Submitted by Chris Mooney and Jennifer Keegan
The Brandon Hall Group, a research firm focused on organizational excellence, recognized GAF for its unique and innovative Women in Sales Summit that provides networking and skills-building for women across its sales organization. The one-and-a-half day summit provided an exciting new platform for GAF’s dynamic group of women leaders so they could share perspectives about growing in a winning-culture, and learning new techniques to succeed in the roofing industry. Later this year, the 2020 GAF Women in Sales Summit is going virtual, with new programming and exciting keynote speakers. Visit www.GAF.com/careers to learn more about becoming part of the team at GAF.
We found our Women in Sales Summit created an important opportunity for saleswomen across our organization to give direct feedback, thoughts and ideas for our leadership teams – many of which led to both immediate solutions as well as longer-term projects. Today, GAF is building an additional company wide Women’s Network as part of our ongoing efforts to assist all employees with support and opportunities for growth.
For any NWIR member teams that would like to create their own Women In Sales-style event, here are some of the surprises we found:
> Many sales training/development companies do not cover the specific intersection of women working in sales roles, but with a little research, there are amazing leaders that serve this need.
> Communication and inclusion of male sales population is a crucial component, and played a helpful role throughout the summit.
> Our sales teams appreciated the tailored nature of the event specifically for salespeople, keeping discussions focused and relatable.
> Following up is crucial. We held monthly calls for 3 months after the summit, and followed that with bi-monthly networking events. This deepened the learning and networking
If you’re seeking support or ideas about how you may be able to build a similar event, please feel free to reach out for any suggestions to chris.mooney@gaf.com