Challenges Women Face In Sales​​

Sales has a gender equity problem. Over the past 15 years, the number of women working in sales has risen, however, studies have shown that women are still paid less than men in the industry. Furthermore, the pay gap increases as women progress in their sales careers.

In a performance-based industry such as sales, where women-led teams “tend to have higher win and quota attainment rates,” the pay gap casts a bright light on an important question: why is this happening?

Women hold fewer sales leadership roles than men

Women continue to succeed in sales roles, but they still face many hurdles climbing the ladder to management. The U.S. Bureau of Labor reported that in 2021, only 30.9% of all types of sales managers were women, compared to 60.7% of marketing managers.

In addition, some sales niches are unbalanced: Lucidchart reported that 57% of sales managers in the apparel sector are women, but this falls to 30% in tech sales and 15% in communication sales.

Entry-level sales roles are nearly equal in gender representation, but as we can see, the story changes the higher women climb. It’s undeniable that there are external societal pressures at play. However, there are also significant internal issues holding women back.

Let’s explore why women may not be reaching great heights in all sales specialisms.

Industry biases are holding women back

Many times, company leaders are unaware of the gender misrepresentation across all sales roles. Gartner reported that 84% of CSOs are satisfied with the gender diversity of their teams, yet over half of sales professionals believe their organizations struggle to hire women in sales.

This lack of awareness is just one internal concern that may be preventing women from climbing the sales career ladder. Let’s reflect on some more challenges women face in their sales careers.

Personal biases affect professional decisions

Subconscious biases may be to blame for the sales leadership bottleneck. Lucidchart found that 67% of women in sales felt their colleagues underestimated their knowledge at some point. Gartner also reported that 39% of women feel they don’t receive the same advancement opportunities as men with the same qualifications and skills.

Women’s overtime pays less

Women work just as much overtime as their male colleagues but are less likely to see the benefits of their efforts. In fact, the more overtime women put in, the wider the pay gap gets. Lucidchart found that men who reported working overtime sometimes earned around $58,500 in salary, while women working overtime sometimes earned around $47,200 (19% less). Men who reported working overtime frequently earned around $76,300 in salary, while women reporting working the same amount of overtime earned around $60,300 (21% less).

Women are excellent leaders, but they’re less likely to be recognized for it

Compared with men at the same level, women leaders are doing more to support their team’s well-being. This was especially prevalent during the pandemic, with women checking in more often and helping team members to manage their workload. Women in leadership are also more likely to carry out diversity and inclusion research and self-education outside of job requirements.

According to McKinsey, despite this rise to critical challenges, “relatively few companies formally recognize employees who go above and beyond in these areas.”

Gender diversity must begin in the hiring process

Businesses can help women succeed in their sales careers from the moment they become a candidate, whether they’re an internal or external hire.

Before the resume culling even takes place, businesses can follow RingCentral’s lead by making the language in their job descriptions more inclusive. This encourages more women to apply for various roles, especially those that are typically male-heavy.

“Blind” hiring processes, which hide information related to the candidate’s gender (such as first names), can help increase women’s chances of getting an initial interview. However, society is not yet ready to fully automate the practice of sorting resumes. Amazon recently scrapped an AI recruitment tool when it discovered a learned bias against women. At this stage, hide gendered information but continue to sort candidates manually.

Blind hiring helps more women enter the candidate pool, a practice that encourages more diverse hiring. One study found that when two women were in the final round of four candidates, the chances of hiring one of them was 50%. Yet when there was just one woman in the final four candidates, the chances of hiring a woman dropped to 0%.

Once hired, mentorship initiatives can help women early in their sales careers. These strategic relationships between women early in their careers and those in leadership positions build the confidence and skills needed to progress to more advanced positions.

Diverse sales teams aren’t just good for women, they’re good for business

Women now make up half the college-educated labor force in the United States. With industries such as tech sales continuing to grow, more women will pursue these roles. Businesses must act to support women and balance the gender scales at the top.

Xactly’s study demonstrated that women-led sales teams performed better than men-led teams, despite all the challenges. If companies want to remain competitive in the marketplace, nurturing women to become powerful leaders and fostering an inclusive workplace culture is essential.

To recap, companies can mitigate the challenges women face in their sales careers by:

• Educating staff on potential unconscious biases so they’re aware of them and able to overcome them
• Removing bias from hiring practices, such as “blind” hiring and including women on the hiring committee
• Setting up mentorship schemes to help women build relationships and networks
• Making a company-wide pledge to promote more women from within to sales manager roles (funneling resources into initiatives and training if needed)

These changes aren’t just good for women, they’re good for the entire business. Women are dedicated and skilled sales leaders, and if companies want to level up, they must prioritize the women on their sales teams.