11 Sales Tips Every Woman Should Know
Women represent just 39% of the Sales workforce.
Although this number has been on the rise in recent years, the figures for Sales leadership are even more alarming: only 21% of Sales VPs are women.
Here at PowerToFly, we spend a lot of time talking about the importance of representation for women in male-dominated industries like tech. But Sales is one male-dominated industry that often flies off our radar.
Today, we want to remedy that by sharing female perspectives on how to succeed in this male-dominated field.
We asked 11 women in sales at our partner companies to share their top sales tips for women looking to excel in the industry.
Tips from Alison, Head of Self Serve at Asana
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Avoid complacency in favor of relentless self improvement. Embrace and engage with all of the enablement and sales training you can get. The best sales people I've worked with are constantly honing their craft: sending that extra follow up email, asking for feedback, shadowing calls, mapping their accounts, and generally finding ways to improve every week."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Sales is an industry that constantly innovates. Modern sales teams are more data driven, more integrated with Customer Success, Marketing, and Product, and more customer-centric than ever before. In this environment, salespeople are general managers of their book of business. So, my tip would be to own your accounts and bring all of your partner teams in on a cohesive strategy – no one wins deals alone anymore!"
Can you share an anecdote surrounding your process?
"In my day to day work I don't actually get to hear or do that much selling – I'm in cross-functional meetings or working on growth initiatives. However, one of the most memorable moments at Asana was last year when we did a big end-of-quarter push. Everyone was on the phones across every team – including me and all of the leadership team. The energy was intoxicating on the floor. We hit our goal at 5pm and celebrated with tacos, but a few customers were still returning calls and everyone kept answering them. The collective hustle made the victory so sweet."
Join Asana's team! Apply here.
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Tips from Summer, Director of World Wide Customer Success at Cloudbees
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Absolutely avoid trying to be someone you aren't. Throughout my career I've been given a lot of advice and while most of it was great some of it would have required me to be disingenuous to my personality or my beliefs. Never take that advice. Instead, always be authentic to yourself in your work.
One of the examples that comes top of mind is being told on multiple occasions to speak more in meetings. While I 100% agree that establishing a place at the table is important, I am also not a person that feels the need to dominate conversations. Instead I tend to listen and then add thoughts as they naturally fit into the dialog. In the long run I've found this works for me because when I do speak people tend to listen. I can't say that for people that have a reputation for always talking."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Most importantly, define what success means to You! The world is great about telling us what success looks like from how we should look, to how we should feel, to what title or role we need in our careers. But ultimately define success for yourself then make a plan to work towards it."
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Tips from Buffi, AVP, World Wide Software Delivery and Enablement at Cloudbees.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Avoid spending time on things you don't have the power to change. If you want to search for inequality and negativity, you will find it. But if you search for equality and support you will find those too. The easiest way to effect change is through yourself, hard work trumps all. Don't hide or ignore your unique strengths. For me, it's my instincts, free thinking and compassion that give me an edge."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Don't stay in your box. Don't be the victim of your own glass ceiling. As women, we often have these societal and familial voices telling us how to dress, what we're good at, and how high we can climb. If you don't strive to attain what you feel might be unattainable, you will never really know the limits of your potential. I believe we fall victim to our own limitations every day. Break your Glass Ceiling. Shatter it, climb up and don't look down. But remember, it's invisible, so you might not even know where you put it!"
Do you have an anecdote you'd like to share?
"I was working as a Fortran programmer, just 3 years post-grad, interviewing for a new job in windows programming. I edited my resume and replaced my first name with my initials. Physics, math and computer science degrees, for sure, everyone would assume I was a male. I did not get a ton of hits until I enlisted a consulting firm, who re-wrote my resume and added my name back in. The job interviews poured in. On my first day in my new cool programming job with one of the big banks, I found out the only reason they interviewed me was to see what a "Buffi" looked like. And here is where you can choose to find the good or choose to find the bad. I realized that as a woman I have advantages that men don't have and there is nothing wrong with using them. I also realized that hard work and intelligence trumps all, because although I secured the interview with my name, I secured the job with my brain. Ok, maybe it was the red dress I wore, but a red dress and weird name only gets you in the door. My insane work ethic kept me there."
Join CloudBee's team! Apply here.
