Less than 7% of auto salespeople today are women! Yet, having a significant portion of your sales staff made up of women provides you with a competitive advantage …
That’s because women feel much more comfortable making a high-stress purchase like an automobile from another female AND most men like to buy products from women! In addition, your showroom floor should mirror your customer base which is typically at least 50% female purchasers.
Perhaps you already know this, so why don’t you employ more women? And do you ever wonder why you have such a hard time attracting and retaining female salespeople? Let’s look at some facts …
The Four Reasons Women Don’t Consider a Career in Auto Sales:
- They don’t like the way you sell them cars –so why would they want that job? Most people feel intimidated by the negotiation process – mostly women. In fact, research tells us most women feel negotiating is just another form of “arguing”.
Women go online and comparison shop – they do their homework – and expect to have a fast, simple, transparent sales process, which most stores don’t deliver. Male salespeople are now conditioned to believe that most women auto buyers won’t finalize a deal without bringing a male along with them; so, they become dismissive of female auto shoppers if they don’t have a guy along to handle their negotiations. That’s incredibly insulting and just plain wrong.
- The Old Boys Club: In most stores. women are not welcomed by the existing predominantly male sales force. Whether it’s attitude, language or “huddling”, most auto salesmen don’t welcome women with open arms.
- Managers don’t have the right skill sets. Face it, most sales managers are really “deal managers” – they haven’t been trained in skills that focus on helping develop their sales staff to be more independent and empowered. Women are often different than men in many ways and need managers who can help them develop their skills. While these are skills that make them more effective with customers, they create a challenge for male managers who are not used to managing women.
For instance, women tend to talk in stories (not bullet points) and therefore managers need to have great listening skills along with patience to effectively manage them. In addition, women are not “gunslingers”; they want to be absolutely accurate in the information they share with a prospective buyer. So, this means we need managers who have excellent expertise in training.
- Hours. This isn’t quite as big a drawback as most dealers think. Women already work long hours and weekends in challenging jobs (waitresses; hotel check-in receptionists; real estate; jewelry sales in the mall). However, we’re not going to attract professional, mature women if we don’t move closer to a 40 to 45-hour work-week and show flexibility with scheduling. You’re kidding yourselves if you think you’ll be able to attract mature women – along with Gen-Yers. If we don’t address the hours and scheduling.
What do I need to do to attract and retain more female sales associates?
- Adopt a limited negotiation sales process. This more transparent model will resonate much more with women salespeople (and your customers) who want a high level of “deal fairness” for everyone they present an initial price to.
- Improve your managers’ skill sets to more effectively manage women (coaching; listening; recognition; training).
- Adopt a 40 to 45-hour work week.
- Zero tolerance for “showroom cowboys” who don’t display the appropriate level of respect for their female counterparts.
- Adopt a more salary-based compensation plan, paying on the gross in general is an antiquated compensation system. Gross-based pay plans reward salespeople “trying to make as much money as they can off of everyone they meet”; this philosophy just won’t resonate with women (and can backfire with informed customers); they are also more security conscious than males and therefore want more of a salary-based comp plan.
- Be somewhat flexible in your hours.
As a bonus, everything you do to attract women will also attract Gen-Yers of both sexes.