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Why More Women Should Consider Careers in Sales

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You may have read articles about gender equality in corporations. More companies are talking about it and emphasizing it. What they’re saying showcases why sales is the perfect career for women.

Women face more family challenges

You have the CEO of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan, comment that when it came to taking care of aging parents, his sisters took over, not his brothers. Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, said that when she rushed home from working a long day, she would fix comfort food for her daughter—she joked that her husband wouldn’t do that.

Yes, women often do face more family challenges, and a sales career gives them the flexibility to deal with those challenges.

I had a large sales territory when my daughter was young. Travel was a necessity. Working in sales allowed me to set my own schedule; it gave me a lot of flexibility.

My husband and I coordinated our travel schedules. In 15 years, there were only two nights where we were traveling at the same time. One night our daughter stayed at a friend’s house; another time, I asked a friend to sleep over at our house. I didn’t feel guilty and our daughter thought it was fun. She probably wanted us to travel at the same time more often.

Women can prove themselves

Unfortunately, there still exists the perception that women get ahead because they are female. This happens when companies announce they are making women’s advancement a priority. It also makes it harder, not easier, for women to be perceived as truly better employees.

The global managing director at McKinsey & Co. said that when he spoke of making women’s advancement a priority, he got unexpected pushback. The women first didn’t believe him. Then they told him that they didn’t want a promotion just because they are female; they didn’t want it easier for them because it will hurt them in the long term. Women don’t have that perception problem in sales.

In an all-boys club, numbers do the talking. That unbiased evaluation makes it better for women. You can’t dispute sales results when you are comparing two different sales professionals. It’s clear who has a larger territory by volume. You can quickly compare profitability, sales increases, and sales losses. Sales is the perfect place for a woman who wants to avoid subtle discrimination.

Sales success comes from good strategic thinking, hard work, and great communication skills. Often, it’s the hard work that sets the superior salespeople apart from the less successful ones. Women don’t have a problem with hard work. That’s all they’ve every known.

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.