Charm is more than manipulation; it encourages action through emotion.

Sometimes there are people so pleasant or charming that you sincerely want to help them. This means that you are fascinated. The higher the goals and the less money you have, the more useful the charm is to conquer people and motivate them to act.

Charm helps to change the nature of relationships and influence the actions of people.

Example. Director and screenwriter Karin Muller worked in the Peace Corps in the late 1980s, building wells and schools in a Philippine village. One day, seventeen members of an armed detachment of the Communist Party of the Philippines came to her to interrogate. Seeing them, Karin exclaimed: “Thank God you are here! I have been waiting for you all day. Please come in and have a cup of coffee. Leave your guns at the entrance. ” Muller radically changed the situation, turning it from a show of strength into a "heart-to-heart talk."

Charm can come in handy anywhere and anytime. This applies not only to profit or personal gain. Charm is the filling of others with the same emotions that you experience.

Example. When Steve Jobs designed the iPhone, he did not think about how to force consumers to buy. As a charming person, he simply sold his own dream of a better future.

If you want to charm people, you must have a dream.

Attractiveness and trust are the basis of charm

Can you be fascinated by those you don’t like or who you don’t trust? Hardly. To captivate people, you need to make them love you and trust you. How to do it?

The main secret is to accept and love people for who they are. Arrogance and selfish behavior are the main obstacles to this.

People must accept you first. But for this you need to take the first step by accepting them. Impossible to please in an instant. Do not rush to write off a person: we all have strengths and weaknesses.

Enthusiastic people often cause sympathy and interest. Be frank in your emotions - enthusiasm is contagious. The easiest way is to charm someone by sharing interests and hobbies with him. Assume that you have something in common with the person you want to charm, and prepare in advance for the conversation.

But just not like people is not enough. To make people trust you, show them your knowledge and competence. Remember that trust must be mutual.

Example. Consumers in the American shoe company Zappos trust her with a money back guarantee and free shipping. Zappos, in turn, believes that people will not abuse company confidence by returning worn shoes.

Judged by deeds, not words. Kawasaki recommends "being honest and noble." A sincere person himself is a proof of good intentions.

Your product or service should captivate on its own

Do you often buy things just because you trust the seller you like? Sometimes. Even a brilliant seller will not be able to charm customers with mediocre products and services.

A product or service must have five qualities:

1. Depth: a deep product in various ways demonstrates its value and features, can meet the current and future needs of customers, developing over time.

Example. Starting as a search engine, Google has identified user needs and developed an email service, as well as a wide selection of online tools and services.

2. Intelligence: A “smart” product solves problems gracefully and efficiently.

Example. Ford's MyKey system allows you to set a speed limiter, providing parents peace of mind when a teenager is driving.

3. Completeness: a complete product provides the customer with advanced features.

Example. After-sales service Lexus is as much an integral part of the company as the car itself.

4. Empowerment: The product allows the customer to feel smarter, stronger or more experienced. Thanks to this feeling, many of us consider our computers or our favorite search engines to be part of ourselves.

5. Simplicity: simple products work with and for their users. Design needs to be optimized for user interaction.

Example. Simplicity and convenience iPod with a single control button.

A product endowed with these five qualities will work productively and captivate consumers.

History and testing - the main stages of product release

A product capable of captivating determines the success of a company, but it will not sell itself. You need to introduce it to the public and do it right.

Most ad campaigns voiced abstract product information. But as Annette Simmons (author of “The Best Storyteller Wins”) said: “People don’t perceive information - this is the destiny of their eyes. People seek to believe in you, your goals, your success, in the story you told. ”

To succeed, connect the release of the product with a story from your life, giving it a personality. Be sincere and open.

To really captivate people, let them personally get to know the product by testing it. However, they should note the following characteristics:

• Ease: Buyers may use the product or service without special training, experience or consultation.
• Rapidity: don't make people wait! Refuse to fill out long questionnaires, wait for passwords or SMS confirmations before using the product.
• Profitability: when testing a new product or service, people should not spend anything other than their time. Apart from the ardent fans, no one is willing to pay for such an “honor”.
• Certainty: When using a product, people should notice specific improvements in their lives. To become fans of a product or service, they must experience firsthand its benefits.
• Reversibility: the opportunity to reconsider your decision to test your idea.

Example. Zappos Free and Indisputable Refund / Return Policy.

Do not focus on “authorities”, ignoring “mere mortals”. Your goal is to impress the maximum number of people, turning them into their supporters.

People don't like change

To charm is to change beliefs. This is not easy: you have to overcome the obstacles that lie deep in the subconscious of consumers. People usually resist change and do not like to make decisions. Such indecision is caused by the fear of error and the lack of role models. How to remove these obstacles?

1. Provide “social proof”, that is, give an example of people who are trustworthy. Realizing that others have accepted your idea, customers will follow suit.

Example. Copywriter Colleen Zot increased sales by simply changing the text “Operators are ready to answer your call” to “If all operators are busy, please call back.” This served as social proof: people assumed that the product was so good that the operators did not have time to answer the calls of everyone.

2. Make the product scarce to be considered more valuable.

Example. At first, registering your Gmail inbox was by invitation only. The need for these invitations has become so acute that people even bought them on eBay!

Which strategy to use - social proof or scarcity - depends on the degree of doubt in your product.If doubt is high, it is better to use social proof. When customer doubts are minimal, emphasize the deficit to create a stir, forcing them to act immediately.

Create conditions that increase brand loyalty

People should not only buy your product, but also recommend it to others. To achieve this, create the feeling that your customers belong to a group of people who share the same interests and who identify with your product. Motivate people to make a commitment and be proud of it.

