Women's vroom - learning to handle salesmen

By SANDY MYHRE

She and her husband or boyfriend step on to the car yard. She shows him the model she's had her eye on. She runs her hand down its roofline. "This is the one I want," she says.

But will her hopes be dashed? More than likely, especially when the salesman addresses her husband and undresses her, so to speak.

How often does this happen to women, with or without a man at her side? Too often, say most women. It's a thing of the past, say dealers and manufacturers.

But given that statistics show women make the final decision to buy a car in 80 per cent of all sales, should it happen at all?

Most new car importers don't have specific "selling to women" modules in sales training programmes, preferring instead to leave it to dealers.

But Toyota New Zealand has a call centre where specific questions can be answered, albeit in a disembodied fashion.

However, the anonymity encourages women to ask questions they may feel uncomfortable about face-to-face with a salesman.

By SANDY MYHRE, a woman who writes about cars for women - and blokes

Toyota's Gary McIver says women indeed ask more questions this way.

"Women do their research," he said. "They know what they want and the call centre helps answer any concerns they may have before they get to the showroom."

Which surely gets back to retail education. However, Sarah Henderson, from Auckland dealer Kirk Motors, believes there's a distinct gap between the lip service of training programmes and the reality of clinching a sale.

"Salesmen still don't seem to understand women's needs," Henderson said.

"Women are a bit apprehensive and worry they will get ripped off by a dodgy salesman.

"This is why I find it really rewarding dealing with women. They appreciate the way I relate to them."

Henderson sells to fleet buyers and she says most fleet decision-makers are women who are "absolutely confident"about the buying process - unlike the female private buyer. Perhaps this means women are better able to spend someone's else's money than their own.

Curiously, there were more saleswomen in the car industry 10 to 15 years ago than there are now, although lately they seem to be coming back.

These saleswomen, and not training modules, should be the catalyst for a change in attitude by salesmen to women customers.

If not, perhaps competing with the men to see who sells the most number of cars might be the motivational nudge needed to effect a change.

Either way, there's a renewed recognition of women car buyers by the industry. It is producing spinoffs, like the Mobil-sponsored Workshop for Women, run by Auckland dealer Continental Car Services.

General manager Mark Darrow says women are "talked down to" in the service bay. His workshop is an attempt to help women come to terms with car jargon and give them confidence to deal with salesmen.