Welcome to today’s bonus article in the X-factor: 10 Days of Epic Sales Knowledge series. We’re committed to bringing you the best thought leadership in Sales. To that end, we’re fortunate to have a second, epic article today from Lori Richardson.
Veteran sales consultant and women-in-sales champion Lori Richardson contributes her thoughts on a leadership success strategy – finding, hiring, retaining and promoting great women in sales. Lori leads Women Sales Pros – a virtual community that teaches companies how to successfully hire more diversely and who helps women learn how to rise within their organization.
Website: https://womensalespros.com/
Twitter / I.G. @womeninsales
Facebook page: Women Sales Pros Worldwide – for women in sales and leadership
It is Time for More Women in Sales
If you lead or are part of a SaaS, tech, financial services, manufacturing, or distribution industry sales team with an equal balance of women and men sellers, this post is not for you. If you are, instead, part of the plethora of B2B sales organizations where there is a lack of women sellers (and sales leaders) on your male-majority team(s) please read on.
Enhancing your sales team with great women sellers is a pure leadership move.
These moves lead to increased return on investment (ROI) as proven through a number of studies.
Diversity is not just a good thing to do, but it makes business sense. In the case of women sales leaders at the VP or higher level, the percentage of women is 13-18% and has been at 13-18% for ten years (CEB now Gartner). Through the work that Lean In and McKinsey have done, we know that when companies commit to more diverse leadership, they are more successful.
The good news is that smart company leaders are doing new and different things to shake up the status quo and successfully build diverse sales teams.
DiscoverOrg, a rapidly-growing marketing and sales intelligence SaaS company who recently purchased its top competitor has worked in various ways to create a more diverse sales team. In one instance, a woman they were very interested in hiring for an SDR role turned the position down. Rather than just accepting it, they encouraged her to come back in for one more conversation. This time the head of sales and also the CEO, Henry Schuck met with her to encourage her to consider a sales role – no matter where she ended up. They felt she would be good at it, and since her other option if she didn’t join DiscoverOrg was an admin role elsewhere, they wanted to really help her understand her sales potential. This future star, Carolyn Murray felt such support to join the team – between the sales leader and the CEO that she did join DiscoverOrg. Soon, she brought in a million dollars in cold call revenue – faster than any other SDR before her at the company. Carolyn also is sharing ideas for diversity and has written a great post I’d recommend called 7 Ways to Get More Women in the Sales Profession (and Keep Them).
More women in sales IS a leadership issue – perhaps in your own company. It is possible to find great women sales candidates, hire them, and develop them into top reps or leaders. If you need more ideas on how to ensure your job descriptions are gender neutral, remove as much unconscious bias from your sales floor, or on how to retain and promote female talent, visit WomenSalesPros – we can help.
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If you want to find out more about changing behavior in your sales teams with Xvoyant Coaching Technology,
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You can get caught up with past day’s articles by clicking on their titles below:
Day 1: Millennials In Sales: What You Need To Know For 2018
Day 2: Annoying Persistence vs. Professional Persistence
Day 3: The Most Important Attribute in Coaching Top Performing Salespeople
Day 4: Transformation in the Digital Era
Day 5: Designing a Social Sales Blueprint for Sales Leadership in 2018
Day 6: One Haunting Sales Statistic Every Sales Leader Should Know
Day 7: Hiring Kick Ass Salespeople
Day 8: The Five Keys to Great Sales Coaching
Day 8 Bonus: 5 Lessons A 2-Year Old Can Teach You About Sales Coaching
Day 9: Why Impact Eats Value for Breakfast
Day 9 Bonus: Top 3 Coaching Mistakes Made by Good Sales Managers