Being a woman in sales

The sales world remains a boy’s club. Growing up, I had sales all wrong. I believed salespeople were life-of-the-party types—extroverts who could talk to a wall. I wasn’t like that and I′m still not. I used to think a good salesperson has a charismatic presence.

In the Book “To sell is Human” by Daniel H Pink, the author says: when u think of sales or selling – you picture a man selling a car, generally a used one. ??

We never imagine a woman when we hear the word sales: that’s some food for thought?

Sales has been, historically, a male-dominated profession and a quick tour of any sales department or organization floor represents that. Women make up only 29% of sales reps and just 26% of sales managers. ?This ratio decreases as we check the leadership roles. This lack of representation can be attributed to many things such as:

·????????Negative stereotypes

·????????Gender bias

·????????Hiring bias

·????????Not feeling a sense of belonging to the larger group.

Some of the key surveys state that there are 3 predominant reasons which?keep women from pursuing a career in sales:

1.??????Too much Pressure

2.??????Too much uncertainty

3.??????Sales Image problem

Whether these perceptions are right or wrong, I feel sales isn't the most appealing profession to majority of women. At least it was never the first career choice for me.

These myths have been shattered over the years for me and today I firmly believe that “sales” is all about:

1.??????Building Relationships based on trust: an introvert, non-aggressive, compassionate person can still be a very effective Salesman or saleswoman. It’s all about the ability to make the customer feel heard and valued.

2.??????Being empathetic to your customers’ problems and challenges: shift away from the need to make a sale toward the customer's thought process and experience.

My Journey so far:

1.??????Have a voice of your own-

It can be overwhelming to be a part of any sales meeting full of men, but what matters is that you are there for a reason and being silent will anyways not help. Unless and until you have a voice, nobody will know who you are and what you are capable of. We constantly take notice of others, so why not ourselves.

In my initial days of account management, I used to shy away from meeting a new Hiring manager and used to experience self-doubt that I may not be able to provide any solution to his/her hiring challenges. Such thoughts put you in a very uncomfortable zone. The triggering point was my shift towards a growth mindset which says that even if the outcome of the meeting is not as good as expected, I could still learn something and implement it in my next conversation.

2.??????Conquer your fear of rejection: one of my mentors once shared a very powerful piece of advice on sales- he said, “sales is all about managing your ego”. We run away from it because we constantly see failure as negative.?We don’t celebrate failures as the path to growth.

Accept that “NO” is Normal and try to accomplish smaller wins.

Over the period what I have realized about being successful in Sales is to be yourself. Add value that only you can bring by staying true to who you are and the unique traits you can offer to others. Sales is not about how charismatic you are its about being resilient. Don’t try to fall into a stereotype of selling — you’re going to be far more effective with the real, authentic, awesome you