Why Women Are The Future Of B2B Sales

Statistics show that women are underrepresented in B2B sales in almost all industries. For example, only 30 percent of people working in financial services are women. And of people who work in sales in manufacturing and wholesaling, only 27% were women.

But, women tend to outperform men in sales. During a 2019 study, they exactly found that 86 percent of women in sales hit their sales target. In contrast, only 78% of men beat their sales quota. Yet, unfortunately, women are ridiculously underrepresented in B2B sales.

Tech companies as such should respond to the statistics and hire more women in sales roles. There is room for growth and based on current trends since only 19 percent of the tech workforce are women and worse of all - only 3 percent of women are likely to choose a career in the tech industry!

These statistics fuel the speculation that women just don't have the right support or knowledge needed to enter the tech industry! However, that isn't true! Women can enjoy a wonderful career in tech with roles like tech sales.

Here are some concerning statistics about women and tech:

• Only 16 percent of women claim someone has suggested working in tech
• Women hold only 5 percent of leadership roles in technology
• 78% of students struggle to name a famous woman working in tech

That is a crying shame because women in sales can and will offer so much to the tech space in the future. Women are also equally - if not, better - at selling. They can easily help companies bring their tech products or service to the masses.

The modern era of sales looks fantastic for women. Many buyers expect salespeople to add extra value than the typical digital tools offered. They need a strong service and persuasion, which most women are fortunately skilled in! Honestly, have you ever said no to your mother?

Firstly, let’s look at some of the leading women in the tech industry

1 - Ginni Rometty

Ginni Rometty is one of the most powerful people in the business world, let alone the tech industry. She served as the CEO of IBM, one of the world’s biggest tech companies, and has enjoyed a glorious career.

Bloomberg voted her as one of the top 50 most influential people in the world. Time magazine also named her in the 20 most important people in tech list. During the 1990s, she worked in tech sales, helping to deliver results in various sectors.

2 - Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is one of the world’s most famous businesswomen. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, which helped her become a self-made billionaire. Time named her in the list of 100 most influential people worldwide.

Before she joined Facebook, she had a leading role in global online sales at Google. She served as the VP of operations, boosting Google’s sales and value in the process. Her story is incredible, and she quickly became quite possibly the leading woman in tech.

3 - Susan Wojcicki

The new media is transforming the landscape of media. Is there a more influential new media company than YouTube? Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube, having worked in the tech industry for 20 years.

As a result, she’s one of the most influential technology leaders. Susan helped to found Google and became Google’s first-ever marketing manager. She had a net worth of $850 million and remained a hugely important woman in the business world, let alone the technology space.

4 - Safra Catz

Safra Catz is one of America’s leading technology leaders and the CEO of Oracle. She has a net worth of $1.6 billion and has worked in various tech sectors. Safra is originally from Israel, having moved to the U.S.A at the age of six.

Furthermore, Fortune named her the 12th most powerful woman in the business world. She’s also taken various lecturer roles after earning a degree in finance, completely unrelated to the technology sector.

The reality?

Women are brilliant in the tech industry! (This shouldn't surprise you)

Various women are crushing it in the tech industry - inspiration to any woman looking to shape the world. Join tech and be part of this brilliant, world-changing industry. Companies need to re-evaluate their workplace, and ask themselves important questions like...

• Are we hiring enough women?
• Are we providing equal opportunities?
• How are we doing more to remove that glass ceiling & support underrepresented genders?"

There is so much to be gained from more women in tech, and companies have an individual responsibility to ensure that!

The benefits of employing women in B2B tech sales

There are endless benefits from having women in sales roles. And here are some of the reasons why you should employ women in sales roles.

1 - Listening Skills

Anyone who knows how to sell and has taken any sales course knows the importance of listening. When you’re pitching a product, the business or customer will drop hints and objections along the way. If you notice the objections, you can pivot or sales pitch towards those objections and convince the business that your product or service is worth their money.

Guess what? Women in sales are brilliant listeners and masters at this sales aspect.

Seventy-four percent of customers state they are more likely to purchase the product or service if they feel like the salesperson is listening to them. Sales coaches teach the art of listening throughout their training, but it’s shocking how many salespeople forget to listen and start pushing products.

