Sex Sells!

An attractive woman has a decided advantage as sales representative over her male counterpart. This "selling edge" is primarily due to the existence of the "glass ceiling" found in most business organizations today. The glass ceiling (women are still arbitrarily held back from leadership positions) means that there are many more men in decision-making positions in businesses than women. Therefore, when cold calling, an attractive woman has a better chance of getting an appointment for a sales presentation, than does a man. Women are also given more attention in their presentations and less resistance up to a point, than a male sales representative or service industry professional (accountants, attorneys, consultants, bankers, etc.). This advantage has everything to do with sex and the physical appeal of a woman. It is clear to me as a sales trainer, coaching sales representatives and service industry professionals in the field, that male decision-makers often use a different part of their anatomy than their head to make their buying decisions.

The female advantage in obtaining sales opportunities is tempered, however, by most sales women experiencing a greater difficulty in closing sales. The male ego gets in the way of the final decision; because many men can't allow themselves to, as they see it, "lose" to an attractive woman. Therefore, female sales professionals need to execute a selling process that counters this knee jerk reaction experienced by many of the male prospects, customers or clients they try to sell.

A selling system like the one taught in my Sales Success Strategies self-directed learning manual http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/manual1.htm can help any sales woman to flip switches in a decision-maker's brain and easily move around the roadblock to closing her sale. I have seen research on this subject that says that an attractive women who effectively implements a step-by-step consultative selling system, can achieve a 30 percent higher closing ratio than a male representative using a similar selling process. Sex sells!

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VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications, Inc. Menlo Park, California. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides.

Virden assists clients through a unique personal coaching (telephone)program. He has taught at the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas and the School Of Entrepreneurship, Marriott School Of Management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. You can contact Virden at: Virden@TheSellingEdge.com. or learn more about him at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com