Ep. 15: The art of influence with Tim Chou

For today’s episode, Asim Razzaq is joined by Tim Chou, an entrepreneur and engineer-at-heart who’s had great career success at Oracle and speaking engagement in universities. Tim shares insights on the art of influence, a way to sell yourself and your ideas to clients. He crafts a unique process to let engineers become their very own entrepreneur. [00:46] Introduction of Tim Chou [02:45] The Art of Selling Ideas [06:10] About Insight [07:50] Selling the “Not” [10:58] Strategizing Sales as Individuals [13:29] Disadvantages of Staying [15:34] Importance of Storytelling [18:18] Other Analysis of Approach [20:19] Building Your “Tribe” and Language [27:39] Summary and Resources Creating Your Story If you are trying to sell yourself, crafting a story is one of the important elements to convince customers that your services and products resonate to their wants and needs. Simple descriptions are the basic foundations to any product or services, but the story behind them is what captures buyers to hook on to them. Storytelling can stem from factors such as background or personal history, insights from customers, breaking the status quo, and many other factors. Crafting the Language Influencing your customers is also gauging their language and niche. They say that it takes one to know one, and for influencing, sellers need to really grasp the idea that customers need to understand your language. Conversing with customers can impact the dynamic of influencing others. The butterfly effect of creating a community of dedicated customers or the sphere of influence of knowing who your crowd are and if they understand you can be beneficial for long term transactions. Recommended Resources: The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Mather Dixon