Fortunately, women have a genetic disposition that improves their listening capabilities. For example, did you know that Heschl’s Gyrus — otherwise known as the listening part of the brain — is more voluminous in women?

Women in sales are fantastic at building rapport, gaining trust, and most importantly — listening to the customer and pivoting to their individual needs. Understanding a customer’s pain points and concerns is critical to getting any sales over the line, and women in sales are often better at doing so!

2 - Emotional intelligence

When you’re selling a product or service to a business, you’ll need to understand the person’s emotions listening to you. It’s a critical sales skill and not something that comes naturally for everyone. Nonetheless, you can learn this skill through time and experience.

Women in sales are naturally excellent at gauging emotions and almost always have a high degree of emotional intelligence. If you want to build stronger levels of emotional intelligence, you’ll have to have a high degree of self-awareness. You will build self-awareness as your life goes on, and you have more setbacks, failures, and lessons. People with high levels of emotional intelligence often have excellent self-awareness levels and will achieve higher sales.

Another crucial component of selling is non-verbal cues, something that women n sales are masters at noticing. When you’re selling face to face (an art many sales reps had to abandon in 2020), you’ll need to see non-verbal cues, and women in sales are often better than men at this.

If you have an ongoing subscription model, such as SaaS, you’ll need excellent CSM’s to keep the customers happy yet drive sales. Various sources suggest up to 70 percent of CSM’s are women, showing how excellent women in sales are at this aspect of sales and customer satisfaction.

Various studies show women tend to have higher levels of emotional intelligence than men, including a study from Korn Ferry Hay Group. The study suggests that women beat men in 11 out of 12 emotional intelligence components.

3 - Collaboratoring Skills

In the tech industry, working as a team is absolutely critical and essential to driving success. However, in some circumstances, the sales industry has been all about competition and making the most money. That’s not the case in the modern era.

Sales is a team game, and collaboration is essential. Without adequate teamwork in the sales team, the tech product will fail to sell. Furthermore, evidence suggests that sales team collaboration is the number one driver of sales results.

It doesn’t matter who you are — you’ll always have bad sales days, even if you’re the world’s most outstanding salesperson. And what will help you when you’ve had a bad day? Your team! Team collaboration boosts performance because it allows the team to share skills, rapport, and advice.

Women in sales are fantastic natural collaborators. Various studies show that women prefer to work in teams. However, men prefer to work alone. As a result, women are an excellent addition to any sales team. Women often opt for team-based competition instead of personal competition, which is a great thing. While personal competition can be healthy, it often leads to strained team morale.

So how can you recruit more women?

So you’ve now seen the immense benefits of recruiting more women to your tech sales team? But how do you encourage women to join when so many women don’t want to work in tech? Well, there are many ways, and here are some of the best methods:

• Offer Flexibility - Thankfully, tech sales is one of the most flexible careers on the market, and women in sales love that. Many women love the idea of flexibility and the potential to work the schedule around themselves. If you give women the freedom to create their working environment, they will often excel and drive excellent results. Various research has shown that women prefer flexibility! Anyhow, it's not just women - everyone enjoys a flexible schedule.

• Provide Opportunity - Prove that your company offers equal opportunity. Everyone should be given the same opportunities regardless of gender! So provide those genuine opportunities, and attract more talent to your company. Women in sales are growing and more women are taking on more leadership roles in businesses. They are also inspiring the younger generation of women in sales.

• A calling and purpose - The old-fashioned thinking is, well, old and outdated. Offer women in sales a real purpose and chance to make a difference, globally. Keep to your word, be respectful, don't discriminate & stand-up for what is right. If your company supports equality for women in sales - let them know that. Support the future, support women.

Here are some other tips:

1. Offer mentorship programsfor women
2. Provide coachingabout workplace ethics for your team
3. Foster a team-friendly environment with gender-neutral practices
4. Hire more capable women & provide them with real opportunities
5. Support workplace professionalism. Push for a modern working environment with a healthy atmosphere that is respectful.

Join Uvaro for more opportunities

Whatever your gender, experience, or future ambitions, Uvaro's courses can make you into an excellent salesperson. And after your graduation, we offer specialized career advice to set you up for success! We even have a great tech sales job board - just for you to find the best job in tech.

Join now & start your tech sales career with Uvaro today!