaborating with the Sales team to jointly drive revenue and profit generation. It will provide the theoretical backbone of Business to Business Marketing, the frameworks and tools used in today's sophisticated B2B marketing management and real-world experience..

The content is organized around the following areas:

1) In the first part, we will understand business customers: an in-depth understanding of their needs, their rational, value-driven decision making processes, the stakeholders involved and how to build relationships

2) The second one will cover a fundamental aspect of B2B marketing: the crucial collaboration between Marketing and Sales. It is a deep dive into the real world of supporting Sales in closing deals. This marketing-sales relationship is nowhere as strong as in B2B contexts. The section will bring you through a learning journey of understanding how B2B marketing teams guide and enable the sales team to deal with each customer in the most appropriate; will address the crucial process of Sales pipeline, the key activities that Marketing does to guide Sales during the whole process from selecting the most promising and strategic customers that the Sales team should focus on, to contributing to identifying value creation for each customer, to deal closure.

3) The third section will cover key, specific tactics of B2B marketing to generate leads for Sales, such as content marketing, Account-Based Marketing, effective use of email and social media, management of events and sponsorships. It will also address how B2B marketing leverages data to identify the most effective marketing tactics, including measurement of the success of marketing efforts, which will be explored in further details in the following section.

4) Finally, the course will also address how the global ecosystem and new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will impact the future of 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 emerging technology trends in making B2B marketing more and more effective

Class attendance is highly recommended as most of the topics are covered in-class with lectures, discussions, exercises, case studies; the study material is limited to instructor's slides.

Participation is demonstrated by active participation in discussions, questions, reflections, answers to professor's questions; attendance; extra activities like attending library workshops on Company and Industry research.
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 also mandatory. A student peer-review, to measure contribution of each team member to the final group projects might be part of the assessment of the final project 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

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

Week 2

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

Understanding Business Customers: Segmentation, targeting and positioning

Week 3

 Understanding the B2B Customer: needs, motivations and behaviors  

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

Week 4

First test: February 11

The Sales Pipeline and Sales Enablement by B2B Marketing part 1

Week 5        

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

Exercise: building a scoring model

Week 6

The Sales Pipeline and Sales enablement by B2B Marketing - part 2

"Golden rules" for best practice Sales enablement

Week 7

Review day before mid-term exam
Mid-term exam (March 6)

Week 8

Data-driven Marketing in B2B
Introduction to B2B Marketing tactics

Week 9

Content Marketing & marketing collaterals

Social Media Marketing in B2B; deep dive on how to use LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram for B2B marketing

Week 10

Email Marketing and traffic generation to company website through Search Engine Optimization

Events, Sponsorships and participation in Industry Associations

Week 11

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

Week 12

Briefing on the final exam (case study)
B2B in a global context 
Emerging digital and tech trends in B2B marketing; deep dive on Artificial Intelligence

Week 13
Q&A session on the final case study

Key take-aways from the course

Course feedback  

Week 14 

Presentations of final case study

Finals week: Feedback on the case study