RAM | Reseller Advocate Magazine: Issue 36

By Yvonne Divita

America is obsessed with women. Not the models strutting outrageous fashions on a New York runway, not the bad girls of primetime television (ala Sarah Jessica Parker from cable TV’s“Sex in the City”), not even the women in politics such as Hilary Clinton or Elizabeth Dole, two women who often attract their share of media attention from the fallout of their husbands’ political careers.

No, America’s obsession with women centers on women as a demographic. It’s not only because women in the U.S. outnumber men, albeit by a small percentage, and it’s not only because women today are more demanding in their quest for recognition. It’s because women influence over 80% of the goods and services bought and sold here, according to the Women’s Small Business Expo (www.womenssmallbusinessexpo.com), which also notes on its Web site that, “women are opening new businesses at twice the growth rate of men.” For women working as “employees,” The National Association of Female Executives reported in its first quarter 2004 issue that, “Contrary to recent news stories implying that women are running from the top jobs, 55 percent of women executives aspire to the CEO’s office.”

It’s a fact of life today: women are changing the landscape of the business marketplace. Professionals in sales and marketing that underestimate the power of the women’s market are sure to feel it in their bottom line this year. Professionals who embrace the power of the women’s market stand to benefit not only in greater attention (think referrals) but also in sales. For resellers, the first step is in understanding that the women’s market goes far beyond women with executive titles. Meeting and greeting a female CFO or CEO, or even a woman IT Director, has its own tips and tricks, but if you can step outside of that office space and look at the bigger picture—at the entire company organization—and how the women there impact the company’s bottom line, you will be ten steps ahead of your competition.

As a first lesson, remember that every woman is high maintenance, much the same way every server is high maintenance.

This should not be a difficult concept to comprehend. We all know servers are merely tools, from the simple file server to the action-packed Web server to the all-in-one combination server designed to support the SMB market as a right out of the box solution. Servers are considered mega-computers, full of mysterious software and operating systems. Many a small business owner breaks into cold sweat at the thought of having to research and buy one. Their concern is value and maintenance. Show them value and promise them maintenance, and they’ll be happy.

Selling in a woman’s marketplace is not all that different than selling in a man’s marketplace. It’s all in the approach. Her questions are similar to his. How you answer her will influence your chances of success more so than how you might answer a man in the same situation. For instance:

How familiar is this? “How is this purchase going to impact the way my company conducts business on a day-to-day basis?” To a man, that question is straightforward. Either you’re going to improve performance and provide scalable support or you’re not. To a woman, day-to-day business means companywide impact, impact on customers, and how is your solution going to get her home in time for dinner?

How about this question? “Who do I need to have on staff that will understand how your server works?” A man is expecting an existing technician to be able to learn the ins and outs of how your server works in less than a week. A woman knows she is going to have to be the leader in learning how the machine works or she will lose credibility.

“What’s an administrator?” is a simple enough question. When you’re answering this for a man, whether he’s in a senior level management position, or in a micro-business—the owner and IT Director all in one—he may be hoping an administrator is merely the person who keeps track of the passwords, because you handle the actual servicing. Women are busy thinking about who they are going to assign this role, how many people need access, and whether she can call you with questions after 5:00 p.m.

“Can I put this purchase off a little longer?” To men this is a budget issue. To women, it’s a trust issue. Trust is not built in a day.

“What about upgrades, how much will you soak me for those?” To men this is a budget issue. To women it’s a trust issue. Yes, I know that’s what I just said. I’m saying it again.

These are questions you’re used to, no doubt. But, when you listen between the words, you begin to understand the questions beneath the questions. All small business owners want easy installation and automated management. They want high availability and scalability. The solution has to guarantee business will remain up and running both for customers and employees. Before they give approval, all small business owners are stopping to think about the overall company roster, one with a passel of women in various levels of work who will probably be as affected by the installation of new servers as the IT department, the sales department, the marketing department, and the office of the CEO, who may or may not be a woman.

Certainly women still own the front office area. More women than men are receptionists and office managers. Couple that with women entering technology in ever increasing numbers, working side by side with men who may or may not resent their presence, and women entering some traditional male domains, and you have a recipe for stone soup if you don’t know your way around the women’s market.

Women don’t want to make your work harder. They’re merely asking you to switch your brain to building a relationship over a period of time instead of in one short visit. Men will gravitate to the bells and whistles, which you can present in a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation if you choose to. Women don’t want to see that PowerPoint presentation until you’ve shown them you understand their business, their employees (including the office manager or receptionist), and their customers. If you can demonstrate an understanding of the women’s market as a whole, you’ll be invited in for coffee and the beginning of a long relationship.

