Getting More Women in Sales: Do We Have a Language Barrier?

A few years ago, when I had a sales enablement leadership role, I was asked to provide feedback on the draft of a speech our sales leader was giving to the sales force during the sales kick-off. The only concern I had was the language: Sales professionals were generally addressed with “salesmen” and the masculine preposition “he” throughout the speech.
It took me much courage to address the issue as I was working in a very male-dominated culture. However, I did. “Oh, that’s just my language,” was the message I received. “That’s exactly the problem, because this language excludes the 25% of women in our sale force.” As you can imagine, nothing changed back then.
You may think that has changed by now. I wish! However, things didn’t change, simply because there is not enough awareness regarding the language we use. Presenters at sales research events, who tend to be male, routinely