Some individuals lack the very people skills that you say are crucial to persuading others, yet they're able to sway their co-workers because they always have a response to a point or counterpoint. They seem to exhaust others into submission. Is there anything wrong with this method of persuasion? After all, it accomplishes the persuader's goals.

Beating someone into submission is not good. That's not what true persuasion is about. The model persuasive person doesn't leave you in that [exhausted] state.

The point of effective persuasion is that the relationship between two people hasn't suffered after someone has changed another person's belief or behavior. In the type of persuasion you're describing, what usually suffers is the relationship.

Are there certain personality types that are better at persuasion than others?

Extroverted people tend to be more persuasive than people who are prone to introversion. Extroverts are often in jobs, such as sales or advertising, where they have to persuade people to buy a product or take some kind of action. People who are prone to introspection will take jobs that are less people-focused and more facts and figures focused, so they have less experience with people than extroverts. Consequently, they don't develop the people skills that extroverts develop.