Professionalism, for many women, is shorthand for SAFETY— physical, emotional, and financial safety. If women don’t feel safe with you, your establishment, or the deal they’re making, they will stop listening and start watching—everything and everyone. They will switch from looking for a good deal to looking for a good exit strategy. Your professionalism is a reflection of your personality, attitudes, and respect for yourself and others. So the first issue is your female customers’ level of comfort with you. This is all about your level of respect, trust, and commitment. How you look at her, where you look at her (always aim for the eyes), the tone of your voice, and the manner in which you conduct business are all clues her radar will pick up quickly to determine whether this will be a comfortable and professional situation in which to do business.
Each and every woman I’ve talked to had at least one story of a salesperson who made her so nervous or uncomfortable that she couldn’t get away fast enough.
I have had several encounters with unprofessional behavior, but one particularly comes to mind. Years ago, when my husband and I were buying a house after moving to a new city, I did most of the looking on my own while he worked. The first agent I dealt with was a woman who had me running away from her by the end of the morning. She certainly knew her territory and had an uncanny gift of figuring out exactly what we were looking for, but she wasn’t professional at all and made me very uncomfortable. She constantly talked about her other clients and the money they had (or didn’t have) to spend. Then at every house we viewed, she would tell me very personal things about the neighbors. Even though she knew her product and had an excellent grasp of what we needed, I felt she shared too much confidential information. (Ever meet anyone like THAT?) I knew if we bought from her, it was just a matter of time before her gossip would include us and our personal information.
Being professional also means you’re qualified, knowledgeable, and experienced—you’re representing your product, service, and company competently, and she doesn’t need to check you out from every angle to make sure you won’t try to cheat her or take advantage of her. You know where the lines are, and you stay within them. Boundaries are important to a woman, and you need to recognize and respect hers. You must respect her time, her space, her privacy, her personal information, and her intelligence.
This professionalism is pretty critical stuff because if she isn’t comfortable with you, the environment, or the deal, she’s going to take her business elsewhere, and you will probably never know why.
#3: SHE WANTS THE EXPERIENCE TO BE PRODUCTIVE
Men are busy, but women are really, really busy! Women have an always-on generator for worry and guilt, and those two emotions generate a mental to-do list that never ends.
Women are like a computer with a hundred tasks minimized at the bottom of the screen, each ready to be “pulled up” and dealt with at any given moment. When my husband walks from the bedroom to the kitchen to get a drink of water, it’s a simple task. He goes, gets what he needs, and returns. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? When I go on the same errand, I return thirty minutes later after doing eight other things on my way to the kitchen. My mind sees into nooks and crannies, closets and cabinets, inside and out. And I usually come back without what I went after, because the task took on a life of its own.
Men often say (and they have a point) that we women create our own “busyness” and we should just stop worrying.
A woman’s answer is always,
“If I stop worrying, nothing will get done around here.”
(Sound familiar?)
This worry and guilt springs from a belief that many women hold: it is my responsibility to make sure everyone else is happy, healthy, and successful. At the least, she might make it happen by working just a little harder.
Men tend to live in the PRESENT: what is going on now? How do I feel now? What can we do about it now? Women live mostly in the past and the future. The past is GUILT: what we shoulda, woulda, coulda done differently. The future is WORRY: what might happen, could happen, probably will happen.
Most men are far better at compartmentalizing and tuning in or out, depending on what they view as necessary or important—what requires their immediate attention. Women view the world more holistically. It’s more than just multitasking. It’s multi-seeing, multi-hearing, multi-doing, and multi-fixing all at once. Almost everything we see and hear reminds us of ten other things, which remind us of ten other things each. So the word busy doesn’t begin to describe life through a woman’s eyes, whether the busyness is self-imposed or not.
What does all of this have to do with sales? Everything! Because she has so many things she needs to do, or thinks she wants to do, your female customer doesn’t have time to waste (unless she is window-shopping, which is an entirely different experience in itself—but she won’t involve you in that).
Many salespeople make the mistake of focusing more on productivity with their male shoppers than with their female shoppers. The truth is, women don’t want to waste their time any more than men.
It is true that when men are looking to buy, they go in, find what they want at the price they want to pay, and get on with their lives. Therefore, salespeople know right from the beginning that men have little patience with saying about making the buying process and would rather be somewhere else— anywhere else. As a result, the astute salesperson gets right to the point with the guys and moves quickly to the bottom line, unless there is an indication that the man prefers to take a bit more time.
Women, on the other hand, usually take far longer to make a purchase. They ask more questions and spend more time weighing their options than men. Salespeople often misinterpret this to mean that a woman is “just shopping around,” has all the time in the world, or is simply indecisive. As a result, the salesperson will often tune out the woman who appears to be just looking, and perhaps even wander off and move on to someone else.
Be very careful making any of those assumptions, because you could be way off base. She probably is taking longer because she sees the purchase as part of a bigger picture, and she wants to make sure it is going to fit in with whatever else is going on in her life. The sound system she’s buying needs to offer great performance, portability for her daughter’s college move next year, and adaptability for new technology two years from now, and it has to match the living room decor. Thinking through all those things at once just takes a little time!
Even though a female customer may take longer to close or commit, she still doesn’t want to waste any of the time she has allotted for the purchase—she has just allotted more time to begin with than a man would. But that doesn’t mean she wants to be ignored, get passed from salesperson to salesperson, or repeat herself to a salesperson who wasn’t paying attention the first time.
Never underestimate how precious a commodity time is for a woman. KNOW THIS: anything you can do to help her find the right solution to fit her needs will be appreciated. Anything you do to derail the process will be noted and chalked up against you.
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