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Business Development, Sales and Marketing in IT Industry

• Course name: Business Development, Sales and Marketing in IT Industry
• Code discipline: S22
• Subject area: all around marketing and sales in IT industry.

Short Description

This course contains two important for successful company parts: marketing and sales. These are the parts that are linked with each other - it is very difficult to sell without marketing support and it is very difficult to achieve results with marketing efforts only. Marketing part, starting from defining things like developing marketing strategy for the companies, finally offers practical tools of digital marketing. We will explore new digital reality and its impact on IT business. We will learn success stories of real businesses and how companies are adapting to the new changing landscape. The second part of the course covers important things for every company's success – the sales process. Understand how to attract customers in negotiations, how to “get to yes” getting great deals, how to control the sales funnel – you will get the understanding how it works and try it in practice.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite subjects

• HSS310

Prerequisite topics

• Basic IT industry knowledge
• Basic marketing knowledge

Course Topics

Course Sections and Topics

Section	Topics within the section
Marketing Strategy	Types of markets Product-centric marketing Customer-centric marketing Developing Marketing Strategy
Marketing tools	Brand&Presentation Analytics Content SMM Context advertising E-mail marketing
Sales	CRM systems B2B B2C Negotiations
Final Project Presentation	Presentation of marketing&sales strategy and tactics for startup

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

What is the main purpose of this course?

This course aims to give students the skills of developing a winning marketing strategy for a startup, as well as the skills to implement marketing strategy using real digital-marketing tools and sales tactics for a startup product.

ILOs defined at three levels

Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Develop naming, presentation, and product offer
• Use digital marketing tools
• Use CRM
• Sell its product

Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Skills of market type identification
• Skills in developing naming, presentations, product offerings
• Skills of context advertising
• Skills of SMM doing
• Skills of content marketing
• Skills of e-mail marketing

Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Skills for valuation the market environment
• Skills how to find the right addressable market for its product
• Skills of web analytics
• Skills of CRM using
• Sales skills to various types of clients

Grading

Course grading range

Grade	Range	Description of performance
A. Excellent	90-100	Pass
B. Good	75-89	Pass
C. Satisfactory	60-74	Pass
D. Fail	0-59	Fail

Course activities and grading breakdown

Activity Type	Percentage of the overall course grade
Seminar classes	40
Interim performance assessment on the results of lecture assignments and its presentations	30
Final presentation	30

Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course

The student is recommended the following scheme of preparation for classes:
Marketing and sales are much more about hypothesis testing and math, than creativity. Therefore, it is so important for students to try the acquired knowledge in real practice, doing small tasks after each lecture.
Finally, we will try to assemble a working strategy for a startup from these tasks.
Moreover:
Participation is important. Showing up is the key to success in this course.
Reading the recommended literature is optional, and will give you a deeper understanding of the material.

Resources, literature and reference materials

Open access resources

• Андрей Кравченко. Неидеальная стратегия для идеальной компании.
• Peter Fader. Customer Centricity.

Closed access resources

• Viktor Pelevin. Empire V.
• W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne. Blue Ocean Strategy.
• Eric ries. Lean startup.
• Simon Kingsnorth. Digital Marketing Strategy.
• Chet Holmes. The Ultimate Sales Machine.

Software and tools used within the course

• Standard office tools for Tables, Text and Presentation

Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities

Activities and Teaching Methods

Teaching and Learning Methods within each section

Teaching Techniques	Section 1	Section 2	Section 3	Section 4
Problem-based learning (students learn by solving open-ended problems without a strictly-defined solution)	1	1	1	1
Project-based learning (students work on a project)	1	1	1	1
Business game (learn by playing a game that incorporates the principles of the material covered within the course).	1	1	1	1
Task-based learning	1	1	1	1

Activities within each section

Learning Activities	Section 1	Section 2	Section 3	Section 4
Lectures	1	1	1	0
Interactive Lectures	1	1	1	0
Lab exercises	1	1	1	0
Cases studies	1	1	1	0
Individual Projects	1	1	1	1
Peer Review	1	1	1	1
Discussions	1	1	1	1
Presentations by students	1	1	1	1
Written reports	1	1	1	1
Simulations and role-plays	1	1	1	1
Experiments	0	1	1	0
Group projects	0	0	0	1

Formative Assessment and Course Activities

Ongoing performance assessment

Section 1

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
after lecture assignments	Define target audience and describe type of market for your product.	1
after lecture assignments	Make 3 cusdev with potential/existing customers of your product.	1
after lecture assignments	Develop your marketing strategy and present it in-class.	1

Section 2

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
after lecture assignments	Write a marketing article about your product or technology in the informational style manner.	1
after lecture assignments	Create a landing page for your product and connect it to Yandex Metrica or Google Analytics.	1
after lecture assignments	Create a semantic core for your product and determine the current positions on your landing page. Determine key marketing metrics, including conversion rate, on your landing page.	1

Section 3

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
after lecture assignments	Create the sales funnel of your product and present it in-class.	1
after lecture assignments	Create the budget for your marketing and sales activities and approve it with management.	1
in-class exercise	“Sell me the pen” exercise.	1

Final assessment

Section 1

1. For the final assessment, students have to prepare a full project of marketing and sales promotion of their IT product and present it on the exam. The project should contain the next parts:
2. The idea of your product/service.
3. Define your market.
4. Analise what type of market.
5. Target segment, who should we talk to?
6. What is your main message(s)?
7. What should we do to achieve the addressable market?
8. Brand promotion, knowledge, interest, coverage, sales etc.
9. Media design.
10. How should we say it? Creative strategy&content.
11. Channel (media) strategy.
12. How do we reach them? Evidence on a real case.
13. Budget.
14. Money for promotion.
15. How to close deals. Evidence on a real case.
16. Measurement.
17. How we control the result. Evidence on a real case.

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

The retake exam

Section 1

1. .3 The retake exam.
2. For the retake, students have to implement a product and follow the guidelines of the course. There has to be a meeting before the retake itself to plan and agree on the product ideas, and to answer questions.

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4