Women in sales can win in a locked down world

The global pandemic has highlighted stark social inequalities, and these will be amplified in the Northern hemisphere by the looming long winter lockdown. One professional discipline where women have the potential to win is sales.

A 2019 study by Xactly found that female sellers achieve 8% higher quota attainment than men and women-led teams also have higher win rates. But what gives women the edge over men in sales?

Women and men have different sales skills

Research by ZS (Harvard Business Review’s consulting firm) shows women succeed in sales by excelling in different capabilities to men. The study used a 7-metric framework to measure the skills that differentiate high-performing salespeople from average performers.

High-performing women excelled in capabilities that focus on addressing immediate customer needs: connecting, collaborating and shaping solutions. High-performing men relied on improving and driving outcomes. For analyzing and influencing, there was no measurable difference between the two groups.

Jessica Guihard, Digital Sales Demand Director EMEA at SAP has witnessed the tension between these two different styles of selling. “Shaping solutions by personalising the outreach and adapting the offer, and taking the necessary time and effort to collaborate at a team level or with customers, are very often neglected and overstepped by the intention to only drive outcomes.”

Lockdown has accelerated the adoption of remote selling and increased the importance of the three skills in which women excel. While it’s true that working from home under pandemic lockdown isn’t necessarily good for women, this change has the potential to amplify their strengths, increase their ability to sell remotely and give them an even greater advantage over men. And there are clear reasons why remote selling will remain when lockdown lifts.

Remote selling has many benefits

Top scientists believe we'll have to socially distance until 2022. Even before Covid-19 forced an explosion in working from home, a new form of remote work was emerging: working from anywhere. This practice sees employees living and working where they choose, typically within a specific country, but in some cases, anywhere in the world with a reliable internet connection.

Helen Miller, National Sales Director at Rothschild Wine Collection leads an all-female and 100% remote sales team. “It surprises me that businesses would still insist on an office-based culture in today’s extended and flexible employment arena. My team has been championing remote working within Rothschild since my first week.”.

Academic research from March 2017 found that employees were willing to accept 8% less pay for the option to work from home. As well as assigning monetary value to geographic flexibility, remote workers are also more productive. A Forrester report from November 2019 found that representatives using virtual selling technology spent 28% less time on data entry into CRM systems.

Miller adds, “We have a small and highly successful team, spread out geographically who deliver far more than would be expected of one sales person ordinarily. Most of our interactions and training updates were already remote - this has only been exaggerated by the lockdown.”.

An April 2020 McKinsey study found that 90% of B2B sellers had already transitioned to a virtual sales model, relying heavily on video and other digital channels. These remote methods of engagement require highly developed collaboration skills which plays to women’s strengths.

Despite the overnight shift to remote selling, the McKinsey study found only 54% of decision-makers agreed that the new approach was equally or more effective than before.

Which is hardly surprising given the numerous technical skills required to thrive in this new world - including video calling, collaboration tools, remote product walkthroughs, self-service interfaces, improved content accessibility, and a fundamental shift in messaging.

How can male and female sellers adapt in lockdown?

Women have an opportunity to capitalise on the current situation by becoming even more multiskilled. Versatility is arguably the most important characteristic for effective leaders as it gives them the ability to cope with a variety of changes and resolve competing priorities. As the world of sales continues to evolve, leaders who are versatile will be able to deal with new demands and survive the unprecedented pace of disruptive change.

Men who want to improve their remote selling should focus on their connecting, collaborating and solution-shaping skills. Developing these attributes would allow men to better engage  remotely with buyers to understand their situation and address the needs of individuals as well as organisations.

Marc Laplante, Global Director of Business Development at Ricardo Software sees this personal alignment as a key differentiator, demonstrated by female sales leaders. “I’ve learned to adapt my capabilities to engage with people, more from women than men. I see caring about the customer as a distinguishing skill that gives women the edge.”

To improve their all-round virtual working ability men should adopt a mindset of openness. Research from Oklahoma State University measured the personality traits and thinking styles of more than 150 business students, and then assessed their preferences for virtual teamwork. High scorers on the key trait of ‘openness’ were happiest to embrace remote working practices.

What’s the best way to learn new skills under lockdown?

Since the pandemic began, countless articles have been published sharing practical tips on how to get to grips with new tools and techniques, but these are little more than one-hit tips and tricks. They don’t focus on more important people skills such as communication techniques, customer engagement, rapport building and storytelling.

To ensure your sales teams successfully acquire new abilities, they should be delivered within a continuous coaching and learning program. This helps meet the expectations of the 66% of sellers who want most learning and development to happen outside the classroom. It also supports knowledge retention given we forget 75% of new information if it’s not applied within six days.

Guihard is clear about the importance of personal development in sales. “It is in coaching sales individuals and in continuous learning that we can improve engagement and relationships in the era of the customer experience.”.

While in-person coaching and training are not possible right now, these efforts can be moved online. Sales leaders can gain competitive advantage by investing in data-driven technologies to empower and enable sellers. Programs supercharged by tech make coaching at scale achievable and affordable, and can reduce costs by up to 50%. 

Investments in tools that recommend next-best sales actions allow reps to have more valuable client interactions. And companies that employ dynamic sales coaching programs - those that combine humans and technology - achieve up to 28% higher win rates.

Closing

Although lockdown offers female sellers an advantage over their male counterparts, the world of selling is still in a state of flux. The ultimate winners will be those who are more willing, able and quicker to adapt.

Whether through coaching, training or technology - or a combination of all three - sellers and sales leaders must continue to develop themselves if they want to survive in a locked down and highly competitive world.

__ENDS__