The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

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When a professional service firm refuses to have any conversation off the clock or a company never leaves any money on the table in a negotiation, I always become concerned that they really do not understand that they are in the relationship business where referrals and word of mouth mean a lot.

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This is such a contentious relationship that one wonders about using the word partner.

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But even more to the point, when Ms. Lewinsky was asked the direct question at the grand jury whether she interpreted the gift of the Vancouver bear carving as a signal to her to 'be strong in your decision to continue to conceal the relationship, ' her direct, one-word answer was 'no.

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Most commonly, the salespeople are expected to sell products directly to consumers by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing.

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Not long after my last post (October 19), which concerned the tenuous relationship between the Hewlett-Packard board and former CEO Mark Hurd, came word that a group of shareholders have sued current and past H-P board members, including Hurd, alleging that directors allowed and possibly encouraged illegal activities in sales to the U.S. government.

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In fact, relationship-based marketing was the only technique that business owners had before they could spread the word to broader audiences through print, then radio, then TV, then the Web, and now through social networks.

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For millennia, there have been four basic elements of the relationship between a customer and a business: The product, the buying decision, control of information and word-of-mouth.

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