I highly recommend this essay by Doc Searls on "Relationship Economies."  In it, he recounts a conversation he had with a Nigerian pastor about markets and transactions:

"Pretend this is a garment", Sayo said, picking up one of those blueairplane pillows. "Let's say you see it for sale in a public market inmy country, and you are interested in buying it. What is your firstquestion to the seller?"

"What does it cost?" I said.

"Yes", he answered. "You would ask that. Let's say he says, 'Fifty dollars'. What happens next?"

"If I want the garment, I bargain with him until we reach an agreeable price."

"Good.Now let's say you know something about textiles. And the two of you getinto a long conversation where both of you learn much from each other.You learn about the origin of the garment, the yarn used, the dyes, thename of the artist, and so on. He learns about how fabric is made inyour country, how distribution works, and so on. In the course of thisyou get to know each other. What happens to the price?"

"Maybe I want to pay him more and he wants to charge me less".

"Yes. And why is that?"

"I'm not sure."

"You now have a relationship".

Though price still matters in the developing world, the pastor suggested, relationships matter more:

It's a higher context with a higher set of values, many of which aretrivialized or made invisible when viewed through the prism of price.Relationship is not reducible to price, even though it may influenceprice. Families and friends don't put prices on their relationships.(At least not consciously, and only at the risk of cheapening or losinga relationship.) Love, the most giving force in any relationship, isnot about exchanging. It is not fungible. You don't expect a payback ora rate of return on the love you give your child, your wife or husband,your friends.

Read the entire essay the next time you are deciding whether to focus your energies on attracting new clients vs. building stronger relationships with existing ones.