Women Who Sell With Beth Hocking
‘Women Who Sell' is all about showcasing women who excel in sales, thrive, and challenge stereotypes. We feature real perspectives on what it's like, the barriers, and the breakthroughs.
Here, Beth Hocking, Executive Leadership Coach and Career Strategist and former Global Account Director shares her take.
What is your job title?
I like to call myself a Chief Cheerleader! I’m an Executive Leadership Coach and Career Strategist.
Former Global Account Director and 20 years in sales. I loved my role, however, I took the leap of faith in 2022 to set up my own coaching business – I feel so passionately that women need a champion and a partner to support them on their career advancement path.
My mission is to create more women leaders and to readdress the gender balance of Senior Leaders across the globe, by empowering and championing women.
How did you get into sales and what makes it the career of your choice?
It rather chose me! I fell into the FMCG/ Beauty and Fragrance industry, quite by accident, whilst doing a placement year out from uni. I did a rotation of a few different roles; I really excelled at Project Management and was fascinated by what the sales team were doing.
Back in those days it was pretty much all done face to face, so there was a lot of travel, meaning that every day was different and that really appealed to me. I learnt I had quite a way with people, I enjoyed building relationships, and I had a good memory for the little things that my clients shared – like their children’s names, their hobbies etc. I have always been quite curious, I found that people like to open up when you ask the right questions, which was a skill which really supported me in my sales career.
Through the years of my sales career, I became quite obsessed with the psychology of sales, what made the transaction a success? How could it become even better? What made some salespeople successful and others not?
I discovered that no matter the organisation I worked for, people bought from people they liked and had something in common with, although of course that must be an authentic connection. So I set about to build as many authentic connections with my clients as possible. That led to some amazing friendships over the years (not to mention multi-million dollars of closed deals!), I’m so privileged to have had.
I also uncovered that the best partnerships I had were ones where the client was open to being challenged (with curiosity and compassion of course!). In sales, just because I was the supplier, it didn’t mean the customer was always right – for me, it was an invitation to add some value, share insights that could make the product or service even better or question the validity, through my lens of experience. I didn’t have to be a yes person; I was best placed with a true partner, where we had equal footing and input into projects.
Are there any barriers you faced as a woman working in sales, and how did you overcome them?
Oh definitely!! The higher I climbed through the ranks, the more male-dominated it of course was. I didn’t often see Senior Women in sales roles modelled to me, so I had to pave my own way. I spent 15 years at a company with little to no women on the board or at the Senior Leadership team level. The women I did encounter, weren’t always the most supportive either – maybe the perception was that there were limited seats for women available and that they weren’t giving anyone a ‘leg up’ since they didn’t have one themselves.
I also witnessed a fair bit of microaggressions against women, (conscious or unconscious) and bias towards the hiring and promotion of men, where a woman could have done the role just as well.
In hindsight, I was guilty of lacking self-confidence at the beginning of my career and of course, imposter syndrome reared its head often as I progressed through the different career rungs. I thought my hard work would be noticed and recognised – it wasn’t. Being passive did not get me promoted, I had to learn (the hard way!) to advocate for myself, to share my wins and team results and ask to talk about what my next move would be – because no one else was going to do it for me.
It's reported that men get promoted on their future potential, whereas women get promoted on their past performance. Of course, these ‘lack’ mindsets are not gender specific, but I do see a lot of women going through the same self-limiting beliefs – which put them even further behind their male counterparts.
I spent 20 years building a toolkit of things that benefited my career, I did everything the hard way and by trial and error. I now share this with my clients, so that they get a fast-track pass to overcome any challenges and difficulties in their career and don’t have to struggle for so long, like I did.
What did you like the most about being a woman in sales?
I loved my career in sales, I’m not sure if I could say that I loved it because I was a woman – or because I just enjoyed the job.
I enjoyed seeing projects through from end to end, seeing a tangible product on the shelf that I had played a role in. The partnership and teamwork from so many other people and departments along the way, it was like a beautifully conducted orchestra!
I enjoyed the fast pace, and the thrill of getting close to closing the deal! The relationships I built and enjoyed over the years. The multiple hats you wear in sales, balancing the top and bottom line with costs and expenses, the input into technology, innovation and marketing because you know the client needs the best of anyone, crisis management, troubleshooting, and firefighting – I loved finding solutions and supporting people through.
Later in my career, I really enjoyed being a People Manager, mentoring and coaching my teams to be the best version of themselves. To have high standards, to speak up for themselves, to navigate their own career paths and solutions to any corporate BS or red tape.
What advice do you have for a woman wanting to get into sales and those wanting to advance?
I’d say three things:
Learn to speak up
Whether that’s asking questions for more clarity, speaking up for yourself against microaggressions or being talked over, or self-advocate and ask for what it is you desire. It may feel uncomfortable at first, so learn to get uncomfortable and you’ll have a long career in Sales!
Sales is a team sport and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t understood the mission
Don’t do it for the accolades or the title or the promise of a big payday one day. Do it because you love the team and the players. You win together, you lose together – you can’t play the blame game as a sales leader.
Get some support
As you progress in your career, get the best support you can from a coach or a mentor who has been there. What got you to this level, won’t get you to the next level. You can’t rely on past experiences to get where you’ve never been before. If you aren’t investing in your career, you’re leaving money on the table.
If you would like to get involved with the blog series and share your story as a woman in the sales industry, we’d LOVE to hear from you. And head over to Women Who Sell’s LinkedIn for more content.
