The Role of Automotive Saleswomen

We have a lot of colleagues working in the car industry.  Many of them have made us aware of a growing trend in the retail motor industry in Australia: to actively, deliberately hire more saleswomen.

Women who are considering a role in car sales for the first time may doubt their ability, especially when it comes  to their knowledge of cars.  I asked one of my friends who is a successful sales manager in the automotive industry.  He said that his company, and several that he deal with actively seek good saleswomen as part of their sales teams for the following reasons:

1. Generally speaking, women are better listeners.
2. They tend to be better at asking customers questions (instead of simply bombarding them with ‘information’).
3. They are often better at empathising with customers.

He said that these three things are essentials of sales success and good customer service, and most women in sales have a natural advantage in these areas.

Other significant business advantages that women can potentially bring to an automotive sales team include:

• Saleswomen are usually more capable at making customers comfortable quickly. A comfortable customer is more likely to remain longer in the dealership,  is more likely to return several times, and as a result, buy.
• Saleswomen have the benefit of contrast in a male-dominated industry: in a car showroom with a dozen salesmen, a saleswoman has an immediate and clear advantage in being noticed and remembered by clients.
• Saleswomen are usually better at asking questions in a natural and comfortable way to investigate and develop the customer’s  needs and listen attentively to the customer’s answers.
• Saleswomen generally have a better awareness of style, which can be a significant benefit for advising customers on colour/trim choices, vehicle options and accessories.
• Customer satisfaction surveys have shown that saleswomen are frequently perceived by customers as more honest than their male colleagues.
• Saleswomen have a tendency to create more repeat and referral business.  As a result, they often contribute to faster team results in many areas of team performance.
• Saleswomen add crucial and different perspectives to a male-dominated sales team’s discussions in sales meetings and sales training, which then helps the whole sales team’s awareness  and learning speed.
• Saleswomen usually achieve higher results than salesmen in several sales activities, which contributes to an overall team improvement.
• Saleswomen have a generally better natural skill to create a positive car-buying ‘experience’ for their clients.  Some examples of this include thoughtful acts such as gifts or a bunch of flowers at delivery and taking a photograph of the clients with their new car on delivery, remembering and using the clients’ children’s names, client birthday cards, etc.
• Saleswomen are often more adept at multi-tasking, which better equips them in the project management of the activities needed to sell, prepare and deliver a vehicle and to manage the client follow-up relationship to maintain client satisfaction.
• Saleswomen create and manage to completion many opportunities for sales that their male colleagues may not even have had the opportunity to complete.

There are fantastic opportunities for new saleswomen  in a car sales career.

To discuss the suitable opportunities available in a car sales career, contact our preferred automotive recruiter.

Tagged as: Automotive Sales