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Tips from Christine, Commercial Sales Manager at Smartsheet.
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"To achieve success, you need to show up every day as your authentic self, and be consistent; consistent with your customers, your coworkers, your process. If you are looking to continue making moves within your career, raise your hand for responsibilities that fall outside of your current job requirements. Though this may feel outside of your comfort zone, by agreeing to do something new, you are stretching and growing your skill set, which can only lead to progress."
Join Smartsheet's team! Apply here.
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Tips from Dorian-Michelle Smith, Regional GM at PAX.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Avoid not speaking your truth. If you feel there is a decision being made that goes against your beliefs don't be scared to speak up. You know your market, you know what is working. Be fact driven but drive your opinion home."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Take risks, but learn from others. Who are the people in your life you want to emulate? Can you reach out and learn more? You don't need to be an expert in everything but you should know who is the expert in things you don't know! Sales is a double edge sword you need to make every connection that you can possibly get but you also need to learn how to say no."
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Tips from Kristen Winterbotham, Director Commercial Enablement at PAX.
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Everyone is winging it. I used to look at my parents... at my leadership team... at my clients... with such awe and amazement that they always had the answers, the secrets to success. I would let my insecurities hold me back from asking the (seemingly) obvious questions, suggesting the (seemingly) simplest solution. And then one day I realized - we are all trying to find our way, we are all just winging it. So, my big tip is obvious, don't be timid and speak up."
Join PAX's team! Apply here.
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Solstice
Tips from Leanne, Client Principal at Solstice.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Talking about the lack of women in sales only fuels a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to less women pursuing sales careers and so my advice to female sales leaders is simple: 1. Avoid highlighting the differences. More importantly, stop reserving soft language for women ("nurturers") and bold language for men ("hunters"). 2. Continue leading in the profession. Be a role model for other women (and men) by demonstrating sales as a viable career path and promoting better gender balance on your team. Treat it like the expectation and not the exception."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Make friends with your self-limiting beliefs. Awareness is the first step and in replacing any negative self-talk. Instead, spend that energy on your pipeline, better understanding your product and how to spend your bonus."
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Tips from Lee, Business Development Senior Manager at Solstice.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Avoid trying to be something you are not. Focus on being your authentic self. Guard your integrity as a sacred thing. You can only be a successful sales leader if people trust you and believe you."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"The rules for achieving success as a salesperson are no different for a man than they are for a woman. Gender does not matter. What matters is setting goals for yourself that are outside of your quota and making sure one of them is becoming an expert in your craft. Commit yourself to lifelong learning. Your mind is your most precious asset, and the quality of your thinking determines the quality of your sales career. The more knowledge you acquire that can be applied to practical purposes, the greater will be your rewards. You own the success of you."
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Tips from Andrea, Client Principal at Solstice.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"Avoid waiting to speak up, especially with questions. Women tend to be more empathetic and can read between the lines of what a client/prospect is saying, so speak up and ask open-ended and clarifying questions to build your understanding of their needs."
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Play to your strengths, and don't try to fit into a mold. You may often look different than the salesperson your clients/prospects are expecting, but that can be an advantage. Figure out your own personal way of connecting with prospects and clients."
Join Solstice's team! Apply here.
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Tips from Laura, Cofounder and Chief Revenue Officer at Alloy.
What should a woman sales leader try to avoid in her work?
"She should avoid minimizing herself. There's a temptation to shrink and allow men to lead, because that's how things have been forever. And it's often easier to do -- as a woman, being deferential and passive is expected. But don't let things stay that way: take up space, be loud, say yes to things, and most important, take risks. Make yourself uncomfortable at times."
Join Alloy's team! Apply here.
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Tips from Andrea, Channel Sales Director at Netskope
What's a big tip you want to share with other women in sales to achieve success?
"Be honest, confident, and always bring forth a solution to a problem. Trust your heart, trust your gut and stop giving power to the opinions of other people. If you have a "team", then work together as a team and not as an individual. The team will be better together."
Join Netskope's team! Apply here.
The 4-Day Work Week and Other Employee Retention Strategies You Haven’t Tried Yet
In the “Great Resignation,” an estimated 47 million employees (and counting) voluntarily quit their jobs. The job market still hasn’t recovered from the unprecedented “quit rate” of 3.3% at the Great Resignation’s peak. Now, about 50% of the workforce are “quiet quitters” according to a Gallup poll — meaning, half of workers are disengaged at work and do only the minimum required of their job.