Create an ecosystem - a community on a website, blog, or Facebook page to increase loyalty. So that people want to join it:

1. Create something worth joining. The ecosystem must provide community members with particular value.
2. Find a propagandist who will build, maintain and become an ecosystem leader.
3. Make sure that people have the opportunity to do something meaningful in the ecosystem, that is, do not set many restrictions.
4. Welcome criticism and discussion of your idea. Do not try to hide errors. Be open and sincere to build a trusting relationship between you and the community.
5. Create a non-monetary reward system for your representatives, strengthening your brand.

Charm is a process and must be managed with great care.

Push Technologies Provide Compressed But Valuable Information

For the attention of buyers will have to fight. This implies the use of push technology. For direct communication with consumers to be effective, you need:

• Rapidity. We are already so used to the efficiency of technology that we expect the same from correspondence. Try to respond to customers during the day.
• A bunch of. Do not try to attract only a few influential personalities. Anyone in the world of open communications is significant, so reach the minds of as many consumers as possible.
• Frequency. Interaction is a process. Contact your customers as often as possible and contact them in different ways (using photos, videos, live streams, etc.). But do not bother them.
• Value. Do not immediately start to sell or promote your product. First, share with potential customers useful advice or entertaining content. Own valuable advice will make you look sincere and open.
• Brevity and specificity. Often presentations and emails are overwhelmed with information, which can be distracting and confusing. Try to use no more than six sentences in the letter. In presentations, follow the rule 10:20:30 - 10 minutes, 20 slides, font size at least 30.

According to the author, Twitter is one of the “cheapest and most effective ways to attract people's attention and charm them.” It allows you to directly communicate with potential customers.

Pull technologies provide potential customers with important product information

Push-technology helps to interact directly with people, but allows you to convey only a limited amount of information. To increase the amount of information, pull-technologies, for example, websites, blogs and Facebook, are useful.

To enhance the charm of your pull technology, follow these guidelines:

• Provide interesting and useful content. Although you have almost unlimited space, limit the content. Pick it based on your idea / product / service and the interests of the target market. Provide only valuable information: entertaining, educational and / or educational. Regularly update the content, and in different ways (illustrations, photos, videos).
• Create the FAQ and About Us pages. People love the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section: this way they find solutions to problems faster. Also, the visitor should not guess what is the meaning of your idea / product / service: all information should be contained on the About Us page.
• Show good taste.Express your thoughts in a simple and understandable language and do not overload the pages with information. The user interface should be simple and convenient.

Putting these guidelines into practice is easy on Facebook. Create a Facebook fan page quickly and inexpensively.

Example. The fan page of How to Charm People cost about $ 1,750.

“If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world in terms of population after China and India.” You have access to a huge database of users who may be interested in your product / service - do not miss this opportunity!

To charm your employees, you need to properly motivate them

Excluding cases of acute shortage of money, you will most likely be motivated not by a well-paid, but useless project, but by a valuable project that brings internal satisfaction, but for which you will receive practically nothing.

To motivate and charm employees, give them independence, purpose and self-improvement.

• Self improvement: if you need to do something for eight hours every day, you will want to become a specialist in this matter. Give employees the opportunity to develop their skills - this will increase their productivity and allow them to get job satisfaction.
• Independence: managers must believe that employees are competent enough. Freedom of action is the most important condition for employee happiness.
• Purpose: the employee needs to feel that his work is valuable. Provide employees with a mission that they will try to fulfill.

Recognition of merit is also important for the charm of workers. The praise is incredibly strong and can compensate for the damage from failure.

Brenda Bens, author of How You Look Like Shampoo, believes that by recognizing merit, you motivate employees and pull them together to achieve common goals. This helps to focus staff on work tasks and indicates the values ​​of the organization.

A comfortable work environment is not just an added bonus. The more willing employees share your ideas, the more customers they will captivate.

Do not be a victim of charm, ask the right questions in time

Have you ever been completely fascinated by anyone by letting him trick you? Unfortunately, not everyone shows good intentions and genuine interest. How to protect yourself? Avoid situations where you can easily be seduced.

Example. Sales or rush at the auction may make you make the wrong decision.

If you are stressed, sick, tired or in a hurry, you are especially prone to making rash decisions. Avoid or delay decision making if you are uncomfortable!

When you need to make a major purchase, stop for a minute and ask yourself:

• Am I missing information that will help me make a rational decision?
• When making a decision, am I based on facts? Or is it a “herd feeling”?
• What will be the consequences of this decision next year?
• Will I make the same decision in a week, month, or year?
• Have I made a similar decision and regretted it?
• Am I fully aware of the total cost (including hidden costs - installation, support, maintenance, upgrades, etc.)?
• Would I make this decision if everyone knew about it?

Any person is able to fight temptation if he waits a little and ponders his decision well. But this does not mean that every decision should be a severe test for you. Do not waste time on small and harmless things - leave deep thoughts for vital decisions.

The most important thing

Charm has become the best way to attract people by relegating even marketing to the background. Tell people about your dream and they will follow you. Modern technologies will make it easy to convey your values ​​to others and encourage them to share them.

• Work hard. Trying to attract potential customers, do not spend all your time on “influential personalities”.Try to reach as many people as you can to turn the most lazy consumers into loyal fans of your brand. In a world of unlimited access to communications, any person can have authority.
• Encourage people to accept change. Depending on the degree of doubt in your product, use a social proof or deficit strategy.
• Modern technology helps to charm. Push technologies like Twitter provide concise but valuable information, and pull technologies like websites, blogs, and Facebook are important and complete. Use both those and others, not forgetting the main principles.