Auto Estrogen

About a year ago a friend of mine told me she was interested in working in the automotive industry. She had been attending auto auctions with her husband and the two had decided they might have an interest in selling cars.

Later she shared an incident in which she applied for a sales position at a car dealership. The general manager reviewed her application and blatantly told her she wouldn’t be interested in working there. The reason: the sales guys wouldn’t work well with her, she’d be competing against them and it wouldn’t be a happy environment. Wow! I was shocked. Pam (my friend) had never worked in car sales before but she does have an extensive, results oriented sales background and could easily hold her own on a car lot.

Several months later a colleague relayed a similar story. She had worked at a dealership for a very short time. Her summary: It wasn’t a friendly environment.

Needless to say, when I was driving and saw the sign SALESMAN WANTED at a car dealership, it got my attention. Prior to hearing the two stories above, I would have thought very little of it, but today I have this question:

How well is the auto industry managing diversity in the showroom?

Walk into any dealership and you see one consistent theme. The bulk of the sales and management staff are male. You’d be hard-pressed to find one behind the receptionist desk though. Why is that? A 2002 study by CNW Marketing Research presented by AWARE (Advancing Women in Automotive Retail) showed that 60% of women working in car dealerships worked as office staff, while only 7.1% are general managers, 4.9% are owners, 4.2% work in new car sales, and 2.1% work in used car sales. Now there’s a discrepancy! Consider the fact that subtle stereotypical advertising like Salesmen Wanted vs. Salesperson Wanted still exists and you see the dilemma.

Car-Buy-Her maintains its position that in order to build woman-friendly environments within dealerships, the auto industry needs to establish better diversity and recruitment programs that make the dealership both attractive and friendly for women. In our report How to Build a Woman Friendly Dealership, we make this point: Until the industry employs a comprehensive recruitment program that includes balancing the employment work force, the industry will continue to lag behind.

When I first started Car-Buy-Her I knew advocacy was a part of the equation. I knew it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to say it. After my personal experience, a lot of secondary research, and a number of conversations with women, I recognized that women had to take a stand. Women Standing Up was the title of a speech given by Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta at a League of Women Voters meeting this month. For those of you who are not familiar with Mayor Franklin’s work, her accomplishments are too numerous to mention. Mayor Shirley Franklin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, Ebony magazine, Black Enterprise and many other local and national publications and is certainly one to be admired. I listened intently at the issues at hand, the resounding message and completely understood the many variables that play into the everyday lives of women.

It’s hard for some to get it. Many don’t want to accept the fact that speaking to women, for women, with women, is not about separation, but more so about recognition, confidence building, self-awareness, relating, understanding, and support. Although the context for the meeting was a discussion of the local politics at hand the inferences were across the board.

Here are some of the Mayor’s sentiments and how they relate to women and car buying:

1. Women have a different perspective - Women’s viewpoints on car buying are different. Women tend to look for cars that are safe and reliable. Women look for showrooms that are clean and visually appealing. Women tend to like low-pressured sales tactics and want to be acknowledged, respected and told the truth.

2. Women shouldn’t try to emulate men - Absolutely! Whether in business, politics or car buying there is no need for women to go at it as if they are men. Women can be informed, empowered, and in control as their own feminine selves!

3. Reflect the experiences of women - One of the goals of the Car-Buy-Her site is to listen and share women’s stories and to provide useful information that can be used to make the car buying experience more enjoyable.

4. Gender Budgeting - I had never heard of this one, but in a nutshell there are cities that actually budget for women’s issues. Are you listening dealerships? It’s time to incorporate a Women’s Budget into your marketing plan. Car-Buy-Her has both training and marketing programs that can help dealerships work more effectively with the women they serve, but it’s up to the dealership to determine that it’s important enough to address and invest in. We know that many of you have, and for the others I suggest you give us a call when you’re ready.

Car-Buy-Her will continue to advocate for women as we fulfill our mission to 1. educate women 2. educate dealerships and 3. bridge the gap between the two.

As the founder of Car-Buy-Her, I’m often challenged by men —- salesmen, managers and even dealership owners on the necessity of an automotive site specific to women. For those that agree that consumers do indeed need education; they rarely see the importance of focusing on auto buying from the female perspective. All consumers need to be educated they tell me. Even men outside of the industry let me know quickly, that they too are challenged when it comes to buying a car. Some just out and out disagree with me. Take Mr. Brakebill for instance, a car salesman out of Illinois who emailed me, asking for my professional opinion (which I was happy to share). I provided statistics, personal experiences, and stories shared with me from women that have led me to my passion for educating women and dealerships and my belief in the validity of the Car-Buy-Her concept and business model. Mr. Brakebill did not agree. What I received back was a somewhat close-minded, almost argumentative email of his strong conviction that there is no difference in selling to women and selling to men and competence and empathy in the profession is all that is needed. Point noted.

From time to time, I talk to a male that understands. Just yesterday I received a call from an Internet sales manager with a dealership out of DC who wants to develop a program that educates consumers, specifically women and was researching what works and what does not. Applause! Applause! He gets it. I get it, women get it, but as a whole I’m still wondering, are dealerships in denial when it comes to the needs of women?