When you think of a salesperson, what springs to mind?
Is it the hyper-masculine antics of pop culture icons like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street? Or the ‘greed is good’ mantra of Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko? 💸
It’s fair to say that most salespeople don’t behave like this. But nonetheless, sales is still a male-dominated industry. And one that fewer women participate in.
So what can be done to get more women in sales?
There’s no one solution. But we spoke to some of Cognism’s sales and talent acquisition team to find out how to work towards levelling the playing field.
Scroll 👇 or use the menu to navigate through the article.
The best place to start is to understand the root of the problem.
Why are there more men than women in B2B sales?
During our conversations with different women in sales, we identified a couple of common themes.
This isn’t an exhaustive list. But it does provide some great food for thought 👇
Popular culture has done a lot of good for us.
For example, where would we be without the likes of the Met Gala, the Star Wars franchise, and Harry Styles?
But it’s also done some not-so-great things for the reputation and understanding of certain industries - sales being one of them.
Yup - you guessed it. We’re talking about The Wolf of Wall Street.
That film presented a boisterous stereotype of sales.
Its main characters conformed to the loud, energetic, ‘dodgy car salesman’ type persona - and that’s become a defining factor of how people view or understand a sales role.
Nancy Newman-Oller, Cognism’s Head of Account Management, told us:
“The Wolf presented a male-dominated image - things like where he’s ringing a bell after closing a deal and going out drinking to celebrate.”
Rachel Goldstone, SDR Manager, added:
“The reason why many women feel put off from pursuing a career in sales is this belief that they’ll end up working with arrogant salesmen in a workplace rife with toxic masculinity.”
That’s one side of the coin. What about the other side - are there any examples in popular culture that show women making it in the workplace?
Nancy picked up on something interesting:
“Take The Devil Wears Prada as an example. You see the girlboss with the big corner office, not afraid of confrontation. But this is an example of seeing a woman as a success, when they’ve already made it. Not the experience beforehand.”
What’s the key takeaway from all of this?
There clearly needs to be a shift and change in narrative. And we need to desperately debunk The Wolf of Wall Street image of outbound sales.
Because the sooner this happens, the better women’s perceptions of sales will be.
Sophie Pease, Senior Commerical AE, summed this up:
“When someone mentions Wall Street or sales in general, immediately people are thinking of white males in suits. Popular culture has a responsibility to normalise women in sales - it should show that there’s a balance.”
We can that’s true.
The more women can see themselves in a sales role, the more likely they are to consider it as a career choice.
Think back to every career or job fair you attended.
There were always the traditional options:
We’re pretty sure a career in tech sales or SaaS sales wasn’t on that list.
This has been a common issue that many of our interviewees identified.
Mia Bostic, BDR at Gladly, said:
“I think in software sales, a lot of women don’t know that these roles even exist. For me personally, I had to do an entire bootcamp to find out - and even then it was a friend of mine who told me about it in the first place.”
Nancy agreed:
“There’s a lack of knowledge of B2B, tech, and the SDR role. People don’t know about all of the career options that are available to them. And I think that university and school leavers have got this massive information gap.”
Brahm Jagpal, Commercial Sales Manager, said:
“It’s very easy to come out of university as a graduate and say that you’re going to first and foremost work at a large, well-known company. And the go-to roles at these companies tend to be law or investment banking. Sales isn’t the go-to, even though tech sales is really driving and growing.”
It’s clear there’s a significant lack of exposure. So, what more can be done?
Mia offered some great insight into what can change for the better:
“There should be sales classes in schools, colleges and universities. Sessions that are centred on building relationships and closing deals. So companies (especially tech sales or SaaS ones) should reach out to colleges or universities.”
“For example, here in Chicago at Northwestern, there are more entrepreneurial-based classes available for students.”
Now, it’s true that this issue affects people in sales more generally.
But crucially:
If we fix this then more women especially are going to become aware of the role. It’ll be a viable career path for consideration - that’s the marker of success.
Rachel summarised this perfectly:
“The people that are mostly applying are men. So I think it’s important to influence grads that sales is actually really fun and empowering.”
Now, here’s the thing:
The 2 issues outlined above are far from small ones. It’s going to take a long time for them to happen.
So, with that in mind, what other advice have women got at their disposal, to feel empowered to break into the world of sales?
Keep reading 👇
Company culture is a fashionable topic. And it’s something that a lot of industries pay lip service to.
But what does having a good company culture really mean? This can depend on your industry, your role, or what you expect your work environment to be like.
But in B2B Saas, Rachel thinks newer, fast-growing companies have moved away from the outdated practices that older institutions might struggle to shake off.
She explains:
“I think in the tech space, because it's relatively new to the world, it's much more progressive. You get these archaic companies that have been around for like 50 years. It can be quite hard to make changes, and people are very used to the way things are run.”
“But you've also got like these young, fast-growing companies, and that inclusive culture is very much being pushed forward.”
“It also just depends on the company. We've got an amazing CEO, and it drips down through senior management. So I think it’s very case-by-case and dependent on who your leader is.”
This is something that our talent acquisition team also stressed as super-important. Showcasing Cognism’s positive culture is one thing that helps attract talented candidates who will succeed in sales.
Melissa Hulbert, Talent Acquisition Manager, told us:
“If your company [or industry] is predominantly male, or you are all from a certain country, or you are all a certain class. Regardless of what it is, that's going to create a certain culture. Because there's only ever going be limited perspectives. And that reduces the types of ideas and opportunities in the team.”
