KJ Wong

AWAKE BY FIVE AM

Awake By Five AM: Sales Training for Businesses in All Industries

Awake By Five AM is a sales training provider that helps businesses of all sizes deliver differentiating value to their clients. We take a holistic approach to improving sales performance by focusing on the sales team's capability, the company's sales process, sales leadership/management, and sales recruitment.

We have assisted clients in a wide range of industries, including:
-Life Science and Medical
-Entrepreneur programs offered by universities and institutes
-Agile and Kanban consultancy agencies
-Education Technologies
-Social media, website, and SEO
-IT and SaaS
-Telecommunications
-Sustainable businesses
-Nonprofit organizations
-Other sales training providers
-Retail
-Manufacturing
-Trade

We offer comprehensive sales training programs to help businesses enhance their selling capability by focusing on the following areas:
-Sales technique training (ALIIGN program)
-Sales Leadership (SERVE and VISION programs)
-Sales Center of Excellence establishment

Our sales training programs are customised to meet the specific needs of each business, and we are committed to helping our clients achieve their sales goals.

Contact me to learn more about our sales training programs or to access our sales library, which contains sales articles and videos.

Founder and Sales Coach

Elabor8

Elabor8’s focus on operational design, new ways of working and agile delivery helps you move easily between now, and what comes next.
Duties:
Team Leadership and Agile Management: Successfully built and led a team of lead generators, employing Agile methodologies and leveraging tools like Trello, Apollo and Sales Navigator to enhance collaboration and efficiency.

Onboarding Platform Development: Created a high-quality sales recruit onboarding platform on Confluence, Jira, and Mural, facilitating seamless integration and knowledge sharing among team members.

Agile Sales Operating Model: Led the development and implementation of an innovative Agile Sales Operating Model, streamlining processes and boosting productivity across the entire sales team.

CRM Migration implementation: Leading the migration of the company’s CRM system to Salesforce.com, ensuring a smooth transition and optimal utilization of the new platform.

Sales Incentive Model Design: Devised and implemented effective incentive models for the sales team, fostering motivation, and driving exceptional performance.

Mentor sales group managers, account directors, solution specialists, lead generation and consultants on Agile consultancy service offerings and SaaS product sales.

Sales Operations Manager

Silicon Beach OZ

Silicon Beach OZ is one of the largest Meetup groups, consists of over 14,000 members of entrepreneurs, founders and service providers. We support new exciting business ideas to become the next Unicorn.

It is such a privilege to be part of a group of generous individuals, who dedicated their time to give so much others.

This is my first involvement of a non-profit organisation to assist founders and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality.

I love the innovation, passion and determination of these people to serve our community. 

My role is to focus is helping entrepreneurs and founders everything to do with sales.

Expert in Residence- Sales Coaching

Pathtech Pty Ltd

Pathtech is a provider of scientific equipment and consumables supporting the Life Science, Forensics, Drug Detection and Large Scale Processing industries.

I wanted to focus on a new challenge by looking after forensic customers.

I replicated the sales process I developed in the life science department into this department.

We tripled sales by the second year and then continued this significant growth for the following two years. We exceeded the budget significantly every year.

What I valued the most during this journey was to be in touch with the customers directly again. This was not always the case as a sales manager.

I managed the day to day operation of this department; including sales, marketing strategy (promotion and white papers), technical support, customer training, logistics of large equipment and coordinating the installation.

While managing the forensic department, I coached a budding sales manager in the life science department.

The lesson I learned here is to put every effort to establish the right infrastructure in the sales process and the rest will look after itself.

National Sales and Marketing Manager- Forensic

For the first time, I had the priviledge to fully redesign every process ground up for a struggling Life Science department.

I had to completely revamped the sales process, marketing strategy, induction process, on-boarding, reporting system and the CRM. I also provided the sales and product training.

For a period of 12 months, I was also given the responsibility to lead the customer service, forensic, engineering and service teams on top of managing the life science department.

We achieved incredible success with double-digit growth every year from the first year, despite losing almost half of the sales team to manage cost. We doubled sales after five years.

The main reason for our success came down to clarity of our direction, process and making available all the innovative tools to help the team to do their jobs.

The biggest lesson I learned here is: Leadership is about staying human and simplicity is the key to clarity.

National Sales and Marketing Manager-Life Science and Forensic

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories is a manufacturer of products for the life science research and clinical diagnostics markets.

