The friend or foe fallacy: Why your best customers may not need your friendship

Organizational transactions are handled along a continuum of the firm’s customer relationships, ranging from relational and friendly to more adversarial and us-versus-them in demeanor. For top customers, the approach is almost always close and relational. In this article, we question this view and suggest that it is beneficial to condition the firm’s relationship development efforts on an understanding of the true value to be gained from...