Business Development skill

Business Development

Workflow

1. Partner Identification

Scoring matrix — rate each potential partner 1-5:

Weighted score > 3.5 = pursue. 2.5-3.5 = nurture. < 2.5 = skip.

2. Outreach Sequences

Compliance-first outbound — read before sending anything. B2B cold email is not exempt from the law. Get these right or you risk fines, domain blacklisting, and platform bans. None of this is legal advice — confirm with counsel for your jurisdictions and verify current rules at the official sources below.

Lawful basis & consent (by region):

Hard rules for every cold message:

• Document a lawful basis before adding a contact (legitimate interest assessment for EU/UK; note the source the data came from). Never email scraped consumer/personal addresses.
• One-click unsubscribe in every email, plus a working List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post header (RFC 8058). Honor opt-outs immediately and add to a permanent suppression list that every future sequence checks.
• Include a real physical mailing address (CAN-SPAM) and identify who you are / why you're reaching out (transparency duty under GDPR Art. 14).
• Suppress existing customers, open opportunities, competitors, and anyone who previously unsubscribed before any send.
• Personalize at least one line with a specific, verifiable observation — generic merge-tag blasts both convert worse and read as spam to filters.

Deliverability (so touches actually land — 2026 practice):

• Authenticate the sending domain: SPF, DKIM, and a DMARC policy with alignment. Google/Yahoo (since 2024) and Microsoft Outlook (rolled out 2025) require this plus one-click unsubscribe for bulk senders — those crossing ~5,000 messages/day to that provider — but apply the same hygiene below that threshold. Verify yours at a DMARC checker before any campaign.
• Use a dedicated/subdomain sender (e.g. outreach.yourco.com), not your primary domain, so a reputation hit doesn't burn your main email.
• Warm new mailboxes for 2–4 weeks and cap volume: a fresh inbox should send ~20–40/day ramping up; keep cold volume modest per mailbox/day and split across mailboxes rather than blasting from one.
• Keep spam complaint rate < 0.1% (Google's recommended target; 0.3% is the Gmail/Yahoo enforcement ceiling, verify current values at the postmaster docs). Pause and diagnose if bounces or complaints spike.
• Send plain-text-leaning emails, minimal links, no tracking-pixel-heavy templates, no misleading subject lines.

LinkedIn limits (as of Jun 2026 — verify against current LinkedIn terms, automation tooling is against ToS):

• Connection requests are rate-limited (LinkedIn has enforced a weekly cap, commonly cited around ~100–200/week and lower for new/free accounts). Treat any hard number as approximate and ramp slowly — over-limit behavior triggers temporary restrictions or bans.
• Don't use unauthorized automation/scraping tools; they risk permanent account loss. Manual, personalized connects + comments only.

When to STOP outreach (do not keep "nurturing"):

• They asked to stop, replied "not interested", or unsubscribed → suppress permanently.
• Email hard-bounced → remove the address.
• Out-of-office / "I've left the company" → update CRM, re-route, don't keep emailing that person.
• After the 5-touch sequence with no engagement → move to Closed-Recycle and revisit in a quarter at most, not weekly.

Cold partner outreach (5-touch, 14 days):

Every email below assumes the footer carries your physical address + one-click unsubscribe, and the contact has cleared the lawful-basis check above. Keep tone peer-to-peer (partnership, not a sales blast).

Touch 1 (Day 0) — Value-first intro
Subject: [Their product] + [Your product] = [specific outcome]

Hi [Name],

[One sentence showing you understand their business].
I think there's a natural fit between [their product] and [yours]
— specifically, [concrete integration/co-marketing idea].

[One sentence on what's in it for them — traffic, revenue, feature gap filled].

Worth a 15-min call to explore?

[Your name]

Touch 2 (Day 3) — Case study/proof
Subject: Re: [original subject]

Quick follow-up — [similar partnership] drove [specific result]
for [company]. Thought the model could work for us too.

Happy to share the details.

Touch 3 (Day 7) — LinkedIn engagement
Connect + comment on their recent post with genuine insight.
Then DM: "Sent you an email about [topic] — would love your take."

Touch 4 (Day 10) — New angle
Subject: Different thought on [their challenge]

Noticed [specific observation about their product/content].
We solved that for [X customers] with [approach].
Could be a co-marketing story worth telling.