For businesses with men in senior executive positions, the good old boy’s network is alive and well. It doesn’t have the bite it used to, but it’s still there. Today’s you’ll find that the good old boy network includes at least one good old boy who is cognizant of the influence and power women wield in the marketplace no matter what that marketplace is. For instance, according to The Center for Women’s Business Research (www.womensbusinessresearch.org/pressreleases/nationalstatetrends/total.htm), 2004 shows a 30% growth of women-owned businesses in construction. In transportation, communications, and public utilities, the growth is 28.1%. In agricultural services, it’s 24.3%.

Women purchase 50% of the new cars in the U.S. Half of all business travelers are women, and women own more than 46% of the homes in this country.

Those die-hard men in the good old boy’s club are waking up to the fact that women not only purchase their products or services, but their company organizational chart probably has one, two, or three senior level women on it today. Within the entire company infrastructure, there are probably as many, if not more, women than men. No doubt, when you’re pitching your latest product upgrade, the senior manager you’re pitching is making a mental note to check with his VP of Operations (possibly a woman) or her VP of Marketing (possibly a woman) or the company’s sales manager (very possibly a woman).

Recognizing the growing authority of women in business isn’t only happening in the U.S. An article at the BBC News online (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3680146.stm) said, “Women’s spending power is growing faster than men’s, making the female of the species the number one target for technology companies which want to sell more gadgets. It’s the growing buying power and desires of women that are changing how gadgets are being designed as well as marketed.”

High maintenance is the least of it. To reach women, whether courting small business owners, CEOs of long-established companies, or sweet-talking the receptionist to get a meeting with her boss, you need to recognize the value the woman provides to her company, and, in the end, to you.

Speaking from a woman’s perspective, having discussed these issues with hundreds of women, one of the most important ways you can connect with your women customers and clients is to look them in the eyes. Don’t glance everywhere but at their faces, no matter how uncomfortable that particular woman makes you. (Yes, some women can be intimidating, but the women would tell you they’ve been dealing with the intimidation issue far longer than you. Get over it.) Maintain eye contact. Don’t be aggressive or overbearing, and, please, don’t be condescending.

Being treated as a dumb blonde, no matter what her hair color, is the #1 reason women have taken to the Internet to do their shopping. Most women business owners want to be engaged in conversation about a product as important as a server, but in today’s marketplace, they will research online first, then buy offline. If you want to be the one these women call, bring the three R’s with you everywhere you go:

Respect. No matter what position the woman holds at the company you’re visiting, respect her authority, as big or small as it may be. She works there, you don’t.

Recognition. When speaking with women, recognize that even those with half a dozen letters after their names may want qualification of what you’re talking about. If she asks for further explanation, or appears even slightly confused, tell her a lot of your clients have trouble with that issue and offer to explain it in further detail.

Responsibility. It’s your responsibility to work around her schedule, send confirmations of appointments, and follow-up with her. Don’t expect her to chase you around the world to get answers to questions or confirmation of meeting times. No matter what her role in the company, she’s a busy person. She’ll give up lunch if you take the time to connect with her by following the first two R’s, and then take the time to be responsible for building a strong relationship—one meeting at a time.

Here’s a hint on how to confront the women’s market in your field: Visit women bloggers online. A visit to Misbehaving (www.misbehaving.net), the blog of a group of techie women, reveals the frustration they have with a world that still ignores them or looks through them, as if they are invisible. Regular reading will increase your overall understanding of how women feel working in a man’s world.

Another good woman’s blog is Michele Miller’s blog at WonderBranding (www.wonderbranding.com), where she delves into the brain chemistry of a woman’s mind. Yes, Virginia, men and women have completely different brain chemistry. Women show more verbal acuity while men are more logical in their thinking.

The women’s market is your market. No matter what your gender, if you’re not involved in selling to the women’s market—and that means more than just the occasional female executive as noted in Fortune’s most recent issue highlighting the world’s “50 Most Important Women” –you’re missing out on some sweet deals. To quote Abigail Adams, wife of our country’s second president, John Adams, and mother of our fourth president, John Quincy Adams, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.”

Women have a voice today. They are speaking loud and clear. They’re asking for respect, recognition, and responsibility—three ways to win them over and grab the sales advantage in 2005.