My grandfather smoked cigarettes and lived to be 100. Therefore, smoking is not unhealthy.

Did you ever know someone who could arrive at an incorrect conclusion and then go find data to support that conclusion?

Me too.

This phenomenon is known as the Texas sharpshooter fallacy.

According to Wikipedia, this is a logical fallacy in which pieces of information that have no relationship to one another are interpreted or manipulated until they appear to. The name comes from a story about a Texan who fires several shots at the side of a barn, then paints a target centered on the hits and claims to be a sharpshooter.

Here's another example of a fallacy.

In the days of transactional brokerage business, selling skills were very important. But our business is no longer transactional, therefore selling skills are no longer important.

That is just flat out wrong, and I've heard too many people rationalizing and supporting that fallacy.

I know all the arguments.

Rich people don't want to give their money to a salesman.   

We don't sell. We advise.

We implement the process.

Clients today are too sophisticated to be sold anything.

There's no room for selling in this overly regulated environment.

I disagree with all these arguments. I understand completely and clearly that we are in the advice business. I realize that clients agree to pay us a fee or a commission in exchange for our advice. I simply contend that selling and advice-giving go hand in hand. We have to sell in order to survive. And people need to be convinced to take our advice if they are to have any hope of succeeding financially. And I don't just mean that we've got to overcome the usual objections of "Saving money is not fun," "There is never a convenient time to invest," "I just want to wait until things get better," etc. The hardest thing to overcome is temporal myopia, the inevitable discounting of time. How important can the future be when it's so far away? How many smokers are willing to discount the ravages of time in return for the short-term gain of pleasure? If visualizing the future were possible, or even easy, there would not be one smoker or drinker on earth.

Well, these rules are not suspended in your business. Nobody who is younger than 60 can fathom the reality of turning 60 and staring retirement in the face with inadequate funds. They have to be able to, but they can't. And all the financial advice in the world won't help. That's exactly where salesmanship comes in. And the advisor with the better selling skills wins. I've seen it demonstrated time and again over the years that the most successful advisors have the best selling skills. And those advisors who have enjoyed the longest-running, most successful relationships with their clients did so because they have dispensed nothing but sound advice all along. To have an abundance of common sense is an enormous asset in our business.     To have above-average selling skills is a giant leg up. To have both is to go to the head of the class.
But in order to learn selling skills and hone them until they are razor sharp, you've got to come to grips with the idea that it's OK to be called a salesman or a saleswoman.

I have. I think it's OK to be called a salesman. In fact, I like being thought of as a really good salesman. I'm comfortable with that. And I want you to feel as comfortable as I do. In fact, I will argue that if you want to go to the top of this profession, you've got to be totally comfortable with that thought.

Do you feel tawdry being perceived as a salesman?

The first step in becoming great in this business is to overcome that tawdry feeling by getting comfortable in your own skin. If being a salesperson makes you feel second-class or uncomfortable, you will fail in this profession.

As my advisor friend at Smith Barney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., says, the Eleventh Commandment ought to be, "Thou shalt not kid thyself." And far too many advisors are kidding themselves by thinking all they have to do in order to be successful financial advisors is to lay the advice out on the table and wait for the other person to pick it up. It is more necessary to sell now than ever. Maybe you can advise once the account is open, but how are you going to open the account if you don't sell yourself and your ideas? So if one of your long-range goals is simply to eat, let alone go to the top in this profession, you better learn to sell. Or find a new career.

One of my goals in life is to strive for clarity. So let there be no doubt about the point I am trying to make. The most richly rewarded financial advisors in America invariably have the best selling skills! A career in sales will pay more than almost any career you can imagine. Highly successful salespeople are smarter than most others, are certainly more resourceful than most others and take more responsibility for their actions than anyone you can imagine. Independent, successful salespeople embody and personify accountability.

I am forced to ponder, therefore, why so much of Wall Street is in denial. "We are not well served being portrayed as salespeople. All we need to do is utilize and employ sound practice management skills and our products will jump off the shelves like boxes of Tide." Wrong.
What is it about a salesperson that is so disingenuous?

