Men Are Better at Selling than Women
Or is it the other way around? A while back, BNET's Big Think blog suggested that women make better managers than men. According to that post, women have a host of superior characteristics, including the ability to adapt better to new situations and the ability to invest more wisely. If that's true, shouldn't women be better at selling than men? After all, the characteristics that make a good manager are the same that make a good sales pro. Right?
I'm curious what you readers think, so here's a poll:
Click here for my take on this issue »Here's what I think.
I think there's very little science going on here, and whole lot of pseudo-science. Most articles about gender differences in business are written by baby-boomer academics who were weaned on gender politics. There's therefore a big tendency to consider gender all-important, usually with the "women=good; men=bad" spin that's a canon of political correctness.
In my view, such comparisons are basically idiotic, because the differences between the genders (even if they really do exist, which I seriously doubt) are insignificant compared to the differences between individuals.
For example, suppose you're hiring a mathematician. There are no lack of "scientific" studies showing that men, on average, do better at higher math than women. But what does that tell you about the candidate sitting before you? Absolutely nothing. The male candidate could be an idiot and the female candidate brilliant. But if your head is filled with gender nonsense, you might easily end up hiring the idiot.
Which happens a lot. Trust me.
Same is true in sales. Even if it could be proven statistically that women are, on average, better at selling than men (or vice versa), the difference would be tiny compared with the difference between individuals of different temperaments and personality.
Here's the truth: unless you're intending to procreate on the job, gender just isn't all that important in the business world.
Or shouldn't be.
READERS: Do you agree?