Eugene Cheng 🪄

HighSpark

HighSpark is an award-winning strategy consultancy and training agency. 

We help some of the world's most admired and complex B2B brands:
★ Gather customer insights to speak the right language that sells
★ Devise communication plans that accelerate go-to-market for revenue teams
★ Optimise their positioning & messaging to become the obvious choice to customers
★ Develop sales enablement to align narratives throughout their organisation
★ Impart modern communication and persuasion skills to their top executives


We do this by providing strategic narrative services and executive training on strategic corporate communications aligning to our Narrative-led Growth (NLG)  approach.

Through these avenues, we've driven more than $300M in value for clients.

Our clients include Fortune 500 organisations like: Google, Huawei, Medtronic, BD and notable venture-backed startups like Tookitaki, Arcus Lending, Glints, Eezee, Growthwell and more.

Partner

Motionsauce

After spending half a decade working with organisations on their presentations, I launched Motionsauce, a corporate video production company that enables brands to take their storytelling to the next level. Our creative team utilizes innovative videography and animation to create unique marketing collateral that drives audience engagement and showcases the client’s overall mission. We believe that conversion optimization is the best method to translate web traffic into profit and hire top video talents to help companies achieve their vision.  

✚	Developed and executed digital marketing strategies that brought in close to $600K worth of business in the first two years of operation.

✚	Delivered streamlined processes and cohesive collateral to more than 30 clients within the first year.

✚	Fostered relationships with new clients, and developed partnerships in pursuit of achieving business objectives, growing the team by threefold.

Executive Advisor & Partner

Salad Ventures

After getting more deeply exposed to various blockchain companies at my agency helping firms like BOLT, Klaytn, Switcheo & more in strategic messaging, I decided to dive head-in into the space via Salad. I support our Project Lead as Chief Of Staff in various areas spanning Strategy, HR, Marketing, Operations towards the success of our suite of dApps.

Salad Ventures operates three distinct lines of business including ApolloSquad - a gaming guild, GuildOS a blockchain guild management system and Salad Academy - a learn-to-earn platform. It also invests in thriving gamefi projects like Monsterra, Sipher, Happyland, Mines Of Dalarnia and more.

- Developed branding fundamentals and messaging framework across brand-owned products
- Supported fundraising process and messaging leading to $13.5M Series A fundraise from investors like Alameda Research, Gemini, Winklevoss Capital and more.
- Built up all HR infrastructure and onboarding procedures
- Facilitated hiring of key personnel

Chief Of Staff

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Coming full circle and teaching the topic of Entrepreneurship and Managing A Business to students at my alma mater where I used to be a student myself not too long ago.

Adjunct Lecturer (Entrepreneurship)

Switcheo Network

While the team continued to search to fill a permanent Marketing Lead role, I provided consulting in areas of communications and marketing for the Switcheo team to develop capabilities and also identify potential candidates. Switcheo is the first blockchain-based decentralized exchange for the NEO blockchain, and the team had successfully raised $8M USD through their Initial Coin Offering. (ICO)

✚	Leveraged media savvy to secure in-depth articles with featured publications including Bitcoinist, E27 and Yahoo News with no PR spend.

✚	Conceived and executed their interim user acquisition strategy.

✚	Spearheaded negotiations with various vendors to ensure smooth operations. 

✚	Consulted and developed keynote launch presentation for the NEO Amsterdam conference which resulted in 6,000 new users and a $1M boost in their trading volumes.

Interim Blockchain Marketing Advisor/Consultant

SlideComet

“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning – to create a product or service to make the world a better place.” – Guy Kawasaki

My passion for presentation design and desire to share my extensive knowledge with others culminated in the development of SlideComet. My business partner and I founded this company when we were only 19 years old and fresh out of Polytechnic. We had a total of $1000 in startup capital, which we’ve worked hard to grow into a thriving six-figure design agency: HighSpark

The SlideComet team sizzles up presentations like nobody’s business, and we motivate fellow entrepreneurs to change the world one great pitch at a time. 

	Our presentation content has earned more than 1M views on our LinkedIn SlideShare channel.
 
	Shared presentation and storytelling tips with an extensive email list that reaches over 11K subscribers. 

	Rewarded with ‘Top SlideShare Of the Day’ status on 20 different occasions, outshining hundreds of thousands of worldwide submissions.

Co-Founder

ItsEugene.me

“Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

My first foray into agency work and consulting. I had a passion for marketing and design, but no clients and zero knowledge of what functions a freelancer actually performed. I was fortunate enough to learn the ins and outs of content marketing from great mentors, and began to collaborate with companies like Dentsu Asia and Cerebos to buff up slide decks and create sexy visuals. These projects helped lay the foundation of my career in design and communications, and allowed me to explore further entrepreneurial options.

