Can women really succeed as sales execs? Time for a little honest dialogue.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Sep 21, 2009 @ 01:01 AM
Some of the most talented female inside sales directors and managers I've met have gone on to starting their own companies or becoming independent consultants, rather than remaining in high tech sales for a corporate entity. With very few exceptions, none of these women have held the title of VP of Sales, in which they ran both inside and field sales. This is not the case for many of the men who've moved up the ranks from individual telesales contributors to becoming sales executives. Fact is, in my 20-odd years in the business, I just haven't seen talented women move up the sales exec ladder the way men have.
Today's post is a starting point to open up some dialogue within our industry about why so few of our female telesales managers and directors move into executive sales management roles. Here are three possible reasons, but I'm open to more: 1) They're not talented enough, that's why they're in inside (vs. field) sales; 2) They lack field sales experience, which means they won't gain the respect of the field sales force; 3) The "glass ceiling" is in full force, and the men in charge don't want to muddy the male waters with women sales execs, no matter how talented they may be. Let's discuss each of these three for a moment. And because this blog gets quite a bit of traction around the internet these days, in the interest of full disclosure, the writer of this blog is a guy. So let's fire away and look at each question...
Women don't often evolve from the role of inside sales director or manager to that of a high level sales executive because:
1) They're not talented enough, that's why they're in inside (vs. field) sales. The prejudice that many field-based sales people have against inside sales people is a fact that has been around as long as insides sales people began taking revenue away from them. A common fallacy still quite popular is that if inside sales people were any good, they'd have been field reps. Yet, from the "inside-out" view, many of the best inside reps like the idea of not having to travel, and have superior qualification skills. In many cases, they close faster, and with high-ticket items, too. As one sales exec told me once, "remember, Boeing sells planes over the phone." The "lack of sales talent" argument here just doesn't wash.
2) They lack field sales experience, which means they won't gain the respect of the field sales force. Field experience by itself doesn't gain anyone any respect. If a rep doesn't produce with real numbers, regardless of whether he or she is in inside or field sales, then professional credibility just isn't there. I've personally known many inside sales reps that successfully "carried a bag" prior to becoming an inside rep, both men and women. Also, does this argument can work the other way around? Do inside sales people disrespect upper-level sales execs solely on the basis of the fact that they haven't sold inside? Not in my experience. In addition, thousands of inside reps have forged mutually-respectful relationships with field reps, where they partner together as equals to close deals (and are equally-commissioned, too).
3) The "glass ceiling" is in full force, and the men in charge don't want to muddy the male waters with women sales execs, no matter how talented they may be. Over the past 20 years, thousands on businesswomen have learned to excel at golf. Many (but certainly not all) of them took up the sport as a way to open up a better dialogue with upper-level male executives that traditionally ran most companies. Men tend to be "clubby," and many women saw --- and still see --- joining in on traditionally male-oriented social venues as a way to break through the invisible corporate walls that prevented them from succeeding on talent and ability alone. Does the "glass ceiling" still exist for women attempting to move up the sales ladder?
I suppose it can be argued that in a traditional male-female relationship, when a couple has a baby, it's most often that the man that returns to work, rather than the woman (but careful! The concept of "family" is changing in today's diverse workforce). Often, though, women do return to the working environment after having a child. And not all women elect to have a child, either.
Let me throw a statistic in here that's food for thought. I actually keep records of individual inside sales reps that take my telesales training courses. At last analysis, roughly 133 of them have evolved from starting as telesales reps to becoming sales or marketing managers or directors. 29 of them (22% of the total) were women. But looking at executive-level position (VP or higher) of the 20 that graduated to that level, only 1 (5% of that total) was a woman. That's a pretty big discrepancy. My numbers certainly aren't a large sampling, but they do lead to a few questions that need to be asked.
1) Does the glass ceiling exist for women within the sales executive dynamic?
2) If it does, is it:
a) because women are traditionally linked to inside sales?
b) because they're perceived to be less talented?
c), because they have not socially integrated with men at the executive level?
d) because many men refuse to hire a woman to work as a sales exec, for any reason?
3) If the glass ceiling exists, are we experiencing a "brain-drain" within the sales business, as many of our best and brightest leave enterprise companies due to lack of opportunity?
Sometimes I think that we Americans complain too much, particularly about issues in the workplace. When I hear a lot of these complaints, I just want to tell the complainers to be quiet and go back to work. But when I look at my own statistics, then see how they apparently track throughout our industry, I'm wondering if there isn't a valid complaint right here.
For our country to remain successful and innovative businesswise, we absolutely must hire and promote on the basis of creativity, business-savvy, and superior communication skills. We can't afford to ignore our best and brightest as we promote.
Have we got a problem here? Maybe we do. And if we do, how badly is our business suffering because of it?
What do you think?