Why She Buys (32 page)

•
Don’t assume a nod means yes
.

Women and men have different reasons for nodding. Men nod to show agreement; women nod to demonstrate
that they’re listening. Women’s nods can mean,
Yes, go on, I understand
. They don’t necessarily mean,
Yes, I’m ready for you to close this sale
. Women often nod vigorously when they’re in conversation with one another. Watch for the cues and don’t try to close too fast, or you’ll risk turning her off with what she thinks is a hard sell.

•
Lead with the emotional, close with the rational
.

This is particularly true for luxury products, where the need to buy is purely an emotional one. Women need help justifying a major purchase more than men do. Help her rationalize the decision so there are no guilt feelings about spending money on herself. When it comes to shopping, guilt is largely a female issue, probably because men buy more products based on need and women buy more products based on want.

•
Discuss service and maintenance policies
.

Don’t skimp on this information, because as we’ve seen, women will fast-forward to the worst-case scenario and want to know what their options are should things go wrong. Trust and peace of mind can be your competitive advantage.

•
Give her a reason to tell her friends or colleagues about you
.

Women are a great source of referrals. Give her something to pass along to her friends so that they can get a discount on your product or service. At a minimum, ask her if there’s anyone she knows who might also be in need of whatever you’re selling. If she likes you, she’ll want to help you succeed.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Lexus

T
HE
stereotype of the bad car salesman is so ingrained in our collective psyche that car buying remains the poster child for bad selling, especially with women. It’s shocking that the second-biggest purchase most people will ever make, after buying a home, is a transaction they dread. People love cars; most just hate what they have to go through to get one. Interestingly, 92 percent of the industry’s salespeople are men,
¹
even though the majority of new car sales are driven (forgive the pun) by women.

From the standpoint of good selling techniques, the industry is not without its bright spots. Toyota’s Lexus brand is one of them. Slightly more than half (51 percent) of all Lexus buyers are women, and just twenty years after its introduction in the United States, the brand has the highest customer retention rate of any luxury car. Fully 60 percent of Lexus owners trade in their old Lexus for a new one.
²

Talk to a woman about her Lexus and you’ll want to find a comfortable chair, because you may be there for a while. I asked Louise, a single, sixty-five-year-old businesswoman who’s owned three consecutive Lexuses, why she likes the brand so much. “Do you have half an hour?” was her response. She and the other Lexus buyers I interviewed were impressive in their devotion. But after speaking to them at length, it became clear that these women weren’t just talking about their cars—they were talking about their
relationship
with Lexus.

“I don’t think it’s product that draws women to Lexus,” says Nancy Fein, the vice president of customer relations at Toyota, who has spent years working with the Lexus brand.
“There are lots of competitive products that could be considered equally attractive. The biggest issue for women is the whole aspect of service, from the sales experience to customer service.” And when it comes to delivering an experience that women want, Lexus has cracked the code.

Setting the stage

First and foremost, Lexus sets the stage for effective selling. Good salesmanship is like great theater—it requires the right props, the right script, and the right setting. It sounds so simple, but creating a beautiful atmosphere is important for getting women in the mind-set to spend money—especially on a $50,000 (or more) car. Lexus works with its dealers to set high standards for ambience, because it understands that the comfort of the dealership is the first part of women’s experience with the brand.

Lexus dealerships typically feature designer furniture, soft lighting, and the kinds of amenities you might expect from a luxury hotel lobby. Premium coffee, flat-screen televisions, and upscale baked goods all create the kind of vibe that’s designed to make customers want to linger. One of the dealerships in Chicago, called McGrath, actually has a full café right in the middle of the place, where about a dozen customers were relaxing and sipping hot coffees as I walked by.

When it comes to buying expensive things, women like to be romanced during the sales process. This romancing isn’t sexual, of course—in this context, the word describes an atmosphere that makes women excited and filled with anticipation about what they’re going to buy. For many people, buying a new car is one of the most thrilling
moments in their lives. The fact that this is not reflected at most dealerships is one of the biggest missed opportunities in the history of missed opportunities. Getting the keys to a new car should have all the excitement of a wedding day. After all, some people stick with their cars longer than with their marriages.

Seeing the sales process through female eyes

After hearing so many glowing reviews of the Lexus sales experience, I decided to test it out myself. When I mystery-shopped the expansive McGrath Lexus dealership in Chicago, I noticed virtually everything about the process—like a typical woman. If you haven’t studied women’s reactions to your own sales environment, you should. Here’s how it works. As soon as the salesman introduced himself, I sized him up to determine whether I could trust him. My first clue was his language—was he polite, and did he use good grammar? Yes and yes. Was he respectful? Yes again. He made no comments about the fact that I was a woman on my own at a car dealership. He didn’t look me up and down. He asked me all kinds of relevant and appropriate questions about my lifestyle, and what was important to me in a car. Then, as we strode through the place, I measured the reactions of his colleagues. Was my salesperson a respected member of the team, or did I get a dud? I searched their faces and body language for clues. Most people want to be sold by someone who appears to be successful, because it makes them more confident in their buying decision.

Then I checked out what the other salespeople were doing—were they busy and businesslike, or just hanging out
making small talk? Were they making fun of previous customers? I strained to hear. Walking past them, I wondered, were they looking at me like—“He’s got a live one!”—or did they seem respectful? Upon inspection, they all came across as professional. They smiled and nodded as I walked by. And just like the scene in the movie
Fargo
, where police chief Marge Gunderson discovers clues to a crime by observing the notes on sales manager Jerry Lundegaard’s desk, I found myself reading the notes and pieces of paper in my salesperson’s tidy cubicle. Nothing incriminating.

