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.
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.
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!
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...
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...
Have specific sales questions that you want to bounce off me or any of the other Coach Partners, just email me.
Head Coach
Derby Management...for 25 years
-Sales & Marketing Productivity Experts
-Business & Strategy Planning Specialists
-Senior Management Coaching
-PE and Venture Fundraising
Box 171322, Boston, MA 02117
617-292-7101
Jack's Cell: 617-504-4222
Want to know more about Derby Management, click HERE
Plan now on attending our 2015 Sales Management Boot Camp held at the MIT Endicott House on October 4th-6th. Over 7 years of continuing success involving 450 plus heads of sales, President and CEOs. Discounts available registering before June 30th.