Touch 5 (Day 14) — Breakup
Subject: Closing the loop

Totally understand if timing isn't right.
I'll keep an eye on [their product] — if you ever want
to explore [partnership type], I'm here.

3. Deal Pipeline

Closed-Lost and Closed-Recycle (no response / bad timing — revisit next quarter) are terminal stages; Omitted forecast category for those. Calibrate probabilities to your own historical stage→won conversion rather than trusting these defaults — re-derive quarterly.

CRM fields to implement (HubSpot deal / Salesforce opportunity / Notion DB). Map these to a custom "Partnership" pipeline/record type:

Stall / exit automation an agent can build: flag any deal where next_step_date is past, or stage age exceeds the typical-duration band; auto-move no-response Outreach deals to Closed-Recycle after the 5-touch sequence (§2).

4. Partnership Models

The split ranges below are typical starting points, not benchmarks — actual numbers swing widely with deal size, who owns onboarding/support, churn risk, services burden, and region. Use the worksheet that follows to set a defensible number for your deal.

Partner economics worksheet — compute before you commit to a split. Don't anchor on a range; model the unit economics:

Inputs (fill per deal):
  ACV                         = annual contract value of a closed customer ($)
  Gross margin %              = your product gross margin (e.g. 0.80 for 80%)
  Partner share %             = the split you're considering (e.g. 0.20)
  Recurring?                  = does partner share apply year 1 only, or every renewal year?
  Activation rate             = % of partner-sourced leads that become paying customers
  Annual logo churn           = % of those customers lost per year
  Incremental support cost    = $/customer/yr you bear from this channel (support, onboarding)
  Your CAC via this channel   = your cost to enable + co-market per closed deal ($)

Derived:
  Gross profit / customer / yr      = ACV × Gross margin %
  Partner cost / customer (yr 1)    = ACV × Partner share %
  Net margin to you (yr 1)          = Gross profit − Partner cost − Incremental support cost − (CAC amortized)
  Customer lifetime (yrs)           = 1 / Annual logo churn         (e.g. churn 0.20 ⇒ 5 yrs)
  LTV to you                        = Σ over lifetime of (Gross profit − recurring partner cost − support cost)
  Channel LTV:CAC                   = LTV to you / Your CAC via this channel   (aim ≳ 3:1)

Decision rules:
  • If recurring partner share makes multi-year LTV:CAC < 3:1 → cap the share to year 1, or lower %.
  • If partner owns support/onboarding → they justifiably take a larger share (you saved that cost).
  • If activation rate is low/unproven → start with a referral (pay on closed-won) before a margin-heavy reseller deal.
  • Tier the split: higher % above an annual volume threshold to reward producers; floor it for stragglers.
  • Cross-check any number against gross margin — never give away a share that pushes a segment below your target contribution margin.

5. Partnership Agreement Essentials

Not legal advice — these are the clauses to raise with counsel. Templates from a US perspective; localize for your governing law.

Commercial terms:

• Revenue share % / margin and payment terms (net 30/60), invoicing cadence, and clawback for refunds/chargebacks.
• Exclusivity scope — explicit non-exclusivity by default; if exclusive, bound it by territory, segment, and time, tied to performance minimums.
• Term, renewal, and termination — initial term, auto-renew vs. opt-in renewal, termination for cause vs. convenience (30–60 day notice), and a transition/termination-assistance clause (data export, customer handoff, wind-down of co-branded assets).
• Performance minimums / SLAs (if applicable) and what happens on a miss.

Data protection & privacy (B2B SaaS, mid-2026): "GDPR" alone is not enough.

• Data Processing Agreement (DPA) defining controller/processor (or joint-controller) roles, processing purposes, and instructions.
• Subprocessor terms — disclosure, approval/objection rights, and flow-down obligations.
• Cross-border transfer mechanism — EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) + UK International Data Transfer Addendum (IDTA); document transfer impact assessments where required.
• Multi-regime coverage: GDPR, UK GDPR/PECR, CCPA/CPRA (service-provider language, no "sale/share" of personal info), plus any sectoral rules (HIPAA BAA, etc.) the partner's customers trigger.
• AI / data-use restrictions — explicitly state whether either party may use shared or customer data to train or fine-tune AI models; default to no training on the other party's data without separate written consent. Address model outputs, IP in prompts, and confidentiality of data fed to third-party LLMs.
• Breach notification timelines and cooperation duties.

Risk, liability & security:

• Mutual confidentiality / NDA terms and survival.
• Security exhibit — minimum controls (encryption in transit/at rest, access control, SOC 2 / ISO 27001 attestation), audit rights or right to request reports, and a vendor security review before go-live.
• Indemnification (IP infringement, data breach, gross negligence) — ideally mutual.
• Limitation of liability with a stated cap (e.g. fees paid in trailing 12 months) and carve-outs (confidentiality, data breach, IP indemnity, willful misconduct) that sit outside the cap.
• Insurance requirements (cyber, E&O) for larger deals.

IP, co-selling & attribution:

• IP ownership of background IP vs. co-created/jointly-developed assets; license grants for use of each other's marks (trademark usage guidelines).
• Co-selling rules — deal registration, lead/opportunity attribution, no-poach of each other's customers/employees (where lawful), and conflict resolution for contested deals.
• Support ownership — who is L1/L2/L3 for shared customers, response SLAs, and escalation path.
• Marketing approval — mutual sign-off on press/case studies and use of logos.

5b. Negotiation Playbook

Run every meaningful partnership through this before you're at the table. Goal: a durable deal, not a "won" one.

1. Prep — know your numbers and your walk-away:

• Objectives, ranked: separate must-haves (e.g. non-exclusive, liability cap, no AI-training on our data) from nice-to-haves (e.g. logo on their homepage). Write a target / acceptable / walk-away value for each.
• BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement): what you do if this deal dies — another partner, build it yourself, do nothing. A weak BATNA means concede less aggressively and create more value; a strong BATNA means you can hold firm. Estimate theirs too.
• ZOPA: the overlap between your walk-away and theirs. If there's no overlap on a must-have, the deal isn't there — stop early.
• Anchor first on terms where you have data (your worksheet output), and let them anchor where you lack information.

2. Give/Get matrix — trade, never just concede. For every ask you grant, name what you get back:

3. Redline priorities (where to actually fight): liability cap + carve-outs, indemnity scope, data-use/AI-training restrictions, exclusivity, IP ownership of co-created work, termination + transition assistance, auto-renewal. Concede readily on cosmetic items (logo placement, announcement timing). Keep a concession log so you never give the same thing twice and can show net give/get at the end.

4. Approval thresholds (deal desk) — define who can sign off on what before negotiating:

5. Mutual Action Plan (MAP): co-author a dated plan with the partner — milestones, owners, and dates from term sheet → signature → integration/launch → first joint customer. It surfaces stalls early and signals mutual commitment.

6. Deal-desk pre-signature checklist:

• Partner cleared scoring + economics worksheet (LTV:CAC ≳ 3:1)
• All must-have terms met; concession log reconciled (net give/get acceptable)
• Liability cap + carve-outs and indemnity reviewed by Legal
• DPA/SCCs/security exhibit attached; AI/data-use clause confirmed
• Attribution + support ownership unambiguous
• Internal approvals captured per the threshold table
• Termination + transition-assistance clause present
• MAP agreed with named owners and dates

6. Co-Marketing Playbook

Joint activities by effort level. The "reach" column is purely illustrative — actual results depend entirely on each party's list size, audience quality, channel, offer, and promotion effort. Do not present these as expected results; instead, set targets from your partner's real audience (e.g. "registrants ≈ combined relevant list size × historical webinar opt-in rate") and agree how leads are split before launch.

Lead-sharing rules to agree up front: who owns the opt-in list, how shared leads are attributed in each CRM, what the follow-up SLA is, and that any contacts exchanged still require their own lawful basis + opt-out (see §2 compliance). For amplifying co-marketing on social, see the social-media-growth sibling skill.

7. Tracking & Reporting

Monthly BD dashboard:

• Pipeline value by stage
• Conversion rate stage-to-stage
• Average deal cycle length
• Revenue from partnerships (direct + influenced)
• Partner satisfaction score (quarterly NPS)

Per-partner tracking:

• Leads referred (both directions)
• Revenue generated
• Integration usage (if applicable)
• Support tickets from partner customers
• Co-marketing campaign performance