Having engaged talent is a competitive advantage for companies in today’s work environment. Replacing an employee who’s handed in their two-weeks notice can, after all, cost your company 21% of the employee’s annual salary. Employee retention strategies — ones that go beyond a box of donuts in the breakroom — are key to keeping workers engaged in the workplace. But given that overly played-out retention tactics can be ineffective at best and make your company look insincere at worst, it’s important to prioritize the right strategies. To that end, let’s go over some new and improved employee retention strategies that you may not have tried yet.
In this article, you'll find:
- Why employee retention strategies fail
- The best employee retention strategies
- Your employee retention strategy is your DEI initiative
Why employee retention strategies fail
There are plenty of employee retention strategy examples out there, but efforts can fall short. For your employee retention strategies project to be successful, you need to avoid these four common pitfalls.
1. Not delivering on promises. If you say you’re going to do something, follow up on it. Consistency is key to building employee retention strategies. Don’t ask employees to be honest about how they're feeling at work and then ignore their input. Or worse, promise big reform and fall short with token changes.
2. No trust. Studies indicate that “quiet quitting” is largely due to the relationship between employee and boss. Managers need the time, skills, and training to build solid relationships with staff. There are resource forums for people leaders to share ideas. Using tried-and-true best practices is the best strategy to build trust.
3. Siloed initiatives. Employee retention strategies can’t just live in HR. The moment they become siloed within one department or position, they fail. Employee retention strategies need to be a priority in every department and at every level.
4. No resources. Employee retention strategies need resources. To put it plainly, unfunded initiatives don’t work. Employees should be compensated for extra work such as sitting on an employee retention committee or putting together a workplace social. Likewise, pay raises and compensation should be a central part of the conversation. Remember, one of the main issues for quiet quitters is doing extra work for no extra pay.
The best employee retention strategies for 2022
With the don’ts out of the way, let’s move on to the best employee retention strategies you can start implementing today.
Listen to your employees
Well-run companies spend time and effort collecting feedback and customer satisfaction information. But what about employees? Managers need to ask, “how’s my driving?” Having data is critical to understanding how your employees are affected and making the necessary changes in order for employee retention strategies to take off. Send out an anonymous workplace survey asking about stress levels, feelings of creativity, people’s sense of inclusion, and how connected they are with their managers. If you’re not sure what to measure, start with a couple in-depth interviews. See what people want to talk about. The responses in the interviews will give you the basis for your wider survey.
Be transparent
If you ask your employees to be honest in giving feedback, management needs to be honest and transparent too. Acknowledge publicly the challenges the company faces based on what your employees have told you. This is the first step in accountability. Be transparent about compensation, pay raises, and benefits. Did you realize it is perfectly legal for employees to openly discuss compensation? This traditional taboo is becoming a common water cooler conversation. Social media is informing workers how to advocate for themselves. Meet them where they are. Actions speak louder than words.
Recognize and reward people, not just numbers
Over 1 in 5 employees does not feel valued at work. Feeling valued means knowing that your work is worthwhile and desirable. Watching the same sales people get rewarded for hitting their numbers again and again can be demoralizing for those who go comparatively unrecognized. Know your team and what they’re working on. Openly celebrate different kinds of triumphs, big and small, and be specific when you do. Helping people feel seen takes more than a generic “good job.”
Be flexible about work
Rethink how, where, and how long we do work. Research shows that 52% of workers prefer a hybrid remote-office work model. Employees even prefer it over a 10% pay raise. Employers must respond to this need as part of honing effective employee retention strategies.
And, as far as flexibility goes, time ownership is a massive benefit to offer employees — including by enabling them to work fewer days. Iceland is a leader in experimenting with the 4-day work week. Icelandic companies found it reduced burnout while improving work-life balance. Consider flexible arrangements that have proven results like these. Imagine how teams can be ambassadors for the company when they enjoy a new normal.