All of that inspection took place within the first three minutes of meeting the salesman. He passed with flying colors. Then he casually mentioned that if I purchased a car, I would receive free car washes at the dealership, and that once a week a massage therapist would be able to give me a complimentary massage while my car was being washed. The mere mention of the word “massage” during the sales pitch seemed to lower my blood pressure several points (along with my defenses) and suddenly made me feel all warm and fuzzy about Lexus. In spite of myself, I began to sense that being a Lexus owner would give me entrée to a certain
lifestyle
, not just a car. Suddenly I had visions of becoming the kind of person who got weekly massages and drove a spotlessly clean luxury car.

Mastering the sale

Setting the stage for the sale is part one. Selling the actual product is part deux. Lexus has different levels of internal sales-training certification on everything from product knowledge to customer handling. All Lexus salespeople are
scored on customer satisfaction, and those who meet the highest levels of certification are called “master certified.” When a salesperson reaches this level, the company subsidizes a car lease for his or her own personal Lexus. It’s a perk that helps the company retain its best and most experienced people.

Louise, the three-time Lexus owner, is proof that the system works. “I’ve used the same salesman for all three of my Lexuses,” she says. “And he drives a Lexus himself, so he knows the car. But one of the best things about dealing with him, and with Lexus, is that you don’t have to hassle and play all those silly games to buy your car. Women don’t like that. We’re intelligent and we don’t want our time wasted. For me, buying from Lexus is a stress-free experience.” Louise is not only loyal to the brand; she’s loyal to her specific salesperson. To her, he is as much a part of the brand as the car itself.

My salesperson at Lexus clearly had been trained in customer etiquette, which is an important aspect of selling to female buyers. “Women are more interested in manners,” says Annette Sykora, who runs two car dealerships in Texas, in addition to her role as chairman of the National Automotive Dealers Association. “They like the pleases and the thank you’s and the yes ma’ams. It matters more to them; my men customers don’t really care.”

The salesman I dealt with not only had good manners, he shrewdly leveraged Lexus’ third-party credibility, which was compelling. On his desk was a binder of J. D. Power & Associates survey statistics, and stacks of articles praising Lexus’ performance in media ranging from
BusinessWeek
to the
Financial Times
. His attitude was, “Don’t take my word
for it—see what these respected publications have to say,” which is an effective technique for persuading women to believe in a product, especially when it’s expensive and they could use the reassurance.

Service is the sweet spot for Lexus

Lexus sets the stage well for selling, and they train their salespeople to negotiate in an effective but low-pressure manner. Their final stroke of business acumen is to provide outstanding service after the sale. Lexus views each sale as the beginning of its relationship with a customer, not the end. This is the way the company has built its position as the luxury-category leader in customer loyalty. Every Lexus comes with a warranty that has female appeal written all over it. The company provides free, 24/7 roadside assistance; a bumper-to-bumper warranty; free loaner cars when a vehicle comes in for service; free car washes; and new-owner events in which customers can get help doing those pesky-but-necessary things like installing Bluetooth and changing automatic settings on seats and radios.

Lexus’ roadside assistance program is the star attraction of the company’s service offerings. The American Automobile Association (AAA) backs up the program, though fully 65 percent of the calls are responded to by Lexus dealers. “We give the dealer the first opportunity to answer a call for help, and most dealers will take the calls for their own customers during normal business hours,” says Fein. A dealer who responds to a call for roadside assistance typically sends out a truck with the dealership’s name on the door, along with one of their own technicians. The
dealership effectively becomes a bit of a hero every time a customer sees its branded truck coming down the street to rescue them.

This is one of the reasons women describe a relationship with Lexus that goes beyond their cars. Safety is critical to women. There are few things they dread more than the thought of being broken down alone on the side of the road at night, or worse—being broken down with their children. “If a man breaks down it would be inconvenient; if a woman breaks down it could be life threatening,” says Courtney Caldwell, editor in chief of
Road & Travel
magazine. Given that point of view, it’s easy to see how this kind of service after the sale keeps women coming back. “Lexus is a reliable car, but the service process takes care of you,” says Fein. “It feels like someone’s watching out for you. And the men like it, too.”

When women are on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, they tell their friends, and friends of friends. “I’ve told so many people about my great experiences that now every time my book club meets, it looks like a Lexus parking lot,” says Louise. Toyota’s Fein is matter-of-fact about why. “When you get right down to it, the only thing that makes Lexus different is our value system,” she says. The company has a covenant that states,
Lexus will treat each customer as we would a guest in our own home
. Each dealer commits to follow it. “The Lexus covenant is a powerful shared value within the organization,” says Fein. “Anyone can build a building. Anyone can develop a training program. Anyone can copy what you’re doing, but they can’t copy the way you do it.”

Lessons for your business

Takeaways from Lexus include:

•
Set the stage for success
.

Women need to feel comfortable before they buy—especially when spending large amounts of money. Put them in the right frame of mind to respond to your sales pitch through the way you decorate and light your sales environment; the way you train and retain your salespeople; and the way customers are treated from the moment they walk in the door. These elements are all a part of the ambience “package” a woman notices about your business. Leverage the tips in this chapter and be creative. Whatever small amount of money McGrath Lexus spends on a weekly massage therapist is worth its weight in gold in terms of customer perception, brand allegiance, and talk value.