Cultivating Gender Diversity In The Workforce: Why Companies Should Hire More Women

By Kelly Stickel, CEO & Founder of Remodista

Anyone who has hiring responsibility for sales people knows what a challenging ongoing task that can be. Creating a competitive team that is inclusive and collaborative will attract the best sales people.

At any level, the sales role can be what makes or breaks a business, as it works to churn out new solutions and thinking. We rely on the strength of our sales team and their product knowledge to help sustain the growth of a healthy business. The quality of the sales team could improve, if leaders at the top spent more time creating an inclusive environment.

If 50% of the workforce does not feel welcome, than you are doing your organization a disservice. According to CEB, women only make up 19% of the sales workforce.

The companies that identify the value of the female workforce will win. The ones that cultivate an environment that is inclusive of the female sale leader (at the very top), will win bigger. Why is it important to make everyone feel welcome? When people feel welcome they preform better, more ideas come to the surface, leaving you with more options for solutions.

Uber is a recent example of a business that doesn’t make women feel welcome. You likely think of the CEO, but go to the board member who, at the thought of adding a woman to the board to gain more understanding, responded with a remark that it would mean a lot more conversation.

“Shares of companies with a market capitalization of more than 10 billion and women board members out-performed comparable businesses with all-male boards by 26 percent” according to a report by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, created in 2008 to analyze trends expected to affect global markets.

So, what does being inclusive mean again? It stands for making everyone feel welcome.

If Kelly and Joe work together and sell a 2.5 million dollar deal, and Kelly uses 30,000 words and Joe uses 500 words in that duration. We could agree that there are ways to embrace more words. A woman is not going to start using less words to fit in, and asking her to do so, is not very welcoming.

The right forward thinking company, could begin to educate a largely male sales team, as to the value of more words entering their business unit. This seems small, but your sales team is also looking to be successful and education leads to awareness, and that opens up the possibility of changing the culture.

Women ask more questions and use more words, but she also forms a bond with the client or prospect that comes from being a gender that focused on nurturing others. A very big strength in sales. Words can come in handy when it comes to building longer term relationships.

Having a diverse workforce can stabilize a company according to CEB’s research. Including women on your sales team, increases your talent pool and caliber. Women are the global asset to invest in today. For more statistics to help educate your leadership, here is link to a solid report done by CEB, which was acquired by Gartner. You can get in touch with me through Remodista.com or via Twitter about our 12-week whole-self selling – sales confidence training program.

Kelly Stickel is the founder and CEO of Remodista, a social think tank examining global retail disruption. Devoting a decade at Accenture and Acquity Group, Kelly spent a majority of her career focused on connecting people, cultivating women leaders, and building business development strategies in management consulting. Kelly is passionate about cultivating leaders and is currently focused on assisting women in key executive roles in business. 

To learn more about Kelly Stickel and her brand you can head to: www.remodista.com.