Title: The X and Y of Buy: Sell More and Market Better by Knowing How the Sexes Shop
Author: Elizabeth Pace
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2009
220 pages, including Q & A by author
As I read this book, I was in full agreement with the author and thought she had nailed X perfectly, perhaps 45% of the time. As to Y, I could not judge. But the rest of the time, and especially in the last one-third, or more, of the book, Pace’s broad, sweeping statements about women acted as a persistent itch that I could not quite reach. I found some of them even a bit insulting. For example, did you know that women—theoretically, all of us—are unable to look at a map without turning it so that the direction in which we are moving is “up”? I’m sorry, but my mind knows that, on a map, east is to the right, west is to the left; north and south are up and down, respectively.* And then there is the question of parallel parking. I don’t often have a need to do that, anymore, but I do it well. Very well. But maybe I really am a rare specimen. Or maybe my brain is both male- and female-differentiated.
I say that because the author does not insist that all women—or all men—think, shop and relate to sales and marketing people in exactly the same ways, all the time. From time to time, she acknowledges that exceptions do exist; some women, she allows, have “male-differentiated brains,” just as some men have “female-differentiated brains” (having nothing to do with sexual identity).
But how valid are her claims? Initially, I was pleased to find that Pace had documented many of her statements, which tends to lend academic and/or scientific credibility to any published work. However, when I looked over the citations, I saw very few that appeared to be truly academic or scientific publications. So many, even most, had titles that gave me no real feel for how valid those resources might be. But it gets worse: Chapter 7 includes not even one citation. Nada. Zip. Yet, in this chapter we learn that “women have at least two specific areas for speech and language on each side of their brains.” Men, however, “do not have multiple areas for speech and language” which, if true, could go far to explain why so many women complain about their guy’s lack of communication. But the author gave no citation. Is this information about male and female brains such common knowledge among sales and marketing professionals that no documentation is needed?
This book offers some interesting ideas and information which, if valid, could be helpful in sales and marketing, as well as in other relationships. I found the chart on p.33 interesting, as to how men and women approach and make decisions. And Pace’s applications of the information in that chapter might be helpful (pp.34,35).
But I can’t help thinking that sales and marketing folks, just like the rest of us, would do better to see the people with whom they are interacting as individuals, rather than as members of a sub-species. Gender, alone, does not account for all of the factors that influence the decisions we make, and I really chafe, when someone obviously tries to pigeon-hole me based on only one factor.
If you want to read this book, I suggest checking at the library or buying a used copy. It is, in my opinion, a lightweight, and the “GenderCycle” chapters at the back were downright boring.
