We present a novel approach to analyze the exponential stability of nonlinear neutral functional differential equations. Our approach is simple and based on a system transformation, the comparison principle, and the spectral properties of Metzler matrices. Consequently, we derive some new explicit criteria for the exponential stability of general nonlinear neutral functional differential equations. It is important to note that our approach leads to both delay-dependent and delayindependent stability criteria. Several illustrative examples with simulations and a brief comparison between the obtained results with some existing results in the literature are presented.