When I joined Motus, the sales team skewed heavily toward one style of selling, and it was working — until it wasn't. Once we intentionally diversified who we hired, our female sellers ended up producing 20% more revenue than their male counterparts, often with customers in industries we hadn't competed in before. I have a PhD in group communication, and the research backs it up directly: diverse groups make measurably better decisions — the number researchers use is 87% better.

The clearest example was an acquisition. My company and our biggest competitor merged the same week I joined, and I expected massive overlap in their sales pipelines. It was 8%. One team was young and transactional, closing small deals in weeks; the other was seasoned, closing six-figure deals over six to nine months. Neither was wrong. We needed both.

None of this started as a sales strategy, honestly. It started because a shrinking corner of our customer base — food and beverage, where our reps had years of tenure and a blind spot to match — got spotted by people who'd never worked that industry and therefore had no reason not to notice it was shrinking.