I just finished reading the 20th Anniversary Edition of Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray. The book was powerful, convicting, thought-provoking, easy to read, and packed with timeless immutable truths about long-term equity investing. I wish I read this twenty or even thirty years ago!
I know the two thoughts running through your mind right now: One, why should you care that I read this book? And, two, why is Weinberg writing a piece on investing and wealth? He’s a sales author, not a financial guru. Great questions. Thanks for asking.
Aside from the fact that Murray provides mature, brilliant, much-needed wisdom and perspective about creating wealth, the type of wisdom you rarely see on television or in popular financial magazines, I was struck by how much of his advice applies and correlates directly to sales success! In almost every chapter I was challenged and convicted about my own shortsightedness and desire to look for investing shortcuts and quick hits while finding myself screaming “Amen” when applying the author’s wisdom to sales and salespeople.
Read this quote from Murray as written, but then read it a second time, substituting in “sales success” for equity investment success:
“The single most important variable in the quest for equity investment success is also the only variable you ultimately control: your own behavior”
One of Murray’s themes that runs the course of the entire book is that there are timeless truths about investing and he shares nine decades of data from various angles to back up his argument. He paints a powerful picture about the most fundamental investment advice of all (dollar cost averaging) and rails against current sensational financial journalism that continually bombards us with titillating headlines like, “Six Hot Funds to Buy Now.” He cautions against our tendency to search for the secret sauce and warns about our knee-jerk reactions to daily news events, both of which distract us from our long-term mission and cause us to chase shiny objects and short-term fixes.
Does that last paragraph feel familiar to you? Isn’t that how most salespeople emote and behave? Aren’t we quick to fall for today’s hot new sales toy, tool, trick, or process? How much time is spent (wasted) on LinkedIn looking for something new versus how little time is invested mastering the basics, the timeless fundamentals of selling and sales management? How gullible are sellers and sales leaders when falling for sales headlines preaching with such confidence and certainty that “Everything in Sales Has Changed,” and nothing that used to work is still effective today.
Sales Friends, what I most loved (and needed to hear) from Nick Murray was the reminder that success is always about the basics, the fundamentals, not the quick fix, hot trend, or the shortcut. He made the strongest case possible that if you follow the basic rules…the laws of long-term equity investing, you will achieve Inevitable Wealth. The same applies to us in sales and sales leadership.
I wrote in Sales Truth that I’ve never seen a salesperson or sales team fail because they were lacking a cool new sales tool or process; they fail when they don’t execute on the basics. Period. In Chapter 15 I profiled two of the very best and most successful salespeople I’ve ever seen. And the reason I shared the stories of these two record-breaking sales rockstars is because I want readers to see that they had no tricks and deployed no shortcuts… and had no interest in wasting precious time searching for some mysterious magic bullet. No, instead, they worked like madmen to master both the fundamentals of selling and their own behavior. They focused on what they could control and continually demonstrated the discipline required to produce outstanding results – year after year after year.
If this message resonates with you or challenges you, please read Chapter 15 of Sales Truth. Download it for free it by clicking here. I am 100% confident that you will finish with several meaningful takeaways and a generous ROI from the few minutes invested reading about Ron and Tom.
This much I do know: if instead of searching for the sales shortcut you master the tried and true fundamentals of selling (or sales management) you will experience Inevitable Sales Success.
Mike
PS – At the time this is going out, we are down to the last six seats for the February 20th Supercharge Your Sales Leadership Event at The Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles. If you want to spend a powerful day with driven sales leaders and me mastering the sales management fundamentals that drive long-term sales success, act quickly. More info here.