Due to my exceptional sales performance and passion to help others, I was promoted to become one of the youngest Sales Manager in Bio-Rad.

Despite facing many challenges including the significant organisational change, I successful led a sales team and application specialists. My proudest moments was seeing my team receiving their awards on the stage at our Asia Pacific sales conference.

The core to my success was learning to balance the complexity of leadership and management. 

I learned the meaning of servanthood and the value of being innovative to on-board new team members by developing tools and being creative with the resources available. 

My biggest lesson here is: Never allow the limitation of resources to dictate the outcome of our goals. Secondly, the sales manager's real customers are their team.

Regional Sales Manager- NSW, ACT, QLD, NZ and Pacific Islands

Inspired by a book called "Rich dad, Poor dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, I packed my bags and moved to Sydney to pursue a career in sales.

I was determined to overcome my "introvertness" and pursued to learn the art of selling.

Overcoming the fear of rejection was one of my greatest achievements. The most important lesson I learned what the art of active listening. 

Furthermore, I realised the power of maintaining a good sales process. 

Speed of response and exceptional service were my greatest weapons. 

Through these lessons, my proudest achievement was exceeding the sales budget for 13 consecutive quarters whilst hitting all the subsidiary KPIs.

Senior Account Manager- NSW and ACT

Neubody Pty Ltd

Neubody is a manufacturer and supplier of quality antibody based products around the world.

The establishment of Neubody gave me some of the most valuable lessons in my career. I was passionate with the risk and had the desire to learn how to manage my very first business with no experience.

During my third year degree, Prof. Robert Rush invited me to join his newly formed Biotechnology company. I had no idea how challenging it would be.

Despite all the challenges, we have not only survived, we flourished.
 
I became the very first Biotechnology undergrad at Flinders University to produce an honours thesis that focused on the business side of Biotechnology (product development, marketing, product launch and sales).

Upon graduation, we grew Neubody rapidly and began expanding our R&D division. We produced some of the most innovative products to serve the research community worldwide.

One of my proudest moments was winning the very first equipment grant (suggested by me) through BioInnovationSA in collaboration with two other companies.

I also became the very first candidate to be granted a scholarship by BioInnovationSA to represent the South Australia biotechnology industry in an international conference at San Diego.

It was a privilege to be given such an amazing opportunity to be one of the founding employees of this company.

I am grateful to my mentors, who helped me with the biggest lesson in business: Find the courage to step into the unknown.

General Manager

Many people perceive sales is a dark art. This is simply not true.

Unfortunately, most of us are not trained to sell formally.

Those who take up the challenge to do it as a job, face the following questions:
- Why is selling so challenging?
- Why aren’t the customers buying from you?
- How do you lead your sales team effectively?

Entrepreneurs, business owners, sales people and sales managers ponder these same sets of questions everyday.

I know that selling has received such a negative perception world wide. I concur with you that it is scary to do when we first learn or need to sell. Although I have been doing this for a living for a long time, I remember I had those exact feelings when I first started. Since then, I have sold more than $40M of products and services and being one of the youngest sales manager to lead a sales team in a global company and turned an ailing sales department into a consistent double digit growth high performing team.

My life missions are: 
- To remove the negative perception of selling.
- To help others reach their sales potential. 

Selling is not a dirty word. Everyone can sell, it is one of the life skills. You do not have to be manipulative, aggressive and pushy to be successful in sales. 

I am passionate about helping our clients better engage with their customers by empowering the delivery of differentiating values.

Learn how to build immediate rapport with your customers in a pragmatic way to establish a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship.

Learn the relationship between your intent and the cold calling to a sales call to a close.

My unique offerings are the following:
The ALIIGN sales call method can generate consistent and successful results.
The SERVE sales leadership method empowers sales managers to lead their teams.
The VISION time management method unlock more time for busy people.

Is it time to improve your sales skills so that you can help as many people and businesses as you need. What is holding you back to level up your game? 

I do my best to post every day to share whatever I can base on my experience. Join me and together we can make a difference in the selling world.

Contact me to find out whether I am a suitable sales coach for you or your company. 

If you would like to know more about me, connect or follow me bit.ly/KJWong.

You are welcome to access over 30 sales articles and hundreds of sales videos by clicking on the links below:
- My Sales library: bit.ly/Saleslibrary

Founder and Director

Awake By Five AM is a sales training provider helping businesses to deliver differentiating value to their clients. We take a holistic approach in improving the client's sales effort by focussing on their sales team's sales capability and the company's sales process, sales leadership/management and sales recruitment.  

