One of my favorite movies was on TV last night. Although it was made twenty years ago, its plot is as unlikely to materialize off camera today as it was then. Polly Bergen, in the title role of “Madame President,” plays the first woman ever elected to the highest office in the land. As the plot unfolds, we see the film’s real message. Women, even those in executive positions, are ruled more by their hearts and glands than by their heads. This movie was probably made by a man lacking the former and not using the latter.

In the movie I watched last night, Polly Bergen had a tough time when she sought access to the Oval Office. The men all said that a woman could never deal with the complexities of the budget, the contrariness of Congress, or the intricacies of foreign affairs. I’d like to see the man who can do all that. Moreover, I’d like to vote for him.

In the film, Fred MacMurray played her husband and backed her all the way, as did American women. As a matter of fact, that’s how she got elected; with the support of one good man and a hundred million women. But, off the screen, in the real world of the corporate high rise, women are few and far between, and how can you be sure just which is that one trustworthy man who can help you gain access to a sales management position? Furthermore, I ask myself, why are there so few women in sales management of American companies, with even fewer in the presidential suites?

TWO SALESWOMEN

Recently I spoke with two saleswomen who shared their experiences of how the corporate structure reacts when a woman seeks access to a sales executive position. To protect their identities, we have given them fictitious names. Catherine works for a large credit card company; Donna for a large manufacturer of industrial products. Both women love the challenge, independence, and motivation that come with every sale. Skilled professionals, they are now ambitious for a move into sales management, that being the natural goal of all their work, to date. The only problem is how do they get there?

In the past women have been schooled to distrust men until the day they marry and become dependent on one. This being a practical impossibility in the corporate world, a woman must learn to establish more independent avenues of cooperation. As we shall see from Donna’s experience, there will be men who resent women as well as those who treat women like a piece of furniture. There are also, however, reasonable men who will work with a woman as readily as with a man, and who are secure enough not to be threatened by a women with brains and drive. Seek these men out. Learn from them. Accept help from them. Most important, work with them. You will learn how to play the game by being on the team.

DONNA: TALL & BLONDE

Donna began her working life as a secretary, quickly moving through a variety of offices and jobs until she sent out resumes that landed her a position with her present company. she was efficiently running the entire regional office, taking orders, developing rapport for the company with customers, and learning everything about the product and the company’s procedures. When the district manager approached her, after interviewing thirty men for a sales opening, and offered Donna the job, she grabbed it.

At the outset, the men who make up the macho world of industrial products viewed Donna as a dumb blonde. (She is, indeed tall, blonde, and attractive, but the adjective “dumb” is misplaced next to her name.) At the same time these customers really liked the change of scene, and they accepted Donna as soon as they perceived that she knew the products and understood their business needs. Now they even tend to be more open with her than they would be with a salesman. They talk about their wives and children, and they look out for her in a protective way. Many of the older ones relate to her as a daughter. She now feels that being a tall blonde helps her a great deal but in the beginning it wasn’t easy.

In one and a half years, Donnas has increased her company’s sales by one million dollars. Her combined salary and benefit package add up to $35,000. A year and a half ago she was making two hundred dollars a week. Donna is twenty-six. The one aspect of the sales job that worried her at the outset was travel. She now feels comfortable with that and has even established rules on the road for herself: never entertain a customer after business hours; never have a drink at a bar alone; always dress in suits and hose; make sure you talk to each customer at least once a month.

Since Donna has proven herself in field sales, the company offered her a position as district manager in another region of the country. Feeling this would give her status but not real growth within the company structure, she declined the offer. Donna measures growth in terms of financial compensation for the increased sales she has generated, in staying where she has built a base of relationships for the company, and in more responsibility.

THE RIVAL

The day I spoke with her, Donna had just heard from headquarters that her male counterpart in sales had requested a third salesperson for their territory, because, as she put it, Donna could never handle the increased business in the state. Donna was furious. she told me she had prospected long and hard for that new business; she had found business where no one ever thought of looking before. She said she could handle it – and more – just fine.

She feels that this salesman is playing politics with her hard work. Furthermore he has the lucrative part of the state, yet the dramatic sales figures have shown up in her territory. She sees no reason to let a salesman manipulate her life because he feels insecure. She has healthy instincts and she acts on them.

Donna’s experience suggest that a woman just first know what her professional needs are, and then go about satisfying them for herself. The corporate structure, being primarily male, can never fully respond to a woman’s needs. Donna thinks it is wrong to allow the company to dictate for her what success is. She warns saleswomen not to fall into traps that may look attractive but are in reality set by a foe to keep you from growing. Donna is now heading for the position of district manager for her own region. Her chances of succeeding look excellent. That would make her this rival salesman’s boss; an interesting twist.

