Why Women Make Great Sales People

As selling evolves with technological advancements and higher educational barriers to entry; women will be the most successful sales people in the future; the very near-future.

In the ‘good old days’ of selling (as some would describe them) a confident and outgoing man could make a great living selling by using his strongest assets; mainly being confident and outgoing. A University degree was not a prerequisite for a sales job and making sales calls was more like passing time with your buddies.

We have all heard of the stereo-types of the pushy salesmen or door to door vacuum sales guys drudging up and down the streets looking to conn housewives into trying their products. In the 70’s and & 80’s many successful salesmen were not much different than the ex-high school quarterback trading-in one kind of popularity for another. I can’t count the number of times I have heard ‘if you have the gift of the gab then you are a natural at selling.”

In many industries, selling being no different, holding on to these long standing social norms will quickly makes you obsolete. We are witnessing the Death of the Sales-man as defined in the past.

Fast forward to today’s professional selling landscape and you will see an entirely new set of skills are needed to be successful in selling. You will see that women can and will be the most successful sales people in the future.

 I will touch on a number of key traits that are currently needed and will become more important for success in selling, as selling continues to evolve:

Ego

Empathy

Relationship building

Attention to detail

Ability to Listen

Ego

The sales landscape today is ever changing and one of the most important skills needed for success is the ability to manage your ego. Even better to not have an Ego. Yes, if you are a man reading this you are probably thinking ‘what does this guy know? What an idiot’ it is true; well not the part about me being an idiot, but rather being ego-less.

Today’s professional buyers and consumers are so well educated about products and services it is basically impossible to deceive them. Internet searches, product reviews, instant messaging, second by second direct RSS feed updates, social networking sites, etc. So the likely-hood you will be asked a question you don’t know the answer too is very high. Any attempt to fake a response will be found out quickly. Admitting you don’t know the answer to a question might hurt your man-pride; however it will be essential to maintaining your credibility.

Women on the other hand have much more control over their egos. In fact most women don’t have no egos at all. Not to say that they aren’t confident, competent, intelligent, and successful; they are. In most cases women simply have grown in maturity past the Ego. They don’t believe their own hype.

Variety of reasons could be the cause of the a reduced amount of ego in women; wage gap disparity, historical barriers to entry to certain careers or groups (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore are the first two female members of Augusta Golf and Country Club) invited to join August 2012. Even worse, was in 2012 this made National headline news.

In a nutshell women are more able to interact with others without displaying a strong ego.

Empathy

We all know men and women are different. Empathy as defined in a dictionary is the ability to ‘recognize feelings that are being experienced by another ‘. Scientists have long studied the human brain in attempts to gain better understanding of empathy.  I am not a scientist nor do I have any intention of pretending to be one; however I do understand women are more empathetic than men. Another way of saying this is empathy is more natural for women.

So what? You might ask. The answer to that simple question is; gone are the days of throwing a four letter word at the wall and seeing what sticks. Today selling is based on presenting solutions to the customer’s problems. You can’t present a solution if you aren’t able to identify the problem.

People generally buy from and choose to associate with people they like. Showing empathy to a customer is the most effective way, and likely the only way, to prove you care about your customer. Women care, more than Men and are more able to identify a customer’s problem and present a winning solution.

Relationship Building

When it comes to building and maintaining relationships women win hands down. Men are great a building relationships when they stand to benefit somehow. A man’s motivation is always stronger when a clear payoff is identified to building a relationship. A promotion, salary increase, lucrative bonus, a chance for your kid to be a starter on their baseball team, the list is endless.

Women are more content with the relationship as the benefit. Women are not focused on a payoff as a result of a relationship. It is this willingness and ability to build relationships that make women better at selling. Often women are able to disarm buyers or customers with their genuine interest in the other person. For men this is a more forced process. Men will have to be better at building relationships for the sake of relationships and not to attain a payoff.

Attention to detail

My wife often calls me to ask me to pick up a few items from the grocery store on my way home from work. I can’t count the number of times I have arrived home from the store and not gotten all of the items she requested. Sometimes I actually forget to go to the store completely!

My wife says it is because I have ‘selective hearing’ most likely she is right (I will touch on this more clearly in the next section) whatever the reason; her requests sometimes fall on deaf ears.

 Obviously it is not my intention to forget. The last thing I want to do is not come through. I mean well but in her eyes I am only as good as my results. The same is true for selling. Being able to clearly recall details and follow-through on commitments is a clear strength of women. Men get caught up in big picture thinking, less focused on the small stuff.

Ability to Listen

The final section is that women are better listeners than men. It doesn’t matter if it is in a marriage or a sales relationship. Men listen with only one side of our brains, while women use both. Men engage the left side of their temporal lobe, the left side of the brain is most commonly associated with listening and speech. Women use both sides of the temporal lobe; the left side that is associated with auditory functions and the right side which is not usually associated with auditory function.

Engaging both sides of the brain can give women an advantage over men when it comes to building and creating meaningful responses during a conversation. I know my wife thinks I have ‘selective hearing’ and I don’t doubt it.

One tip I find really helpful when listening in important situations is to write down key takeaways. Writing things down slows your brain down and gives you a chance to comprehend key details from a sales call. As well you are not straining after the meeting to recall important facts.

Conclusion

In 2011 in Canada, a higher percentage of women (72%) than men (65%) aged 25 to 44 years had completed a post-secondary education according to Stat’s Canada. Most employers now require a University degree before interviewing for a professional sales job. More women than men are achieving University degrees, so going forward more women will be qualified for sales positions.

Whether you are a man or woman exceling at the above skills will help anyone be successful at selling.