Unlock Your Personal Charisma: Eight Best Kept Communication Secrets Of The Top Sales Professionals

By Eric Feng

Have you ever admired successful salespeople who seem to have it all? They are constantly and effortlessly outperforming the rest in their field. They attract the most generous clients, earn the biggest commissions and build the most profitable businesses.

 

However, here is the irony. Many of them may not be smarter than you, more educated than you or even better looking than you!

 

Decade of psychological studies have shown that what sets these sales powerhouses apart from you is their personal charisma. They are likeable and easily trusted. Their words carry weight. They have it easy when it comes to influencing others to their way of thinking.

 

After spending three years interviewing and shadowing top sales professionals across various industries, Eric has narrowed down to eight keys that can help you unlock your unique brand of charisma so that you can sell more and sell easily.

 

By the time you are done with this book, you will know how to:

• Get your prospects to like you within seconds
• Be regarded as an equal by high net worth individuals
• Discover your own unique qualities that make you charismatic
• Turn your prospects and clients into life-long fans
• Speak the language of top salespeople
• Position yourself as an expert and become highly visible
• Uncover charismatic behaviours that set the exceptional high
• Get anything that you want from life with this unspoken secret

This book also includes exclusive interviews with industry leaders to help you put the learning into action.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric Feng
• Release date: Nov 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215933855

Eric Feng

Eric is an award-winning speaker, bestselling author and a highly sought after public speaking coach to many of the top business leaders in Asia. Some of the clients he has worked with come from well-known companies like Microsoft, Pfizer, OCBC, Shell and FedEx.  The strategies in this book come from Eric's experience of evaluating more than 1500 presentations over the last 5 years. With more than 50,000 copies sold till date, Get To the Point is highly regarded as a trusted resource for business prsenters in Asia.  Recognised as an expert in public speaking by the media, Eric has also been regularly featured on regional media linke Channel News Asai, Channel 8, The Straits Times, The Business Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Radio 938, HRM and Human Capital. In 2012, Eric's evaluation of Prime Minister Lee's National Day Rally Speech was also featured on the national papers. 

Book preview

Here’s the key to unlocking your charisma: focus on making others feel good about themselves rather than trying to make them feel good about you.

– Eric Feng

Praise for Unlock Your Personal Charisma™

"While hard-selling skills such as targeting and negotiation can be learnt, the mastery of soft-selling skills is what differentiates an average salesperson from a successful salesperson. Unlock Your Personal Charisma has provided many practical and easy-to-adopt tips to help us connect with anyone and influence them positively. All salespeople need to read this book!"

Lee Kian Sieng

Head – Pharmaceutical Division

Sanofi Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei

Eric hit all the right notes with this book by distilling powerful communication concepts into eight easy-to-remember ‘secrets’. He writes in a conversational style which allows you to grasp and apply the ‘secrets’ immediately. If you aspire to be more effective in your communication and leave lasting positive impressions on the people you meet, read this book!

Sharon Woo

Section Head, Sales Development

Prudential Assurance Company Singapore (Pte) Ltd

"Unlock Your Personal Charisma is a not a theory book. Apply one or two of the principles shared and you will see a huge difference in your sales results. A must-read book for all sales professionals who want to be successful in their sales career."

Jenny Goh

Financial Services Director

WealthCAM representing

AXA Life Insurance Singapore Pte Ltd

"Unlock Your Personal Charisma offers practical insights and steps on how to win that sale! Eric’s writing style is thought-provoking and the suggestions he made in the book are easy to execute."

Che Yaneza

Assistant Vice President, Learning & Development

Human Resources

MediaCorp Pte Ltd

A brilliant book that will help readers discover and capitalise on their personal charisma through Eric’s real life experiences and findings. And to top it off, this book will assist sales professionals to become even more successful than they already are!

Nicholas Tse

General Manager

Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott Hotel

I enjoyed reading Eric’s book! He has the guts to put forth the brutal truths about why many sales professionals have lost business opportunities. He has also provided practical and sensible actions that will help them increase their winning ratio.

Agnes Oon Bautista

Regional Senior Advisor

DHL Global Forwarding

Fortunately for us, Eric’s destiny in the transport industry did not come to pass because his contribution to the sales profession is much greater as a communications coach.

