Posted by: Troy White
December 31, 2009
Issue #832

The four-trillion-dollar market
you cannot ignore

In this issue:

• How to immediately double your sales to women entrepreneurs …

• Increasing your odds of a sale by 700% …

• The #1 thing women buyers look for in your business that most men completely ignore …

• And Much More!

Fellow Business Builder,

In celebration of International Women’s Day coming again in March, let’s talk about women.

More specifically … selling to women.

I love women! I am surrounded by them – between my wife and my twin daughters – I am seriously overrun. I love every minute of it, though.

Some of the best entrepreneurs I have ever worked with are women. And a significant percentage of my clients are women. Right from day one in my business, I knew that I was determined to become a better salesperson, and I specifically wanted to sell more to women than I had in my past career. (I sold million-dollar computer systems – and they were mainly sold to men.)

Selling to women is an entirely different ballpark than men. Women think, act, and buy based on different criteria than men.

And they are also the biggest buyers out there. If you are not selling directly to women, the odds are high that a woman is influencing the final purchase decision the man is being asked to make.

You must sell to your customers in a way that they want to be sold to. Trying to force them to buy from you “your way” will not work, and you will very quickly develop a very bad reputation for your sales techniques.

How challenging is this?

Well, a little story will help clear this up …

A man is walking along the beach in California when God speaks to him from the heavens. God says, “You’ve been a good, hardworking man all your life, so I’m going to grant you one wish.” The man immediately replies back, “I have always dreamed of traveling to Hawaii or reaching a beautiful paradise like that – filled with all the lush rewards it has to offer. But,” he adds, “I really don’t like to fly. I would like you to build me a bridge so that I can drive from here to Hawaii. Would you build me that bridge?”

God replies back, “Even for myself, that’s a monumental task. All the architecture, design and building of a bridge that large … the concrete … the structure … the planning. It has to extend miles and miles across the Pacific … isn’t there something else, maybe a little easier, I could grant you?”

The man thinks about this for a minute, “Well, I’ve always wanted to have a much better understanding of women and how they think. Could you help me with that?

“OK,” God says, “How many lanes do you want on that bridge?”

As silly as this story is, us mere mortal men out there have a tough time understanding the females we live and work with.

Many men, no matter what level of success
in their businesses or career, will agree
that selling to women is not something
that comes natural to us.

Even successful sales professionals that are women will agree that it is completely different (and more difficult) selling to women than it is men.

Men like to just get to it. Decisions are made quickly … and are done in a fairly methodical way. We like to solve the problem, close the deal and move on. Women are not so cut and dry in their decision making process.

Take the shopping mall, for example …

Many men, like myself, love to have one thing in mind that we know we are buying (we already know the exact color, and approximate price). We will park right next to the store we are shopping at. We walk in; go straight to the row with the goods we want. We look for about three nanoseconds, make sure it is the exact make and model, and we take it to the till to buy (maybe try and negotiate the price along the way).

Don’t get me wrong, we love to buy things … just HOW we buy things is different than our female counterparts.

Women have a little different way of shopping.

First, they can make an entire day-long adventure out of shopping. They love to browse and wander from store to store looking for that “perfect” thing to buy. They may have their friends involved in the trip and the purchase decision. They demand more input, expect more attentive service people, want more selection, require more thorough follow-up, and expect a very pleasurable experience when making their decision.

When you can sell successfully to women,
you will over-deliver to men.

The #1 problem that women notice much more than men … the sales experience does NOT match the marketing experience. It is not about making nice, pretty, softer, marketing materials focused at women … then waiting until they enter your sales system to hit them with your aggressive sales strategies.

Adding pink to your marketing is not the way to win …

Here’s how to double your sales to women business owners …

Impress them and they will buy twice as much from you. 86% of all women business owners surveyed by Working Woman say they will use the exact same products in their office as they do in their home.

So, if you give them the experience they want and deliver high-quality products and services to back up your claims, they will not only stay loyal to you for years to come, they will also double the amount they buy from you.