Communication Designer (Contract)

Synovate Singapore

•	Work involves entering essential records and data into Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint. 
•	Analyzing and deliberating data to determine decisions.
•	Moving out of the office to conduct market research at stores in relevance to client needs.

Intern

Are your B2B customers not responding to marketing and sales?

If this sounds like you, you might have a MESSAGING problem if you're:

→ Spending money on ads but not seeing results you want
→ Customers don't even understand what you're selling
→ Marketing and Sales not working together well

----

We help B2B brands w/ complex products stand out and sell more:

✅ Getting marketing, comms, and sales teams on the same page with one core story 
✅ Getting crystal clear about your company's USP
✅ Boosting conversion of sales conversations with marketing

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🟠 CLIENTS GET RESULTS LIKE:

→ A hospitality company won a $4M contract against stiff competition
→ A mega insurer delivers sales enablement to >4,000 financial advisors selling millions of dollars in products
→ $15M+ raised from a narrative built together in 3 days

---

🟠 HOW WE HELP:

1. GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY
Stand out as the obvious choice. Define your core Ideal Customer Profile, gather insights directly from the customer research, and align your marketing and sales to how customers buy. 

2. STORY-SELLING TRAINING
We’ll train and coach your team on how to communicate more powerfully in digital and personal scenarios. Build rapport, persuade with stories and build demand for what you're selling.

3. SALES ENABLEMENT ASSET SPRINTS
We'll custom-develop assets that are built to convert. Reduce friction and confusion even before they speak to sales to reach customers faster and more powerfully. These could be sales playbooks, pitches, explainers etc.

Step away from your product, demystify your customer's business language, and communicate more persuasively.

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🟠 WHY US:

1. >10 years working with major B2B brands

We're trusted by Fortune 500 brands like Prudential, Oracle, Medtronic, and eight-figure startups like Glints, Growthwell with millions at stake.

2. We've done this hundreds of times

We've been clarifying products in the most complex industries. Fintech, Cloud, Blockchain, Pharma just to name a few...You'll get the best narrative frameworks that work in B2B.

3. Keep getting value even after working together

Your marketing & sales teams will learn how we work and benefit from what we create together. This lets you continue to run your revenue operations without any third party.

---

🟠 MY BACKGROUND:

A seasoned marketer, new dad, and Forbes 30Under30 honouree.
I started my first business at 19 and said no to college.
Since then had thoughts and work covered on...Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider & more.

DM me for more info or just a friendly chat!

Taking my earned experience from Slide Comet, we consolidated our services under a new award-winning company: HighSpark. Offering consulting and training services, we service leaders from Fortune 500 companies like Panasonic, Mastercard, Oracle, public institutions like MAS, A*Star and financial organisations like DBS, Standard Chartered Bank and more, helping them to win more business and gain clarity through persuasive visual stories. We offer strategic narrative services and executive training on strategic corporate communications.

✚ Provided in-depth training on presentations to more than 1,000 executives for companies such as Amazon Web Services, and educational institutions such as SMU.

✚ Deployed content marketing and search marketing campaigns, increasing traffic to the company's website by over 300,000 hits and driving more than $4,500,000 in revenue over 4 years

✚ Garnered high-profile press from such media outlets as Straits Times, Forbes, E27, Vulcan Post and Yahoo News with little to no marketing spend

✚ Consulting work with start-up clients facilitated fundraising efforts resulting in more than $300M raised. Notable startup clients include Forbes 30under30 alumni like Glints and Plus Margin.

SaaS | Social Listening | Social Intelligence | Social Media Analytics | Consumer Insights | Change Agent | APAC | 🇸🇬🇮🇩🇲🇾🇵🇭

I've been selling for 15 years, with 10 years in Southeast Asian markets where most sellers struggle.

I've worked with big names like Disney, Maxis, and Petronas, plus 60+ other companies across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

I built the Trifecta Framework that makes B2B selling work:

1️⃣ Sales Strategies that fit each market
2️⃣ Building your brand on LinkedIn
3️⃣ Creating great experiences for prospects so they don't ghost you

I started as a prison officer where I learned to talk to people in tough situations. These skills helped me succeed in hard markets.

Now I run the B2B Authority Circle (SEA) – a community for B2B sellers targeting Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. We share real tips that work, not theory.

At the core of the B2B Authority Circle lies the Trifecta of the B2B Seller which covers what sellers need to navigate the future of selling in SEA. 

Connect with me to join other sellers who are winning in Southeast Asia's tough but rewarding markets.

Sufi R.

Most sellers don’t have conversations.
They conduct interviews.
Some think they're interrogating a suspect. 

