Research Findings
Since the early 2000s, the local and international research into sales effectiveness (including Rosenbaum, 1999, Barrett 2007 & 2017; Xactly 2019; BCG 2019; Lucid 2020) shows women often outperform men in achieving real and sustainable sales results and authentic, mutually prosperous client relationships, especially in B2B sales, bringing with them specific qualities and capabilities that differ from the traditional sales stereotypes.
Women AND the Competitive Advantage
This piqued Sue Barrett’s curiosity, confirmed her observations and the trends she was seeing towards more human-centred, inclusive business practices and has informed the work of the Barrett team ever since.
As a woman in sales and sales leadership herself, Sue wanted to sell better and show others how to do so as well, so she deepened her research into how men and women sell, what techniques, skills and processes they use, what qualities, and mindsets work for them, and if there are distinct differences along gendered lines.
In 2007, and then again 2017, the Barrett team undertook research where we surveyed and interviewed a wide range of Australian women in sales and sales leadership roles evenly distributed across industries in B2B sales, B2C complex/high-end sales and Account Management. In between and since, we have kept working in the field with tens of thousands of salespeople and leaders in Australia and internationally, observing and gathering evidence, and always trialling and experimenting as we look for better ways to help everyone sell better, faster.
Our research and field findings mirrored the growing body of growing body international research (including Rosenbaum 1999; Xactly 2019; BCG 2019; Lucid 2020) with women rating significantly higher in several sales competencies including:
- Listening beyond product needs, picking up on nonverbal clues and having clients’ best interests at heart
- Orchestrating internal resources and stakeholder management; seeing selling as a team sport
- Establishing a shared vision with clients; cultivating healthy mutually beneficial relationships
- Aligning customer and supplier strategic objectives; sharing perspectives to get the best outcomes for both parties
- Collaboration and joint consultative problem solving to craft the best solutions for clients
- EQ – emotional intelligence including empathy, awareness of self and others’ emotions, emotional regulation, not defaulting to counter-productive behaviours
- Engaging in self appraisal and continuous learning
- Open-mindedness and moderate agreeableness
With these qualities in action, the research shows women meeting or reaching their sales targets as well as or better than men in most instances. According to Forbes, 74% of customers are more likely to buy if they feel they’ve been heard. Understanding and managing client emotions facilitates relationship-building and creates a loyal customer base.
Research into sales management (including Piercy, Lane, & Cravens 2002; BCG 2019; Lucid 2020) has also found that sales teams led by competent women are positively linked to critical factors such as:
- Superior performance with customers
- High sales unit performance
- Helping with work-related problems
- Effective organisational performance
- Higher employee retention
- Better job satisfaction and job involvement
- Better Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) including significantly higher levels of civic virtue, sportsmanship, altruism, courtesy, cheerleading, peacemaking, and overall citizenship
- More gender-diverse teams with greater representation of women in sales leading to more diverse client groups
Fast forward to today
Despite all this good news, 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.” and more broadly, there are still too many barriers and biases for women in sales. Go figure.
Sales jobs haven’t always been viewed as positions in which women could excel, and fewer women proactively seek them out as a result. Plus, women who pursue careers in sales don’t feel sufficiently valued or supported at work.
This must change.
Gender diversity in sales is not just about equality and social justice, in today’s world, it is also about better business performance, healthier cultures and more prosperous communities.
There’s no better time to recognise, promote and capitalise on the contributions of women in sales.
We know women possess qualities that are invaluable in sales. Getting more women into sales and sales leadership roles and celebrating the value they bring to the table simply makes good business sense at every level.
With all that we have learned, since 2006, we want to make it easier for leaders, salespeople and client-facing teams, and their businesses, customers, and communities to capitalise on the wisdom and power of women in sales and sales leadership.
That’s why we’ve developed Sell Like A Woman.
Did you know?
- Women in sales are proven to outperform their male colleagues even though they make up a quarter of the sales profession
- Salespeople with high Emotional Intelligence (EI) outperform those who exhibit moderate levels of EI by 50% and women outperform men in 11 of 12 EI competencies
- Building solid client relationships requires the ability to listen and solve problems with 74% of customers more likely to buy if they feel they’ve been heard
- Women-led sales teams, which tend to be more gender diverse, have higher win ratios than men-lead teams
- Women help increase diversity in both client groups and the sales industry
- Women who pursue careers in sales don’t feel sufficiently valued or supported at work and are more likely to look for a new job in the next three years
- Women and men start their careers with the same level of ambition, but at organisations where employees report less diversity, the drop-off in ambition is faster for women
- There are fewer women leaders in sales than in any other business function, except Supply Chain and Logistics
Speak to us about your needs.
Barrett Sales Blog