Men typically buy based on an educated decision.

Women typically buy based on an educated consensus (not meaning they won’t make a decision by themselves, but that they need to feel much more comfortable with all the information they have on you and your products than men do). They are not big on the hard close, the one so common in traditional sales training.

Think about their feelings.

Women buyers make decisions much more based on the intuitive feelings they have about you and your business. This is tougher to do through long copy sales letters.

So, I highly recommend you use video and audio on your websites and sales campaigns.

You can include videos and audio CDs with sales packages that go out – and the multiple media approach will drastically help your odds of a sale.

Men buy based on a very logical progression through the sales presentation – women do not. This is not the time or place to say “buy it my way, or else …" They will gladly take the “or else” option.

Think about the relationships.

What I mean here is not only the business relationship you will be forming with her, but also the relationships in her life that this purchase will impact.

If you are selling products or services that impact her business – talk about the people in the business and how they will be positively impacted with the use of your product or service.

If you are selling products or services that are put in the home – talk about how it will impact and change her home life for the better, and how her spouse, kids, and friends will enjoy the benefits as well.

The LAST thing you want to be doing is spouting off “feeds and speeds” of your products – that is how MEN buy, not women. It is important – but not nearly as important in the buying cycle as it is for men.

Think about what they have to say,
not what you want to say.

This is a real challenge for sales letters and reports – UNLESS you have done your research and have already found out the common problems, complaints, needs and desires.

Your ability to listen is critical here.

Put together questionnaires and surveys. Have open Q&A teleseminars. Find ways to touch base with your potential buyers and listen to what they have to say – and uncover the real reasons they buy or don’t buy.

I remember a few years ago, Kari and I went to a car dealership to look at a new vehicle for Kari. This was her decision on the car – and we made sure we told the sales guy this fact.

He was too stupid to listen to this fact and kept talking to ME, completely ignoring HER. I told him again, “This is her decision, talk to her,” and he couldn’t wrap it around his thick skull.

So we walked out and took her business to someone who actually had a brain and could listen to what Kari wanted. He made money on the deal – sales guy #1 is probably still out there completely ignoring the person who has the real buying power, the woman of the house.

Think about the factors that impact their life
outside of this buying decision.

The context you choose to present your offer in is critical. My wife, Kari, helps run my business, runs her own business, makes sure our house is kept in order, and looks after our twin daughters. If it was up to me, it would all be in complete disarray!

Women are incredible multi-taskers, and you have to recognize this in your sales process. Talk to their life, and the challenges they face in their life, and then you are talking their language.

Find ways to help them come to an agreement

You don’t close a deal with a woman buyer. You can, and it does happen. But, if you do it improperly, they will soon regret what you did and will immediately get a refund, and/or tell every single person they know that your business is NOT women friendly.

NOTE: Women immediately recognize, by a 3:1 ratio, those companies who market specifically to women. And … this is key … by a 7:1 ratio they will go far out of their way to buy from businesses who DO market specifically to women (in the right way).*

You need to BE that one company who gets this, and caters to women the way they want to be catered to. This can immediately boost your sales by 700%!!

(* Working Woman research study)

Some of the ways you can help their decision making process:

1. Give them space. They are not impulse buyers as much as men. So don’t push the close as hard. Give them the proper follow-up they will want – again, not pushing as much as you are used to.
2. Share with them testimonials of other women buyers. NOTE: a sales letter for a product of mine instantly DOUBLED conversions to women as soon as I put a video testimonial right at the top of a women client who sang my praises. It took two minutes to do – and resulted in 200% more sales. Simple, but effective.
3. Make sure that everything you have presented to her IS in her best interest. We all get caught up in our sales pitch, and, at times, may promise things that are not all that important. This can cost you significantly in selling to women. Promise to deliver what they want – then make sure you DO deliver what was promised.
4. Use multiple media to stay in touch if they decide not to buy right away. Birthday cards. Handwritten thank you cards (a rarity these days). Special event invitations. Audio CDs. Video DVDs. Teleseminars. Customer appreciation events. Do everything in your power to give them lots of opportunity to meet your other clients and alleviate any concerns they may have.

