It’s hard to imagine any sales leader would give up the chance to double their candidate pool, boost their sales output, and cut department costs. Especially when finding high-performing professionals is a top priority. But it appears that is happening in the majority of companies. According to Gartner, most companies tend to overlook women when building out their sales teams. Here are four reasons Gartner says it makes good business sense to add more women to your team.
1. Women Attain Higher Quota
Quotas are a pretty big deal. You set quota to give your reps a goal, and to increase the likelihood of them satisfying your company’s expectations. It turns out that women achieve 70% of quota on average, compared to 67% average quota attainment for men. While the difference is just a few percentage points, the fact is that you can be more confident about attaining quota when women are the ones working to close deals.
2. Women Stay with Companies Longer
Though attrition costs vary by company, you know it’s expensive when one of your sales reps walks out the door. Women tend to stay in their roles one year longer on average than men. That means more stability for your team and lower costs for your organization.
3. Women Broaden Perspectives
The gender inequity issue isn’t just a rank-and-file matter – it’s also felt at the highest echelons. Our own data shows that the biggest gender gap is in leadership positions is within the sales function. Though women fill 38% of sales roles, they are elevated to sales management positions only 27% of the time. Sales teams led by women tend to feature a higher percentage of women. In many cases, women bring different perspectives to the table, which can help a sales team innovate and solve problems better.
4. Women Pave the Way for Better Business Results
As Gartner notes, a more diverse workforce helps companies win more customers, generate higher revenues, drive bigger market share, and achieve higher than average profitability. If that’s not enough to get you take the gender issue seriously, I’m not sure what will do the trick.
If you’d like to improve the diversity and effectiveness of your sales team, here are a few ideas for eliminating unconscious bias from your hiring process. Additionally, Score More Sales founder Lori Richardson suggests a few more ways to increase gender diversity in sales, including communicating your company’s intention to diversify and using gender-neutral language in job descriptions when speaking with candidates.
By taking these steps, your company can pave the way for a sustainable business with a competitive edge and a promising future.
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Topics: Sales management
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