Relationship goals

It wasn’t that long ago that the personal relationship your outside salesperson had with customers and suppliers was the dominant driver of the business. I’ve heard or said, “This business is all about relationships” hundreds of times in my distribution career. That relationship made it easier to discuss and implement win-win solutions for both businesses. Then everyone got connected, got a smart phone and it got complicated. What can you do today to earn more of your customers' most valuable resource: time? It starts with understanding that each customer has their own definition of a great relationship. The strategy for reaching each customer type is changing rapidly .  It has helped me to categorize B2B distribution customers into three basic relationship categories, outlined here. Old School – This is the type of customer that wants a personal relationship with your sales team. You build the ...

Stocksy/Nabi Tang     There are many keys to a healthy, happy relationship but the most important one of them all is setting boundaries. For example, in my relationship, it's important that the two of us respect each other's privacy. But figuring out what's right for you and your partner isn't always easy. Well, if you're looking for some inspiration, a recent Reddit AskWomen thread had ladies share what they believe to be healthy boundaries to set in relationships . Read along and take note! Don't lose sight of your own life outside of your SO. Having a life outside of your relationship. Like not spending all your free time with your SO and neglecting your friends & family. Not having them read your texts from your family & friends. Not get offended when they do the same. — /u/Redhaired103 You don't get an opinion on their friendships. I have hobbies that don't include him, he has hobbies without me. We...

People have been looking for the secret to living a long life since the dawn of time – and now Harvard scientists might just have found it. According to an 80-year study by the Ivy League university, having a network of strong relationships is the key to longevity. ‘The people who were most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80,’ says Robert Waldinger , director of the study and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The Harvard Second Generation Study began in 1938 when a team of researchers began tracking the lives and health of 268 male Harvard undergrads. In the subsequent years, the study has expanded to include their wives, 465 Boston inner-city residents and their wives and 1,300 of the Harvard students’ offspring – who are now in their 50s and 60s. Their health and lives were tracked in general, including successes and failures in careers and love, via medical records, interviews and ques...

How to bolster your most intimate connections. Did you ever wonder why some relationships endure even in the most stressful of times, while others are destroyed? Are there certain factors that seem to characterize strong, enduring, and resilient relationships? There are no easy answers to why some relationships endure and others don’t. However, we do believe that there are factors which seem to foster resiliency in relationships and thereby increase the likelihood of survival when confronted with adversity. Let’s take a look at those characteristics of resilient relationships. WHY RELATIONSHIPS END Source: Pixabay There are hundreds of volumes written about why marriages and other intimate relationships end, but the core reasons may be distilled down to three main factors: 1) a slow erosion of the relationship, 2) a traumatic , or otherwise powerful, incident that destroys the relationship, or 3) competition . First, the relationship that slowly erodes is ...

What happens to relationships when one partner loses a lot of weight, eats much less and becomes more active? Bariatric surgery, where a part of the stomach is sectioned off and reattached to the small intestine, is relatively new. It was first offered in Norway in the late 1990s. Researchers are only just beginning to understand the long-term effects of extreme weight loss, especially regarding relationships and other social issues. (Illustration photo: Romanets / Shutterstock / NTB scanpix) Bariatric surgery changes your life in more than one way. You will almost certainly lose weight, of course, but suddenly you can’t eat nearly as much as you used to be able to. You might also discover it's easier to be active and social with a body that once made these activities difficult for you. In other words, an obesity operation can change quite a bit about your life — even your close relatio...

We get very little education and preparation for relationships. So many relationships end because of a lack of intimacy. So many relationships end because the love seems to fade and disappear. So many relationships end because we stop talking to each other. So many relationships end because we stop touching. So many relationships end because we stop connecting. At the best of times, relationships are complex. Because we’re complex and complicated. You’re bringing you, all of you. I’m bringing me, all of me. And from this, there’s us. We get no, or very little education and preparation for relationships. Our model is our parents. We see what they show us of their relationship, mostly with no or very little explanation of what’s happening between them. We’re left to form our own picture of this. And based on what we know, we have some huge gaps to fill in. Our next source of relationships is the media. Illusion, fantasy, Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood, the Interweb. Throw in th...

It wasn’t what I thought                                                                       Image courtesy of  Pexels I am without a doubt the least colorful girl at every San Francisco party. Originally from New York City, I can always be found safely wrapped in black. Every so often, I’ll waltz into an H&M feeling inspired by the season’s new pattern or Pantone that other girls sport proudly. I’ll grab a cantaloupe sweater, a rainbow-striped T-shirt or a button-down shirt playfully patterned with birds. And I’ll stare back at myself in the dressing room mortified. I’ll rush back to the basics section, grab a black T-shirt to steady myself and hang it in the pile of shadows that is my closet. The first time I saw the man we will call Crystal, he was wearing a hot-pink...

Don’t Fight It. Nourish It. Every day, I sit and watch the puppies in the park. The old me — he would have laughed scornfully — what a waste of time! But I’d venture to say it might be the most instructive thing I do. I learn something new every day. The puppies, you see, throw themselves whole-heartedly into whatever it is that they do. They meet someone new — yip!! — all enthusiasm. The person they’re attached to leaves, just to get a coffee — yelp — they’re all sadness and grief. They’ve walked too long, it’s too hot — and they just stop — time for a carry. How funny. How sweet. Because we’re not like that, are we? Us humans. We are the polar opposite. Whatever we do, wherever we are, however much we try not to be — we remain divided. Your best friend falls in love — how happy you are for them — yet there is still that tiny part of you that throbs with envy. Your cousin gets that prized job — how wonderful! — and yet part of you chafes. Your sis...

If you're going to be jealous, do it the right way. Getty Images Jealousy in a relationship has made for some of the best songs of all time (who among us hasn't drunkenly scream-sang the words to "Dancing On My Own" at least twice??). But within the actual relationship, admitting the tiniest feelings of jealousy — or hearing that your partner feels jealous — can feel incredibly uncomfortable, even off-putting. Giphy But if that immediate pang of insecurity when you see a hot person check out your partner is such a universal feeling, why is it so reviled? Dr. Robert L. Leahy, author of The Jealousy Cure , says that jealousy exists everywhere – even your dog can feel it towards the new puppy you j...

Peek into the lives of the globe-hopping, ultra-successful CEOs, and you’ll see there’s little room for human connections that aren’t transactional. Breakfasts are spent with business partners, lunches with co-workers, and dinners with clients. Golf on the weekends is for cementing deals. For the over-scheduled executive, relationships can end up being weighed according to their ability to advance personal or professional goals. Time spent with someone who can only offer companionship is time that’s not spent with someone who can offer more. For aspiring CEOs, there’s no shortage of advice on how to network. No less an authority than Warren Buffett recommends selecting friends for their strategic utility. “It’s important to associate with people that are better than yourself,” he said recently . Notably, Buffett chooses to associate with Bill Gates, one of the few men in the world who is wealthier. On   the Freakanomics podcast,   PepsiCo CEO In...