{"id":11567,"date":"2018-10-16T21:43:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T21:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/importance-of-breaking-down-barriers-as-a-woman-in-sales\/"},"modified":"2022-10-18T15:59:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T15:59:06","slug":"importance-of-breaking-down-barriers-as-a-woman-in-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/importance-of-breaking-down-barriers-as-a-woman-in-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Breaking Down Barriers as a Woman in Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Many women ask me about the best ways to break down the barriers faced by female sales professionals. Here\u2019s my answer: the critical step is recognizing that how we perceive&nbsp;<em>ourselves<\/em>&nbsp;before, during, and after our sales conversations will always have the most dramatic impact on our ability to break down the barriers we encounter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is that the most important of the barriers to be broken through lie within ourselves. Here are three you may have encountered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Barrier #1:&nbsp; You<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest barrier to our success, in my experience, is our own lack of confidence, the continuous internal questioning of whether we are capable of dealing effectively with certain people and situations. While everyone lacks confidence from time to time, I find that for many women who sell for a living, the problem is pervasive and linked to gender in a way that can persist for years. This lack of personal confidence stops us from taking risks and ultimately diminishes our personal presence and sales success.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Why<\/em>&nbsp;does this happen? Our lack of confidence has many contributors, including what we were told was right or wrong as a girl, and what was reinforced through countless social norms and messages, both overt and subtle. All too often, we carry certain unhelpful assumptions into our sales call: for instance, we think accommodating the buyer means we are \u201cbeing good\u201d \u2026 and we believe it is important for us to be considered \u201cgood\u201d because that is what mom, dad and\/or society as a whole has been telling us to be for years. \u201cGood.\u201d Meaning \u201ccompliant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This desire to be \u201cgood,\u201d to be accepted because we accommodate and yield to others, carries a hefty price tag. Our lack of confidence in ourselves shows up in our voice, in our physical posture and body signals, and in our behavior and choices during the sales call. Here are some examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We avoid asking questions.<\/li><li>We fail to say what is on our mind.<\/li><li>We defer automatically to the male in the room or to our manager.<\/li><li>We act demure in the presence of strong personalities or roles.<\/li><li>We don\u2019t give ourselves credit for our own success.<\/li><li>We do whatever the buyer asks us to do.<\/li><li>We worry about coming across as too pushy or too assertive.<\/li><li>We assume that talking about money is taboo.<\/li><li>We routinely practice negative self-talk.<\/li><li>We use our tonality and body language to send signals of uncertainty, or on the other extreme, aggressiveness. We don\u2019t strike a balance.<\/li><li>We apologize for virtually everything that happens.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The solution to these problems?&nbsp;<em>Get rid of your head trash.&nbsp;<\/em>Yes, that is a lifelong process. No, that is no reason to postpone starting your mental cleanup for even one more day! David Sandler, the founder of our company, once said: &#8220;In sales, the battle for your attitude is fought between your ears.&#8221; He was absolutely right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Barrier #2: Flying Without a Selling System or Process<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many women in sales lose out simply because they don\u2019t have or follow a proven, repeatable process for conducting their sales conversations. This is a problem for men, as well, of course, but it\u2019s particularly dangerous for women in sales. Let me explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically, these women lack a process for establishing relationships, qualifying, and closing.&nbsp; Instead of focusing on what is proven to work in these three areas, they focus their energy on \u201crelationship building\u201d (read: free consulting), and hope and pray someone will eventually want to buy something from them. They schedule the meeting, but the meeting\u2019s purpose and content is unclear. They leave thinking they just had a great meeting, but they are perplexed about where to go next. And when it comes time to close the deal, they tend to hear \u201cWe need to think it over.\u201d Forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, rapport-building is important. We won\u2019t get far without it. However, if we are to be taken seriously and demonstrate that we really do mean business, we need to have a selling process that helps us move naturally from rapport building, to qualification, to close. This process \u2013 the Sandler Selling System \u2013 must be the foundation of all our selling conversations. If it is, we will find that the process shortens our selling cycle, increases our average deal size, and (as if that weren\u2019t enough) works wonders in building our confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Barrier #3: Going It Alone<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can be lonely being a saleswoman. We may look around and not see many female peers available to confide in \u2026 or support. A lot of our day may be spent \u201cflying solo,\u201d based on the sales role we have chosen. In addition, many of the women I work with are, initially at least, reluctant to admit vulnerability to others. Add it all up, and you may find yourself looking at a pretty stressful career path. But it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most successful saleswomen recognize what can be gained by cluing others in on how they feel, what they fear, and what they\u2019ve been going through. This kind of communication may be more important for women than for men. In proactively creating a network of like-minded, noncompetitive female sales professionals, many of the women I coach have discovered that they don\u2019t have to go it alone. They can have a coach, a support group, and plenty of people who will listen to them, challenge them, and cheer them on. Not only that: They can become mentors to other women who may be less experienced or confident than they are. These women realize, often to their own great surprise, that they do in fact have great wisdom and experience to share, and that they can derive a deep sense of fulfillment from having a positive impact on another woman\u2019s life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a confident attitude, a strong selling system that plays to our strengths as sellers, and an environment of support, we really can break through the barriers and beat the odds. In my book\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandler.com\/shop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">The Unapologetic Saleswoman<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em>,<\/em>\u00a0I share how some of the saleswomen I\u2019ve worked with have empowered themselves and achieved great things by working on their attitudes, behaviors and selling techniques \u2026 and by assuming their rightful place as the successful woman in the room, with no apologies offered or needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/reports.sandler.com\/sample-chapter-ferguson-unapologetic-saleswoman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Get your free chapter of my book so you can be on your way to breaking down the barriers listed above!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many women ask me about the best ways to break down the barriers faced by female sales professionals. Here\u2019s my answer: the critical step is recognizing that how we perceive&nbsp;ourselves&nbsp;before, during, and after our sales conversations will always have the most dramatic impact on our ability to break down the barriers we encounter.&nbsp; The good&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":11568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1233,1057,1105],"class_list":["post-11567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-personal-growth","tag-professional-development","tag-sales-process"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Importance of Breaking Down Barriers as a Woman in Sales | Sandler Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many women ask me about the best ways to break down the barriers faced by female sales professionals. 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