One Size Never Fits All: Business Development Strategies Tailored for Women (And Most Men)

Women are achieving equality in professional service firms by many metrics, but they continue to trail their male counterparts in making it to the very top leadership positions. While the public conversations have largely focused on women’s concerns about work-life balance and their hesitation to lean in for opportunities, research demonstrates that the ability to develop business is a greater obstacle for women’s success than any other reason. While most firms actively tout an active commitment to advancing women at all levels, they also adhere tightly to the use of traditional business development strategies, strategies that are unequivocally failing to capture the strengths of talented women in these firms. Through original research, detailed in the book, Dr. Reeves illustrates how women often are more successful in certain aspects of business development (networking, establishing relationships, delivering excellence in client service), but firms primarily reward closing the sale and getting the credit for the sale–two areas where women are less successful using traditional business development techniques. Dr. Reeves explains why most women (and also most men) fall prey to this flawed traditional business development approach and offers a series of alternative approaches that professional women (andmen) as well as the firms in which they work should use instead. Dr. Reeves’s groundbreaking research and innovative solutions will revolutionize business development for women (and most men), and propel women into the leadership roles which have evaded them in the past.