Six years ago, PepsiCo India realised the need to have more women in its sales team. PepsiCo India CHRO Pavitra Singh says the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guiding principle is helping to bring more women into sales roles.

A key aspect of diversity in any organisation is about ensuring people belonging to a different gender, ethnicity, etc., are represented in a balanced manner across functions and departments. 

However, many departments still lack representation, especially for women, and one such department is sales. 

According to 2019 Bureau of Labour Statistics data, women are underrepresented in B2B sales in most industries, including wholesale and manufacturing (27 percent) and financial services (30 percent).

However, over the last few years, more women are getting involved in sales functions. And, two reasons are playing here — first, more women are coming forward to join the sales workforce, breaking the stereotypes, and second, corporates are implementing several proactive efforts to increase gender diversity in this domain.

And, PepsiCo India is not far behind. Pavitra Singh, CHRO, PepsiCo India, says, “At PepsiCo India, under the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion guiding principle, the team has been working towards creating an enabling culture for women hires.”