Are you in the "Relationship Business"?

As Robert Scoble and Shel Israel mention in Naked Conversations, all great sales people are in the relationship business. When I hear this, naturally as a Political Science major, I automatically think political candidates and their campaigns. In order to become a viable candidate you need to know how to form and retain trusting relationships. Yes kissing hands and shaking babies (I mean shaking hands and kissing babies) is all well and good, but in this era of technology, it is not the candidate that shakes the most hands that wins the election. A candidate must be able to transfer that relationship he just created with a "potential" supporter in person and foster it through the internet.

Mitt Romney, in my eyes, understands this the most. Being in the private sector for 25+ years, he learned and mastered this. His campaign is one of the most effectively and efficiently organized operation I have ever seen. His ability to get out his message via a rigorous campaign schedule followed by a massive word of mouth operation through customer evangelists, such as bloggers, coalitions, steering committees, political heavy weights and most importantly his advertising strategy that encompasses every single element a business needs to succeed, is why this once little known candidate has become one of the most viable people for the Republican nomination.