The One Question You Must Be Able to Answer Before Contacting a Prospect

This past week, I’ve had conversations with three separate business owners about how to successfully connect with prospects. Should you connect through LinkedIn? An email? A phone call? The answer is YES – you should do all of those.

However, before you do any connecting, you need to be able to answer one question:

Four Steps to the Best New Year’s Gift You Can Give Yourself

“Those who live in the past limit their future.”

This was the message I received on my Yogi tea bag last night, as I enjoyed my nightly cup of tea. How timely and appropriate as we bring 2014 to a close.

Gratitude for You in 2014; Your Three Pillars of Success for 2015

As we bring 2014 to a close, I want to thank everyone for their support of Successful Culture. As someone who knows firsthand how hard it is to transform a business dream into a reality, I’m honored and blessed for the opportunities to help my clients achieve their goals.

And the Award Goes To…YOU! Six Steps For a Winning Awards Strategy

Visit any business website, and you will likely see a scrolling list of the awards the company has won. Awards for leadership, philanthropy, marketing, design, organizational culture, industry position…there is literally an award for every size company, in every industry. Most awards programs create categories according to revenue size so that every organization has a chance to be honored.

9 Strategies to Avoid Business Partnership Purgatory

Partnerships are one of the most important – and messiest – parts of business. Right now, I am working with clients who:

1: Are building a great partnership

2: Are trying to get out of bad partnership

3: Have narrowly escaped a seemingly good partnership gone bad

In my own experience, I was the majority owner in a partnership at Information Experts (with my husband). With Successful Culture, I am contemplating bringing in a partner.

To grow beyond a solopreneurship, a business owner often needs to enlist the help of a partner. There are many reasons for this including:

Ten Questions to Ask to Determine if Your Customers and Employees Really Understand Your Company

Business owners live and breathe their company missions. Often, their business identity plays a significant role in their personal identity. Naturally, they can effortlessly explain what their company does, why it exists, what it stands for, and where it is going.

This is not often the case with employees or customers.

Here are two sets of questions to help you determine if your two most important stakeholder groups – your employees and your customers – really understand your company.

Strengthen the Body, Strengthen the Mind, Strengthen the Outcome

I’ve been a hard core fitness enthusiast ever since I was 15, when I saw Linda Hamilton in The Terminator. I learned then that physical strength is not only beautiful; it is also essential to feeling confident and capable in all aspects of your life.

Executing on a dream or vision to build a business is one of the most mentally challenging endeavors a person will ever pursue. Every day, we are faced with nonbelievers, seemingly insurmountable challenges, and 101 reasons to quit. But still we persevere.

Four Steps to Diffusing a Customer Disagreement

A client called me last week to coach her through a delicate situation with a customer. Her customer had entered into a legal agreement, and at the last minute, wanted to change the terms of the agreement without consent from the other party. This would have jeopardized the entire transaction. Furthermore, her customer insisted that she had told my client about her decision prior to signing the contract (which was not true). My client was on the hook to talk her customer out of a really bad decision, even though her mind was made up.

Four Steps to a Successful 360-Degree Hiring Process

A client asked me, “Marissa, should I involve my other employees in the interviewing process?” My answer was an enthusiastic YES. From the intern to the executive, the CEO should never unilaterally own a hiring decision.

Want Great Customer Relationships? Know Your Deal-Breakers! Six Questions to Help You

I came across an article in The Providence Journal last month, when we were in Rhode Island for a family event. The article advised readers to identify their dating “deal-breakers” before jumping into the online dating world. The idea of “deal-breakers” came up again last week during a client coaching session, but this time I was discussing them in the context of customer relationships.