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Car dealers are becoming female friendly
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Mike Wise knows how to treat a lady. That’s a good thing, because soon he will have to pass a test to prove it.
Wise is a sales consultant at Palmetto Jaguar, one of the first Charleston area automobile dealerships to become associated with AskPatty.com, a Sarasota, Fla.-based Web site that serves as an automotive advice site for women. In September, AskPatty launched a dealer certification program designed to train sales and service staff at auto dealerships to be more female friendly.
“The auto industry has been traditionally male-dominated, but it is waking up to realize the buying power of women,” said Breanna Boyle, marketing manager of AskPatty.com Inc.
AskPatty’s year-long training process includes a textbook and a 134-question test. It costs dealerships $225 per person for the 12-month training period plus $795 a month for dealership certification. Dealerships that become certified are co-branded with AskPatty and get a link on the AskPatty.com site, where browsers can search for a female-friendly certified dealership in their area.
Burnam Eubank, general manager of Palmetto Jaguar, learned about the AskPatty certification program through her father, Manly Eubank, who established the first Eubank family automobile dealership in Charleston in 1969.
“There were some women dealers I know across the country who were involved with AskPatty,” Burnam Eubank said. “One of them said to take the test seriously because one of her service managers failed it.”
Eubank read the textbook, took the test and became certified, but said the test was difficult.
“You’d think it would be easy for me,” she said. “I’ve been in the car business my whole life, so I guess I’m just like other guys in the car business. Maybe I assume too much.”
The textbook taught Eubank that women sometimes need more decision time than men when shopping for an automobile and that they are more likely to come back to a dealership after thinking things over, she said.
“Women buy from people they like and they trust,” Eubank said. “They’re willing to stick with you until you find the right thing. (With) men, you have that one shot when they’re here in front of you and then they’re gone.”
Since becoming affiliated with AskPatty, Eubank has also joined the Web site’s panel of 50 female automotive experts, headed by NASCAR driver Deborah Renshaw-Parker. As an AskPatty adviser, Eubank helps answer questions e-mailed to the site and sometimes posts short articles.
Much of the information in the AskPatty certification program is based on surveys and gender studies. Eubank said Wise, her newest salesman, read the book and told her he felt as if he’d just gotten some tips on dating.
“I definitely found it very, very insightful,” Wise said. “A lot of it is common sense, but a lot of things are things you would not think about. One of the biggest things is emphasizing patience and being a good listener. That’s one of the biggest tips I’ve learned and it’s been very successful for me.”
Wise has also learned that sales consultants too often direct all of their conversation toward the man when a couple is car shopping, he said.
“I think a lot of salesmen spend all their time talking to the husband or the boyfriend, but they need to talk to the one who’s making the decision,” Wise said.
Palmetto Jaguar’s sister dealership, Palmetto Ford, is also involved in the female-friendly program. Graham Eubank, general manager of Palmetto Ford and brother of Burnam Eubank, said the family’s other dealerships, Palmetto Lincoln Mercury, Palmetto Hyundai and Mama’s Used Cars, will also participate.
“There has been a lot published lately about how much influence women have on the purchase of an automobile,” he said. “We thought it was something we wanted to learn a little more about.”
Jennet Alterman, director of the Center for Women, a Charleston non profit organization that aims to help women improve their lives both professionally and personally, has collected reams of research on women’s spending habits.
“According to the research I did, they influenced 80 percent of all car sales,” Alterman said. “Women buy 80 percent of all ride-on lawnmowers. We buy 66 percent of all personal computers and 55 percent of all consumer electronics. It is so interesting that it has taken the marketing world so long to figure out that women have such buying power. The fastest growing market of people buying houses is single women.”
Alterman recalled her own car shopping experience about five years ago, when she visited a dealership several times, once with her husband and another time to test-drive a car. Three days later, she went back again to tell the sales consultant she wanted the car.
“He said, ‘Don’t you think your husband should test drive it before you get it?’ I did tell his boss later that they should do some sensitivity training,” Alterman said.
Although she said she was not familiar with AskPatty.com, Alterman said many businesses are finding ways to better serve female customers, including companies such as Jiffy Lube that have added children’s play areas and Internet connections to waiting areas at some locations.
AskPatty.com is a little more than a year old and so far has only one other S.C. dealership in its certification program. Newsome Motors in Florence, a Mercedes-Benz dealer, has been certified as female friendly.
David Yarborough, general manager of Lexus of Charleston, said he isn’t sure how he feels about the concept.
“I’d be interested in learning more about it,” Yarborough said. “It sounds like a way for a dealership to maybe justify that they’re doing things the right way, when you ought to just do things the right way. I certainly hope and feel we’re doing all those things anyway. I think everybody can be intimidated by the car purchasing process.”
Yarborough said he has several female employees, including two sales consultants, a finance manager, a service advisor and an assistant service adviser.
Margo Walden, who is in her 11th year as a sales consultant at Lexus of Charleston, said every dealership should have some females on their staff. A former golf pro and a master life member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, Walden said she is used to working in a male-dominated business.
“Many females call here and say they want to talk to a female salesperson, because they feel more comfortable,” Walden said.
Although females can ask for Walden at Lexus of Charleston, they can’t ask for Patty at AskPatty.com. AskPatty is the brainchild of partners Peter Martin, a former automotive executive with experience in a number of marketing ventures, and Jody DeVere, an entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership, including 15 years developing technology-based marketing for diverse industries.
The Web site states that Patty represents all women, including grandmothers and career women, as well as the young, the old and the disabled.
Martin initially had the idea for an automotive Web site that would market to women and brought in DeVere as a consultant. Now, Martin is chief executive of AskPatty.com and DeVere has put her consulting business on hold to be president of the Internet company.
“The concept of having a safe place to get advice really resonated with women and we have gotten a tremendous amount of publicity and support,” DeVere said.
The Web site launched in May 2006 and now gets about 3.2 million hits each month, and traffic on the site and its blog is growing about 30% each month, DeVere said. Since launching the certification program last September, 200 dealers have joined.
“We are trying to help dealers in the automobile industry in general understand how to do a better job with women,” DeVere said.
She acknowledges that AskPatty.com is also a marketing tool that is making money, but debunks the notion that AskPatty is an advertising gimmick.
“It’s a 12-month program and it requires reading the textbook, studying and taking a very difficult test,” DeVere said. “They find out it’s not just a cute little program. They have to make a serious commitment at the dealership to change behavior.”
DeVere thinks female-friendly dealerships will soon have a strategic advantage in their markets, she said.
“What’s happening is, there are a lot of books being written on this topic and women are beginning to understand the power of the purse and want it served up their way,” DeVere said. “If dealerships are going to grow and thrive in their market, they need to pay attention to the woman car buyer. She’s your bread and butter.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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