Sean Tan

Senior Vice President

HSBC Malaysia

I found the book to be a delightful read with practical tips that would benefit anyone in their quest to unlocking their personal charisma! It is obvious that a lot of effort has been put in the book. I like how Eric managed to capture the wisdom from so many successful people and distil it into just eight keys to master.

Belinda Ng

Director

Global Search Partners Pte Ltd

This book is a terrific guide and an excellent resource for not just sales professionals but for all people who want to sharpen their communication skills and go from good to GREAT!

Ng Wai Peng

Head, Centre for Management Development

ST Electronics (e-Services) Pte Ltd

To Dad, Mum & Sis

The three angels in my life

First reprint Aug 2012

Second reprint June 2013

Third reprint Dec 2014

Copyrights © 2011 Eric Feng

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Unlock Your Personal CharismaTM

Eight Best Kept Communication Secrets Of The Top Sales Professionals

Author: Eric Feng

Editor: Adrian Koh

Layout: Agnes Lim Cover Design: Kaden Hoe

Publisher: Point Media & Publishing Pte. Ltd.

My Mail Box 882743, Singapore 919191

Website: www.UnlockYourCharisma.com

ISBN: 978-981-08-8903-6

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Feng, Eric, 1982-

Unlock your personal charisma: eight best kept communication secrets of the top sales professionals / author, Eric Feng; editor, Adrian Koh. – Singapore: Point Media & Pub., 2011.

p. cm.

ISBN : 978-981-08-8903-6 (pbk.)

1. Selling. 2. Charisma (Personality trait) I. Koh, Adrian, 1981-II. Title.

HF5438.25

658.85 -- dc22 OCN727247555

Printed in Malaysia

Disclaimer

All the information, techniques, skills and concepts contained within this publication are based on the experiences of the authors, of the nature of general comment only and are not in any way recommended as individual advice. The intent is to offer a variety of information to provide a wider range of choices now and in the future. Should any reader choose to make use of information contained herein, this is their decision, and the contributors (and their companies), authors and publishers shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage whatsoever under any conditions or circumstances. It is recommended that the reader obtain their own independent advice as we all have widely diverse circumstances and viewpoints.

Acknowledgements

Most people are fast to stop you before you get started, but hesitant to get in the way if you’re moving.– Tim Ferris

And yet there will always be a special group of people who will give you their 110% support in everything that you do. In the case of this ambitious book project, there are close to 150 of them.

Thank YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Richard, for being the wind beneath my wings.

Adrian, for always going beyond the call of duty.

The unsung heroes behind the book: Kaden Hoe, Rahul Shah, Phoon Kok Hwa, Cheryl Chung, Looi Miin Wei, Lizhuang, Leong Kaiyan, Koh Sock Mui, Bernice Ng, Anshil Nigam, Cai Rui Hong, Elvin Zhang, Gin Hai Pei, Lim Chye Tin, Chen Xinyun, Kyli Tan and Andrew Zhan.

The geniuses who shared with me generously about their best practices: Special thanks to Hong Kok Leong, Aliza Knox, Callie Liew, Lynette Moey, Merry Riana, Jeffrey Tan, Ambassador Michael Tay, Nicholas Tse and Brian Tee for granting us exclusive interviews with them.

Thanks also to all the business leaders and sales professionals that I have interviewed and shadowed over the past three years, who have only been utterly generous with advice and insights into your craft.

To all my Facebook fans, who gave me precious feedback on the book cover:

Dennis, Gene Kok, James Poppoppo Andrew, Sharon Connolly, Han Liang Hanns, Maria Leung, Shang Ong, Kevin Ch’ng, Caroline Pay Fong Chong, Vega Yeung, Evelynn Tan, Christophe Ngoue, AiLic Tung, Rebecca Ngok, Sherri Raftery, Neo Jie Wei, Siak Hui Mun, Stanly Tan, Kai Yuan (Addy), Yap Hsien Liang, Sharon Isabella Lee, Jin Jun Jway,