We have assisted clients in the following industries:
   - Entrepreneur programs offered by Universities and Institutes
   - Agile and Kanban
   - Social media, Website and SEO
   - IT and SAAS
   - Telecommunication
   - MLM
   - Sustainable business
   - Nonprofit organization
   - Other sales training providers
   - Retail
   - Manufacturing
   - Trade

We provide comprehensive programs to help businesses to enhance their selling capability by focusing on the following area:
- Sales call training (ALIIGN program) to sales team in line with the CRM. 
- Sales management administration (SERVE and VISION programs).
  - Opportunity funnel.
  - Marketing campaign and CRM customers segmentation.
  - Sales reporting systems

Click the link below to access our sales library that contains sales articles and videos.

To everyone currently facing a challenge, feeling the weight of a goal that seems just out of reach, please remember this:

"Failure is not how many times it did not work. But it is a certainty when you stop and gave up entirely."

Those are not just words; they are a promise of resilience. We all know the sting of a failed project, a lost deal, or a plan that crumbled. In that moment, it’s easy to feel defeated and think the struggle itself defines you. But it doesn't.

A setback is simply feedback—a necessary data point on the map to success. Every pivot, every revision, and every attempt that falls short is not a strike against you; it’s proof that you are in motion and actively learning. Your journey is measured not by the mistakes you make, but by the relentless effort you put into getting up one more time.

The only time the outcome truly becomes a failure is when you decide to pack it in and refuse to try again. Keep your head up, acknowledge the struggle, and take the next step. Your perseverance is your most valuable asset.

Sales Training, Mentoring, & Leadership | Sales Centre of Excellence | Empowering Sales Teams to Deliver Differentiating Value

This sort of managerial style is more common than you think. And it is getting worst.

We've all seen them: the "Fly-By" Sales Manager. This is the leader who swoops in only when the numbers are bad, fires off a quick email about pipeline discipline, and then vanishes until the next crisis. They treat leadership like air traffic control, not like coaching.

This approach is more than just annoying; it’s genuinely detrimental to your sales team and culture. Here is why the fly-by style kills performance:

Destroys Trust and Motivation

Effective sales is built on trust and consistent support. When a manager only appears to criticize or pressure, the relationship becomes purely transactional. Reps learn to dread interactions, hide challenges, and focus on immediate survival instead of long-term development. This erodes psychological safety, turning a team into a collection of fearful individuals rather than a cohesive unit.

Kills Coaching and Development

True sales coaching is proactive, not reactive. It requires being in the trenches to observe behaviors, diagnose skill gaps, and offer constructive feedback before a deal is lost. The fly-by manager misses all of this. They don't see the complexity of territory management, the nuance of a relationship, or the early warning signs of a stall. They are experts in autopsy, not prevention.

Undermines Team Culture

When leadership is inconsistent and driven by panic, it breeds a culture of short-term thinking and finger-pointing. Why should a rep innovate or collaborate when they know their manager will only ask about the single deal they didn't close? This style prioritizes immediate reporting metrics over sustainable success, making the team feel disposable and unsupported.

Leadership is about consistent presence, clear direction, and genuine partnership. Your best sales reps need a coach who is with them for the whole journey, not just a frantic passenger landing during a storm.

How to leverage on a critical trait of sales reps?

It's an undeniable truth: Great sales reps are fundamentally competitive. They're driven by the thrill of the win, the desire to be on top of the leaderboard, and the need to beat their personal best.

But here's the critical distinction for sales managers:

The goal isn't to squash that competitive spirit—it's to leverage it without letting it boil over into toxicity.

A manager who understands how to channel this natural drive through things like:

Transparent, timely leaderboards.

Creative, non-monetary incentives and recognition.

Team-based challenges that foster collaboration and competition.

Coaching on healthy rivalry vs. cutthroat behavior.

...is not just managing a sales team; they're cultivating a high-performing sales ecosystem.

When you get that balance right, competition becomes the engine of growth, driving everyone to push harder, learn faster, and ultimately, close more deals.

Do you expect everyone suppose to embrace your unsolicited wisdom or feedback?

We often equate leadership with the ability to clearly deliver constructive feedback. However, we frequently overlook the critical step that precedes any delivery: cultivating readiness in the receiver.