Here's what usually happens in discovery calls:

Seller: “Tell me about your challenges.”
Buyer: “We’re looking to improve efficiency.”
Seller: “Got it!” (takes notes)

👏 Great interview.
 ❌ Terrible conversation.

But happy seller 🤠 

---

If your buyer leaves feeling heard but not helped,
you didn’t discover... 
You just documented.

Because discovery is about asking the kind of questions that earn you the right to go deeper.

The better sellers go deeper.
They slow down.
They don’t move on just because they’ve “got the answer.”
They look for what’s unclear.
They test it.
They ask again, differently.
Because the goal isn’t to collect answers. It’s to create clarity.

And the best sellers?
They lead with clarity.
They guide conversations so well that prospects don’t want them to end.
They make people think differently about their problems and feel safer in the process. That’s what clarity does.

---

Here’s how it looks when you put the CLEAR Framework into action:

C 👉 Confirm the Problem:
The first answer is usually not the problem.

L  👉 Lead with Context:
You can’t lead with the wrong context. 
Earn the right to lead with the right one.

E 👉 Establish the Gaps:
When you bridge technical features to business outcomes, you expose gaps clients didn’t even know existed.

A 👉 Align Next Steps:
If you don’t align, prospects won’t follow. They expect a guide, not a follower.

R 👉 Requalify Relentlessly:
Not doing this increases the risk of doing something for nothing.

---

You don’t master clarity by memorizing scripts.
You master it through reps. Through real conversations that test your presence, listening, and control.

That’s what I help sellers build through the Discovery Dojo.
I’m looking for 10 AEs who want to spar with me. 
Comment SPAR and I'll say hi in your DMs.
Make sure we're connected first, ya!

✌

B2B Sales Strategist | Founder, The Authority Circle | CX, Sales, Marketing Tech Implementation for Businesses

Uncover Clarity During Discovery Calls

When you sell to please, you become an order taker. 

A polite one. A professional one.

But still - an order taker though...

Like a waiter in a restaurant.

🍝🍜🍲🤵🏻‍♂️

---

It’s a scene I’ve seen too many times.

Seller walks into a meeting, notebook ready. Buyer starts asking questions.
Seller answers every single one - clearly, confidently, and instantly.

By the end of the call, the buyer is smiling.

“Thanks for your time.”
“Great chat.”
“Let’s keep in touch.”

The seller leaves the meeting feeling good. Energized. Validated.

“Wow, they really liked me.”


---

And then… silence.

No reply.
No update.
No deal.

Days turn into weeks.
The same seller sits there, wondering what went wrong.

“I thought they liked me.”


---

That’s the problem...

You thought being liked was progress.
But being liked isn’t the same as being trusted.

Buyers ghost because you failed to ask better questions that dig deep - questions that help you anchor in the fact that you're the one who understands them best.

They don’t need another polite expert.
They need a confident guide.


---

This happens everywhere in Asia.
We’ve been raised to please. To serve. To avoid tension.

It’s how we were brought up - to be agreeable, not assertive. To make others comfortable, even when we lose clarity.

But clarity is what closes deals.


---

So guys...

If your meetings feel too smooth, too easy, too comfortable - that’s a warning sign.

Friction isn’t bad.
It’s feedback.

Ask the hard questions.
Dig into what’s unclear.
Push gently - when something doesn’t add up.

Because you’re not in the room to take orders...

You’re there to help them make a decision.


---

Politeness wins smiles.
Clarity wins deals.


✌🏻

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How do you make sure your prospects achieve clarity? 

Share in the comments below 👇

Your first APAC hire will decide your fate faster than your product will.

Alice An nailed the differences between Singapore, Australia, and Japan and it reminded me how much founders underestimate the rest of Southeast Asia.

Here’s the quick take for the other markets:

🇲🇾 Malaysia: The Relationship Operator

Warm but structured. Practice refrain in giving. Moves on trust, not pressure.

🇮🇩 Indonesia: The Market-Maker

Understands hierarchy, culture, and how influence actually works.

🇹🇭 Thailand: The Cultural Navigator

Polite, layered, and relationship-first. Requires finesse.

🇻🇳 Vietnam: The Pace-Setter

Fast cycles. Thrives on clarity, education, and speed.


---

Local or foreigner for the first hire?

Simple rule:
If trust and access matter - hire local.
If capability-building matters - a foreign operator can work (with strong local guidance and support).


---

And one more thing:

Your first hire in SEA should not carry a 100% sales target.

The real KPIs in year one are: navigation, trust, education, and clarity.

Sales is the outcome - not the starting point.

