Dealers need to cater to women buyers

15/10/2010

At a recent used car conference which I had the pleasure of attending, Steph Savill of Foxy Choice, which aims to help dealers become more “female friendly”, highlighted that the supply of cars is dominated by males throughout the organizations that sell them to us. This imbalance if anything has crept up over time and dealerships haven’t adapted to make the sales experience more female oriented.

Currently, 52% of women find a visit to a car dealership daunting, and this is because 65% find the male orientated environment and sales methods patronizing.

For the dealerships that respond and change there is a huge opportunity to increase sales. In terms of a sales environment they should go into an Apple Store and see how the whole environment is androgenous but appealing.

Manufacturers advertising has noticeably changed, but the sales and distribution process hasn’t in many cases. There may be women sales people but the whole process is geared towards males and even the females sales people seem to act like men to get there in the first place.

Its not the time to break out the Laura Ashley décor and hanging baskets, but the Terry Thomas type grins and imploring female buyers not to ‘worry their pretty little heads’ about fuel consumption and other technical facts should be the past, not the future.

By Jonno