Why Women Leave Sales Positions 3x Faster (And What To Do About It)

Why Women Leave Sales Positions 3x Faster (And What To Do About It)

In my first sales job twenty years ago, my manager told me I should cut my hair to be taken more seriously. She wasn't being cruel, she was preparing me for an industry never built for women. For the last 100+ years, salespeople have been following the same playbook that was written BY men FOR men. Despite this, women now hold 1/3 of senior level sales roles in Fortune 500 companies, and we're closing more deals than our male counterparts. Imagine what we could do if we were actually supported! In this episode, we're traveling back to 1894 to see where sales training began, and exploring why it hasn't changed in any meaningful way since then. I'm also sharing 5 easy ways you can start supporting the women on your sales team *today.* If you're a leader who wants the women on your team to stay, grow, and outsell the competition, visit https://bit.ly/dont-just-sell-ep18 [https://bit.ly/dont-just-sell-ep18] to learn how we can work together. Sources: * https://www.gong.io/blog/women-in-sales [https://www.gong.io/blog/women-in-sales] * https://www.allego.com/blog/women-in-sales-experts-share-selling-advice/ [https://www.allego.com/blog/women-in-sales-experts-share-selling-advice/]  – Most sales podcasts give you more tactics. This one proves you don’t need them.  I’m Rebecca Kilday, and Don’t Just Sell is the podcast where your sales career gets easier when you quit selling like you’ve been trained, and start selling like yourself.  – Produced by SpeakEasy Productions.

Stop Tiptoeing Through The Sales Process

"I'll be in touch." Four words that sound polite and mean nothing, and if you've heard them you already know how the meeting that earned them probably went. A client sent me a recording of exactly that kind of meeting. She was warm, she connected, she did everything we're told to do, and it went nowhere. The real problem wasn't anything she said. It was what she was too afraid to ask, because she didn't want to seem pushy. In this episode I share the three questions I now ask in every meeting that turn a pleasant dead end into a real conversation, even when they feel uncomfortable coming out of your mouth. If you've ever softened yourself in a meeting to avoid being "too much," this is the kind of work I do with women in sales in my 1:1 coaching. Join the Sell INSPIRED Academy: https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675 [https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675] – Most sales podcasts give you more tactics. This one proves you don’t need them.  I’m Rebecca Kilday, and Don’t Just Sell is the podcast where your sales career gets easier when you quit selling like you’ve been trained, and start selling like yourself.  – Produced by SpeakEasy Productions.

Build Your Personal Brand, Not Your Company's

You have to sell people on you before you can sell them anything else. I learned that the hard way, after years of thinking my job was to represent my company well. But knowing the product, building rapport, having the perfect answer to every objection are things every other rep does too.  The thing that actually sets you apart is the one thing most women in sales never invest in, which is their own brand. In this episode I share not only what changed when I stopped being a messenger for the company, but also how you can do the same in three simple steps. If you've ever felt interchangeable with every other rep your prospect talked to that day, this is the kind of work I do with women in sales in my 1:1 coaching. Join the Sell INSPIRED Academy: https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675 [https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675]   –   Most sales podcasts give you more tactics. This one proves you don’t need them.    I’m Rebecca Kilday, and Don’t Just Sell is the podcast where your sales career gets easier when you quit selling like you’ve been trained, and start selling like yourself.    –   Produced by SpeakEasy Productions.

10 Sales Questions I'm Asked... And My Answers Might Surprise You

Most of the sales advice out there is from men who are coaching other men, leaving us women to figure it out through trial-and-error or to try to be someone we're not.  In this episode, I'm breaking my usual format and sharing unfiltered answers to ten of the most common questions I get from sales students, people who are new to the industry, and my clients.  Some of my answers are probably not what a typical sales coach would say, but you need to hear them anyway. 00:00 Why I'm breaking the usual format today  01:02 What advice would you give someone starting out?  02:01 What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?  02:54 How do you build trust?  04:03 What do you do when trust is broken? 05:06 How do you build confidence?  06:00 How do you avoid sounding pushy or sales-y?  06:55 How do you handle objections?  08:35 Why do you qualify prospects?  09:42 What are your favorite questions to ask a prospect?  10:49 Have you ever walked away from a sale? 11:40 If you need more answers The work doesn't have to stop here. Join the Sell INSPIRED Academy: https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675 [https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675] – Most sales podcasts give you more tactics. This one proves you don’t need them.    I’m Rebecca Kilday, and Don’t Just Sell is the podcast where your sales career gets easier when you quit selling like you’ve been trained, and start selling like yourself.    –   Produced by SpeakEasy Productions.

The Real Reason Warm Prospects Go Cold (It’s Not Your Pitch)

Have you ever walked out of a sales meeting feeling like it went well, only to watch the deal fall apart and have no idea why? We've been trained to obsess over every word of our pitch, instead of focusing on what our prospect is telling us. So it’s likely the problem is what you missed, not what you said. In this episode, I'm sharing a real client story where I pretended to be her prospect in a full roleplay, spotted exactly what was getting in her way, and the small shifts that helped her close several deals the very next week. If you know your sales meetings could be better, this is exactly the kind of work I do with my 1-1 coaching clients. Join the Sell INSPIRED Academy: https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675 [https://www.go.rebeccakilday.com/offer123-9675] – Most sales podcasts give you more tactics. This one proves you don’t need them.    I’m Rebecca Kilday, and Don’t Just Sell is the podcast where your sales career gets easier when you quit selling like you’ve been trained, and start selling like yourself.    – Produced by SpeakEasy Productions.