In this video we’re going to look at 5 reasons why financial independence should be your only goal if you work in B2B sales.
But Will, I don’t care about my future and reducing my worries about money… I only care about buying that Porsche 911 that’ll make Mary from the marketing department take a second look at me… well she doesn’t care about cars and as you’ll see in this video, becoming financially free at the youngest age possible levels up your life in all areas, not just your level of attractiveness to the opposite sex.
But what does being “financially free” actually mean? Very simply it means having more money coming in each month from somewhat passive investments than what you’re spending. You spend $4,000 a month on rent, food, partying and car payments? Well you’re financially independent when you own 4 rental properties that bring in $1000 a month. It’s literally that simple!
Now I say somewhat passive investments very purposefully. As if someone is promising you a high return on your money, anything over 5-7% and they are promoting it with Youtube videos of them laid down on the front of a boat, surrounded by people who look like models… well those people are likely paid models and what they’re promoting is likely a scam. There are no fully passive income opportunities that are fully passive that will give you a decent rate of return. They all take a little bit of managing each month.
For me personally, my investments are money in the stock market that is earning dividends and this coming year it’s going to be single family rental properties here in the UK. It’s bread and butter, it’s simple, there’s no elaborate plan, just very simply trying to bring in more each month through things other than my business to cover my monthly costs.
Now, make sure you stay to the end of the video as a couple of these points will change your whole finical strategy for the rest of your life and there’s an additional bonus tip right at the end.
So lets jump right in…
One – Becoming financially independent gives you options
Becoming financially independent gives you options. You hate your sales job? No worries, quit and spend the next 6 months finding the perfect role. A new job opens up the other side of the country and you want to go for it? Great, you’ve nothing to lose financially in making the leap. You want to start a side hustle or a non-profit charity to have a real impact on the world, to leave a legacy? Fantastic! You can do it without the consequences of your main income dropping and getting kicked out of your house to leave on the streets. An investment opportunity crops up, like the fact that we’re due a huge crash in the stock market? Amazing! You can invest when other people are scared, when other people are removing their money from the market and so lowering the stock price so you can pick up a bargain.
Humans are wired to have one source of food, income, happiness… and then fight for their lives to keep the status quo and keep things the way they are. You see this all the time when selling to large organizations, they’d rather keep the pain that they have right now rather than experiment a little and see if they can reduce it. But when you have options financially because your basic costs are covered, you reduce this animistic urge to fight to keep what you have and it makes your life far easier over the long term.
Two – It’s easily achievable with a B2B sales job
Working in B2B sales is an amazing opportunity because of two reasons – 1) Any decent sales job has an uncapped income potential 2) You are in control of your own destiny. The more work you put in and the smarter that you work means that you can achieve take home numbers with commissions that most people could never dream of.
By initiating a basic referral strategy and building a team of your best buyers to bring you new customers, pre sold, pre qualified to you each month you could easily double your take home salary. We should all be grateful that we have this opportunity and we should do something meaningful with this cash, ie invest it, rather than wasting it on shite we wont’ need or care about in 6 months time.
So with that said, YOU can become financially independent in 5-7 years from this moment in time. Hopefully this video gives you a kick in the ass, it opens your eyes that in just 5 years from now (which is still a conservative number if you’re killing it in your sales job) you can be in a position where you never have to work again.
Three – You have power
The ironic thing about financial independence is that it enables you to make even more money, easier. As we talk about in our Charisma workshop in the SalesSchool, money leads to an air of “power” and power is a key part of becoming a more charismatic person. This makes you a more interesting person to spend time with and so your customers choose you over the competition.
Power also leads you to a mindset of outcome independence. That is, you’ve made someone a great offer, and then you believe that if they don’t take it, they’re missing out. This leads a prospect to have more trust in you and so the deals come in easier. The opposite of this is when salespeople who are desperate to pay their mortgage, call on prospects and they have an air of desperation around them. This leads people to not trust them, to feel like there is an alterer motive to closing the deal and so they don’t get the sale.
Additionally you can say goodbye to your sales manager hounding you each day when they know that you could walk away from your sales job at the drop of a hat. You’ll find chronic spenders in your own organization asking you how you managed to become financially independent. You’ll gain the respect of your peers too.
Four – Reduces stress
Most Americans (and I’m not picking on you guys, but it’s just seemingly where the most data on this is…) have around $20,000 of debt, they consider themselves chronically stressed and there are more overweight people in America than normal weight individuals…
Perhaps, if we don’t want to end up like this, if we want to feel that we are in control of our lives and we want to reduce our levels of stress, we need to do something different to what everyone else is doing financially right? American author and financial guru Dave Ramsey puts it like this: “Live like no-one else to enable you to live like no-one else”, meaning that a short term sacrifice could easily elevate you to a position a large percentage of people will never attain.
When you know that all of your basic physical needs are met each month for the rest of your life – a roof over your head, food, party time then a switch turns off in your brain that you’re fighting for survival. Things that used to worry you become trivial at that point.
Five – opportunity cost
Even if you love your sales job and you plan on doing it for the next 25 years, if you HAVE to do it to survive you’re going to miss out on the couple of huge, once in a lifetime opportunities that will come your way over the decades. The opportunity cost of being “trapped” financially can cripple your chances of not just being financially free but really taking things to the next level. If you’re stuck with debt, if you’re spending more than you’re bringing in each month than how are you ever going to start that business or jump on the fact that there’s a huge opportunity being offered to you?
BONUS:
And the bonus tip – If you don’t quite yet have the cash saved to go full blown, shouting from the roof tops, fanatically independent then start work on a 12 month emergency fund. That is literally 12 months of your bills, rent and mortgage paid for in a separate bank account that you don’t touch, ever.
This actually gives you a lot of the same benefits as full blown having the cash to go completely off the grid but it’s likely a number that you can save up in a relatively short amount of time. After paying off debt, this should be the first goal that all B2B sales professionals should be aiming for.