When you get this right, you have a
fantastic viral marketing machine in place.

Women love to talk to their friends and family about pleasant buying experiences. Be the one that delivers it to them, and you will quickly see a landslide of new, highly-qualified buyers at your door.

This article could turn into a book as this is so important for all of us to understand. I do not claim that this is everything you need to know about marketing to women, but should be considered a good starting point to a new sales process.

The opportunity for you is incredible here, but you must make sure you do it properly.

If a woman buyer visits your store or website and you are noticeably pretending to be women friendly, they will run as fast as they can. But, if they happen upon your business and you obviously know how to sell to women, they will buy again and again from you.

Do your homework and give them what they want.

Please let me know your thoughts, and if you have any further topics on this you would like to see discussed.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

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Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

–Napoleon Hill

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Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

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13 Comments »

1. Comment by Tina — December 31, 2009 @ 2:01 pm

   My sister and I wanted a new GEO when they first came out. She and I drove onto the lot of our local dealership, got out and looked at the selection they offered, and asked to test-drive the vehicle we would have purchased. But…

   The salesman wouldn’t even bring us a key.

   No, the two gentleman in charge of making sales told us “ladies” they couldn’t let us drive the cars unless we were definitely going to buy, on the spot — and since we were alone, we needed to run along home and get the hubby and the checkbook, and then come back.

   Big, big mistake. Oh well.

   That dealership closed its doors (went out of business) in about three months. I really don’t think it had anything to do with the two of us ‘little females’ telling others of our experience with them. Nope. Couldn’t possibly.

2. Comment by wes thomas — December 31, 2009 @ 2:52 pm

   I think a book is a great idea
   could double as “how to save your marriage by learning to listen” I need a copy
   Wes

3. Comment by Troy White — December 31, 2009 @ 3:49 pm

   It is amazing to me… in this day and age… that there are so many businesses who still think the guy is the one making the buying decisions! All one has to do is look around at the statistics and it is quickly obvious who you should be building a relationship with.

   But that would mean the sales people, marketers and business owners would actually have to do some research on why their sales “techniques” aren’t working as well these days. Too much to ask of most.

   As we head into the new year, now is the perfect time to rethink how you sell, and who you sell to. Create a new plan and test it out in January.

   I know it is in my plan.

   Happy New Year everyone! Troy

4. Comment by Leslie Ehrin — December 31, 2009 @ 4:31 pm

   Great point!
   I sell art to corporations and private collectors, and often times the decision makers are women, so this is very valuable to me. Even when men are writing the checks for the artwork, their wives or other women are involved in the decision,whether it be art for home or office!

   Leslie Ehrin

5. Comment by C, Dittemore — December 31, 2009 @ 4:54 pm

   Extremely powerful stuff Troy..

   Came right in time for my new product
   launch and I’m already realizing that
   I didn’t address more hidden benefits
   to my female buyers.

   C.

6. Comment by Loren Woirhaye — December 31, 2009 @ 5:49 pm

   In the years I’ve sold to and studied women’s buying behavior I’ve found that gender generalizations aren’t that helpful in predicting the decision-making behavior. The idea that female buying criteria is different from male criteria seems sensible on the surface, but I think such general guidelines fall apart under more detailed examination.

   Just like men, women have different criteria based on what they are trying to achieve in life. When buying clothes for herself, sure, a woman’s criteria is likely to be dis-similar from man’s - but when dealing with women business owners I’ve found that while many have been less oppositional than men in negotiations, women don’t make decisions based on “female” criteria.

   I’ve found people under pressure to make a decision - for example a decision to hire a freelancer to move their business forward - approach the process based more on personality makeup, past experiences, and the way they see themselves as confident or not-confident, or informed or non-informed decision-makers more than any sort of gender-biases.

