Generalization - The ConsumHERist

Posted on | February 26, 2009 |

by Delia Passi

This past weekend, I came into the office alone to get something finished and off my desk. It took me a few hours and when I accomplished my goal I closed up my desk and went for my car keys, which are typically in a tray at the corner of my desk. They weren’t there.

Well, I looked and I looked but to no avail. I checked my purse. I checked the front door thinking that I might have left them in the lock. I checked the kitchen, the bathroom, my assistant’s desk and pretty much all over the office. No sign of them.

I then called my husband thinking that he’d have to come get me. Fortunately, since he is the CEEO (chief everything else officer) for Medelia, he knew that there was a valet key for my car and extra office keys where I could find them, sparing him the 30 minute round trip to retrieve me.

Then yesterday I came across a Digg.com reference to an article entitled “Are we lost? Why women are worse at reading maps but can find those misplaced keys.” The article describes how recent research demonstrates that women’s brains make them “more aware of objects around them…” Men, on the other hand, developed an “ability to track animals accurately on the move.” (I love the ways primitive survival formed so many of our modern gender behaviors.)

But what happened to me and my keys? The article made the point right in the title that I, as a woman, should be able to find the keys. Oh, dear. Have I begun to develop manly traits? Will I have to switch to giving advice on selling to men? Of course not.

The article, and so many scientific findings like it, is a generalization about women. I and many other authorities on women’s buying behavior make generalizations about women. We say that women are like this or like that, will do this or do that, etc. These statements come with the unsaid caveat that it doesn’t hold true for each and every woman in each and every circumstance. It is just usually true and a pretty good rule of thumb.

If you are in a selling role with a woman customer and she isn’t responding as we say is the typical women’s response, then make adjustments. This is not the one that disproves the rule. One exception doesn’t disprove the rule. If she gives you a mushy handshake instead of one showing her confidence in her position as customer, shrug it off and proceed with your sale.

For your information, on Monday my assistant, upon hearing about the lost keys, spent about ten seconds in my office before she found them in my desk drawer where I NEVER put them EVER, and where I therefore didn’t bother to look. Go figure.

Delia Passi, Founder of WomenCertified® and author of Winning the Toughest Customer: The Essential Guide to Selling to Women is a regular columnist on ReachingWomenDaily. Delia can be reached at delia@medelia.com.