Two recent posts, Just Be Yourself and Easy Opening, both looked at  some practical ways of handling nerves in a pitch, allowing your nice side to shine through.  Some interesting observations on http://theresazagnoli.blogspot.com reinforce the importance of being nice, being likeable.

“Gallup’s ‘Personality Factor Poll’ concludes: it turns out that in politics, the single best determination of electability is likeability. Not knowledge, not experience, not the candidate’s position on a specific issue– likeability.”

This is one of the reasons the Obamas, both of them, rate so highly and why Boris Johnson is a more formidable politician than many had anticipated.

It’s much the same in business. People, decision makers, chose to work with people they like.

Interestingly, when formal rating or evaluation is applied to assess a pitch, factors such as likeability are rarely included, or at any rate not in an overt sense.  However, it is self-evident that ‘likeability’ will increase scoring across all the measured elements.

Nice guys do come first.  And, not for the first time here, rehearsal makes nice people nicer!