Yes Laurie, you are starting to get where I am coming from.
I had excellent knowledge of my products and solutions and kept abreast of what the competition were doing. I was always honest with my clients and often referred them to my competitor, as their product was better suited to the application. This attitude gained a great deal of trust. I always followed up all sales, to ensure my customer was happy and this is an important part of building customer relationships.
And yes, when I left a position, I was often approached by my competitors to work for them, but I never did so, as I am a man of integrity, and felt that the competitor just wanted me for the information on their competitor.
I was fairly loyal to some companies in Australia because I thought I had a good relationship with the), but through disrespect they have lost my business. And if they think that, because we cannot get it from overseas because of exclusivity agreements, they are wrong, as it is easy to get around that problem, even in regard to warranties. Also, they must be reminded that most store sell goods that are not necessities; that is, we may WANT them, but we don't NEED them, and we are doing THEM a favour by buying them.
Price only becomes relevant when I am getting nothing extra for paying more, so I may as well do what everyone else is doing, chase the best price and to hell with loyalty.