Skyrocket Your Sales: Empowering Women in the Sales Sector
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Chapter 1: The Recruitment Challenge
For 16 years, I held the position of HR Manager within various small IT firms. My primary responsibility revolved around recruiting for a variety of roles.
In my experience, the recruitment of sales personnel taught me invaluable lessons.
Working closely with our VP of Sales, I realized just how crucial it is to prioritize hiring women for sales positions. The sales industry is predominantly male, with around 90% of applications we received coming from men for every job posting. In contrast, there were very few female applicants.
Interestingly, the sole female salesperson we hired consistently outperformed some of her male counterparts when it came to meeting sales targets. My supervisor often posed a critical question: how could we attract more women to apply?
Despite being a small organization with around 300 global employees, including roughly 40 in the USA, we offered a great location, decent benefits, and a satisfactory base salary. However, we aimed to maintain a modest base salary to ensure our sales team remained motivated to earn bonuses. The goal was to attract high achievers.
We had a significant number of women in other departments, such as Marketing, Tech Support, and IT, yet our sales team lacked female representation. My boss explained that his desire to recruit more women for sales was straightforward: men tend to engage more during phone conversations with women.
When it came to cold calling, men usually felt more comfortable speaking with women, extending the length of their conversations.
Section 1.1: The Sales Environment
If you explore sales training videos on platforms like YouTube, you'll notice they predominantly feature male presenters. For instance, Cardone has an old video where his entire sales team is made up of men engaged in cold calling and prospecting.
The sales field is lucrative, with one of our sales representatives sharing that he once earned enough to join a sales club, which rewarded him with an all-expenses-paid vacation at a luxury resort, complete with a personal butler. He humorously recounted how he didn't know what to do with a butler and simply requested shoe shining.
If women were aware of the enticing benefits associated with sales roles, I believe many more would be inclined to apply.
Top-performing sales professionals enjoy substantial salaries and bonuses, but this comes with significant pressure, as the sustainability of the business hinges on sales performance.
Subsection 1.1.1: The Advantages of Hiring Women
Here are three reasons why women excel in sales:
- Strong People Skills: Building relationships is at the heart of sales, and women naturally connect well with customers, fostering a sense of trust.
- Empathetic Listening: Women often possess greater empathy, which helps in establishing loyalty and trust with clients.
- Authentic Communication: Unlike traditional sales tactics that can feel aggressive, women tend to approach selling in a more subtle manner, making interactions feel genuine.
It requires significant strength for women to thrive in a field dominated by male colleagues, often youthful followers of personalities like Gary Vee.
Section 1.2: A Call for Change
If you're a small business owner seeking to enhance your sales, consider diversifying your sales team by recruiting more women.
Chapter 2: The Path Forward
This insightful video titled "Skyrocket Your Sales: The Quantum Method for Effective Prospecting" delves into innovative strategies that can transform your sales approach and significantly boost performance.
In another valuable resource, "Effective Techniques to DISARM Your Prospect in Sales," you'll learn how to build rapport and trust with potential clients, enhancing your overall sales effectiveness.