Well, goes the argument, salespeople lack sincerity. Everybody knows that. At least that's what Hollywood says. And rich people don't want to give their money to insincere people.

Since the day I started in this business, that notion has bothered me. It hasn't stopped me. It hasn't even slowed me down. It's just bothered me. It shouldn't bother me, but it does. It bothers me in the same way that stereotypical depictions of salesmen bother me. The confidence man has become a stock figure in American culture. The hapless Willy Loman has become synonymous with earning nothing, owning nothing and accomplishing nothing. In Willy's case, the value of hard work takes a back seat to appearance and popularity. "And when they start not smiling back-boy, that's an earthquake."
Why is it so tempting to portray the salesperson as a hustler? Why are salesmen so often depicted as wallowing in middle-class mediocrity? Why are we as an industry afraid to fess up that we're in the selling business? What is it that's not likable about a salesman? Apparently, logic has it that a salesman will do anything and say anything to make a sale. The product is inferior, so the prospect must be tricked into buying. Shake the salesman's hand, but count your fingers afterwards.

So goes the logic.

But I think there is something far deeper afoot. I believe people denigrate sales professionals out of jealousy and resentment. The woods are full of people who are dying for the chance to tell you that your dreams can't come true. They are jealous of your success and your attitude. And they are not just jealous. They are intimidated.

These people are jealous of self-starters. Nobody tells you what time to go to bed at night. Nobody tells you when to get up in the morning. You can do business with whom you choose. Nobody tells you how much money you can earn. You can make more than 99% of all Americans. Who else has a job like that? It's no coincidence that everybody likes winning, but nobody likes a winner.

So many people are resentful that salespeople have chosen to be optimistic. Enthusiasm is the most important ingredient in sales and great salespeople have chosen to be enthusiastic. But the world is overrun with people who have chosen to be unhappy. Being miserable seems to be a God-given right to these folks. When people are walking around feeling angry and negative, the last thing they want is someone telling them to smile. They think anyone who is happy or optimistic is faux friendly. The reality is quite the opposite.

Salespeople are among the highest paid and most diligent people in the world because they have the courage to make a living using their wits. They eat rejection for lunch. They take complete responsibility for their results, both good and bad. While others depend on merit raises, cost-of-living increases and tenure, the sales professional rolls the income odometer back to zero every morning. If you don't sell, you don't eat. How many people have the courage to strap that on?

Salespeople have a self-image and a sense of conviction that others can only dream about. Salespeople can cut it. And one doesn't forge a sales career that stands the test of time by being slick, insincere or dishonest.

So maybe that's one reason we are reluctant to say we are salespeople. People who couldn't begin to walk in our shoes might look down on us. Please.

Another reason that it may not be good to be thought of as a salesman or saleswoman is that the regulators have run the salesman out of the room. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the securities industry is riding a tiger it dare not dismount. "We don't know how much regulation is enough, so we'll overkill and err on the side of caution."

Well, if you are going to thrive in this business, you've got to deal with compliance issues and sell at the same time. Respect the regulations. Don't be bullied by them. I once read an article suggesting that we all should write an article about ourselves every Friday night, detailing exactly what we did during the week. Then we have to decide if we would like that article published in our Sunday hometown newspaper. If you don't want it published in the paper, don't do it. Behave accordingly and you'll avoid any and all legal and compliance issues.

And never, ever forget how important you are. Because of you, someday a young man or woman can go to college and not borrow money. Because of you, someday a couple can retire to Florida or Arizona and not stress about money. Because of you. You have put yourself in a place to change people's lives. Very few can make that claim. Wear that mantle proudly.

Be proud that you have the courage to do what you do. You go where most people fear to tread. Do not be afraid of your abilities. Do what you do best.

And don't be grating. Be sincere.

So, do we agree that selling is not a dirty word?

Good.