Get me a woman

Some of you may be wondering why my blog is called “Sell like a woman”. First, Sell like a woman is not a feminist manifesto nor is it a male bashing exercise.

The creation of the title was inspired by an increasing body of research overseas showing that woman are often outperforming men when it comes to achieving real and sustainable results in sales and effective sustainable client relationships.

This led me to begin my research project and the book I am now writing, also called “Sell Like A Woman”. I have always been curious about women and their success in sales and wanted to explore the concept here in Australia and develop some Australian-based research as well.

So late in 2006 I found 50 highly successful sales women across a wide variety of industries. The information, stories and insights I received from these women were inspiring and fascinating.

In the beginning, I didn’t realise how profound the process would be for me and for many of the women on the project. It allowed us all the opportunity to connect with and learn from each other, to bring to the fore the real qualities that make for good selling and healthy relationships.

The ideas, experience and stories told by these women give great insights into what makes them and others like them successful, resilient, inspirational and most of all “real” when it comes to realising a sustainable fulfilling career in sales.

I cannot pre-empt how you may feel after reading this and subsequent posts, however many of the people, especially women, I have begun to share the research and findings with have felt vindicated, liberated and relieved.

Finally there was some evidence that gave legitimacy to how they chose to work and sell. They said the findings felt right and aligned with their experiences and results. The findings spoke to them in a truthful way that finally aligned with how they felt selling should be, and was for them.

You see for many of them, they were selling well, achieving excellent sales results and had excellent customer relationships, however, the prevailing paradigms for selling and the messages they were getting from management, training and the so called “sales gurus” were not matching how they felt they should sell.

Many of the qualities that distinguish these high performing sales women were often put down to nothing more than luck– ‘she was just lucky to get that sale’ or at worst ‘she slept her way to the sale’ etc.

Let me tell you there is no luck, tricks, secrets or having to sell your body when it comes to having successful legitimate careers in sales as a woman. Many managers now specifically want women in their sales teams. They are recognising the power of women in sales, yet many remain oblivious as to why sales women are often their star performers.