Personally, the product/engineering relationships are much more meaningful (absolutely and relatively) than the network of customer relationships I've cultivate

Personally, the product/engineering relationships are much more meaningful (absolutely and relatively) than the network of customer relationships I've cultivated over the last decade. This is again a function of who is assigned the leverage due to specialized knowledge in a technology organization. It is usually the product/engineering organization. Anecdotally, the exceptions here have been when I've sold technology that other people consume, to then sell technology (ISVs). But these are rare because often folks don't like taking inordinate platform risk/dependency if they can avoid it.