I can almost hear Ken smiling while reading his post. lol
The point I think is that attitude carries over more than just "in person" meetings.
Not only can they hear you smile...they can also hear if you're bored, lazy, unsure of yourself, lying, frowning and a plethora of other emotions...yes I said "plethora". lol
If you're upset with something and you let it carry over into your "sales pitch" (or whatever you want to call it), it can be devastating to your business.
I'll never forget when my Mother (who answered the company phone 24/7 30 years ago) would be yelling at us kids, pissed at dad and having the crappiest day of her life when suddenly the phone would ring and the person on the other end of the phone would hear...
"Thank you for calling M&M Chem-Dry how may I help you" in the sweetest most pleasant voice you ever heard...and she would be smiling ear to ear every time.
It amazed all of us...we used to tease her about it.
She used to say
"If you dump your problems on your customer, there is no way they are going to buy anything from you".
Made and makes all the sense in the world.