Remember the movie What Women Want with Mel Gibson – how he through some movie magic was able to access women’s thoughts. It was an eye opening experience for the main character.

One of the biggest problems, when someone approaches another person, is that they think that the other person thinks like them. NO THEY DON’T. This is a big mistake! I think that was the biggest take away for the main character in What Women Want – he went from being a clueless jerk who used women for his own gain to being compassionate and caring about their thoughts and feelings.

Just like Mel Gibson’s character got into these women’s heads, I want to give you some insights and knowledge about how the opposite gender operates. When I learnt these, how women operate was obvious (since I am one) but how men operate – well some it was a great big surprise!

The main difference between men and women (that can impact sales) is that men are results driven and women are process driven. Women are really interested in HOW something is done while men are interested in results at any cost. This is probably an evolutionary thing since men were the hunters and needed to bring back food in the form of a dead animal and most of the gatherers were women – it was more about finding resources and fields with the best berries etc. So how does this information apply to sales? When approaching women tell them HOW this product/service is going to help them and with men tell them what RESULTS they can produce with this product – that is, will it help them be faster and stronger.

Here is another significant difference between men and women:

1. Women require precise fit on what is delivered
2. Men have a larger tolerance for what is acceptable as a result

Your immediate response may be I will only sell to men! Yes, at first glance it occurs as women are picky about what they pay for (and yes they can be!) but there is more to it. When you give a man what he asked and paid for he will thank you and maybe mention it to a few people and that will be the end of that. But, if you give a woman exactly what she expected and paid for, she will tell all her friends – she will talk about it 22 times!

Here is another thing I hear a lot of business people say: I want to exceed my customers expectations and deliver more.

My response to that is DON’T DO IT!

Most men will have a ho-hum reaction to it. While women (here is what you need to understand about women) even though they may accept some of the extras you did not tell them about upfront they will not want it overall if it feels like too much for them. There are two factors at play here, women have a fairness compass inside of them, so they like to pay for things fairly and if they think they are getting way more than they paid for they feel obligated to pay you. It creates an uncomfortable situation for them. The other factor that comes into play is what I like to call the Creep Factor. This especially applies if you are a male salesperson. What do I mean by the Creep Factor? If you start throwing in things AFTER the sale is made and money has been exchanged women get suspicious and creeped out. Unfortunately, in our male dominated, patriarchal world, women have been so suppressed that they have become suspicious of most people outside of their comfort zone. There are many reasons due to evolution, society and history but we will not get into that.

So inclusion, here are the simple guidelines to follow:

1. Be aware of how you share the product experience – RESULTS vs HOW
2. Meet expectations exactly specially for women
3. Have fun while doing it! 

Also, if you are looking for more in depth ways to make your sales process more effective please book a free session with us to find out how we can help you.