Women Make Better Sales Managers
Latest press releasesThe field of business-to-business selling has been traditionally male-dominated, but now we are seeing significant numbers of females working as salespeople and account managers, and inevitably moving into first-line management roles. The underlying point is that as companies move from transactional selling to relationship selling, females in first line management roles in sales seem to be particularly effective.
The urgency of exploiting every possible route to superior sales organization effectiveness is underlined by the escalating demands of business-to-business customers for high quality, seamless delivery of value from suppliers, and accelerating global competition. No company can afford to cling to the assumptions of the past about what drives sales organization effectiveness.
Recent studies carried out by Professor Nigel Piercy and Dr Nikala Lane of Warwick Business School and Professor David W Cravens of Texas Christian University have concluded:
The gender of the sales manager does not impact on salesperson performance women managers achieve equivalent performance when compared to male counterparts.
Sales units supervised by female managers achieved significantly higher levels of effectiveness.
They display higher levels of 'behaviour control' in how they manage rather than relying on commission and bonus to motivate their team.
Female sales managers do more coaching and support activities in managing their units and they appear to do it better than male managers.
These differences do not reflect the traditional assumption that female executives are naturally 'nurturers and carers'. The evidence is they are just as demanding and critical as male managers. The differences seem to be in the ways in which they manage their salespeople.
The results of this study suggest that there is a good case for increasing female participation in sales management roles. Any cost incurred in achieving this would be balanced by the potential gains in the quality of sales supervision and salesforce effectiveness.
The urgency of exploiting every possible route to superior sales organization effectiveness is underlined by the escalating demands of business-to-business customers for high quality, seamless delivery of value from suppliers, and accelerating global competition. No company can afford to cling to the assumptions of the past about what drives sales organization effectiveness.
Recent studies carried out by Professor Nigel Piercy and Dr Nikala Lane of Warwick Business School and Professor David W Cravens of Texas Christian University have concluded:
These differences do not reflect the traditional assumption that female executives are naturally 'nurturers and carers'. The evidence is they are just as demanding and critical as male managers. The differences seem to be in the ways in which they manage their salespeople.
The results of this study suggest that there is a good case for increasing female participation in sales management roles. Any cost incurred in achieving this would be balanced by the potential gains in the quality of sales supervision and salesforce effectiveness.
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