Women Are Selling More Than Men. Here’s How.

How Women Sell and Why it Works So Well

Ever wondered if men are better sellers? Or thought a woman couldn’t be a top-tier salesperson? The market would seem to agree with you, with men far outnumbering women in the world of sales. But it turns out that popular opinion is wrong in a lot of ways.

Obviously there are differences between men and women, especially in sales. Women naturally do things different than their male counterparts, and studies are showing that those differences are actually getting them a higher close rate.

Female reps are actually 11% more likely to win deals. Here’s why women are closing more often and what you can learn from them.

Women Use More Empathy

While women naturally display more empathy than men, empathy in sales is something that anyone can develop. The ability to understand the emotions of your customer in your sales process is crucial. When you have more empathy, you will:

• Build mutual trust.
• Improve critical questioning because you care more.
• Become more personable.
• Understand the needs of your customer better.
• Be more believable when defining the best solutions to your customers problems.
• Create and maintain stronger relationships.
• Close more.

How does one develop more empathy? There are three simple things you can do.

First, slow down your pitch and ask questions. Genuinely get to know your customer before trying to push a contract on them.

Second, know when to talk and when to listen. Find a balance that works for you and makes the customer feel important.

Third, imagine yourself in the customer’s position. This will help you understand why their complaints and needs are valid and will give you the ability to give them a better solution. 

Women Practice Active Listening

Male and female reps both listen, but with different intentions. Typically a male rep “listens in order to respond” whereas a female rep “listens to understand.” Trying to understand your customer is going to make them feel valued and heard more than anything.

In order to better understand how men and women sell, Gong recorded 30,469 B2B sales calls from male and female reps. Their research showed that, on average, men listened for 58% of their demos while women only listened 54%. So men listen more than women, but there is a difference between quality of their listening. The study showed that there is a difference between listening and active listening—the latter providing a significant boost to close rates.

The same study says that women close deals at a 54% rate, higher than men with a 49% average. The 4% listening difference shows that while women don’t listen as often as men, they actively listen better and close more sales as a result.

Women Are Always Determined to Succeed

Historically, women have not been welcomed in the business world. To this day, most women are not as easily welcomed in executive settings.

Modern culture hasn’t left women many options other than working extremely hard to level the playing field. For this reason, women are more likely to take grunt work such as cold calling, whether they want to or not. 

There are a lot of determined reps out there, but there’s something different about the level of determination that female reps have. They’ll take chances on approaches that others are overlooking. They’ll embrace the grind and get creative to work around difficulty.

Learn from their example. Don’t pass up the hard work because you don’t want to do it. Be more determined to succeed and your sales will speak for themselves. 

What amazing saleswomen have you worked with? What did they do differently that you were able to learn from? Shout out some of the powerhouse women you know in the comments.