When a team member, especially in fast-paced environments like sales, is not mentally or emotionally prepared to hear difficult input, forcing that conversation serves no one. Attempting to push through resistance simply converts a potential coaching opportunity into a moment of mutual frustration and resentment. The manager feels unheard and the employee feels attacked, leading them to reject the message outright.

True coaching shifts the focus from "what I need to tell you" to "how can I help you grow?" This means pausing the critique and first investing in safety and trust. We must establish a collaborative environment where the individual feels supported, not judged, and where they are invited to assess their own performance first. 

That willingness to step back and build receptivity is the foundational skill that unlocks real change, turning resistance into proactive self-improvement.

Whatever lessons or courses you take is meaningless until this happens:

We are constantly told to never stop learning. We consume articles, listen to podcasts, and complete courses, proudly stockpiling information in the belief that knowledge alone equals progress.

But the truth is, the most dedicated reader is still just a person with a good memory until they act. True learning doesn't happen in the consumption of a concept; it happens in the application of it.

If you learn a new productivity hack but never change your morning routine, you haven't truly learned it. If you master a new sales technique but never try it on a high-stakes call, that knowledge is inert. The gap between theory and execution is where growth truly lives.

Knowledge is currency, but application is the transaction. It's only when you face resistance, make a mistake, iterate, and feel the friction of a new skill in a real-world scenario that the learning integrates into your behavior and becomes a powerful, permanent asset.

Don't just fill your tank with wisdom. Get behind the wheel and drive. That's where you earn your expertise.

Did you know that rebuilding a high-performing sales department is similar to building and racing a Go-Kart. Everything is optimized for speed, agility, and performance.

You can invest in a powerful new engine (strategy) and the best racing slicks (tech stack). But on a Go-Kart, a single faulty part doesn't just slow you down; it can throw you off the track or even ruin the whole race.

If you lack the courage to remove that faulty part along the journey, the entire transformative project is at risk.

What is the "faulty part" on your sales Go-Kart?

The Dragging Tire (The Chronic Underperformer): They require constant, disproportionate attention, wasting leadership fuel and forcing the rest of the team to overcorrect and compensate.

The Bent Axle (The Misaligned Leader): A manager whose toxic behavior or outdated philosophy causes the entire team to steer off course, grinding momentum to a halt.

The Leaky Gas Tank (The Cultural Cancer): The person who sucks up energy, spreads negativity, and drains the collective motivation required to maintain race speed.

In high-performance environments, the consequences of inaction are immediate. Failing to make a necessary personnel change—hoping they’ll "come around"—is a failure of courageous leadership and a direct risk to your team's ultimate success.

If you're building a winning race team, you have to be ruthless about precision. Remove the faulty part, keep the Go-Kart fine-tuned, and accelerate towards your goals.

Are your sales team creative?

Many companies see brilliant innovations get lost, a problem often rooted in organizational inertia and a deep-seated fear of risk, despite significant investments in R&D.

The most potent and often overlooked source of new ideas is actually the Sales team, especially in the way they approach territory management. This isn't just about selling; it's a vital engine for finding better ways to operate.

Sales curiosity is the critical driver because it:

First, Drives Efficiency. A truly curious sales professional constantly challenges existing processes, asking why they manage their territory in a particular way or if their current sales sequence is actually the fastest path to a closed deal. They are uniquely positioned to spot and correct inefficient workflows.

Next, it Enhances Effectiveness. Instead of accepting surface-level answers, a curious rep digs deep into a customer's complex pain points. This frontline market intelligence is invaluable, serving as the raw data for true product innovation and streamlining the delivery of value.

Finally, it Encourages Frontline Experimentation. The necessity of hitting quotas forces top performers to test and implement successful on-the-ground strategies. These successful "hacks" must be captured and scaled across the company for broader, enterprise-wide efficiency gains.

What is the impact when sales leaders ignore this in their duties?

Your job isn't just to set a target; it's to be the relentless barrier-remover for your sales team.

Are you making it easier or harder for them to sell? Every complex approval process, every clunky CRM step, every piece of outdated collateral is a speed bump that costs them time and costs the business revenue.

The Impact of Complacency:

Burnout: Your best reps leave because they spend more time fighting internal friction than winning external deals.

Inaccurate Forecasts: Deals stall because of internal hurdles, making forecasting unpredictable.

Lost Revenue: Slow, bureaucratic processes mean your competitors close the deal first.

Be the leader who sees a barrier and demolishes it. Your team's success is a direct reflection of how relentlessly you clear their path.

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