Let’s Give Women More Than a Day or a Month in 2023
That’s one reason why Richardson has written a “how-to” book to help sales managers and company leaders with male majority sales teams attract, promote, and retain women to ultimately grow more revenue and profits.
“She Sells: Attract, Promote, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales” is based on more than eight years of experience helping companies large and small, in technology, SaaS, manufacturing, construction and building trades, and even wineries and cheese manufacturers add women to their sales team rosters and keep them.
“Women are underrepresented in B2B sales and sales leadership roles at every level,” says Richardson, a Phoenix resident and CEO of Score More Sales. “The higher you go in the organization, the less women you find. Yet women are amazing sales team members, often with higher close ratios then their male counterparts and with longer tenure in sales roles.”
Women were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and reportedly accounted for 54% of COVID-induced job losses yet they make up 39% of global employment.
Today only 25% of B2B sellers identify as women — an 8% drop in the past two years, according to Mary Shea, who led research covering the state of women in B2B sales published by Northern Illinois University’s Journal of Selling and is a former Principal Analyst at Forrester. The data is worse in management, Shea wrote, as only 16% of sales managers identify as women.
Yet numerous studies show that women in sales outperform their male colleagues—by a respectable amount.
Economy is Tougher Now, so Keep Building an Inclusive Sales Team
In the past six months, many companies have downsized or slowed their hiring down. Don’t stop working toward building a diverse sales team, though, says Richardson. Now more than ever, more diverse hires on your sales team – including women – will add to revenue growth and the right hires will stay longer, ramp up quicker, and shorten your sales cycle.
While you may think that women have made great strides in B2B selling in the past decade, Richardson opens the book with an anecdote about how she was stunned when walking into a training session a few years ago and saw just four women among 80 attendees.
Actionable Tips to Generate More Revenue
In “She Sells,” Richardson doesn’t belabor the lack of women but provides an action plan to change your team and build a higher-performing one. She shows you how to attract, hire, onboard, retain and promote women.
She outlines some mistakes you may have made when trying to hire women, explains why and how women need to be approached differently, and provides more than 70 tips to help you change your approach.
Although Richardson’s experience is in B2B SaaS, technology, telecom, distribution, and financial services, any company in any industry that wants to create a higher-performing sales team will benefit from her advice.
“She Sells” has received positive reviews from industry experts and readers, praising Richardson’s no-nonsense style and practical tips.
“She Sells: Attract, Promote, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales” is available in Kindle version or paperback from Amazon.
For more information about “She Sells: Attract, Promote, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales”, including bulk purchases for managers and leaders, reach out to Lori at lori (at) womensalespros (dot) com
PR Contact: Cindi Pree, Score More Sales. Email: cpree (at) scoremoresales (dot) com
About Lori Richardson
Lori Richardson is a long time B2B sales strategist and is founder and CEO of Score More Sales where she helps company leaders evaluate their existing sales teams using data based on core sales competencies. She spent 16 years as a sales professional in tech, SaaS, financial services, and distribution roles. In 2015 she launched Women Sales Pros to help more women get hired into sales roles in software and SaaS firms. Richardson is a keynote speaker on building inclusive sales teams, she is an event producer, and hosts an award-winning podcast, “Conversations with Women in Sales” Find her on social channels @scoremoresales and @womensalespros
