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- Women has more “word of mouth” influence / referral
- Example: life insurance sales encounter a rambling female customer
- Women tend to multitask, man tend to focus (gatherer vs. hunter)
- Communication Style: Man vs. Women
- How women view men’s communication style
- Too pushy / Act superior / Lacks listening skills
- Men talk to complete / achieve / make point / solve problems
- Decision-to-action talk, not considering might be offensive to others
- Women talk to collab / connect / share
- More detailed less decisive, language of people who had to survive & grow without physical control
- Man & Man complete, women & women share commonality (achieve vs. connect)
- Women’s talk characteristics
- 1. More expressive, more adj than nouns/verbs
- 2. More indirect
- 3. More collab less competitive
- 4. More emotion words
- 5. Intonation more like questions
- 6. Hedge more in convo
- 7. Use more nonverbal cues
- 8. Take longer to commit to opinion
- 9. Better Grammer less jargon
- 10. More words that convey imprecise quantitives (i.e. “so”/”such”)
- Adapter talking style to women
- 1. Use adj / be expressive
- 2. Be Patient (after you think women finish her rambling, count to 4 before you start talking)
- 3. Collaborative
- Need inputs from friends & family before decision
- 4. Don’t fix a problem, express a feeling
- 5. Use emotion words but don’t abuse
- 6. Avoid slang/jargon, be formal
- Use feeling + relationship + context
- Listening – let women customer lead the convo direction
- Address women’s feeling
- Value proposition might be reduce her stress from a lot of things going on (family life)
- Relationship more important for female customer
- Avoid high pressure sales
- High pressure := impersonal objective deal sweetener
- Hard sell might make product seem untrustworthy, give her sense of trustworthiness will increase sale
- Low-pressure is better (slower pace also)
- Signs of trouble from her body language – withdrawing / anxious / frowning / tight-lips
- More likely to buy when collaborative dynamic / win-win
- Active listening:
- Responsive listening – I’m with you
- Reassuring phrase – “If I understand you correctly” / “I see” etc.
- Occasionally, “Hmm, Uh-huh, Ok” (same active listening from JB/Wolf of Wall Street)
- Paraphrasing – feel reassured & supported
- What’s to be avoided is the “echo technique” (repeating without paraphrasing)
- Avoid “I know what you need” before she finish / show respect
- Don’t contempt your client
- Cannot capitulate to frustration
- Women like politeness + formality (self-intro)
- Saying her name but don’t overdo
- Shows effort to reach out to her
- Sense of co-op
- Try to say her name at least three times in the sales meeting
- Right Env – make offer clean & organized
- Women notice more details (i.e. dirt)
- Eye contact (Similar to JB’s sell to opposite gender vs. same gender)
- For women – it’s respect & connecting
- For men: it’s challenge / competition
- Empower clients
- Avoid impress her with list of data/facts
- Educate her on the product she inquire & recommend some product
- Women need to “feel product” before buying, Men is more “see-think-act” – very fast action.
- Objection – “I need to think about it”
- Means she need more info
- Tactics for overcoming this objection
- 1. Lock-in points that are winners for her
- 2. Frame objection as a misunderstanding and take responsibility for it
- Women tend to react in a supportive way – “No, you actually made it very clear this product is valuable in X,Y, and Z”
- 3. Reframe the value
- Example: Quality (last longer & better)
- Detail the benefits to make she feel the value of the product is higher
- 4. Share relation
- “I have this other female business owner who bought this same product and etc.”
- Social proof + another women + remember previous customer’s detail (care about customer’s needs)
- 5. Use her need as ammu to create a dose of urgency
- “You said you need to buy a house before your child starts the school year..”
- Seven steps produre (a summary)
- 1. Encounter – Like?
- Common ground: i.e. family comment (you have a daughter who’s 13, I have a son who’s 14, soon they will be harder to manage)
- 2. Gather Info – Heard?
- 3. Understand – Understand?
- Summarize the info from info-gather & demonstrate understanding of her unique needs
- 4. Share knowledge – Trust?
- Avoid: Presuming Customer via mind-read is disrespectful
- Play support role
- Educated buyer feel justified to spend more
- 5. Fill the need – Benefit?
- Establish as a sales who appreciates the changing needs / accomodate & provide better solution
- 6. Agreement – Feel good about commitment? <- There will be objections here.
- 7. Commitment – Trust this relationship?