A story in the Wall St Journal today comments how one of the big accounting firms, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, is using a different approach to sell women versus men.
“The strategy is based on a simple, yet radical, idea: Just as women consumers shop differently than men, Deloitte believes businesswomen shop for professional services differently than men. “You need to understand where women are coming from,” says Cathy Benko, a Deloitte partner who runs the program.”
“Simple but radical,” idea huh?
Would women do better in network marketing if companies and upline stopped insisting that to succeed, they need to ape the men?
In Tip #12 in Friends, Lies and Network Marketing (free PDF download here), we list a few big differences between how men and women buy (AND prefer to sell) – especially to people they know…
And guess what – the most sophisticated men marketers agree the women’s instinctual sales ways work better with today’s consumers all around…
“Men tend to strut their stuff; women don’t, says Marti Barletta in Marketing to Women. Today’s consumers are tired of hearing that every product is the greatest in the history of the world. Phrases like ‘scientific breakthrough’ don’t get sales anymore. Advising todays marketers, the ClueTrain Manifesto authors (all guys) ask marketers: ‘The inflated, self-important jargon you sling around…what’s that got to do with us?'” – Friends, Lies and Network Marketing (free PDF download here)
What are some other differences in style between men and women that you’ve seen pop up in the network marketing business?
I was introduced to Network Marketing by my friend 18 years ago and what she said to me that got my attention was: “My husband started eating this product (fruit & veggie smoothies) and he has so much energy he’s fixing things around the house.” I wanted some for my husband because he’s a drywall hanger and we were always looking for something to give him energy. That’s what got me to try the product & am still using it 18 years later. Now I love it so much I decided to market it to other moms who want their families to have a healthier life.
Vicky
Healthydetoxtea.blogspot.com
You asked, “Would women do better in network marketing if companies and upline stopped insisting that to succeed, they need to ape the men? “
ABSOLUTELY!!!
…”Guys do not use exclamation points,”…
That’s right too!
Women also tend to speak more animated then men. Hence the exclamation points???
We even have heart attack symptoms differently than men.
I also think women like to have “fun” making money and/or watching their business grow. If it’s stoic and lacks excitement – why bother doing it in the first place!?
I can always tell when a woman has been trained by men and has “conformed” to the mans world. Her language and writing lacks the womans touch and the feeling parts.
I think the number one thing that women look for first is, someone who listens to what thy’re saying.
In our businesses, that translates into – if you are listening to me you will know what I need and want, and that will spare me all the other details (hype) that I don’t care about anyway.
Since I’ve already read and agree with a good bit of Marketing to Women by Marti Barletta, I’d say we are radically different in our approach to the purchasing decision. I recoil in horror at an “in your face”, “close ’em today” sales pitch, even if I’m very interested in the product or service. If you press me I’ll only get stubborn. I’ll just get it somewhere else, where I can decide in my own time. I do want to think about it, study it, look at the information, consider it, and get ideas about how it’s being used to improve others’ lives so I know what to expect it to do for me.
I’ve been referred to as a computer geek, but I’m really a power user. Don’t tell me about gigs of ram, and high speed dual processors (and other “techno-babble”). Tell me I can run 20 apps at the same time and never have to wait for anything to load.
But I hope they remember that marketing to women means make it smaller and make it pink. An H2 Hummer would suit me just fine!
I’m finally realizing that the reason I’ve stalled in network marketing for several years is because I couldn’t do what I considered unnatural to me – that is, all the stuff the men were teaching. Thank goodness for Kim, a teacher who gets it.
Edie Elting
Nussentials
With 82% of network marketers being women, I wonder why:
SHE(women) DROP OUT rather than SPEAK OUT AND CHANGE IT earlier, when SHE knows HIS(Men)way of doing things weren’t OK?
It’s probably not a gender issue about being mislead by a male approach to NWM. It’s because Top Bananas(both men and women) tout duplicate, duplicate, duplicate … and don’t(you dare) change a proven business system etc.
Now, we have Kim, and the NWM industry is brightening up again.
New School or Old School….Men or Women? Tap into the good things and dare to change what’s not working.
Please don’t club our men anymore, it’s the Top Bananas we need to talk to.
Good food for thought! For the most part women I talk to about the business tend to be a little more open and inquisitive.