Selling To Women - Selling To Men - It Isn't the Same

Now let's not fall into the old style car salesman's trap of
believing that men are interested in what goes on under the
bonnet and women are only interested in what colours you
can get and whether it has a vanity mirror. Believe me,
and I
speak as an ex mechanical engineer, I couldn't give a toot
what goes on under the bonnet. I'm much more interested in
driving a car that matches the rest of my accessories. You
know-silver car - silver watch - silver hair. Mind you, I
draw the line at one of those little four-wheel drive jobs
with the yellow wheels and pink upholstery. I've seen a lot
of men driving these fluffy little things and don't tell me
they all belong to the wife or girlfriend. "Four-wheel drive
off roaders"-they probably couldn't pull you out of bed.

Anyway we all have male and female customers and clients and
they do need different handling. If you want to be
successful at selling or negotiating with someone of the
opposite sex then please be aware of the differences.
Firstly, be you male or female, you've got to look the part.
Women will look you all over, men won't. Women will notice
whether you have shiny shoes and clean fingernails, men
won't notice if you have on one brown shoe and one black or
if your fingernails are bitten up to the elbow.

I once interviewed a lady for a job and I didn't notice she
had different shoes on. Turns out that, in her rush to get
to the interview she slipped on two black but certainly
different shoes. However my female colleague noticed right
away and thought the whole thing quite amusing.

If you are a man negotiating with a woman, be very aware of
what you say because women listen much better than men, they
pick up on emotions. They will pick up much better on
whether you really believe what you are saying. Also, make
sure you keep talking, don't stop just because the woman
starts examining the product or reading the literature.
Women can multi-track, they'll be listening to you even
although they're taking the product apart or writing
something in their diary.

A warning to a woman selling or negotiating with a man, he
can't multi-track. If the man
starts doing something else, stop speaking until he's
finished. If you don't believe any of this then just
consider a time when you've watched TV with your partner.
Men stare at the television giving their whole concentration
to the programme while women read a book, paint their
toenails and watch the programme. Men haven't the foggiest
idea how women can do this.

It can be difficult for a woman negotiating with a man
because men don't listen well. They listen like statues and
it's difficult to tell whether you're getting through. They
probably are listening; it's just that they don't show it.
Women on the other hand tend to display their emotions so
you have much more chance of understanding whether they are
happy with what you're saying or not.

Salesmen need to be careful when describing something to a
woman. Men are more able to visualise something in three
dimensions. Women are more likely to visualise in two
dimensions. Far better to show a woman the actual product
rather than a drawing or a plan.

Women when they see the product are more likely to be
influenced by its colour and its smell. The reason for this
is simply because women can distinguish colours better; they
also have a better sense of smell and taste than a man.
Just
watch a woman in a supermarket buying wash up liquid. She'll
very likely take the top off the bottle and sniff it. Men
see no reason to do that at all; lemon, pine or fruity,
what's the difference when you're only washing dishes? With
their better sense of taste women are much better at tasting
wine and food than men.


Can I also suggest that the male sales person compliment
their lady customers? And just before the ladies start
getting irate, I mean a genuine compliment. As I mentioned
earlier, women will pick up on your emotions much quicker,
so no false compliments guys and don't patronise the ladies
or you're dead. On the other hand, a woman can give all
sorts of compliments to a man and he'll just love it. It
doesn't matter whether you mean it or not 'cause he can't
tell the difference.
Selling and negotiating to men and women isn't the same -
ignore this at your peril.



About the author:
Discover how you can generate more business without having
to cold call!
Alan Fairweather is the author of "How to get More Sales
without Selling" This book is packed with practical things
that you can do to