CATHERINE: NAIVE

Catherine’s experience in the corporate maze is decidedly different.

While Catherine worked as a salesman in a small middle western city, she viewed her work experience as a learning process which she expected would pay off in access to corporate management at headquarters in the big city. She still thinks that’s where the action is; however, once there she quickly got caught up in the labyrinth of corporate politics and inter-office oneupsmanship. In the process she lost sight of the company’s, as well as her own, goals. she claims that this can happen in tiny ways that add up, or in one big event that really throws you. In her case, it was the former.

It was a shock for Catherine to move from a one person office to big city corporate headquarters and a team of four plus another twenty people to connect with every day just to get the job done. she had expected all members of the team to be playing the same game together but she now states firmly, “I was very naive.” She had no idea that a line management position had so little clout. She had no idea that there would be more political activity in the office than actual work. She had no idea that middle management at her company was about to come under great criticism for the way it operated. She as aghast at the backstabbing. She became disillusioned by the gladhanding and sabotaging. when I asked how she dealt with it, her answer was straightforward, “There was absolutely nothing I could do. I was told that this is the way we work here and you better get used to it. So I drank a lot.”

Catherine decided to go back out into the field. She had been hired for her expertise in finding new types of retail accounts and this is where her real strength had always been. Last year she made $48,000 in salary and benefits. She also began a real estate business with a partner which nets her another fifty percent of her salary while she also builds equity at ten to fifteen percent a year. Upon sale of these properties, she and her partner would each net two hundred thousand dollars. She says she works an extra fifteen to twenty hours per week during the six months of seasonal business. That means lots of evenings from May to October plus every weekend are spent moonlighting.

Clearly Catherine’s strength in sales is a plus. She and Donna share another strength in that they understand the importance of prospecting for new business. Catherine’s team record in the big city for finding and landing new retail accounts was phenomenal. But for Catherine, like Donna, success on the bottom line alone is not satisfying. she could not get used to the work atmosphere, plus she saw that all the backstabbing in the world wouldn’t necessarily help her move vertically in the corporate maze. Many of her co-workers were, in fact, moving either laterally, or down, or entirely out. The sales field looked inviting to her then and still does. she feels she has much more independence and flexibility to try new things. There’s a creativity to her work now that she didn’t have working within the high rise.

When I told Catherine of Donna’s experience with the salesman who is trying to maneuver her out, she blurted out vehemently, “I want to kill him. Tell Donna I want to kill him. He’s building a little empire for himself.” We both laughed. But we recognized that it is hard to know which men can be trusted. Catherine claims she didn’t find even one.

MADAME PRESIDENT

Advice for other women who anticipate a move into the corporate arena: 1) unless you have friends there, don’t do it, 2) work on the politics, they are sometimes more important than the job, 3) examine the bottom line to be sure that a move from the field to a staff management position is the right one for you.

In last night’s move, Polly Bergen in her fantasy role of Madame President, was doing very well, despite all obstacles. Congress always wants the president to fall on his face but even more so when he’s a her. All our enemies were gleeful at the prospect of a lapse of consciousness in the White House, while our allies wouldn’t trust a country that allowed a woman to be elected in the first place. Polly, however, was sublime. She was the quintessential executive. She handled every situation with dignity and intelligence. That is, until she began running out of meetings looking decidedly green. She had to cancel a press conference, and she fired the White House chef for preparing inedible meals. She became, in short, the typical bubble brained daffy female, an image that we have all fought long and hard to dispel. Of course we should have guessed: Madame President was pregnant. Her movie husband, Fred MacMurray, has the last word, “It took one hundred million women to get her into office and only one man to get her out.”

The corporate world is likewise rife with men who represent a potential threat to women who seek access to the top. It’s a tricky road and the woman who is not certain of her goals will inevitably find the decisions for her destiny made by someone else.

It’s interesting to note that Polly Bergen liked the job description in the movie so much that in her life she started her own company with the result that now she really is Madame President, albeit not of the country. So we women do have mentors and role models even though they may be fewer and farther between than those for men.

If the movie fantasy provided Polly Bergen with a script for her own reality, she deserves our respect for becoming the author of her own fate by translating that fantasy into reality. Don’t rely on the corporate world to do that for you. Translate your own dreams into reality whether they be in the sales field or in the corporate high rise.