Marketing Speaker - Charm is NOT a four-letter word
"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer 'Yes' without having asked any clear question."
-- Albert Camus 
A lot of independent professionals and small business owners bristle at the notion that charm is a key business tool.
I think a lot of that bristling comes from the misconception that some people are simply born with charm, while others are not, and there's not a whole lot you can do if you're in that second group.
This is simply not true.
Another misconception is that for the charm-challenged to make any effort to be more charming or more personable would require them to be phony or at best, not be their genuine selves. False again.
There are several books, the best of which I've found to be
How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less by
Nicholas Boothman, that provide some great tools with which to make genuine connections with people, and to build your own personal set of charm-skills to apply to almost any business or social situation.
Let's face it: for the purposes of small business marketing, people are buying YOU before they buy anything you have to sell, say, or do.
Question: Given the choice of boosting either your charm or your intellect by 50%, which would you choose?
Why? Does the business world need more smart people or more charming people?
Haven't we gotten in trouble from people being (or thinking they were) too smart at companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and the like?
Tip: Charm, like intelligence or any other personality
strength, can be used for good or for evil. It's totally up to you.
Now go charm the socks off someone!!