Business Networking and Sex - Ivan Misner [47]
PATTY AUBREY, PRESIDENT OF JACK CANFIELD INC.
It’s easier to communicate with men. It’s just information. It’s simpler. Just get to the bottom line. For women—it’s more emotional. You have to give them a story.
Women mix a little more personal into their business. Men tend to be more about business.
Women emotionally need more from a business relationship. Men are more to the point.
Guys, when you’re working with the VCP Process®, you can’t just jump from visibility to profitability in an hour. Learn from my unfortunate suitor!
The Way We Each Use the VCP Process®
Since the early 1990s, much research has been done on communication between the sexes by psychologists, biologists, and neuroscientists. It’s clear that there are indeed brain differences between men and women that impact the way each prefers to communicate.
Women communicate from a place of emotion. They like to share the details of how, why, and where, as well as the feelings and emotions surrounding the information they convey.
When women are together, they go deep in conversations with one another, both in groups and one-on-one meetings. They communicate their experiences, sharing stories and collaborating for group consensus. The next time you have the opportunity to listen to a group of women, notice how they support and add to one another’s stories and conversation themes.
I attended the first meeting of a new women’s group one evening and was surprised how much personal information they shared with one another, having just met the other women in the group that night. I was also fascinated by how emotional they quickly became, revealing how they deeply felt about the things they talked about. It didn’t take long for the conversation to swing around to men and how lacking they are in building up the personal elements of relationships.
Research states that women use twice as many words a day as men. We chat with our girlfriends and form deep relationships based on those chats. When we’re having a conversation with someone, we’re gauging the ability to connect and build trust and understanding.
SHE MEANS BUSINESS
Grant Schneider, author of She Means Business: 7 New Rules for Marketing Today’s Women, had this to say about women and communication: “Women tend to communicate about most things, including products, in a storytelling style. This is distinctively a female form of communication and reflects the strong connection between women and their desire to help one another. In sharing stories, women recharge, learn, and form enduring bonds. Fewer men see the value in storytelling and are far less likely to view conversations as playing a critical role in their lives.”
According to author John Gray,
When women are in a networking situation, they have a greater tendency to get to know people, and demonstrate that they are worthy of trust by showing interest and asking questions. Unfortunately, they’re expecting the other person to reciprocate interest, which they may not always do. What women are not aware of is that what works with women does not always work with men.
When men are networking, their emphasis is on establishing who they are, what they’ve accomplished and achieved, what their responsibilities are, and what they can provide. They focus on how all of that can benefit others in terms of profitability, efficiency, and other benefits. Women don’t end up having the opportunity to share what they have to offer and generate a business deal after all of that.
In other words, ladies, this is the point when we are often dismissed as not serious about our businesses. We fail to impress when we deviate to relational conversation, leaving the male to whom we are talking