By now, everyone who has read this blog for any time at all realizes that one of the hats I wear is that I lecture in the School of Engineering's ELS (Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies) program at Tufts.

Jack, the Professor, & David Meerman Scott, The Guru of Inbound   

For the last 7 years, Spring, for me, has been marked by watching the Hill come alive with students shrugging off the last vestiges of the winter, while I worry about how this semester's six student teams are going to finish their semester-long projects and present their marketing plans perfectly to their management teams in a short number of weeks.  One thing about teaching that one learns very quickly, just like in Sales, is that there is no elasticity in the end of the semester when you're teaching...or the end of the quarter or the month, when you're a salesperson

It's also always a tight squeeze with balancing the requirements of final exams in other classes and all of the students' various graduation activities, but it always gets done...and, the results are always successful, both for the management of the six companies and, of course, for the students

The key to this course's success is the fact that it combines bright, highly committed juniors and seniors with real-life. complex marketing assignments. Many of these projects take the form of developing detailed marketing plans for new products or services, both strategic and tactical, while other projects are analytical and research-focused research projects. 

Last semester, the Inbound Markerting guru, David Meerman Scott stopped by to say hello.  Reading David's book, The New Rules of PR & Marketing and learning to use the Hubspot COS platform are just two of the critical requirements for success in this class.

Now I'm starting to get prepared for my fall marketing course...

A syllabus along with the project outlines are sent to the students in early July with the requirement that they do research on the companies and quickly define in writing before they come to the first class during the first week of September, exactly why they should be accepted into the class to work on any of these particular projects. This is a very desired course, and currently, I have 46 students signed up among the categories of Registered, the official "Wait List" and then the longer, unoffical "Wait-Wait List"., I need to bring total attendance down to no more than 32 by the end of the first class in September, and the summer homework of reviewing project plans, doing research on the companies and completing reading assignments constitute the means through which I measure the motivation and committment of students coming into the course.

The structure of the process always works, and, most importantly, very often this course becomes the most influential in the students' college experience, simply because of the fact that it introduces them to the inner workings of senior management teams who are deailing with the real life experiences of launching new products, assessing market opportunities and creating multi-faceted marketing campaigns.

Paige Dahlman, this extraordinary student from last semester, who is now a graduating senior and has been the Captain of the Tufts Squash Team, writes..." I can easily say that this was my most rewarding class at Tufts".  Each semester I get a number of similar notes, which, I hope points a little bit to my teaching style and to the content, but, I know that the most impactful component of this course is its unique structure of directly connecting bright students to work with senior management teams who have a need to explore a new marketing or product idea.

84

We've now completed 84 projects for companies which have ranged from Raytheon and Fidelity, to startup tech and apparel companies, to well established growth consumer companies, such as Paytronix and Stratton Resort, boith of whom were looking for the unique perspectives of Millennials.  One company has returned six times, four companies, four times...and so on.  And no one has been disappointed!

No Later Than June 15th, Please...

 If you're interested in applying to be part of this very rewarding project, just let me know by email NO LATER THAN JUNE 15TH, and I will send you the instructions of what is expected of both the companies and the students.  At the end of the semester, the company's management  teams will come to Tufts for 60 minute presentations where they will also receive all of the  project material, research data and recommendations that have been prepared.   

This deadline of June 15th does not mean that the project details need to be completed by that time.  You have until September 1st do that. 

 What I do need to do is to be able to send to the students in early July a syllabus along with a package of information that includes...

• A paragraph or two on the company and especially on its customer focus. 
• Who are the existing customer personas?
• An outline, in as much detail as you can provide, of the assignment.  
• Contact information of the project leader 

It's a superbly rewarding experience...

Both for you in the added depth that you will achieve in your marketing plans, and for the students as they become introduced to the senior management from real world companies.  In a number of cases, our students go on to work as interns and employees from their host companies.  For example, we have 27 alums from this course who have gone on to work at HubSpot including some of their top salespeople, 9 at Brainshark-a number of which have now been promoted to management positions, 5 at Paytronix, 9 at Sapient Nitro, 5 at Hill Holliday, 5 at NetSuite...and the list goes on and on from large corporations, to both the Patriots (3) and the Red Sox (4), and to countless tech startups as a direct assistance of my venture friends in the city and especially as a result of James' and Maia's mentorship at Common Angels.

If you're interested, you can...

-just email me, and I will send along the instructions, complete with logistics and dates for the fall 

-just pick up the phone and call my cell at 617-504-4222 toward the end of the day

-we can figure out with a few questions and answers whether this would work for you.  

In the meantime...

Good Selling!  

Just about 7 weeks left in what is to me, the most important and impactful quarter of the year.

Have specific sales questions that you want to bounce off me or any of the other Coach Partners, just email me.