Digital Dealer - April 2020 - 22

D I G I TA L D E A L E R E XC L U S I V E I N T E RV I E W

versus females. They are not different."
Then he amended this by telling me, "I
think that it is harder for women to get
respect from males and with that knowledge I wanted to make sure you had my
full support and backing, I thought, 'I have
to completely empower this person and
not manage around her. I have to reiterate
to any of her employees who may come to
me that she has autonomy, full empowerment.'"
My staff is pretty progressive, but they
still might treat a female customer differently than a male or fail to recognize that a
woman is a decision-maker. I remind them
all the time that women make 85 percent
of the purchasing decisions. They'll argue
with me in some scenarios and say that's
not true - the driver is the man. I tell them
that if there is a woman there and you
offend her or her children-children are
absolutely included in that-if you don't
acknowledge them in a positive way, they
will encourage the man to buy somewhere
else. They'll walk.

DEALER MAGAZINE: What specific
tactics have you found most useful in
nurturing and supporting the rise of
female executives in a dealership?
MAUREEN: There are many great reasons to hire more women, especially in car
sales. You want a woman in sales perhaps
because people associate with women some
of the qualities that put us at ease: more
understanding, more trustworthy, more
able or willing to listen, and more tenacity.
That's not saying women are actually better
at doing the work or even that they demonstrate these qualities more often than men,
however, car shoppers most definitely feel
more comfortable about a dealership when
females are in these roles.
Women also tend to be extremely successful in automotive sales. But then we try
to recruit and hire females by offering them
reduced work schedules, 40-hour workweeks, salary-based, etc. The perception,
right or wrong, is that women are going to
want to spend more time at home to be with
their children, want work schedule flexibility and paycheck stability. The big mistake in
that is if you're hiring that kind of person -
not just a woman -- you're not going to find

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that truly hungry, driven leader, one that
can make a difference, by offering things
they won't find beneficial. You're going to
end up with an average performer.
Women are very particular about what
they want to do and where they want to
work, the challenges they want to tackle.
They're very sensitive to being discounted
or downplayed, so offer empowerment,
advancement opportunities, and unlimited income potential. You might be lucky
enough to find a strong woman to fill your
opening.
I've been on a leadership team for a long
time, and I've learned that the turnover
process starts at the interview. Make sure
you know who and why you want to hire
before you say you want to hire a woman. It
can be dangerous to define leadership roles
by gender. I'm not good at what I do simply
because I'm female.

DEALER MAGAZINE: Which performance sales strategies have you
implemented to meet the challenges
of shifting consumer demands and
reduced brand loyalty?
MAUREEN: Demands have shifted, yes.
Consumers visit fewer dealerships, spend
more time online, visit more websites, and
want to spend less time in a showroom.
But once they get to the showroom, it's
as much about a positive experience as
it has ever been. A poor customer service
experience, for example, can make someone rule out a brand. This is especially
true for millennials, who expect a high
level of customer service. That's why we
focus on the customer experience first and
foremost, and we go pretty deep into it. It's
not just a matter of offering beverages and
being friendly and giving information. All
of those things are important, too.
But I try to teach my people to emulate
what I've learned to be true about what it
really means to provide customer service.
And by providing that level of service,
you can shift people to being brand loyal
without having to affect their first vehicle
choice.
You want your customers to feel important, that their concerns are valid, that you
are listening. And they should feel this
from everyone they interact with while in

your store or online. They need to know
the salesperson isn't the only one who
cares about their transaction or situation.
Our sales strategy is to make it all about
the customer.

DEALER MAGAZINE: Could you
give us an example of how your
customer-first sales strategy works
in practice?
MAUREEN: We like to be transparent.
We want to have the customer tell us
all about the information behind their
decision, the information they collected before entering our store. Maybe 20
years ago, they might refer to a single
source for their information, say Kelley
Blue Book. Dealers would push back and
say that's just a guide and you can't rely
on that information. Today, you can't
do that-and it works in a dealer's favor
to know a customers' trusted source of
information.
People want to do as much research
as they can before they enter the store.
That's why we turn it around and use it
to our advantage. We ask them to tell us
about all the information they've found.
Let's talk about it. What they've read
doesn't necessarily make them better
informed, and it's sometimes really, really
difficult for customers to understand
exactly how to apply that information
to their transaction. It's easy for them
to get confused. So, we incorporate the
information they've already collected and
use it as a frame of reference that makes
sense to them. We don't hide anything.
We work together and show them how to
apply their information to make the best
decision. We have to demonstrate that
we care about the problem and that our
priority is to help them solve it.

DEALER MAGAZINE: What is your
digital marketing strategy?
MAUREEN: We're part of the Lithia
Motors family, so the Lithia marketing
team handles much of the marketing
effort. Generally, we use a lot of different
third-party solutions, such as Cars.com
and Autotrader and so forth. In particular,
the way we market our pre-owned vehicles
has been a game-changer for us.

April 2020
http://www.Cars.com http://www.digitaldealer.com
Digital Dealer - April 2020

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