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Simple Tips To Win More Business From Women | March 04, 2015 (0 comments)
Scottsdale, AZ—There’s a humorous cartoon showing what happens when a couple breaks up. The woman recounts the entire episode to her friends, who spend the evening commiserating. The man, meanwhile, tells one friend who responds, “bummer” without ever turning away from the TV.
“Women speak approximately 7,000 words a day,” says Mary Lou Quinlan, author and longtime advertising expert in marketing to women. Men, meanwhile, speak about 2,000 words a day, so the cartoon humor really is based in truth.
Quinlan was one of the keynote presentations at Centurion Scottsdale 2015. “Women like to explain things, to give context,” she told the audience. But there’s a lot that she isn’t saying along with what she is, and both are equally important to being able to successfully win her as a customer. And with women making or influencing 85% of all purchase decisions being made—including for jewelry—winning her over is critical to a retailer’s success.
Women often tell what Quinlan describes as “half the truth.” It’s not that she’s lying; she has good intentions, and she doesn’t want to hurt or offend, but she just wants you to go away so she tells you what you want to hear. For example, “I always buy green products” is a half-truth. The whole truth is “But only if they are just as pretty and effective as non-green products, and don’t cost too much more.”
In her latest book, What She’s Not Telling You, Quinlan explains how marketers lose heaps of money by only hearing the half-truth. She recounts the “Real Beauty” ad campaign for Dove brand skincare products. The campaign initially went viral as women responded very positively to the message of self-acceptance. Sales of Dove products took off. But within a year, sales plunged.
Why? Because the real truth is that given a choice, most women still want to look better than they do. And if they’re going to spend money on skincare, they expect it to improve their looks. They may have approved of the “fine as you are” message in concept, but in reality they weren’t about to spend more money to still look the same.
A similar story occurred with Gap Inc.’s short-lived Forth & Towne division. After hearing focus groups of middle-age women talking about the lack of age- and body-appropriate clothing, Gap launched a division targeted to meet that need. But women rejected the dowdy offerings and the division quickly failed.
What Gap didn’t ask, says Quinlan, is “how old do you see yourself?” Had they asked that one simple question, they would have known that the average 50-year-old sees herself as 35, and would have designed clothes that were still hip but more forgiving than tight contemporary fashions. Meanwhile, rival clothier Chico’s did listen carefully, and learned that women struggling with weight issues don’t like seeing big sizes on the label. Hence, their clothes are sized 1, 2, or 3--and customers love it.
Another key difference between male and female behavior is head nodding. A man nods his head to show he’s in agreement. A woman nods her head to show she’s listening to you, not that she agrees with you. She can nod away—all the while thinking “no way,” says Quinlan.
Quinlan says women also typically have a “board of directors” (spouse, friends, family, coworkers) that she consults when she’s thinking over a decision. “She likes and trusts her board. She’s not sure about you,” says Quinlan. “So many businesses market to women, not with women."
Quinlan also gave an exclusive video interview to The Centurion Newsletter about successfully selling to the self-purchasing female. “Jewelry is a permanent record of something achieved and I wish that ‘the gift of love’ became ‘a gift of love to me.’”
Jewelers should begin that process by delving deeper into who she is. “The truth is in her jewelry box,” says Quinlan. She suggests salespeople ask, “tell me the most special thing in your jewelry box,” as a way of getting to know her. Why is she buying this piece of jewelry? Does she want her ex to notice? Is it because she works hard and wants people to see that? Or that she wants people to compliment her great taste? Or even that she simply loves herself and isn’t afraid to admit it. Ask about the items in her jewelry box, and listen to her answers.
The same half-truths apply to women's attitudes about retailers, too. In her book What She’s Not Telling You, Quinlan describes the half and whole truths of why women shop at Walmart or Target: "She’ll tell you she shops at Walmart because it saves money. But the whole truth is that she buys some stuff there and hopes she doesn’t run into anyone she knows—and she’s going somewhere else to splurge on herself. Or she’ll tell you she shops at Target because of the cool designer collaborations but the real truth is that she just buys staples there."
Winning over the female customer also gives a retailer a powerful ambassador. Remember, women are communicators and sharers, and each woman has her own personal “board of directors.” Make her happy and she will tell her board and her friends. Make them happy and they’ll tell their friends, and so on.
Finally, Quinlan addressed one more aspect to successfully targeting women, and that is being a company that really is good for women as employees. Quinlan recalled to Centurion attendees many incidents where she asked company executives if they offer a good place for women to work—and then asked the female employees the same question. Not surprisingly, the executives almost always said yes, but the employees’ response was somewhere along the lines of, “If you don’t have a husband, kids, a dog, a plant, or a life, then yes.”
Top image: madamnoire.com