LOW-PRESSURE marketing is being employed at an Adelaide shopping centre as Holden teams up with a customer-focus specialist to put women in the front line of retail sales.

Specially trained women are at the shopping centre this week to inform shoppers about the new Holden models in what Yvonne Bowyer from CMS Strategic Automotive Advisors terms “hassle-free and haggle-free” advice.

“It’s about generating leads for the dealership in a low pressure, professional way, unlike what some customers perceive from the dealership experience,” she said.

“It’s low pressure because it’s about informing not selling.”

Ms Bowyer said that vehicles were increasingly being promoted in shopping centres “but the execution is lacking and potentially damaging to customer’s perception of brands and dealerships”.

“A vehicle parked in the middle of a shopping centre, one in which you can’t even lift the bonnet, or sit in the driver’s seat let alone talk to an ‘expert’ will do little to influence the purchase decision but will cost big dollars,” she said.

“Female experts or brand ambassadors add yet another dimension to the customer experience.

“It’s about generating leads for the dealership in a low pressure, professional way, unlike what some customers perceive from the dealership experience.”

The concept is being supported by the GM Holden leadership team, the South Australian regional management team and Peter Page Holden.

This week Holden has worked with 360 Evolve to introduce a virtual reality (VR) test drive for potential customers to use the latest technology and experience the Astra car.

Peter Page Holden dealer principal Paul Page told GoAutoNews Premium that the VR experience had become very popular with shoppers who visited his pop-up this week.

“I think this will continue to grow as a way of visualising the driving experience,” he said.

“We intend to expand the concept to include audio in the near future.”

Mr Page said he was delighted with the professionalism of the women who staffed the pop-up and impressed with how they related to shoppers.

“I know from my career in car retailing that women make the majority of decisions about the next car. They are a strong influence and vital to any dealership.”

Mr Page recently promoted Cindy Taylor, who had been a sales consultant for his dealership for eight years and brought up two children in that time, to new car manager.

“She has done a brilliant job and now that her children need less attention from her, she was able to accept the new position,” he said.

“It is the same for our spare-parts manager who is also female.”

Ms Bowyer said that the pop-up exercise is also an example of employing women in automotive retailing with flexible hours and a non-commission based wage in a “non-blokey” environment.

“The job is to create these conditions within the dealership too,” she said.

Ms Bowyer said that women influence 80 per cent of all car purchases but only 20 per cent of the automotive retailing workforce are women.

“Women are a dealerships largest demographic,” she said.

“But women hate the buying process. In a dealership, 80 per cent of the workforce is male. Women feel intimidated, ignored and belittled opting instead to car shop online.

“In contrast, we know that female sales associates can be more comforting, less aggressive and they are often great listeners and there’s little chance of them offending a customer with flirtatious remarks.

“What’s smart about alienating most of your customers and missing the opportunity to deliver a superior brand experience? A workforce as diverse as its customer base can better service those customers.”

Ms Bowyer said that employing more women is the obvious answer but this doesn’t get to the heart of why women pass up dealership jobs.

“Long hours, lack of working time flexibility and commission-based pay plans all play a role,” she said.

“But out-of-dealership has a lot of advantages. Rather than car shoppers coming into the dealership to test drive and arrange purchase, a location such as a shopping centre offers a chance to engage customers earlier and help them with their purchase decision in a hassle and haggle-free environment.”

Ms Bowyer said CMS Strategic Automotive Advisors works with a number of dealerships, currently in ACT, Victoria and South Australia to implement best practice in recruiting.

“Dealerships can potentially reduce time to hire by up to 50 per cent, reduce cost per hire by up to 70 per cent and improve hiring efficiency while finding the quality and diversity of talent they need to drive business results,” she said.

“However, many dealerships either don’t have the human resources support or this expertise is not used to its full potential. The solution is to adopt technology that can act as an in-dealership virtual HR expert so that hiring then becomes smarter, fairer and automated.”

Yvonne Bowyer will be presenting on this topic at the 2017 AADA National Dealer Convention in Sydney.

The venue for the Peter Page Holden pop-up is the Elizabeth Shopping Centre in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth and it will be in action until Sunday April 9.

By Neil Dowling