Facillitate growth
Employees that can’t see a clear career path within their company will look elsewhere to grow. The longer an employee stagnates in a position, the more their likelihood of leaving increases. Managers need to regularly work with each employee to envision their growth. Movement can be within their same position or laterally, as well. Give employees a discretionary budget for ongoing education and skills enhancement. Encourage projects and rotations with different departments to learn new skills.
Dust off that DEIB initiative
The best employee retention strategies are ones that are formed through a DEIB lens. DEIB strategies can be innovative for employee retention, as they (should) focus on all the things that make everyone supported, safe, and valued in the workplace. DEIB is, after all, not about making special accommodations for marginalized people; it’s about making the workplace better for everyone.
Your best employee retention strategy is a strategic DEIB initiative
DEIB initiatives make apt springboards for a number of successful employee retention strategies by listening to talent, creating custom work environments, and making employees across identities feel valued. Focus your efforts on DEIB, and employee retention will be one of many positive outcomes. PowerToFly has expert DEIB consultants that can help you jump start your DEIB-informed employee retention plan.Tips Every Customer Success Manager In The SaaS Industry Should Know
💎 Want to thrive as a customer success manager? Watch the video to the end to get some advice on how to do it.
📼Every customer success team has to follow some steps to achieve efficiency. Play this video to get three top tips that every manager in the SaaS industry should keep in mind. You'll hear from Miki Lager, Director of Customer Success at Tackle, who shares her own experience and knowledge.
📼 Customer familiarity for success. Tip #1: Know your customer. Understand their business. There are three steps in knowing how to navigate that. First, don't make it so operational. Build a true relationship with the client. Understand who are their competitors, what are the challenges they're facing, what's their true mission at heart, and how are they hoping to achieve that. Next, truly understand who the core team is that you should be working with. And finally, make sure to understand their key strategic and revenue goals.
📼Achieve customer success by delegating. Tip #2: Co-manage your customer. Not one person owns the client relationship at your company. Lead with others. Make sure to bring other stakeholders in, so that you can make sure the customer is on their path to success and that they can scale with your business solution. Team up with sales. Build a really strong relationship with your support team. Partner with the product team. The customer needs to understand where your business is headed in the future quarters so that they can plan accordingly, but also for your product team to then understand where the customer's product roadmap is headed, so you can align on strategy and best practices for that customer.
Customer Roadmap To Success - Tip #3: Define A Customer Journey
Have a defined customer journey. If the customer doesn't know where they're heading, it's going to cause some problems. Give them a clear roadmap to success. You can always adjust milestones as needed, based on different goals and different initiatives that you're working on with them. Once you have the customer journey defined, you can figure out which milestones align with the growth strategy the customer has in mind.
📨 Are you interested in joining Tackle? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Miki Lager
She’s passionate about building client success teams for rapidly growing SaaS organizations. She’s been a leader at small to medium-sized companies, supporting the life cycle of startups through acquisition, and integration. If you are interested in a career at Tackle, you can connect with Miki on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Tackle
Tackle enables software companies to accelerate and operationalize the use of Cloud Marketplaces like AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Red Hat, without the need for significant engineering resources. Their platform and team come together to make it easier for customers to build, grow, and scale their Marketplace businesses. Tackle was born and built as a remote organization and welcomes others who believe remote companies are the way companies will be built into the future. They believe that everyone has an opportunity to learn and grow in their community.
Nestlé Supply Chain Virtual Recruiting Info Session
Nestlé would like to invite you to their Supply Chain virtual recruiting info session on September 29th from 4-5PM EST. Sign up for this event with leaders from our Supply Chain team to get an insider’s view on what it’s like to work at one of Gartner’s top-ranked supply chains for 2022 and the world’s largest food and beverage organization!
Register here!
NGA's Nazanin Brown on Being a Full-Time Working Mom
To say that Nazanin (Nazy) Brown and her family lead active lives is a bit of an understatement.
“We've got four young children and all of them are in multiple sports throughout the school year, as well as the summer,” she explains. “My husband and I are both coaches, so a lot of our time goes from work to home, out to the field to coach or watch games, and then back home for showers, dinner, and bed.”
With an always-on-the-go home life, it was important to Nazy to have a career that is stimulating but also allows her to be present in the lives of her children.
We sat down with Nazy to learn how she has mastered work-life balance as a Contracting Officer within the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency while she keeps her busy household running smoothly.
