JP Rangaswami writes:
Relationships first. Then conversations as a result of relationships. And finally, only where necessary, transactions.
Cluetrain. Markets are conversations. (Doc has a Nigerian pastor story that shows how universal this structure is. I will link to it when I have something more than a BlackBerry to use as my internet connection.)
A few hours ago, I read that Facebook now has more transactions per day than eBay does. Given that eBay has 8 times the number of participants, this is a fascinating trend.
Normally I would expect conversations to be a multiple of relationships, and transactions to be a subset of conversations.