   Some people are non-aggressive decision makers who take their time and look at the decision from many angles, careful weighing their options. They take their time getting informed, perhaps because they are not confident in their abilities to make a good decision. Others are aggressive, fast decision makers who quickly isolate their most important criteria. This is true for both men and women - it is linked to personality makeup, in my experience, more than gender.

   A useful model for the way people, regardless of gender, make decisions and behave in selling/buying situations is the 4-quadrant model. It is based on an ancient Greek teaching. You have the aggressive, the non-aggressive, the emotional and the non-emotional decision makers. People are aggressive/emotional, aggressive/non-emotional, non-aggressive/emotional, or non-aggressive/non-emotional in their behavior.

   By the old cliched model those dumb car salesmen were going by they assumed the women were non-aggressive/emotional decision makers who would waste their time (non-aggressive) and then might even be frivolous (emotional) shoppers who were shopping on emotion without the power to spend the money. Because women these days control so much of the money, something like 70%, even though they earn less than half in most households - the idea that they lack the power to spend it is absurd.

   Where male salespeople (and marketers) may be making errors is in only selling to their own personal criteria - selling in this way isn’t a gender-ignorant selling situation - it’s a personality-type ignorance situation.

   It may be true that more men tend to be aggressive/non-emotional decision makers, it’s not true that all women are not. Men, in many decisions, tend to be more ego-driven and emotional than women. I’ve found women to be pragmatic, open-minded decision makers in purchasing custom work or services. That doesn’t mean I want to go underwear shopping with my partner. Her style of shopping for clothes tires me - but on the other hand I could spend hours fooling around with guitars in a music store and she would be pretty bored with it because she doesn’t play - just as I do not wear lingerie.

   People - not male people or female people - people make decisions on individual criteria. As more women move into male roles (head of household, for instance) they are making decisions that once fell predominantly to men - and I think you’ll find that women can be as rational as men in making decisions and to generalize WOMEN as one big group of mysterious people is as big a mistake as not even acknowledging they have different criteria opposed to me.

   Of course in some market segments women are making practically ALL the decisions - lets say selecting the refrigerator, while in other areas - say choosing the new TV, men are making the decisions. Who makes these decisions is often a matter of who in the household is interested in making them.

   I could go on - but this is a lengthy reply to a complex subject. In short, I agree that women are making a lot of buying decisions, but I don’t agree with blanket generalizations about women’s decision making criteria.

7. Comment by Susan Connors — December 31, 2009 @ 5:54 pm

   Hi Troy

   A great insight into the female persona (one of my kind).

   There is a difference in men and women, how we buy, think, move, are motivated.

   You give good insight into how people can learn to open their minds. See things from another persons perspective.

   Often we are not taught how to think like the opposite sex.

   In my earlier years of sales, everything was directed in a male form of selling.

   This went against my grain - what I thought was right and I often ignored it - getting myself fired on occasion. At times I would stuff up as well so it went both ways.

   Referring to cars, I used to sell New Toyota’s back in 1993 - 1995 in two dealerships.

   I did the training, and started to out perform the other members of the team/s - being male. I was exposed to young and old ignorance. I was the top performer after a month and sold over 150,000 worth of vehicles. No small feet for a beginner back then.

   After my final delivery - a gorgeous GXL Landcruiser with everything possible on it - I was taken into the office and fired.

   I was flabbergasted! What? I was told I was incompetent and could not meet the quotas.

   I have met a huge amount of bias over the years and the worst one was in 1996. Yet another story for another time

   I love how marketers and copywriters are now going back to the way of selling I love. To people, for the people, not in your face at the people!

   Well done Troy!

   Plus I enjoyed reading the comments as well.

   Happy New Year as well everyone!

