Have you ever heard this phrase before: “men buy, women shop”? It’s a common reference to how women’s buying behavior is hedonic rather than utilitarian. Thousands of memes and jokes describe how women could spend days in a shopping mall, while a 1-hour+ shopping session is excruciating for their male counterparts.
Is there some truth to this?
It’s a context issue: women control or influence approximately 80% of consumer spending. Most of them identify as the household’s primary shopper.
Despite controlling nearly 80% of consumer spending, women only contribute 37% to the global GDP. Take this number with a grain of salt, though. The huge discrepancy can be attributed to:
- Very populous countries where gender equality is murky at best and non-existent at worst.
- Household work is still not seen as work-work. Even if it were remunerated and treated as such, it would still be very hard to calculate its contribution to GDP.
- Aside from household work, women do a lot of support work for their male partners. Think of the tasks an assistant would have (secretarial duties, picking up your dry cleaning, taking care of your agenda, and so on). In some households, women undertake these menial tasks for their partners.
There are a lot of reasons why this is happening:
- Traditionally, women had more “free” time i.e. time that’s not spent working outside the household.
- Traditionally, women were not the primary breadwinners, so they were in charge of managing the household.
- Traditionally, women were expected to make ends meet with whatever household budget they were given.
See how every bullet point above starts with “traditionally”? Millennial women are challenging these traditions as we speak. However, it will probably be Gen Z women who, by the end of their careers, will have found themselves in less traditional roles.
Until then, it’s worth remembering that in every country, on every continent women do a lot more unpaid, invisible labor. But things are changing for the better.
Let’s go beyond shopping for clothes and accessories and determine how women buy B2B products.
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Women get more and more representation as business decision-makers
The number of women-owned businesses has doubled in the last decade in the US. Today, women own 42% of all businesses.
Source
In 2020 and 2021, women opened 49% of businesses.
Source
However, business owners aren’t the only business decision-makers. In fact, it’s employees who make the most decisions for a business, not the owners.
A recent study has found that “the average corporate buyer is a millennial male with changing values — and women have surpassed men among younger business-to-business (B2B) purchasers.”
Remember what I said above about Gen Z women changing the landscape? Globally, 90% of companies report having one or more women in a senior management role. By the time Gen Z women get to seniority age, the graph below will look completely different:
Source
There is a problem, though: the higher we get up the food chain, the fewer women we find. Yes, women hold some decision-making power in corporations, but it’s rarely the ultimate decision-making power:
Source
That being said, odds are what you’re selling will be approved or vetoed by a woman. Let’s see how they think and why they buy.
Quick caveat here: I strongly believe marketing should be gender-neutral to accommodate gender-diverse people, as well as to properly smash stereotypes. We’re not there yet. We’re still segmenting audiences by gender because it’s what we know how to do. So, at the very least, let’s do it the right way.
Emotional mess or cold-hearted b!tch? How women make business decisions
You’ve likely seen both these lovely attributes applied to women and their decisions. As well as the usual retort: if she’s indecisive, it’s because she’s letting her emotions get in the way. If she’s cutthroat and decisive, she’s a b!tch.
The data, however, says neither of these are true. Or, they’re as true for emotionally stable women with no underlying mental conditions as they are for their male counterparts with the same psychological profile.
To understand why women buy, let’s take a quick look at why they open a business in the first place. A Visa study found that most women want to pursue their passion and independence.
[Please note that this is a study conducted on American female entrepreneurs only. In other countries where female entrepreneurs are very well represented (like some states in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean), financial drivers may be prevalent.]
The first three reasons in the graph above paint a clear picture: women start businesses to live their professional lives on their own terms.
Why this matters to your strategy
So-and-so product-client fit isn’t going to cut it. To live on their own terms, women decision-makers will make sure that what they’re buying aligns with their goals and that it’s a bang for their buck.
