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Why We Need More Women In Sales

Forbes Business Development Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Rakhi Voria

Getting more women into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has become a hot topic over the years, as these fields have historically had a low representation of females. As a result, several organizations have surfaced to help close the gender disparity gap in STEM fields. Despite these great efforts, the US Department of Commerce’s 2017 STEM Update still reports that only 24% of STEM jobs are held by women.

Equally important is getting more women into sales professions, yet we don’t hear about this as much. According to this LinkedIn report, women represent 39% of the workforce in sales. This percentage has only increased by 3% over the past decade. Not surprisingly, the percentage decreases as seniority increases, with the lowest percentage of women represented in VP and CXO positions. Only 21% of Vice Presidents in Sales are female.

There are a number of reasons why this might be the case. First, women may have pre-conceived notions about what it means to be in a sales profession. Sales can have a negative connotation to people who still think of the stereotypical used car salesman, hungry to do whatever it takes to close the deal.

In his book To Sell is HumanDan Pink asked individuals to describe what they think of when they hear the word “sales.” The main adjectives used were “pushy,” “annoying,” “manipulative” and “dishonest.” These are words that no woman, or man for that matter, wants to be associated with. Pink’s research shows that there's clearly still a bias when it comes to sales, regardless of gender.

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The job descriptions for sales roles don’t help the issue. In his New York Times Op-Ed, author of Innovating Women Vivek Wadhwa argues that bias is already inherent in the hiring process. “Tech job descriptions are usually geared towards males and have long lists of skills, most of which aren’t needed or can be learned on the job,” he says.

Sales job descriptions, in particular, tend to include masculine language like “hunter,” “aggressive” and “compete.” Some companies’ job descriptions even specify that they prefer candidates with experience in competitive team sports.

Research shows that women are hesitant to apply for roles unless they check all of the boxes. A Hewlett-Packard study revealed that women tend to apply for roles only when they believe they meet 100% of the qualifications listed for the job. Men, on the other hand, apply even when they think they only meet 60%. This is why it’s so important to craft job descriptions with gender-neutral language to appeal to a diverse set of applicants.

But the question isn’t “Why aren’t there more women in sales?” The real question is: “Why do we need more women in sales?”

1. Women Are Good At Sales

First and foremost, women are good at sales. In fact, Hubspot reports that women are 5% more likely to close a deal than men.

Furthermore, Professor Joel Le Bon of the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business Sales Excellence Institute performed an analysis of his 989 students’ sales performance across 7 years. The results showed that there were 62.5% more female top performers than male top performers. Moreover, the female top performers outperformed the male top performers by 73.9%.

2. Women Can Be Better For Your Bottom Line

A diversity of perspectives, thoughts and backgrounds is better for your bottom line.

Let’s let the figures speak for themselves on this one. A study from the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that companies with higher gender diversity, in general, are 15% more likely to have higher profit. Additionally, companies with higher numbers of female board directors have a 42% higher return on sales compared to companies with lower numbers of female board directors.

3. Women Can Help You Better Connect With Your Customers

Not only will having women on your sales teams be better for your bottom line, but it will also help you better connect with your customers. In order to approach customers with empathy, it’s important for your sales force to reflect the diversity of your customer base. Peak Sales Recruiting says it well:

"A more diverse sales force also is more likely to reflect the make-up of customer organizations and have representatives that can connect and nurture strong relationships with a diverse customer base. If everyone in the sales organization looks the same and has similar experiences and viewpoints, they may not always be able to find common ground with customers and prospects.”

Frankly, the data presented in this article should not be surprising. Women have characteristics and skills that make them natural fits for sales, like the ability to build trust, nurture relationships, listen and provide recommendations. Whether or not they succeeded on a sports team is neither an indicator of these skills nor is it a prediction on whether women can succeed in sales.

If you’re a startup and have the opportunity to build a new sales force, or if you’re a company rethinking your sales talent strategy, evaluate gender diversity as a key component. Set goals for the number of female sellers you want in your organization and aggressively drive toward those numbers.

In Microsoft Inside Sales, we’ve had the opportunity to hire 1,500 sellers over the past 18 months. Although we’re under pressure to hire quickly, we’ve set thoughtful goals for ourselves to ensure that we have a balance of gender diversity in our sales force not only for the reasons above but also because it’s the right thing to do.

The approach is paying off. Women represent over half of our inside sales force in some of our markets, and we’re continuing to invest in acquiring female talent. I encourage other companies to stick with the same principle. The best part is, the net effect of hiring women is that you’ll attract more women. A study from the Founders Club shows that women tend to hire other women.

So instead of focusing only on getting women into STEM, let’s add an “S” and start focusing on getting them into STEMS --Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Sales.