180: Women in Sales Paid Less, Stay Longer, Produce Better Results, with Megan Ackerson, CHRO, Xactly

Xactly is a tech platform for assisting companies with
compensation and forecasting with the sales team, and has been
around since 2005. They started sharing research about men in
sales roles versus women in 2014 or so - quite some time ago, and
just released their 2024 research results which includes the
following:


Representation disparities: The gender ratio in sales is
alarming. Women are underrepresented in sales roles, constituting
only 34% of the sales force and only 29% of sales managers.
Female salespeople earn less: On average, men earn 3.5% more
than women as salespeople, and 3.7%* more as sales managers when
it comes to fixed pay. Without adjustment of outside factors, men
earn 9% more than women as salespeople, and 13% more as sales
managers.
Pay gaps widen over time: At the start of salespeople’s
careers, men earn 2.2% more on average than women. After 2 years,
this gap widens by 30%. After 5 years, the gap increases even
more significantly, with a 77% increase.
The gaps differ from industry to industry: The pay gap varies
significantly across sectors, with female sales professionals in
the Life Sciences and Pharma space reporting a 9% gap in pay and
Manufacturing space with an 8% gap. It might be more opportune
for women in sales to enter the Financial Services industry,
where no pay gap was reported.
State-by-state disparities: The state sales people live in
seems to correlate with the pay disparities. Colorado and New
Jersey hold the largest pay gap between men and women at 7%, with
Georgia and Washington claiming the lowest pay gap at 1%.
Performance remains unaffected: Despite the overwhelming
disparities in representation and pay, female sales professionals
consistently outperformed their male counterparts. Female
salespeople outperformed men by 1.5%, and female sales managers
outperformed by 3%.
Loyalty is not a factor: Women tend to show greater loyalty to
their Sales teams, staying with the same organization on average
four months longer than their male counterparts.
Unfair impact on quota assignments: Many organizations do not
seem to recognize women’s higher performance. On average, male
salespeople are assigned 3% higher quotas, and male sales
managers are assigned 5% higher quotas, suggesting that sales
teams assign men to higher potential sales territories or
opportunities.


 


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