The 10 Vital Relationships That Make Or Break A Business

After 20 years of being an entrepreneur and working predominantly with business owners, one thing has become utterly clear. Overwhelmingly, companies of all sizes and running the gamut of industries share one common focal point: new business acquisition.

They may refer to it in different terms, most commonly using the term “growth.” Now, of course, revenue matters, but we believe the focus needs to shift to relationships. Doing so can not only influence the bottom line but also determine the overall health and success of a company or organization.

We help highly successful, forward-thinking individuals and companies overcome the hidden obstacles that block them from greater levels of success and fulfillment.

Specifically, we help them maximize the quality of the 10 vital relationships which, when mastered, create amazing results.

To see if we can be useful in your world, ask yourself whether you agree wholeheartedly with the statements following the 10 vital relationships listed below.

If you can say “Yes, absolutely!” to all 10, congratulations! You don’t need me! But if you recognize that any of these 10 areas could use some…let’s just call it TLC…then maybe we should talk.

CEO to Employees: Communication
“Our employees revere our CEO and sense respect, reciprocity, and the communication between our CEO and our employees is constant, transparent, and two-way.”

Executive Leadership Team to Employees: Access
“Our executive team is accessible to our employees and we don’t have silos in our management structure.”

Culture for Employees: Smiles
“Our company culture passes the “smile test’ – you can feel immediately when you come into our workspace that our employees are happy to work here.”

Company and Community: Visibility
“We are known, respected, and valued as a dependable, visible, generous, friendly positive force for good in our community.”

Company to Current Customers/Clients: Value
“We are always looking to expand the relationships with our current clients, using a blend of human interaction and technology to ask the right questions and ultimately add value, instead of just making the sale and either forgetting about them or moving ahead in an attempt to make the next sale.”

Company to Past Customers/Clients: Spark
“We have processes in place to deliberately stay in touch with past clients, instead of forgetting about them in the chase to drive new business.”

Company to Prospective Customers/Clients: Impressions
“We are conscious of how many positive impressions we make on our prospective clients, what we offer them, how visible we are to them, and what our sales path looks like from the prospect’s point of view.”

Company to Media: Radar
“We have identified key influencers in our field, and we actively take steps to cultivate those relationships – including traditional journalists as well as podcasters, bloggers, and others in relevant forms of social media.”

Company and Competitors: Abundance
“We come from a mentality of abundance and therefore see our competitors as colleagues, which means that we have cooperative relationships with them instead of viewing them as the enemy trying to eat our lunch.”

Company and Strategic Partners: Influence
“We proactively cultivate and monitor a broad range of strategic partner relationships that have the potential to influence prospective new clients, the media, and the world at large to think positively about us.”

If you or your organization could use some guidance in any of these 10 vital relationships, let’s talk.