Women in leadership: Developing your sales team

When hiring new talent, individuals who want to excel in their career and develop their skills by taking on a new challenge are always the ideal candidates. Within the sales market the talent pool remains typically gender-unbalanced as there is generally a great number of male candidates. To those who consider sales a ‘traditional’ industry this is perhaps unsurprising, however in the current market businesses can’t afford to maintain antiquated and unchallenged preconceptions. 

Why is there still a lack of women in leadership roles in sales, and how can you find these professionals to fill your vacancies? 

Supporting your female talent

The gender imbalance within sales becomes much more pronounced at a senior level, so entrants into the industry immediately have a lack of aspirational female leadership. There is a real need for businesses to support junior female professionals throughout their early career and then support progression and ensure role development into senior roles.  

Through continuous training and development, other members of the business can nurture top female talent so that they can become leaders in the future. Supporting your top talent is key in retaining them, and ensuring that they see a future with your business. 

Using technology for development

Technology is at the forefront of the sales industry and continues to allow professionals to develop their skills and work more comfortably within their roles. Here are some of the ways that technology can help bring in and nurture diverse talent within your teams.

Talent mapping 

Using sites like LinkedIn to identify women with the tangible skills required to be a successful salesperson will help your attraction strategy. Advertising directly to them through targeted job advertisements will put your senior roles in front of the right candidates. 

Increased flexibility

Technology increases the amount of flexibility that your team can have in terms of smoother processes, dynamic working, and a better work-life balance. Being able to log in from home or on the move allows your teams to work more efficiently and increase productivity. This not only encourages a better work-life balance, but it also allows women to fit demanding roles around any caregiving responsibilities they have at home. If you do not offer this flexibility to your teams, you might find that they leave the business in search of an employer who can tailor their role to their personal requirements. 

Finding top sales talent

Finding the best people is crucial in the development of your teams. The success of a recruitment process can depend on a multitude of factors. If you are aiming to recruit a more diverse team, the wording of job adverts can significantly influence the diversity of the talent that you attract and subsequently recruit. Typical sales roles tend to be advertised using buzzwords such as ‘hungry’ or ‘aggressive’. This may deter some salespeople who don’t feel that they fit those criteria. Try changing your wording so that it attracts a broader pool of talent. Rewording your advertisements is also assisted by ensuring that you are using the correct pronouns to stop unconscious bias.

In a sales environment, it can be easy to slip into the traditional ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality that is centred on short-term wins. Long-term relationship building however, is significantly more successful when looking to increase revenue and generate repeat business. Sales businesses need to find the balance between team members whose talents lie in making a quick sale, and people who work with a longer-term mentality.  

The benefits of hiring female leaders

Not only should you aim to have a diverse workforce to increase productivity and support innovation, but hiring more women to balance out the gender split can provide a different viewpoint that can help your teams to become better at their jobs and target more specific audiences. A lack of diversity in businesses has been a major contributing factor in an abundance of poor decision making in the past. Anything that contributes to professionals making better decisions and having a happier team should be considered a positive contribution by business leaders and hiring managers. 

Discovering future leaders in your teams

It is good practice to recognise the future leaders within your teams early in their career. This way, you can develop a career plan that will encourage them to develop their skills and experience in a way that enables them to become a solid leader in the future. In terms of hiring and developing female talent, you should aim to create a working environment that women feel comfortable in, and that they can see themselves becoming a successful leader in. If it’s a viable option for their career to grow in an exciting, interesting, and lucrative way, then they’ll stay and continue to generate direct and indirect revenue for the business.

If you want to learn more about what questions to ask top sales candidates when you are assessing them, read our informative article here. Alternatively, if you are interested in hiring top professionals to your sales business, get in touch with one of our specialist recruitment consultants for a confidential discussion. 

If you are looking for new opportunities, create a MyPage account to make the best use of our matching technology, or explore our current sales vacancies here.

Sam Tuckey
Manager, Michael Page