Make a Fortune Selling to Women. Connie Podesta
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Название: Make a Fortune Selling to Women
Автор: Connie Podesta
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Маркетинг, PR, реклама
isbn: 9781613391648
isbn:
While a man might put up with an unfriendly auto mechanic who does excellent work at great prices, a woman won’t. She’ll pay a little more and take her car to someone she likes and who treats her with RESPECT—as long as she’s still confident he or she can get the job done. If she’s not satisfied with the second mechanic, she’ll go to a third and a fourth until she finds someone she can trust and feel comfortable doing business with.
A woman’s need for a positive,personal experience means that the CONNECTION between her andthe salesperson is much MOREIMPORTANT than you might think;it takes precedence over almosteverything else.
I’ll give you an example. I know a couple who moved into our neighborhood a few years ago from an area about thirty minutes away. The woman still drives the half hour to her previous hairdresser, dry cleaner, drugstore, and gym. We have all of these services within a block of our house, but it’s worth the drive to her to continue to use people she feels CONNECTED to and has developed personal relationships with. Her husband, on the other hand, took no time at all discovering the closest places that could meet his needs and switched his services immediately. He discovered he could get the results he needed right around the corner.
THE GOOD NEWS: a female buyer ismuch more likely to STAY LOYAL, even if it means being slightlyinconvenienced. That’s POWERFUL!
QUICK TIP: if you want to sell to women, learning to invest in and manage the PERSONAL aspects of the process is critical to your success.
#2: SHE WANTS THE EXPERIENCE TO BE PROFESSIONAL
Even though women want their sales experience to be PERSONAL, that does not mean they don’t also expect it to be PROFESSIONAL. In fact, in order for her to accept and be comfortable with a PERSONAL shopping experience, it must also pass the test of being PROFESSIONAL. Most women are savvy shoppers and will ultimately be focused on making a good, intelligent, and price-conscious decision, regardless of their personal feelings—it’s just that you will have to pass the PERSONAL test before she can move to the next step. Ideally, the two will go hand-in-hand, but don’t think you can play on her emotions to get her to make a purchase that isn’t in her best interests.
It has often been said that with women, emotion drives reason, and with men, reason drives emotion. I don’t think this is giving women (or men) nearly enough credit. Women couldn’t be where they are today if they constantly allowed emotion to take precedence over common sense and value. But it’s worth noting how much women can feel, do, and process at the same time.
Women can evaluate the personal side of the experience: do I feel respected? Do I like them? Do they like me? Are they friendly? Are they enjoyable to be around? And at the very same time, they can be weighing other critical factors: your experience and credentials, the value of the product, the quality of the service, and whether you can be trusted. So when I tell you that a woman wants the experience to be personal, don’t underestimate her absolute need for a professional experience. Both weigh heavily in her decision to continue the sales relationship with you.
Ultimately, every woman is looking for a professional-grade deal. Think of professionalism as one aspect of your brand. That attribute means that everything will be open and aboveboard (no shady financing deals or merchandise that fell off a truck). It means you’ll STAND BEHIND YOUR PRODUCT, she won’t have to haggle and hassle to get the same deal her friend got last week, and if and when something goes wrong, you’ll accept responsibility and take care of it efficiently and professionally.
Professionalism, for many women, is shorthand for SAFETY— physical, emotional, and financial safety. If women don’t feel safe with you, your establishment, or the deal they’re making, they will stop listening and start watching—everything and everyone. They will switch from looking for a good deal to looking for a good exit strategy. Your professionalism is a reflection of your personality, attitudes, and respect for yourself and others. So the first issue is your female customers’ level of comfort with you. This is all about your level of respect, trust, and commitment. How you look at her, where you look at her (always aim for the eyes), the tone of your voice, and the manner in which you conduct business are all clues her radar will pick up quickly to determine whether this will be a comfortable and professional situation in which to do business.
Each and every woman I’ve talked to had at least one story of a salesperson who made her so nervous or uncomfortable that she couldn’t get away fast enough.
I have had several encounters with unprofessional behavior, but one particularly comes to mind. Years ago, when my husband and I were buying a house after moving to a new city, I did most of the looking on my own while he worked. The first agent I dealt with was a woman who had me running away from her by the end of the morning. She certainly knew her territory and had an uncanny gift of figuring out exactly what we were looking for, but she wasn’t professional at all and made me very uncomfortable. She constantly talked about her other clients and the money they had (or didn’t have) to spend. Then at every house we viewed, she would tell me very personal things about the neighbors. Even though she knew her product and had an excellent grasp of what we needed, I felt she shared too much confidential information. (Ever meet anyone like THAT?) I knew if we bought from her, it was just a matter of time before her gossip would include us and our personal information.
Being professional also means you’re qualified, knowledgeable, and experienced—you’re representing your product, service, and company competently, and she doesn’t need to check you out from every angle to make sure you won’t try to cheat her or take advantage of her. You know where the lines are, and you stay within them. Boundaries are important to a woman, and you need to recognize and respect hers. You must respect her time, her space, her privacy, her personal information, and her intelligence.
This professionalism is pretty critical stuff because if she isn’t comfortable with you, the environment, or the deal, she’s going to take her business elsewhere, and you will probably never know why.
#3: SHE WANTS THE EXPERIENCE TO BE PRODUCTIVE
Men are busy, but women are really, really busy! Women have an always-on generator for worry and guilt, and those two emotions generate a mental to-do list that never ends.
Women are like a computer with a hundred tasks minimized at the bottom of the screen, each ready to be “pulled up” and dealt with at any given moment. When my husband walks from the bedroom to the kitchen to get a drink of water, it’s a simple task. He goes, gets what he needs, and returns. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? When I go on the same errand, I return thirty minutes later after doing eight other things on my way to the kitchen. My mind sees into nooks and crannies, closets and cabinets, inside and out. And I usually come back without what I went after, because the task took on a life of its own.
Men often say (and they have a point) that we women create our own “busyness” and we should just stop worrying.
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