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| | The Marketing, Channels/Partnership & Sales Execs Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | re: The guys' opinions would be appreciated here | Views: 438 | | Sep 03, 2004 5:40 pm | | re: The guys' opinions would be appreciated here | # | 
Thomas Holford | |
> Denise Michaels wrote:
> Hello Fellow Marketers:
>
>Do you think there are differences between the way women sell and the way men sell based on your experience? Do you think there are any personality differences between men and women that might impact the way they solve sales challenges?
>
I offer some observations based on my experiences of over twenty years ago, recognizing that things may be very different today.
The first point I will make is that my sample size is very small. I.e., most of the sales people I worked with (80%) were men, and the number of women sales reps I observed in action was relatively small.
The second point is that my observations date from the era of "feminist ascendancy" and the prevailing feminist ethic was that women were equivilant to men in every way, and needed to prove that by doing everything exactly the way that men did did things. For example, some women salesreps would wear grey pinstripe pants suits with white shirts and neck scarves that were almost neckties. They would also tend to exhibit what I would call "high testosterone" behaviors, i.e., excessive assertiveness. The bottom line is that, in the contemporary context, this behavior did not seem very authentic but often came across as contrived.
A third observation is that women salesreps seemed to believe the feminist paradigm which asserted that men succeeded to a significant extent because of "the old boy network". A result was that women salesreps were especially agressive in building and utilizing "old girl networks" in and across their customer accounts. Their theory was that they would help their women friends get ahead and, in turn, would themselves benefit from "gender loyalty" as their friends gained stature and influence in their customers organizations.
In the end, perhaps some women salesreps gained a promotion or two through networking, but my supposition is that in the grand scheme of things they were ultimately less effective as salesreps because they were paying less attention to their employer's business interests, annoying and antagonizing male employees in their customer accounts (yes, perhaps even "threatening" the male dominated patriarchy), and consequently moving less product.
But all this was way back then. Things may be different today.
That'll be two cents, please.
Regards,
Tom Holford
Private Reply to Thomas Holford | | Sep 03, 2004 6:17 pm | | Tom: a response to your post about the guys and the gals in sales | # | 
Denise Michaels | | Thomas Holford wrote:
I offer some observations based on my experiences of over twenty years ago, recognizing that things may be very different today.
The first point I will make is that my sample size is very small. I.e., most of the sales people I worked with (80%) were men, and the number of women sales reps I observed in action was relatively small.
The second point is that my observations date from the era of "feminist ascendancy" and the prevailing feminist ethic was that women were equivilant to men in every way, and needed to prove that by doing everything exactly the way that men did did things. For example, some women salesreps would wear grey pinstripe pants suits with white shirts and neck scarves that were almost neckties. They would also tend to exhibit what I would call "high testosterone" behaviors, i.e., excessive assertiveness. The bottom line is that, in the contemporary context, this behavior did not seem very authentic but often came across as contrived.
A third observation is that women salesreps seemed to believe the feminist paradigm which asserted that men succeeded to a significant extent because of "the old boy network". A result was that women salesreps were especially agressive in building and utilizing "old girl networks" in and across their customer accounts. Their theory was that they would help their women friends get ahead and, in turn, would themselves benefit from "gender loyalty" as their friends gained stature and influence in their customers organizations.
In the end, perhaps some women salesreps gained a promotion or two through networking, but my supposition is that in the grand scheme of things they were ultimately less effective as salesreps because they were paying less attention to their employer's business interests, annoying and antagonizing male employees in their customer accounts (yes, perhaps even "threatening" the male dominated patriarchy), and consequently moving less product.
But all this was way back then. Things may be different today.
>
>That'll be two cents, please.
DMM: Tom - you're right - things are significantly different now. I graduated from college and joined the full time working world in 1980. And the whole feminist thing back then was that women were no different than men except that we could have babies.
I wore gray flannel and navy suits and tried really hard to be like the guys because it was the only example I had back then. You're bang on - it was very contrived. It failed miserably and I felt horrible trying to do that. In my late-20s I was selling group health insurance to tool and die shops in Detroit and the 'burbs and I remember feeling so inadequate because I found it impossible to show ENOUGH testosterone based on my personality, the way I was raised, etc. It was a yucky time in my life. Why tool and die shops? Because my boss, a really nice guy and VERY successful - told me it was a great market for him. And there weren't many women business owners back then.
We now know and accept that men and women are different about soooooooo many things. But when it comes to marketing and sales the gurus out there are still telling the women to pound and keep pounding - pretty much the same advice as they give the guys that is pretty awful for the women.
My TFM book I'm writing is all about upsetting the feminist apple cart because trying to be like someone you're not doesn't work. Never did and never will.
But I love to get the observation from men about how they perceive women in sales and marketing because it's always good to get the perspective from the other side of the aisle.
All the best,
Denise Michaels
TFM Network Moderator
ATTN: Calling women biz owners! Love your business but hate getting the word out? Find out about my upcoming TFM teleclass by going to http://www.denisemichaels.com/TFMteleclasses.htm Private Reply to Denise Michaels | | |
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