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Sold! by Greg Winston
Recent Entries
Inc.com Featured Blogs
March 30, 2008
Why Women Sell Better
Posted at 10:08 PM
I'm a born-again feminist. Yes, I know, that's a pretty strong admission for a guy. But if my years of sales training have taught me anything, it's the power women have in sales. There are some companies and industries -- such as real estate, insurance, office equipment -- that have picked up on this and capitalized on it, but there are many more that need to embrace the power of women. And here’s another bomb (for some of you): Women have proven to be great managers, too.
Naturally, women don't sell better in all cases. But many reports show women emerging as the fastest growing segment in sales. And there are some very good reasons why I believe woman are better suited for selling. Among them:
o In their personal lives and in business they tend to create relationships better.
o They tend to sell based on personal input and business input rather than just business.
o They listen.
o They don’t have a sales history that they are tied to, so "new" works for them.
o In many areas, women who are good in sales are still enough of a rarity to create a buzz.
I'm not suggesting that this is earth shaking news. But here's the thing: As a sales teacher, I continually run into companies that continue to operate with male-dominated sales teams. While the excuses vary from, "It's always been that way,” to "Well, it's a man's product, so …," the truth is and the research supports this fact: Women are great in sales, and they are a growing force in sales.
For more information, please click here: http://www.gregwinston.com/download.asp.
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You've got a great point that women are great in sales. I wrote about that in my blog just recently.
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog-post/women-sales
I believe that cross-gender selling is the best, so your point only works when the customer is male.
For 10+ years, all we had were men in sales. In the last 2 years, we've added 3 women to the team. 2 out of the 3 have emerged as the "powerhouses" of the group, generating significant #'s of quotes & sales dollars above the rest of the team.
The Industrial Distribution market is ripe for women sales people. When I began my career in this industry, there were no women - zip, zero, nada. Typically women did not enter this field because they lacked the technical background, the engineering degree or maintanence experience to qualify.
Today, our engineering and technical schools have female students and many of them are overlooking distribution as a career. They have to be sought out.
So, here's a message to all you wholesale distributor sales managers. Go out and recruit a woman salesperson.
Our internal sales team is largely female, and we have been highly successful in building valuable long-term customer relationships. Many of our buyers are female, and I feel that our female reps have had an advantage in terms of building rapport and more personal connections. We have also found that our female reps are great at multi-tasking and handling multiple priorities.
The ability to "sell" works across the board on virtually all communication. Women thrive at presentations of all kinds, from selling paper clips to presenting multi million dollar deals. The ability to listen, and respond to what is said, is a unique talent, and one that many women possess. That is what makes great sales. I tell women constantly on my website (www.businessplanmaster.com) that they are as qualified as men, and should get the financing they deserve. Some day men will actually believe that. Sadly, it is still men who hold most of the purse strings.
This reply is generated towards Brock. I disagree with your attempt to say that having a female in sales only works in cross-selling to men. I have been told by both men & especially women that I have sold to, that they felt better dealing with me than a man salesperson. I am less intimidating, I approach people & treat them as I want to be treated, I listen to their needs & I know my products & don't treat people as a number or a paycheck to get the sale. Lots of men in the hiring position have all told me they'd hire a female over a male for just such these reasons.
Greg, I think you are right on in your comments. As you mentioned, this is not always the case, but as a woman we do have some innate advantages, such as the ones you mentioned.
I was the first female insurance rep in my area MANY years ago, and repeated that as the first female rep with IBM out of my midwestern office. Back in the day, I could get in to see someone because of the "novelty" of a woman sales rep. Of course, once I got in the door, I had to prove my ability to understand the customers' needs and help them solve their problems, just as any male sales rep would have to do.
Selling is about building relationships. In order to do that, you have to build trust, ask good questions, listen and often put your ego aside. Sales is a wonderful career for both men and women. I saw it as an opportunity to support my family and a place where the size of my paycheck was mainly limited by my own efforts and how the sales plan was structured!
I also think good sales people are pretty intuitive. By using our intuition, we can tune in to the client and understand how to best meet their needs. We use tools such as DISC to help our clients read their customers' style and adapt their own more effectively. Thank you again for your article.
Since the dawn of humankind, women have been the half that gathers and nurtures. Yin to the male half that hunts and protects. Yin to Yang. Fast forward these skill applications to the present and the correlation is clear in sales. Gathering and nurturing plays to long-term sustainability while hunting and protecting plays to short-term "kills" and protecting turf. Greg Winston simply noted the natural extension of the Yin and Yang of the sexes as viewed through today's prism of the sales industry. Another man, Bill Lamond wrote a book on the subject: "Born to Lead", wherein he maintains "The Feminine" is not only ascending but is necessary to save the planet. Daniel Pink, yet another man, maintains much the same point of view in his book "A Whole New Mind" wherein he asserts the future of global business belongs to "right-brainers" (more women than men). So kudos to Mr. Winston to hitting the nail squarely on its head!
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