Last week I wrote about the benefits for businesses of having more women in their sales teams and leadership roles. I also mentioned how most women still don’t consider sales as a viable career. This is mostly due to persistent biases and outdated sales stereotypes and work practices.
Here are some of the common biases and challenges women and businesses face when it comes to capitalising on the power of women in sales and sales leadership.
Outdated Sales Stereotypes and Unconscious Biases
Sales has been seen largely as a man’s career and rarely promoted as a career in which women could excel. This is in part due to the aggressive ‘always be closing’ sales stereotypes and hyper-competitive individualistic nature of sales careers promoted by various sales training ‘gurus’, some industries, and the media positioning selling as a combat sport rather than the collaborative, partnership, team-based role that it is.
With these stereotypes as a reference, women are often seen as ‘too weak’ to do sales. Their sales abilities, including negotiation and general abilities, are often underestimated, and their knowledge devalued.
Ironically, when the excellent qualities women bring to the sales profession are seen they are seen as a novelty by most senior managers which is a major risk in these changing times. Research by Rosenbaum revealed that the vast majority of sales managers were completely unaware that these distinguishing qualities were what made their high performing salespeople (women) highly effective and successful.
The lack of recognition of what women bring to sales creates real obstacles for women with them receiving unsolicited advice to change fields, lower earning capacity, and far fewer promotions to sales leadership roles.
These limiting views on salespeople and sales cultures are not conducive to effective sales performance where client engagement, loyalty, effective solutions, teamwork, and sustainable sales growth matter which is also why fewer women proactively seek out sales roles as a result.
Lack of representation, sponsorship, and commitment to career advancement and diversity
According to a study done in the USA by Xactly, women make up only 29% of sales representatives and just 26% of sales managers even though they are proven to outperform their male colleagues. This study found that lack of female representation can be attributed to many things, such as negative stereotypes, sexism, poor recruitment methods, and a gender wage gap, with women receiving lower salaries than their male counterparts.
Women in sales describe feeling like they had to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to prove themselves. There is still very little support and sponsorship for women in sales and sales leadership.
Interestingly, women and men start their careers with the same level of ambition, but at organisations where employees report less diversity and support, the drop-off in ambition is faster for women.
According to research conducted by BCG in 2019, women in sales see less commitment to the advancement of women within their sales function than their peers in other departments do.
Women who pursue sales careers don’t feel sufficiently valued or supported at work and are more likely to look for a new job in the following three years.
Limited recruitment practices
Many businesses and sales leaders still stick to outdated sales stereotypes, ‘industry experience’, and traditional modes of working when it comes to hiring salespeople. This limits their talent pool by not looking further afield at people who possess the sales capabilities and EQ clients want, or creating supportive, safe work environments where people, including women, can flourish.
Motivation and Rewards
Bonuses and earning commission are still front and centre in sales when it comes to rewards, but not everyone is solely motivated by money, especially women.
The sad state of sales leadership
Sales leadership has a gender gap problem. Women achieve their sales targets as much -if not more- than men, however, there’s a lack of women in sales leadership. According to Sales Leadership Gender Gap globally in 2019, “There are fewer women leaders in sales than in any other business function, except Supply Chain and Logistics.”
Everyday Sexism
Women in sales still face disrespectful or degrading comments at work both internally and from clients with retail and wholesale sectors being some of the most challenging environments.
Age also plays a role. Younger women tend to face degrading or disrespectful comments more often than older women. Comments about their dress, bodies, and availability for ‘favours’ through to gaslighting and intimidation can be par for women in some industries.
Then there are the gendered stereotypes that say a woman’s not up to the tough job of sales and you must be like a man to be successful.
Conclusion
This is all extremely tiring and tedious and certainly not safe or fair.
We are all diminished if we allow these biases and challenges to go unchecked.
Gender diversity in sales is not only about equality it’s about better business performance, great reputations, and loyal clients.
It makes sense to Sell Like A Woman.
The Purpose of Barrett’s Sell Like A Woman Program
- To highlight, promote and capitalise on the power of women in sales
- To position the sales profession, its processes, and principles as an essential set of commercial and life skills that give women more agency and power over their careers, earning capacity and life choices
- To help women develop and master the knowledge, skills, and mindset of highly successful and skilful women in sales and sales leadership roles
- To help women, in any role, have greater visibility, influence, and presence in their industry
- To influence and drive positive change through sales, leading to greater participation and representation of women within organisations and across industries at all levels
- To redefine sales stereotypes and identify unconscious bias that can impact the development and progression of women in sales and business
- To include all genders in creating respectful, safe, supportive, and highly productive sales cultures and work environments where everyone can flourish. This includes building peer-to-peer network support and allyship
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
If you’d like to know more about the Sell Like A Woman programs and keynotes, please contact us or phone 03 9533 0000, or join us for the launch event on Zoom.
Stories from the field
“I used the `phone conversation structure’ and I have a meeting with a client I thought was not going to re-engage with us. The client was very positive and stated she wants to work with us moving forward.
“Wow. This good feeling may become addictive.”
(a day after the first session of a 2-day workshop)
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