   Susan Connors
   Land Downunder
   Australia

8. Pingback by The four-trillion-dollar market you cannot ignore | Jan The Marketing Man — December 31, 2009 @ 6:09 pm

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9. Comment by Warren Cottis — December 31, 2009 @ 8:01 pm

   Well Troy… it’s nice to know that even God struggles with this one

10. Comment by Stephen Newdell — January 1, 2010 @ 4:53 pm

    Troy,

    This is wonderful. It’s wonderful in part because it proves what I’ve suspected all along. A lot of the world is CRAzYyyy! Especially men, old men who want the world to line up with their thinking and will go bankrupt or die trying to force the issue.

    Susan Connors outsold everyone on the car lot and pissed off those old dirt bag thieves who wanted her to FAIL MISERABLY. Instead, they failed, and a young good looking woman who had never turned a wrench on a car engine did it to them.

    Good on ya, Susan!

    One sales article I read noted that women expect you to spend more time with them. If you say, “I’ll only take 10-minutes of your time” to a woman, she may feel slighted. This is as if to say, “You’re not worth more time to me.” If you say the same to a man, he thinks, “that’s good, I’m busy and don’t want to spend more than 10-minutes.” In fact you could be offering him an early wealthy retirement and he’ll still say, “You have 8-minutes and then I’m going to call the attack dog. What d’ ya got?”

    Car salesmen are bad examples, because most of them are ill educated fools who are back on the car lot after they got out of jail for drunk driving, or some similar offense. They are not salesman, so much as snow job artists with a tail light guarantee. (When the tail lights disappear round the corner, that ends the guarantee.)

    The in-home salesman has an interesting challenge. The Western world man always comes across as “the boss.” The truth is, “the woman is the boss” and if she isn’t present, or refuses to be present, or feels ignored, or doesn’t like the salesperson (either gender) there will not be a sale.

    We can’t sit too close. We can’t look in her eyes too long. We must pay respectful attention, but we can’t push for a final decision too soon. We should be interesting, jocular, and charming, but not too charming. We should pray that the children won’t interrupt, but if they do treat them as God’s gift to humanity.

    There’s good reason for paying sales people well. They put up with a lot of difficulty from very difficult people, and spend all of their lives trying to understand how to identify, work with, and motivate differing and often cantankerous personality types.

    Ms. Connors, have you ever considered Life Insurance and Investment sales?

    Kind regards for 2010,
    SteveNewdell2009@yahoo.com

11. Comment by Susan Connors — January 2, 2010 @ 4:14 am

    Hi Troy - its me again

    Thank you Steve for your kind words. They are appreciated

    On a more positive note about car salespeople, they have evolved and some do give exceptional service.

    I brought three cars from the same dealership plus referred many people to them as well. I know of a total of 10 in three years - positive word of mouth is much better a bad word or several.

    Women can be hard to work with- let alone try to sell stuff too!

    We are like cats - just when you think the cat is happy and purring as you give it a pat, it will turn around, hiss and bite you.

    With the new way of Life Insurance and Investment Sales, that would be better than when I sold it 17 years ago.

    Geez now I am showing my age

    Best to all,

    Susan Connors
    Australia

12. Pingback by The Four-Trillion-Dollar Market You Can’t Ignore | Fresh, Fun, Internet Business Stuff — January 3, 2010 @ 11:52 am

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13. Comment by Stacy Karacostas — January 4, 2010 @ 3:16 pm

    Happy New year Troy!

    And thanks, as always, for the words of wisdom. As a small business marketing specialist and reformed copywriter, it’s been fascinating for me to watch this shift in the marketplace–especially with so many women starting small businesses.

    It really is true that most women hate the hard sell. We just feel pushed and manipulated. But I’ve found both in my own business and with my clients that if you come from an authentic place of trying to help others (and you have a truly useful, quality product or service), women–and a whole lot of men–are going to be happy to buy.

    Anyone still stuck trying to sell the old-fashioned way would be wise to read this article and take your advice to heart.

    All the best,
    Stacy

    Stacy Karacostas
    Practical Marketing Expert
    http://www.success-stream.com