Business English : Selling Women on top in new sales industry survey
A new survey of the sales industry shows
who sales professionals believe make the
best salespeople and the qualities needed
in order to succeed.
1 A new survey of over 200 sales professionals has found that two-thirds of women and over half of men believe that women make the best salespeople, underlining the growing reputation of women in the sales industry.
2 The survey was carried out for Pareto Law, a recruitment a n d training company. It questioned sales professionals o n what they considered to be the most important qualities for a salesperson . It also asked who would be most likely to succeed.
3 Both men (53%) a n d women (66%) a g reed that women do make better salespeople, with Hillary Clinton voted as the top female celebrity most likely to succeed in a career in sales.
4 When asked why women make the best salespeople, men believe the main reason is that women are better a t actually closing a deal, while women stated they are better than men when it comes to dealing with people. Other female skills highlighted included being more organised and being able to handle more work, while male skills were identified as strong personalities and selling skills.
5 Jonathan Fitchew, Managing Director of Pareto Law, said: "Television programmes have increased people's interest in the sales industry, but have also highlighted the different approaches of men a n d women to the same sales issues."
6 When it comes to the individual qualities required to become a successful salesperson, men ranked honesty as most important (53%), while women placed most value o n personality (47%). Both ag reed that integrity was also key, coming third overall ( 4 1 % ) . Good looks came at the bottom of the list, with only 3 % of sales professionals ranking this as important.
7 This focus o n professionalism, rather than the hard sell, supports the fact that over half of the sales professionals questioned believe that the reputation of sales has improved over the last 1 0 years, with 55% of men and 47% of women considering this to b e the case.
8 Both men (87%) and women (86%) ag reed that the top incentive for salespeople was money, with the average sales executive expecting to earn between £25-35k, including bonuses and commission, in their first year of work. Other incentives included verbal praise, overseas holidays and cars.
Work in pairs.
Student A: Ask Student B these questions about their article.
1 What should you do if you are not inwardly confident?
2 What do you need to know well?
3 What do ' 30 seconds' and '15 seconds' refer to?
4 What should you do when you are rejected?
5 What should you focus on?
6 What do you need to know when negotiating?
7 What sales mindset should you have?
Student B: Ask Student A what these numbers refer to in their article.
a) two-thirds b) half c) 53 d) 66 e) 53 f) 47 g) third
h) 41 i) 3 j) 10 k) 5 5 l) 47 m) 87 n) 86 o) 25-35