Josephine Hong, Derrick Ng, Andrew Zhan, Kaye Newton, Ruth Benny, Samantha Sim, Goh Meng Zi, Amos Yap, Masturah Hanafiah, Calvin Yeap, Dawn Ho, Pang Jun Xiang, Darien Marshall, Chua Yong Chin, Michelle S C Tan, Xiao Lihong, Moonshi Mohsenruddin, Jacy Wee, Swee Sian, Gabriel Cheng, Chester Lim, Haris Hoh Kok Leong, Ying Siang Kane, Yeo Francis, Stan Ngo, Phoebe Chow, Wong Suet Yee, Serene Tan, Wong Swee Lee, Jason Chan, Dorene Barrett, Mohammed Saifuddin (Mohammed Pitolwala), Kang Long, Yeo Yeu Ann (Abraham Yeo), Muhammad Azri Sabari, Lavigne Tung, Glen Liu, Lin Ling, Caryn Yeoh, Sabrina Theng Meiyi, Tng Jian Yu, Kang David, Jerry Lim, Dianna Lane, Diana Low, David Chan, Karon Ng, Daphne Lee, Stacy Choo, Parag Pattani, Chris Chan, Teng Karen, Irene Soh, Leon Boyd, Jenny Goh, Bonnie Lee Wing Sze, Sally Tan, Lizhuang Tan, Joel Azrael Chong, Richard Gunn Kang Jun, Elvin Zhang, Cai Ruihong, Victoria Ling, Mark Joseph Tan, Tan Patricia and Jane Tan

And finally to my Lord, Jesus Christ: my biggest supporter who brought this book out of me.

If I have missed anyone out, my thousand apologies! Please let me know at [e-mail] and I will get it fixed in future prints. And to you, my dear reader, thank you for buying the book. May this book help you win more deals and live your best life!

CONTENTS

Eight Keys To Unlock Your Personal Charisma

Connect

How to get people to like you within 90 seconds

How to build rapport with anyone and get strangers to open up to you

Have Presence

How to turn heads and draw positive attention when you walk into the room

How to be seen as an equal by people of importance and win their respect

Awareness

Uncovering what makes you charismatic

Relationship-Focused

How to get your customers to become your lifetime fans

How to make people like you and even refer business to you

Influence

Three mistakes that you are unknowingly committing right now that is sabotaging your sale

How to influence your prospects to buy from you

The secret language of the top sales professionals

Standing Out

How to stand out and be remembered for all the right reasons

Modelling

Vital behaviours that separate the good salesperson from the great salesperson

Altruism

How to get anything that you want in life

A Defining Moment In My Life

The scene: The MediaCorp studio of one of Singapore’s most watched morning shows—Prime Time Morning.

Monday, January 29, 2008.

9.13 am.

In about five minutes, I was going to be interviewed live on national TV in front of more than a million people to pitch my first book, The FAQ Book on Public Speaking. I was only 25, fresh out of school.

As you can imagine, I was freaking out.

And here’s why.

Because at that exact moment, my 25 year-old mind realised something:

Oh. My. God. My life will never be the same again after this interview.

And boy was I right.

A Little Bit About Me

I come from a working-class family. My dad is a taxi driver, my grandfather was a trishaw rider and my great grandfather a rickshaw puller. As a little boy, I thought I was destined to be in transportation.

As a child, my dad would ask me, Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?

With all my enthusiasm, I would say, Taxi driver!

My exasperated father would hit me on my head and say, Son, you’ve got to think bigger!

INTRODUCTION

And I would reply cheekily, Ok then… I’ll drive a bus!

Fortunately for my dad, I ended up studying computer science.

Yet in less than six months after that fateful TV interview, I—with humble beginnings, average results and no business experience would end up selling 8,000 copies of my first book, coaching CEOs and business leaders more than twice my age, and getting ranked as one of the top 25 young entrepreneurs in Asia by Business Week USA.

How did I do it?

How The Best-Kept Secret Manifested In My Life

The answer lies in a best-kept secret that I had stumbled upon as a freshman in university. I would later discover that this same secret has helped executives to climb the corporate ladder at amazing speeds, entrepreneurs to build businesses that bring them massive incomes, and leaders to take their companies and countries to greater heights.

But before I reveal the secret to you, let me show you how it manifested for me.

I first met Andre in university. I was a freshman and he was three years my senior. Everyone in the computing faculty—including our dean—knew him, as he was a prominent leader with very good business acumen.

Just the year before, Andre had helped our faculty raise a significant amount of funds. It was no wonder that wild rumours about his background—that his family was made up of very well-known businessmen in Singapore—began to spread.

So when Andre approached me one afternoon to join him in a business venture, I was stunned as I felt that I had nothing much to offer.

In transportation? I asked, thinking that my destiny had caught up with me.

