Kelly Mallozzi is a motivator, blogger, author, consultant, coach and all-around evangelist for the graphic arts industry. She sold digital printing for 15 years, and understands the goals and frustrations of building a successful sales practice.

Through her coaching and consultation at Success.In.Print, Kelly is passionate about helping print companies sell more, and sales leaders inspire more. She is a regular co-host on the #GirlsWhoPrint Podcast, the co-author of "Who's Making Money at Digital/Inkjet Printing… and How," and a frequent contributor to many industry blogs and publications. Kelly was a fun person to interview in this episode of Dscoop's "Unvarnished" video series.

She will be leading two educational sessions at America's Print Show, an event coming up August 17-19, 2022 in Columbus, OH, USA. One will focus on creating branding and messaging that facilitates sales conversations; the other will focus on using social media platforms.

As "the Great Resignation" continues in the United States, and workforce development in the print industry remains an issue globally, Kelly points out that it's an important time to become intentional about leadership and team-building.

She shares her perspective in this piece for Print Media Centr, summarized here:

Everyone Benefits From These 5 Traits

Consultative, exploratory problem-solving requires more than just good ideas; it requires genuineness and empathy - the ability to shift the point of view to the client or prospect instead of yourself or your company's products and services.

Women are particularly good at that, Kelly points out.

"Now is the time to consider a real effort in making sure that women are represented on your teams, and that focusing on their career development is everyone's responsibility," Kelly writes. "Women are far superior in many facets of measurable strategic traits that make growing your company possible."

Generally speaking, here are five reasons women make great sales and marketing pros:

1. Women are better listeners. Females demonstrated a significantly stronger preference for listening than males, according to results of a study by leadership development firm Zenger/Folkman and featured in Forbes. You can't possibly know what a client actually needs unless a salesperson actively and empathetically listens.

2. Women bring less ego to the table. "I Googled this and came up with many articles discussing how to deal with male egos at work, so I decided to just let this one be represented by my own personal years of anecdotal research on this topic," Kelly writes. "Men bring more ego-related issues to damn near everything in life. I said it. Fight me."

3. Women are problem solvers. According to research, males score significantly better on problem-solving items related to perceived confidence and ability, and females score significantly better on problem-solving items related to emotional awareness and deliberation. Kelly's summary: "Men are better at solving problems because they are confident they can. Women solve problems because they think and feel."

4. Women are more collaborative. According to this Harvard Business Review article, "studies have shown that women are more likely to care for the collective, which means they are more likely to step in when they see a gap or ambiguity." Researcher, consultant, and author Pam Heim found that women are more likely to agree with the statement, "Being a good team player means helping all of my colleagues with what they need to get done." In contrast, men are more likely to agree with the statement, "Being a good team player is knowing your position and playing it well." In organizations that get work done through informal project teams or that have overlapping accountabilities, this difference in perspective has implications for the way the men and women collaborate.

5. Women are more likely to be allies to other underrepresented groups. "This allyship has gone unrecognized in most workplaces," Kelly points out. You can read more about the topic in this "Women in the Workplace" study by McKinsey.

Says Kelly: "I hope you realize that this position is about balance and not total domination. Adding more women to your team carries many benefits, and I hope that you, as a leader of your company, will take steps to diversify your teams."