During my first year in university, I borrowed from my elder sister to attend a Tony Robbins Seminar entitled, ‘Unleash the Power Within’. That was the Year 2003. After the seminar, I was inspired by Tony Robbins to be a speaker/ trainer that can inspire and change others’ lives.

After graduating from university, I decided to change my career direction. I started as a sales personnel in a training and consultancy company, promoting corporate events through telemarketing. The remuneration was not really attractive, but what really attracted me were the learning opportunities and growth possibilities.

As a fresh graduate, I did not have any experience in telemarketing and corporate sales. The only thing I had was the sheer determination to work hard. However, after a few months of diligence, I still did not manage to close a single deal. I started losing my confidence and doubting my abilities.

 “Am I suitable for a sales job? Am I the right candidate for this industry?“

With the added pressures from the management team and my personal financial situation then, I started entertaining thoughts of giving up.

I asked myself, “Why did I decide to start a career in sales? What was my ultimate goal and dream? How would the outlook of my future be if I gave up this opportunity?” 

Due to my father’s unemployment status and poor health conditions, my family’s poor financial situation was in dire straits as we could barely survive with my elder sister as the sole breadwinner. I decided to burn all my bridges behind me and told myself that there was no turning back. I needed a breakthrough!

With this burning desire to achieve success in sales, I worked for 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week. I spent time in the office after work to study our customers’ database. I researched, learned the ropes, attended internal training and obtained coaching from some senior staff. I started to be more observant and listened attentively when my seniors and other sales colleagues were telemarketing over the phone, noting down their strategies and techniques in sales and building relationships with customers.

After a few months of taking corrective and strategically effective actions in the right direction, I received the first sales order from my customer. Though it was an infinitesimal success, my confidence level soared, and it subsequently created a positive momentum in me which led to more sales. I went on to win ‘The Most Promising Talent Award’ in the 1st year and ‘Top Sales Performer Award’ in the 2nd year.

After being a top sales personnel for a few years and being promoted to Key Account Manager, I started getting complacent. I was less aggressive as I was ‘less hungry’. My sales activities started reducing, and I did not make many cold calls to elicit new customers. As a result, my sales level declined to a point of stagnation. It did not help when existing customers called to cancel future contracts due to their budget constraints.

It was really an uphill task and tough journey trying to push myself back on track and regain my momentum again. Overcoming the drudgery of making cold calls again after being complacent for a period of time was a mammoth task.

I was full of complaints and frustration. I started to blame the economic situation for my poor performance, bearing resentment against my manager for not appreciating my past contributions and hard work.

I was living a miserable life.

At one point, I asked myself, “After a few years of hard work and becoming a Top Sales Performer, how did I end up in this situation? How can I get myself out of this situation?”

After many nights of struggles and self-reflection, I realized that I felt that way because I have been basking in my past achievements! I was too reliant on my past achievements and had stopped working for more sales, which lead to declining sales activities. I was not seeking any more breakthroughs after becoming a Top Sales Performer.

I started disciplining myself and started from fundamentals again – mastering the basics of sales. After a few months of right focusing, the sales results came rolling back like a ball of momentum.

Even as I was achieving good results in sales, my passion to be a trainer and speaker grew strong. When the opportunity came knocking at my door, I grabbed it and became a full-time Internal Sales Trainer and took it as a learning ground. That was the starting point of my journey as a sales trainer. I would like to hereby especially thank a few mentors and coaches who helped make my dream a reality by providing me with the opportunities and platforms and their continuous guidance and inspiration. Thanks to Ken Ng, Jeremy Lee, Ernie Chen, Keith Leong, Yandaro Al Amien, Dr. Ng Kein Mun, Janson Tan, Dr. Teoh Chen Ning and many more who have helped me along this journey.

I always believe, ‘Be content, but never stop learning and improving ourselves.’  Always invest in yourself, as there’s only one guaranteed investment in life, and that’s YOU!