AskPatty helps women buy cars
• | Dealers’ training more than ‘fluff and puff’ |
By Sarah A. Webster
Detroit Free Press
Women flat-out decide, or in some way, influence most of the car and truck purchases in the United States — more than 80 percent, according to some estimates.
But
talk to women candidly about their auto-buying experience, and you'll
find that many aren't thrilled with the experience in showrooms.
Women
still report being asked, "When are you going to bring your husband in?
When are you going to bring your dad in?" and similar disrespectful
questions, said Fara Warner, author of the 2005 book "Power of the
Purse."
So what's a male-dominated industry like the car business to do?
Enter http://AskPatty.com, started by a couple of entrepreneurs who thought they could make some money straightening out the problem.
Data
from J.D. Power and Associates show that the situation isn't as bad as
some anecdotes suggest. Men pay a little more for their new vehicles
than women, and women are a little less satisfied than men with the
maintenance and repair process at dealerships.
Many
dealerships have already installed child-friendly areas, with toys and
child videos, and dealerships report doing their best to attract female
salespeople and to treat all customers with respect.
But
AskPatty.com, a New York-based Web site, aims to go a step further and
help improve the communication between female customers and auto
sellers.
The
site educates women about all things automotive, with a staff of female
automotive experts who write articles and answer questions on repair,
maintenance and car buying.
AskPatty.com
also provides a unique service: certifying dealerships as
female-friendly after they've passed a course on how to communicate
with women, which continues to pose a challenge to many salesmen.
Forty-nine
percent of the nation's dealerships don't have even one female
salesperson, according to a 2006 survey by the National Auto Dealers
Association. The number of women selling cars and trucks in showrooms
declined this year — to about 8 percent of the 231,400 auto salespeople
nationwide.
"I'm
not a screaming feminist waving my finger at auto dealers," said Jody
DeVere, president of AskPatty.com. "I'm a businessperson, and I saw an
opportunity."
To
be certified, members of a dealership's sales team must read a book on
how to communicate with women, titled "How to Get Rich Selling Cars and
Trucks to Women," and take a training course. Then they must pass a
134-question test, which takes about an hour to complete.
"We're
teaching them how to attract, sell and increase loyalty with women,"
said DeVere, who also has two male partners in the AskPatty.com
enterprise.
AskPatty.com
gets about 20,000 visitors each month. About 50 dealerships have signed
on for certification services. Dealerships pay $225 per person for 12
months of training and $795 a month for the dealership certification.
Steve
Rajnert, 32, the Internet sales leader at Dorian Ford in Clinton
Township, Mich., took the initiative to get his dealership certified
after finding the Web site this year.
"They've
actually given us a lot of information on selling to women," he said.
"Women are doing a lot of the purchasing on their own. ... Sometimes
the women don't feel comfortable. This trains us on how to communicate
a lot better."
Rajnert
confesses that he has changed the way he sells to women, and it also
has improved his personal relationships, as a result.
"I give them a lot more attention than I would before," he said.