From Crime TV Fan to Special Agent
At a young age, Nazy loved crime TV shows, which influenced her choice to study forensic psychology. She went on to earn a master’s degree in the subject, where she got some exposure to federal government agencies.
“During my master's degree, we had a lot of recruiters come to our program,” she recounts. “One of the recruiters from an intelligence agency told us that they often hired people from our program as special agents.”
Nazy is also fluent in Farsi, and in addition to her choice of master's program, this made her an ideal candidate for many agencies.
“I began interviewing for special agent roles based on my Farsi skills,” she reveals. “I got a few job offers, and I landed a job as an entry-level contract specialist in the private sector.”
Working for a government contractor, Nazy quickly advanced in her career and eventually became a Senior Contracting Negotiator for Lockheed Martin — and she was loving it.
“I just really liked it and thought it was a great field to be in,” she says.
And while her career advanced, so did her personal life. She became a young mother with increasing responsibilities at home, which led her to be more mindful of where she was dedicating her time.
“At that point, I was putting in so many hours — it's not a 40-hour work week,” she admits. “It wasn't uncommon for me to sometimes work weekends, especially during proposal season.”
As Nazy continued to pile on the overtime, she saw that she wasn’t able to be the mom she wanted to be.
“I wanted to be able to cut work off when I'm at home,” she recalls. “I didn't want to be that mom that comes home and is on her laptop. This was when I realized that having a job that is strictly limited to just 40 hours a week would be best for our family.”
A Parent-Compatible Workplace
Through friends, Nazy learned more about working in the public service and realized that not only would she not have to work overtime, but it would also allow her to work close to her children.
“Many agencies have onsite daycares,” she notes. “I knew that would help so much with commuting and my stress level, as well as the cost. That was my number one reason to jump into the federal government.”
So, Nazy applied for a role that looked interesting and soon found herself working as a Contract Specialist in the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The onsite daycare took in her oldest, who was then a toddler, and promised a spot to her second child, who was on the way.
“Having my children onsite with me instead of having to drop them off in another part of the city before work every day pretty much changed my entire life,” she reflects.
With her childcare issues solved and a manageable number of working hours, Nazy was able to focus more on her career development and explore her options. It was her husband, who works in the Intelligence Community (IC), who convinced her to consider switching to intelligence.
“My husband told me that the IC is just a different animal, and he was right. The contracting is different. The mission is amazing. So I decided to look into the IC,” she says.
Applying for roles in the IC required her to rework her entire application package, but her preparation paid off when she landed a role as a Contracting Officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
“Since I've come to the IC, I've been able to broaden my skills,'' remarks Nazy. “It's an entirely different contract writing system, and the IC’s mission and impact are far greater in size and scope, which has really expanded my knowledge. I've learned so much in the three years that I've been here,” she says.
The Secrets to Work-Life Balance for Working Parents
Over the past two and a half years, working from home became the norm for some parents. For Nazy, this was not an option because of the sensitive nature of the data she handles at NGA — and she actually prefers it this way.
“I like the fact that I can get my work done without interruptions from my kids. And when I go home, I take my lanyard off, hang it up, and I go right into mom mode,” she says.
For other parents looking to have this same work-life balance, Nazy offers the following tips:
- Look for jobs with short commutes. Commuting to work for an hour each way might not seem like a lot in the beginning, but over time it can take a toll”, Nazy warns. “Try to get everything set up in your local area as close as you can. In an online job search, set the parameters to five or ten miles from home, max.”
- Find an organization that offers practical support to working parents. “I don't think a lot of people realize that many government agencies offer onsite childcare,” she shares. “I've had four young children who all went through them and I have nothing but good things to say about them. So consider an employer that offers this, instead of the commercial child care centers, which are double the price.”
- Have food prep on point. Between work and her children’s sports activities, Nazy can’t cook something from scratch every night of the week. “I start the week on prepped meals. By Thursday, we're finishing everything that’s in the fridge, and then on Friday we order something or go out to eat,”
- Take advantage of employer wellness offerings. “You need to take care of yourself as a mom, '' she advises. “NGA gives us three hours a week for physical fitness training, pilates, or yoga classes, which are all provided at work. Taking advantage of that during the work day is so much easier than trying to work out at home.”
