A 2018 Harvard Business Review article laments the lack of gender parity in the field of medicine in the US. It says, “for over 25 years, women have made up at least 40% of US medical students. This past year, more women than men were enrolled in US medical schools. Yet overall women make up only 34% of physicians in the US, and gender parity is still not reflected in medical leadership. Women account for only 18% of hospital CEOs and 16% of all deans and department chairs in the US—positions that typically direct the mission and control the resources at medical centers.”*
This is a reality reflected in many professions across the globe. Even the most vocal advocates of gender parity inadvertently identify certain roles with certain genders. Sales is one such area, traditionally considered a male bastion.
As companies grow, so does the need for expert sales professionals of both genders. Yet, traditionally, and still today, the majority of people selling are men. Why?
One reason lies in inaccurate but persistent stereotypes about what selling is. There is a myth that those who succeed at the highest level in this role are aggressive, pressure-based, talking heads who blab on endlessly about their product features to anyone and everyone they think is in a position to buy. This approach is distasteful to many women, a fact that reduces the number of women who aim to sell for a living. Another reason is simple discrimination: many of the men doing the hiring have a bias that men make better salespeople.
Both of these assumptions are untrue. Women who have entered the field of sales are making spectacular contributions and transforming the profession, one saleswoman at a time. How? First and foremost, by embracing their own right to be players in the game, and by understanding that there is no need to apologize for being a saleswoman, much less for being a woman.
Specifically, saleswomen are breaking down traditional barriers and beating the odds by focusing on four fronts: changing their attitudes and beliefs about themselves and the selling role, so as to deepen their own self-respect; leveraging their natural attributes; connecting their goals to their daily behaviors; and embracing a process that is a direct challenge to the traditional feature-based approach to selling that is so strongly associated in popular culture with pushy, and inevitably male, salespeople.
What is the profile of a successful saleswoman—the kind you should hire and retain if you want to grow your company?
she respects who she is
This story is from the November - December 2018 edition of The Smart Manager.
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This story is from the November - December 2018 edition of The Smart Manager.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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