How to Sell to a Female Customer

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus… then of course they speak different languages! I read two articles that focused on the ramifications of these “language” differences in the retail world. To succeed in retail, salespeople need to tailor their pitch to the gender of the customer.

While women like to tell stories and provide many details (use 25,00 words daily), men prefer “sound bites” and a faster, more concrete bottom line (use 12,500 words daily). Not surprisingly, each is frustrated when the other tells a story in the undesired format. So, men must remember to give women more details, whereas women must remember to state the bottom line as soon as possible. Prone to elaboration, women can also recall more nuances, the “fine points,” than men. Women are better listeners and analyze discourse more carefully. Women gather a lot more information before making a purchase – they seek to make an informed decision by evaluating several opinions. However, once a woman makes up her mind, she usually stays loyal to the brand. Men hold eye contact for 9 seconds less than woman do (average of 12 seconds for women, 3 seconds for men). Women need to know that men and listening and eye contact facilitates that goal. Moreover, women care whether a place or item is polished or tidy, whereas men do not care as much about looks. These are all tendencies that we should keep in mind when speaking with customers.

The funniest tip was this one: “Another point to be taken care of is, it's not a good idea to have a woman salesperson when a male client is to be handled. Women talk a lot and men are bad listeners. The woman salesperson will go on and on about the product and the man will just nod his head without getting any meaning out of it.” This observation is definitely stereotypical, but I have seen it in action!

I would like to explore the differences between marketing to men and to women in more depth.

Also, do women in more male-dominated professions tend to talk more like men (and vice versa)?

Article: Do Men And Women Speak A Different Language?

Source: http://www.tirereview.com/Article/73778/do_men_and_women_speak_a_different_language.aspx

Article: Selling to a Woman vs Selling to a Man

Source: http://profitableblog.com/index.php/internet-sales/50-selling-to-a-woman-vs-selling-to-a-man