Top 10 Best Business Development Books

January 9, 2023

What is Business Development?

Business Development is a process of uncovering and creating opportunities for companies to expand their reach, increase sales, and improve profitability. It involves the execution of strategies that target new customers, markets, or services with the goal of increasing revenue. Generally speaking, a business development strategy focuses on expanding a company’s customer base and building long-term relationships with new and existing customers.

Given the importance of business development, it is essential that companies stay up-to-date on best practices in this field. There are many excellent books available to help guide businesses through the process of successful business development. Here are some best Business Development Books to consider:

Best Business Development Books

What, Exactly, Is Business Development?: A Primer on Getting Deals Done

by Scott Pollack

Business Development is not just a sexy job title – it’s a growth tool for companies. The only problem is, everyone expects you to learn “how to do BD” on the job. You can spend years figuring out what makes for successful partnerships, or you can learn a proven framework for thinking about and pursuing business development opportunities from a renowned expert. “What, Exactly, Is Business Development” provides exactly that. Over a 15+ year career, spanning companies ranging from American Express to WeWork, Scott Pollack has made all the mistakes, learned all the lessons, and has figured out the right way to do Business Development. He’s taught hundreds of students in live workshops across the world, and now he’s bringing those lessons to you in this book. TESTIMONIALS: “Whether you’ve been working in business development for years or are just starting out, this book is a blueprint that will ensure you maximize growth” FRANCIS LOBO, Chief Revenue Officer, WeWork “Scott’s work is an essential read for those in, looking to break into, or have a better understanding of Business Development.” KENNY HERMAN, Vice President, Business Development, Shutterstock “It’s great to see Scott sharing what he’s learned in this excellent primer on modern Business Development” CHRIS FRALIC, Partner, First Round Capital

New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development

by Mike Weinberg

Packed with examples and anecdotes, New Sales. Simplified. offers a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals. No matter how much repeat business you get from loyal customers, the lifeblood of your business is a constant flow of new accounts. With refreshing honesty and some much needed humor, sales expert Mike Weinberg examines the critical mistakes made by most salespeople and executives and provides tips to help you achieve the opposite results. You’ll learn how to: identify a strategic list of genuine prospects; draft a compelling, customer focused “sales story”; perfect the proactive telephone call to get face to face with more prospects; use email, voicemail, and social media to your advantage; build rapport; prepare for and structure a winning sales call; stop presenting to and start dialoguing with buyers; and make time in your calendar for business development activities.Landing on HubSpot’s Top 20 Sales Books of All Time, New Sales. Simplified. is about overcoming and even preventing buyers’ anti salesperson reflex by establishing trust. The easy to follow plan will remove the mystery surrounding prospecting and have you ramping up for new business.

Business Development For Dummies

by Anna Kennedy

Growing a small business requires more than just sales

Business Development For Dummies helps maximise the growth of small- or medium-sized businesses, with a step-by-step model for business development designed specifically for B2B or B2C service firms. By mapping business development to customer life cycle, this book helps owners and managers ensure a focus on growth through effective customer nurturing and management. It’s not just sales! In-depth coverage also includes strategy, marketing, client management, and partnerships/alliances, helping you develop robust business practices that can be used every day. You’ll learn how to structure, organise, and execute an effective development plan, with step-by-step expert guidance.

Realising that you can’t just “hire a sales guy” and expect immediate results is one of the toughest lessons small business CEOs have to learn. Developing a business is about more than just gaining customers – it’s about integrating every facet of your business in an overarching strategy that continually works toward growth. Business Development For Dummies provides a model, and teaches you what you need to know to make it work for your business.

How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services

by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher

The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business

How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you’re one of the millions of people whose skills are the ‘product,’ you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you’re trained to do your job―not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or ‘behind’ when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you’re never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You’ll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you’ll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients.

Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be.

The Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales

by Trish Bertuzzi

Raise your hand if your company needs more new customers.I suspect your hand is (figuratively) up. This book is about not just growth, but high-growth, explosive-growth, the kind of growth that weather satellites can see from space.The success of any business-to-business company is directly linked to how effectively they acquire new pipeline. To skyrocket growth, sales development is the answer.This book encapsulates author Trish Bertuzzi’s three decades of practical, hands-on experience. It presents six elements for building new pipeline and accelerating revenue growth with inside sales.1. Strategy offers a framework for aligning your sales development model with your specific market and buyer’s journey.2. Specialization presents stories of new thinking. You’ll learn about segmenting your prospect universe, specializing roles, and how it all comes together.3. Recruiting offers a roadmap for hiring with urgency.

Business Development That Works: Practical Steps to Enhance your Performance in Sales and Business Development

by Richard Woodward

Whether you are new to sales and business development or an experienced campaigner looking for new ideas, this book will guide you step by step through the sales and business development process, providing practical advice to help you get the results you need.
Business Development That Works includes:
– Proven techniques that you can use immediately in your role
– Language to use when engaging prospects
– Exercises at the end of each chapter to apply the learning to your own situation

Business Development: A Practical Guide for the Small Professional Services Firm

by MS Sherran S Spurlock

Business Development, A Practical Guide for the Small Professional Services Firm encapsulates over 25 years of hands-on business development and marketing experience. The author’s goal is to help those in technical services professions grow their business. Most business owners start a business because of their technical expertise but few have the knowledge necessary to grow the company to the next level. Such uncertainty can become debilitating and stressful. The information in this book provides actionable, valuable insights into the business development process that can be applied immediately. The book is quick and easy to read and provides a concise, practical guide that outlines a defined step-by-step process for proven ways to procure new business opportunities. There is no attempt to overwhelm with theory and unnecessary sales hype. The reader will gain a new understanding of the business development process and will want to keep the book handy as a valuable reference resource. This book will be helpful for the owner, business development specialist, manager, staff professional, or an employee in a company that provides technical professional services. What you learn will take the trial and error out of your marketing efforts. Wisdom is learning from another’s experiences.

Business Development: A Market-Oriented Perspective

by Hans Eibe Sørensen

This textbook answers the basic questions: “What is business development?” “What does the business developer do?” and “What characterises good, structured, effective business development?” Distinguishing business development and the tasks of the business developer from traditional approaches of strategic management, entrepreneurship, and strategic marketing, this textbook will enable the market-oriented business developer to conceive, craft, and implement superior business plans.
The book is divided into three modules focusing on the market-oriented business developer’s mindset, on providing a state-of-the-art toolbox for careful strategic analyses and decisions, and lastly on the critical aspects of business plans and their content.
The approach of the book is focused and selective in its choice of content and provides a cumulative development of the relevant topics. Each chapter includes an ‘implications for the market-oriented business developer’ at the end to enhance a student’s learning.

Originate: Business Development for Lawyers: A Better Approach to Biglaw Success

by Michelle Richards

In this insightful, action-oriented book that goes way beyond the usual “business development tips for lawyers”, Michelle Cotter Richards, a former Biglaw litigator and in-house counsel, draws on her years of experience coaching Biglaw attorneys to teach readers an entirely new approach to Biglaw business development.

Originate contains powerful strategies to help Biglaw attorneys develop business right away, even in the face of the ever-changing market for Biglaw legal services. Originate analyzes the systemic evolution of Biglaw and its future direction, leading to the inescapable conclusion that an entirely new understanding of Biglaw business development is in order.