Pitching and Closing: Everything You Need to Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter

  • 4h 31m
  • Alex Taub, Ellen DaSilva
  • McGraw-Hill
  • 2014

Corporations have profited from strong business development strategies for years. So it's no surprise that of the half-million new businesses created each year, the most successful ones are driven by business development. Now, savvy professionals on the business side of a startup have a reliable guide to perfecting the partnership strategies that will quickly add value to any company.

Pitching & Closing gives you concrete action steps for mastering the specific skill set today's business-development professionals need to define their roles and meet revenue expectations. Written in practical terms by playmakers at Twitter and SocialRank, this A-to-Z guide walks you through forging relationships, pitching a company's product, building a network, sourcing deals, making rejection positive, and staying cool while closing large deals. Firsthand accounts from business development executives across many industries, from tech to television to finance, bring to life such topics as:

  • How to consistently identify and land the best strategic alliances for your business
  • Why people say "yes" and why they say "no"
  • Etiquette for making introductions and reaching out to people in ways that elicit responses
  • Monitoring core metrics to know where to invest your time

In addition to implementable advice and techniques from the top minds in the industry, this complete resource features an entire section of best practices for every step of the partnering process. Make your moves with the confidence of having a team of experts at your back.

The road from startup to IPO starts with Pitching & Closing.

About the Authors

Alex Taub is the cofounder of SocialRank, a tool that helps brands find out better information about the people who follow them on social networks. Alex previously led business development and partnerships for online integrations at Dwolla, one of the fastest growing startups in the country. Alex contributes to the Forbes Entrepreneur section twice a month.

Ellen DaSilva is a senior analyst of the business operations team at Twitter, which strategically targets revenue opportunities for -the company. Ellen's past positions include investment banking at Barclays Capital and financial planning at Hillary Clinton for President.

In this Book

  • Pitching and Closing—Everything You Need to Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter
  • Introduction
  • What Is Business Development?
  • Types of Business Development
  • BD Team Structure
  • Business Development Versus Sales
  • Networking
  • International BD
  • Finding Your BD Mentor
  • APIs and BD
  • A Career in BD
  • Digital Identity
  • Understanding Other Companies
  • Four Golden Rules of Partnerships
  • Three Types of Partnerships
  • Identifying the Right Person at the Partner Company
  • Partner Feedback
  • Doing a Deal Versus Doing the Best Deal
  • Sincere Selling
  • Vapor Sales
  • Pipelines and Prepitch Execution
  • Making the Pitch and Closing the Deal
  • The Legality of Deal Making: Contracts and Beyond
  • Launching Deals and Compounding Effects
  • Keeping the Deal
  • Introductions: Best Practices
  • Reaching Out and Corresponding
  • Following Up and Other Best Practices for Correspondence
  • Persistence
  • Rejection
  • Being Helpful and Adding Value
  • Feeling the Pulse of the Market
  • The “Shiny Things” Disease
  • Internal Communication
  • Working with Big Companies
  • Working with the Press
  • “Launch Partner” Strategy
  • Turning a Nice to Have into a Need to Have
  • Introduction to War Stories
  • Large-Company BD: Kristal Bergfield
  • Entrepreneurship and BD: Scott Britton
  • The Ultimate Connector: Charlie O’Donnell
  • BD and the Legal World: Richard Bloom
  • Trendsetter Partnerships: Gary Vaynerchuk
  • From BD to Founder: Tristan Walker
  • Day 1 Entrepreneur: Shaival Shah
  • Dorm Room Deal Maker: Andrew N. Ferenci
  • Sports, Private Jets, and Philanthropy: Jesse Itzler
  • Music BD and International Relations: Zeeshan Zaidi
  • Banking to BD: Nicole Cook
  • BD and Sales: Eric Friedman
  • Intern to VP: Erin Pettigrew
  • Sources
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