There’s research to support this: men want effortless purchase experiences, women prefer to dig deeper. They’ll do a lot of scouting and research before buying. It’s your job to make sure they find:
- Clear how-tos and clear descriptions of what your product does. [A good primer on how to build great offers]
- Social proof
- A product they truly need, not something you pitched to them on a whim
- Comparisons with other similar products
- Enough information about you online, on multiple channels, so they can conduct their own research
Millennial women are purpose-driven and price-conscious
88% of Millennial women say that customer ratings and reviews influence their buying decisions and 57% say brand values matter when making a purchase [source].
Drawing on the point above, expect Millennial female buyers to research as long as they need to find out if your values align with theirs.
Why this matters to your strategy
- Don’t be afraid to talk about your values. Your buyers are looking for them! It’s how you build credibility and a relevant audience.
- Get your clients to leave testimonials and reviews that talk about the how too, not just the what. They want to know if the process aligns with what you preach too!
Meetings carry different meanings for men and women
Men view meetings as the end of the sales process: if you get a meeting with a male decision-maker, the deal is almost closed. Women, on the other hand, view them as a starting point in building a relationship.
Moreover, according to a study by Harvard Business Review:
Traditional male buyers want the buyer’s power over the seller to be acknowledged. Thus, high-ranking people from the seller organization make appearances at meetings to signal the importance of the project…women are less likely to see the value of such rituals. The ‘honchos’ are welcome to join the discussion, but for their experience and insight, not their obeisance.”
Why this matters to your strategy
If you’re in a meeting with female decision-makers, don’t go for the hard sale. Instead:
- Take the time to build a meaningful relationship with them
- Listen to what they need, don’t pitch them your offer in the first five minutes
- Bring along as many team members as possible, especially those who will handle the actual work for your leads.
- Bring your A-game and get ready to answer questions. Most women self-fund their businesses, so they know their ins and outs.
Women can make [better] decisions under stress
Back to the emotional mess cliche! Turns out women don’t make back decisions when under stress.
According to neuroscience, women’s brains are actually better equipped to handle stress hormones. In fact, they make less risky business decisions under high stress.
The New York Times explains it very well:
Under low-stress situations, men and women make decisions about equally well [but] men took more risks when they were stressed. They became more focused on big wins, even when they were costly and less likely.
Why this matters to your strategy
Business decision-making can be stressful and, as marketers, we tend to amplify the need for our products. If you’re selling to women, however, keep in mind that:
- They will take the time to properly evaluate your offer even in a stressful period
- FOMO is less likely to work on them, so don’t try to create it artificially. They know there will be another chance to get that awesome once-in-a-lifetime discount you mentioned.
Women think about how their decisions impact others
Beyond profitability and business growth, women also look at how their decisions impact multiple stakeholders: is it a good idea for the team? For the clients? For the environment?
As HBR puts it:
Female directors are more likely to consider the rights of others and to take a cooperative approach to decision making in order to arrive at a fair and moral decision that benefits all parties. […] Female directors engage more effectively with the multifaceted social issues and concerns that increasingly confront corporations.
Why this matters to your strategy
When you’re pitching to female decision markers, look beyond their own company’s ROI:
- Ethical marketing matters
- Do your values align?
- Do you have a shared interest in a social or environmental cause? Mention it!
- Remember that they will evaluate your company’s credibility too, not just that of your offer.
One takeaway to rule them all
There’s a lot of data in this issue — and it’s not even half the data I sifted through to find these insights. But if you were to remember a single thing from today’s email, make it this one: let go of bro marketing, FOMO, and sleazy tactics. Focus on targeting best-fit leads and on delivering what you promised.
As more and more women become business decision-makers, this will matter more and more. And, as these things are contagious, even their cutthroat male counterparts will buy into these tactics less and less.
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Adriana’s Picks
- Amid criticism for mishandling misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, YouTube is rolling out a new watch page of “authoritative sources” on its mobile app, and X is now requiring fact checks on its Community Notes to be backed up by sources.
- The EU is banning plastic glitter, including for cosmetic use.
- X will start to charge new users $1/year, allegedly to fight against bots and fake accounts.
That’s it from me today!
See you next Thursday in your inbox.
Here to make you think,
Adriana
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