I came across this article from Investors Business Daily. The author, Gloria Lau, provides some great information about selling to women, as well as some key points that could assist you with getting started. We want everyone to be successful by finding new ways to grow your business, increasing access to each and every dollar, and ensuring that the need, want and benefit that make up each challenge can be solved by the intelligent communication of your product, service and brand.

Time to get started!

Best Nicole

Consider these gender numbers: Nearly 80% of all consumer purchases are made or influenced by women. Yet 90% of ad agency creative directors, 97% of Fortune 1000 company CEOs and 66% of chief marketing officers at the 100 biggest advertisers are men.

“There’s a huge gender gap in business,” Bridget Brennan, CEO of consulting firm Female Factor, told IBD. “More than age, income, race and geography, gender has the strongest impact on how people spend money.”

Brennan, who has lectured at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, recently wrote “Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers.”

She and Nancy Fein, vice president for customer relations at Toyota Motor Sales (TM), share tips.

• Learn what they want. Study women the way you would a foreign market. Then figure out how it affects your product sales.

“It’s not taught in business schools or even at corporations,” Brennan said.

Women influence the sale of 91% of new homes, so Ryland Homes, a top 10 builder, has learned to make designs women friendly. If you’re washing dishes, you’ll find a window above the sink that faces the backyard so you can watch your kids at play.

• Emphasize the customer. Women place a premium on good service. Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus, has responded with a roadside assistance program backed by the AAA Auto Club.

If you break down, your dealer will likely come out to help, but in the middle of the night or weekend, AAA takes over.

“If a woman gets a flat tire, she might not (feel safe enough to) get out of the car to change it,” Fein told IBD. “That’s one program our customers say they wouldn’t trade.”

• Offer something substantial. To appeal to women, don’t just paint your standard products pink. “Pink is just style, not substance,” Brennan said. “It sends the message: ‘We haven’t put any thought into this at all.’ ”

Brennan advises being savvy like Procter & Gamble (PG). Design the product to suit women’s needs, as P&G did with the Swiffer WetJet. Its researchers observed how busy working women dealt with housework and gave them what they wanted.

• Leverage demographics. Brennan has identified five global trends related to women that affect sales to them: higher work force participation, older marriage age, higher divorce rates, later retirement and greater longevity, all of which translate to greater spending power and need to consume.

Older women especially are redefining target markets. They have different tastes than do men or younger women. These women are done raising children and are spending money on themselves.

• Recruit. “You wouldn’t consider entering the Chinese market without involving Chinese people on your team,” Brennan said. “It would be equally foolish to embark on major initiatives targeting women without senior-level, female representation on your team.”

Including female executives can help ensure that important details and nuances are not overlooked and will increase your chances of connecting with the target audience. It’s not enough to have junior-level women on the team; they may not have the confidence to tell senior managers that their instincts are off.