Executive Search APAC | CyberSecurity AI Software Fintech | Your Talent Partner

Your first hire defines your next 24 months in APAC.
When global SaaS leaders ask where to start in APAC, 
I point them to three very different doors: 

Singapore, Australia, and Japan.

Each represents a distinct strategy.

- Singapore: The Hub & Spoke.
 
A pro-business gateway with regional access and strong multilingual talent. But small domestic demand means you need a Regional Operator who thrives across markets, not just in one.
 
- Australia: The Mature Market.
 
Aligned culture, strong enterprise spend, and short sales cycles. Hire an Enterprise Hunter who knows how to win high-value contracts and navigate complex procurement.
 
- Japan: The High-Reward Play.
 
Large, loyal markets where trust and localization win. You’ll need a Country Manager who’s bilingual, bicultural, and respected locally.
 
Before entering APAC, I always ask my clients to consider these: 
1. What will success look like in APAC 12–24 months from now, and how will you measure it differently from the US or Europe?

2. How will you support your APAC leader in-market - not just for quarter one, but through the first year?

3. Which market are you most ready to win first -and why that one, not the largest one?

Most companies don’t fail in APAC because of product-market fit. 
They fail because they enter with the wrong model, wrong expectations, and wrong hire. 

Choose your entry market with intention. Build your first team with care.

That’s how you build momentum in APAC that lasts.

Save this cheatsheet for later (top right 3 buttons) 

♻ Repost & follow Alice An for winning APAC hiring playbooks.

Let's face it - sellers love to talk.

I did too...

Notice the word I used 👉🏻 'did' 👈🏻

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I used to talk the living daylights out of my prospects to the point that their faces ask me this question, "what in the world are you rambling, Sufi?"

So I told myself to STFU.
And LISTEN.

When I started to listen more, I started to make more sense of the world the prospects are facing. 

And this allowed me to ask more questions...

- Questions that gave me crucial info
- Questions that gave prospects relief
- Questions that moved deals forward

Then I discovered something powerful...

Silence isn’t awkward.
It’s active space.

That pause after a good question?
That’s when the prospect starts selling to themselves.

They process.
They imagine.
They decide.

The best salespeople don’t fill silence, they use it.

Ever heard of this?

"The best sales pitch is the one where the seller talks the least?"

Create that pitch...

✌🏻

Thanks for the shout-out Syeba 🙂

Law Graduate | Account Management Professional | Expertise in B2B Sales, Business Strategy, and Client Relationship Management | Specializing in Financial Solutions Across Diverse Sectors

Hari ini tim sales di kantorku baru selesai Day 1 training “Clarity in Action” bareng Trainer Sufi R..
Selama 4 jam training dilakukan dengan interaktif, materinya padat, banyak insight yang nempel, dan super praktikal.

Dari semua materi yang disampaikan, ada 1 tips yang menurutku paling “kena” sebagai orang sales: 
“diam itu punya power besar waktu selling”.📈 

Dan pas denger itu aku langsung,
“wah iya ya… kok baru ngeh sekarang?”
ternyata silence itu bisa jadi trigger besar untuk closing.🤯

Di dunia sales, komunikasi itu bukan sekadar pandai bicara.

Kita memang harus bisa menjelaskan produk dengan jelas, menggali needs, meng-address pain points, dan menawarkan solusi yang fit. Tapi sering kali kita lupa satu elemen penting:

diam

Komunikasi yang baik bukan hanya tentang apa yang kita sampaikan, tapi juga bagaimana kita memberi ruang untuk lawan bicara memproses.💬

Kadang deal justru terjadi bukan saat kita bicara tapi saat kita “berhenti bicara”.

Saat itulah prospek sedang menimbang, menyusun logika. Jadi, kalau kita menunda untuk buru-buru mengisi jeda waktu berpikir si prospek, bisa jadi mereka sendiri yang akan mengarahkan percakapan ke next step.⏭️

Contoh sederhana:

Sales:
“Kalau solusi ini bisa mengurangi cost pengiriman uang ke luar negeri di perusahaan Bapak sampai 50% dan impact ini sudah bisa Bapak dapatkan sejak transaksi pertama. Menurut Bapak gimana?”

diam sejenak….tahan argumen buat lanjut ngomong.

Sering kali, prospek akan menjawab:
“Kalau bisa 50% dari transaksi pertama, itu menarik. Next stepnya apa?”

✍️Lesson:
Komunikasi efektif bukan tentang siapa yang ngomong paling banyak tapi siapa yang paling bisa mengarahkan pembicaraan ke arah yang tepat.🤝

taplio

The Battle

Eugene Cheng 🪄

Sufi R.

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taplio

The Battle

Eugene Cheng 🪄

Sufi R.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sufi R.'s LinkedIn Performance

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