A badly hungover rattlesnake …

Politics can be a brutal business.

The main protagonists are always knocking lumps out of each other, and the focus is very often on the negative.

The twists and turns, the backstabbing, and the Machiavellian scheming and plotting should all carry a health warning for those of us outside the bubble.

And while some of the characters appear as friendly as a badly hungover rattle snake, I still follow the Westminster drama avidly.

But after reading two recent books involving quite different characters, whose personalities are usually kept well hidden in the deep freeze, I saw them in a whole new light.

Maybe these guys are human after all, but viewed through the prism of the media, we rarely get a chance to see the human beings they really are.

In many ways, they’re just as much into the business of selling as you and me.

And just like you and me, they’re selling themselves.

We all know the saying that people often buy from people and it’s especially true when it’s from people they warm to.

So perhaps it’s a reminder of how important it is to inject some of our personality into our sales and marketing collateral.

Even if we’re only looking for widgets, wouldn’t we prefer to buy them from someone we warm to, and feel a connection with?

It might be as simple as dusting the cobwebs off your website’s “About Us” page or including more information about you and your team in your next flyer or brochure.

Little things can sometimes make a big difference.

Until next week.

Alec