Charming Your Way to the Top

Charm is good business. It can increase your income, boost your status, and establish and maintain your reputation. In many cases, it can mean the difference between success and bankruptcy. However, most businesspeople don't fully understand the concept of charm. It ought to be a reflex, a conditioned response, to "turn on the charm" when dealing with customers, clients, associates, and employees—but it isn't, despite the fact that the value of charm has been made clear through opinion polls, scientific studies, and just plain old real life. It's true in politics. And it's certainly true in entertainment, a whole business based on the money-making potential of charm.

This is true for the small businessperson as well. Charm draws customers, whether to a garage, a dry cleaner's, or an investment bank. Charm gets noticed. When a customer contacts a firm for the first time, charm can seal the deal. But charm is only partly innate. Much of it is learned, from your parents, from your friends, and from people like author Michael Levine, who has made a lifelong point of paying attention to charm. And you can learn how to make it work for you. How do you succeed in business without really trying? By charming your way to the top.