No. In education. I want to set up a training company and make it big in Singapore. Would you like to be my business partner? Andre asked.

I said yes because I had nothing to lose. In retrospect, this decision proved to be a major turning point in my life.

A Journey With My Mentors

Andre became my mentor and taught me everything he knew about running a successful business. He had me sit-in on all his business meetings and client appointments, where my job was to observe and take notes while he did all the selling and negotiations.

After each session, Andre would ask me two questions: Why did I do what I did today? and What have you learnt?

He also groomed me to head my faculty’s corporate communications unit, managing more than 100 student associates. This unit, run by students with guidance from an assistant dean and a full-time manager, was able to achieve new heights for the faculty—thanks to our farsighted dean.

The dean was so pleased with us that my core team was even awarded the Dean’s Letter of Commendation.

But the benefits of my involvement went beyond mere recognition. Because of my position, I was able to rub shoulders with prominent industry leaders. This made finding a job after graduation a breeze.

After my stint in the corporate communications unit, I decided to further my entrepreneurial aspirations by signing up for the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Programme. This one-year programme gave me an opportunity to work in a start-up environment and study part-time in a prestigious Ivy League school.

I was very lucky to be sent to the University of Pennsylvania where the Wharton School of Business is located.

Most importantly, I met four World Champions of Public Speaking—David Brooks, Ed Tate, Darren La Croix and Jim Key there in Pennsylvania. These were the men who Toastmasters International recognised as the World Champions of Public Speaking after winning the International Speech Competition, which sees more than 20,000 contestants each year from all over the world.

I was so mesmerised by these speakers’ onstage ability to influence and inspire the masses that I knew I had to speak to them, which I did thankfully. Not only did they offer me speaking tips, they also became my public speaking mentors.

I entered their coaching programme and for two years, they taught me everything they knew about public speaking. One of them even challenged me to take part in my very first humorous speech contest held in Philadelphia, which I won at the division level.

Who says Singaporeans cannot be funny?

The Most Important Advice I Have Received

Before I left, Darren gave me a piece of advice that would prove pivotal in my career.

If you want to become a professional speaker like us, you have got to write a book. It is your passport to the speaking industry.

This spurred the birth of my first book, The FAQ Book on Public Speaking, where I meticulously penned down everything I had learnt about public speaking. All my hopes were pinned on this book, but I was also painfully aware of one brutal fact. Nobody knew Eric Feng. Which meant that no one would be interested in buying my book.

And so I paid a visit to a wonderful lady (also a mentor of mine) who is famous in Singapore, Malaysia and some say Batam! (Pardon the Singaporean reference—my countrymen may laugh now). She is none other than Irene Ang, a well-loved local celebrity and CEO of Fly Entertainment.

Irene, I asked, would you like to join me in writing my first book?

Sure! she agreed without batting an eyelid. I was ecstatic!

Irene is definitely one of the reasons we managed to sell so many books. We also found favour with the media and got ourselves into a few of the major ones, such as Radio 938 LIVE, Prime Time Morning, Lianhe Zaobao and Business Times.

The Big Question (That’s On Your Mind Right Now)

By now, you are probably asking the same question that many others have asked me once they have heard my story.

Why did these people go the extra mile to help you?

This is an important question because it led me to discover the best- kept secret that I was talking about.

The answer—they liked me enough to want to help me succeed.

What Is The Best-Kept Secret?

All my mentors, from Andre, to the World Champions of Public Speaking, and even from Irene Ang, reminded me that life is a popularity game where people buy people first.

Before they buy your ideas, your product or your organisation, they need to buy YOU first.

This is not an insight shared only by my mentors. Over the past three years, I interviewed dozens of top salespeople who were masters of their craft and this was the exact same secret that they were using every moment they were dealing with people.

It does not matter which industry, position or discipline you are in. As long as you are able to get people to buy you first, you will be able to gain that unfair advantage over your colleagues and your competitors.

People buy people first. That, my friends, is the best-kept secret of the successful.

The Best-Kept Secret, Manifested

When people like you, they give genuine advice that will help you go to the next level of your career. In my case, the advice to publish my first book became my passport to the speaking industry. It opened doors for me.

My first big break came from DP Architects, the geniuses behind some of Singapore’s landmark buildings like Vivo City, Esplanade and the Singapore Flyer.

The next assignment was with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat where