This is the first of a section on building the "soft skills" required to excel in business development, all of the underlying understand that is somewhat of a prerequisite to doing a deal. Here, we talk negotiation.

How do you develop meaningful relationships? Some folks are naturally gifted in this department, but it can be taught. This lesson walks you through the process of fostering meaningful relationships.

Business development requires you to be meticulously productive. From email to task management, this lesson takes you through the basics of becoming more productive in a work environment.

In the function of business development, you'll likely have quite a few meetings -- both with fellow employees and external partners. This lesson walks you through how to get the most of our your next meeting.

The problem with partnership opportunities is that many look the same at face value. How do you determine which opportunities are worth pursuing? This lesson offers some things to think about when evaluating.

In business development, you'll likely be attending quite a few conferences. This lesson offers the secrets to getting the most out of your next conference.

It's hard to hit a target you can't see. the same holds true for business development. Your plan of attack is arguably the most important piece. This lesson walks you through the process of creating a business development plan.

This is a template to work off of (with our actual data at Moz), to help you in crafting your own business development plan.

Once you have your plan created, it's time to start executing. This lesson takes you through the art of prospecting, finding the right companies and people to engage with.

Most of the time, email addresses of the people you want to get in touch with aren't readily available. So you'll need to get creative. This is my fool-proof method to find anyone's email address.

Most of your first exchanges will happen via email, either through an introduction or cold email to the right prospect. This lesson takes you through what makes a perfect outreach email.

Once you're on the same page with your perspective partner, that person will likely have to get buyoff on working together from the higher ups. This lesson walks you through the info you need to provide.

To help you receive buyoff, we wanted to help you get started with an example of a successful onepager from our friends at Buffer. Feel free to download and tweak for your work.

You're almost there, but plenty can still go wrong. This lecture covers how to close the deal and what to do when things don't go your way.

What happens after a deal is done? Well, the work really begins. This lessons walks you through how to keep a relationship thriving.

You're not alone, there's countless tools to help you in the function of business development. Here's some of our favorites. Links to each is provided in the supplementary material.

We've covered all of the many "Dos" of business development, but haven't touched much on the "Don'ts" -- all of the things to avoid doing. In this lesson, we cover the rookie mistakes.

Congratulations, you're all done. Let's wrap it up and send you on your way.