They are easy to confuse and they do different jobs.
Relationship: what they are to you
Set from the company drawer: Supplier, Vendor, Consultant, Customer, Prospect, Partner, Reseller, Competitor, Investor, Press, Influencer, or Other. Each one rolls up into a family:
| Family | Covers | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Supply | Supplier, vendor, consultant | Supplier-perspective rules apply; their sites appear as a supplier layer |
| Demand | Customer, prospect, partner, reseller | Sales-perspective rules apply; their sites appear as a customer layer |
| Market | Competitor, investor, press, influencer | Market layer, usually the quietest rule |
| Not sorted | Anything not yet set | Falls back to the general rule |
Relationship decides which of a company's signals reach you, and it puts their locations on your map. You can change it at any time, and set it for many companies at once from a list.
Importance: how much they matter
Also in the company drawer: Low importance, Normal importance, High importance, or Critical supplier. A company with no importance set is shown as Not on the watchlist.
Importance is the vertical axis of the risk matrix. That is what lets a medium-risk critical supplier outrank a high-risk company you barely buy from.
Set both
Relationship without importance means the right signals reach you but nothing sorts to the top. Importance without relationship means a company matters but the rules do not know which perspective to read it in. New companies are worth two clicks.
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