043: Sam Choo – A Good Fisherman

“A good fisherman thinks like a fish. A good marketer thinks like a customer.” – Sam Choo

This was drawn by Nizar86. Check out his other work too!

About Sam Choo

Founder of the Singapore Internet Marketers online community, Sam Choo is an internet marketing extraordinaire. Many internet marketers here, have Choo to thank for making the initial connections or sparking their drive towards online entrepreneurship. Choo has successfully been living without a formal job for years. “Joyfully Jobless” as he calls it.

Choo also does coaching and has multiple books on topics of expertise, the latest one being Crowd Sauce. It is a co-authored book about marketing, leadership and entrepreneurship.

My take on the quote

If you are a marketer or salesperson, keep this quote in mind the next time you are designing your marketing message.

However, Choo’s advice is not just for marketers but for people who sell things. In fact, it’s useful for persuasion and communication. You won’t be able to persuade anyone if you don’t think in terms of their needs. You won’t be able to hold a long conversation if the topic is going to be about you all the time.

I think that this piece of advice is also valid for inventors and engineers. That is to say, the people who create products that serve others. There is another quote, “see a need, fill a need”, from the movie Robots. It implies that you should strive to create products that help fix people’s pains or problems. These are the kind of products that people will need and will buy. You aren’t going to ‘see a need’ or see other people’s needs, if you don’t see things from their perspective.

Closing

What do you think about this piece of advice? Useful for everyone? Let me know in the comments below.

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