{"id":221,"date":"2008-10-20T13:06:44","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wensmedia.com\/\/salesarchive\/permalink\/2008\/10\/20\/090644.html"},"modified":"2008-10-20T13:06:44","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:06:44","slug":"battle-of-the-sexes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/battle-of-the-sexes\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Sexes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Battle<\/span><\/b><\/st1:place><\/st1:city> of the Sexes<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

Far be it for me to argue with Harvard academics but my experience with male versus female media managers and sales executives has been contrary to a recent article from Harvard Business Publishing.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

The article suggested, “Recent research points to a clear-cut difference between men and women’s ability to weather risk and failure. Data contained in a recent Harvard Business Review report (see The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> June 2008) shows that when female executives wrestle with stormy weather, corporate cultures <\/span>can be unforgiving. Women are seriously isolated, without mentors, sponsors or the equivalent of the ‘old boys’ network’.  <\/span><\/span>They find it impossible to rally support in the wake of failure. More so than men, they crash and burn. “<\/i><\/font><\/span> <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

My experience has been the reverse, but maybe it is because<\/u> “<\/i>Women are seriously isolated, without mentors or sponsors or the equivalent of the old boys’ network” <\/span><\/span><\/i>and they have more to prove.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever I have the fortunate experience of working with a sales team comprised of half male and half female executives (don’t shoot the messenger, guys) and we run a ‘guys against the girls’ sales contest, the women always<\/u> win!<\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course we take extra pains to ensure the contest is based upon a level playing field, but here are some of my theories regarding reasons the women consistently outperform the men.<\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

1.) They have more to prove.  <\/span>It wasn’t that long ago that our sales and management culture was male dominated, and women are out to prove they are more than equals and can compete.<\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

2.) The best sales people have empathy with their clients. They are good listeners and focus on the customer.  <\/span>I know it is politically incorrect to suggest that women’s maternal instincts are more naturally inclined to care about their customers’ success, but in my experience this seems to be the case. <\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

3.) More often than not, women are better organized than men, meaning their attention to detail and follow-through is often superior.  <\/span>I’d hate to think of <\/span>what would happen if Angela didn’t run my office and I was left at the mercy of my own organizational skills!<\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

4.) Most top executives and decision makers today are males.  <\/span>Most males were brought up to be more courteous to the female gender and therefore often open the door to meeting with a female where a male might not get through.<\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

P.S. There are exceptions to every rule. <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Battle of the Sexes Far be it for me to argue with Harvard academics but my experience with male versus female media managers and sales executives has been contrary to a recent article from Harvard Business Publishing. The article suggested, “Recent research points to a clear-cut difference between men and women’s ability to weather risk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}