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
Esta historia es de la edición November - December 2018 de The Smart Manager.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición November - December 2018 de The Smart Manager.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