“If you have people from different backgrounds, you’re going to be more productive. You're going to have better ideas. You can bounce off each other because you've got different views.”
“I think it's important that you put people together with different views so that they can clash a bit. And then they can find a better outcome with both inputs.”
“So culture is 100% key. If you've got a bad culture, no one can succeed in that environment regardless of who you are, or where you come from.”
Part of ensuring a good culture fit is screening all candidates for emotional intelligence. After all, you’re not going to be successful in sales if you don’t have people skills!
What is emotional intelligence?
The term comes from two researchers, Peter Salavoy and John Mayer, in their article “Emotional Intelligence” in 1990. And it was popularised by Dan Goleman in his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence.
They defined emotional intelligence as:
“A subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own emotions and others' emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's own thinking and actions.”
Why is emotional intelligence vital for sales?
Because SDRs need to be able to pick up on their prospects’ cues and respond accordingly.
This is something the team considers in the hiring process. Johnathan Tye, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, said:
“I think one of the main things that we screen for is emotional intelligence. Obviously, if you're working in an outbound role, that's gonna be really important anyway.”
Cognism’s company values are another factor that we screen candidates against.
Melissa explained the process to us:
“We screen against our company values and always bear them in mind.”
“And I think you can often tell quite easily how they come across, in how they speak to us [the recruiters]. They're not going to have emotional intelligence. They're not going to learn to get on with the teams and be collaborative.”
“So we screen against our values to make sure that the candidate will be a culture fit for us.”
It’s often quoted that women are less likely to apply for a role unless they meet 100% of the skills required.
In fact, newer studies have found that the statistic is much lower.
A study of 10,000 candidates from the Behavioural Insights Team found that men apply for jobs when they fit 52% of the profile - compared to 56% for women.
While this makes for happier reading, there are still barriers that stop women from entering the world of B2B sales.
One trend that has appeared in recent years is making job adverts less gendered in their terminology so that they appeal to a wider pool of candidates.
Jonathan explains:
“It's something that we picked up on previously with some of our adverts. We noted that some language used tended to be a little bit more masculine-focused. Especially when it would come to like a sales role typically.”
Adjusting hiring practices is just one way that B2B companies can ensure they’re searching a wide pool for the best talent.
There are many characteristics or traits that women have that are important in sales.
For example, having a sense of empathy is crucial.
Nancy explained why:
“When someone is telling you their pain points on a call, you’re reacting to their face or voice. And it takes an empathetic person to effectively understand that over a Zoom call.”
“This is something (intentionally or unintentionally) that women tend to understand a lot more.”
Rachel agreed:
“The female voice has the power of being nurturing and approachable. We can use it to our advantage.”
And besides these “soft skills”? What else?
It’s just important to be yourself.
Mia elaborated on what she meant by this:
“People buy from people. Who you are, and what you bring to the table is going to differentiate you from competitors. Because prospects are going to be asking themselves: ‘Who’s the person I’m talking to?’”
What about if you don’t have as much confidence in yourself?
Nancy offered a unique take on how to think about all of this:
“It’s hard because so much of it comes down to being honest with yourself. If you’re able to clear through the fog and be confident, you’re on the way there. You’ve really just got to go for it.”
“And remember you can always reach out to someone on LinkedIn. There’s nothing wrong with a second opinion - so a cold outreach message to a female recruiter, for example, is always worth sending.”
One of the toughest things to do in sales (particularly if your company culture isn’t great) is to speak up. But it’s something that Rachel has found is an important part of carving out space for women in sales.
If you don’t say what you think, your colleagues (or leaders) may not know that they’re being exclusionary or thoughtless.
She explains:
“I think it's not being afraid to speak up and say, ‘I think like we should do this’ and ‘that's not right.’”
“I'm so lucky that Dave Bentham is my boss, and he's such an amazing supporter. And over the years, I've been like, ‘you know what? That made me very uncomfortable’. Or, ‘I don't think you should say that. That's not the sort of culture we want to build.’”
“But I'm lucky that I've had someone that's been so receptive to that. So don't be afraid to say what you think.”
Rachel was also encouraged by other women in her sales team to join a Women in Sales Slack channel. Spaces such as those are great places to get support and inspiration from other women in sales.
This theme came up time and time again in our conversations.
The idea is that the more women see other women in sales leadership roles, the greater their confidence will be.
Mia’s experience is a clear example of this:
“75% of our BDR team consists of women. And I think a key driver of that has been because Highlight’s CEO is a woman. She [Dana Kim] is really passionate about having balance and diversity across the different teams.”
Nancy also championed this idea:
“There’s something about having a woman in charge - the mixed-gender team functioned well underneath. Males respect a female boss - there’s clear authority.”
This all makes sense - because these women in leadership positions become role models.
If you’re considering a move into sales, reach out to women in leadership roles. Ask them for advice and empowerment. Find out what it’s really like to be a woman in sales.
Don’t let the stereotypes put you off. If this article has proved anything, there are already strong, intelligent and determined women working in the sales industry. You could be one of them!
Let’s recap and round off the article with some key points to remember - in order to get more women into sales, we need to work on two things:
When considering a sales role, remember that:
And finally, we asked our contributors to share some valuable resources with us. In our opinion, these are all worth checking out 👇
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