Susan Scarola of DCH to receive the 2008 Professional Achievement Award on November 20th in Los Angeles

Congratulations to Susan Scarola, CEO of the DCH Auto Group, our 2008 Professional Achievement Award winner.

Established in 1997, the Professional Achievement Award is presented annually to a professional woman in the automotive industry in recognition of her Commitment, Professionalism, and Success in the automotive industry. Qualities that each recipient of this award has in common include:
a) outstanding accomplishments in career,
b) leader in business and community, and
c) influence and support of other women in the automotive industry

This year, the event will be held in Los Angeles (see event details to the left) on November 20th at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel. While DCH and Ms. Scarola are based on the East Coast, they have strong dealership representation in Calilfornia and many of the California and New Jersey based employees of DCH will be in attendance.

Nominated by her direct report, Dana Rodriguez who is the group's Brand Experience Manager, Ms. Scarola was a an easy pick for the award. Despite her obvious qualifications such as only CEO of a major dealergroup, leader and influencer in the industry as a whole and her strong commitment to fostering positive work environments for both women and men within DCH, it was the impassioned nomination by Dana that made this year's honoree a clear cut choice. We have decided to reprint Dana's nomination letter for all to read versus trying to paraphrase or quote it, in order to not diminish the sentiments of her team. I believe it is the wish for many of us in the WAAI to find someone like Ms. Scarola under whom we can mentor and then to one day hope for even half the admiration she receives.

"I can't put into words how absolutely thrilled I was when it was announced that Susan was going to be the President and CEO of DCH Auto Group. I knew that this was not a position ordinarily held by a woman, but I should have realized that I do not work for an ordinary Auto Group! Susan works stronger, harder, and smarter than anyone that I've yet to meet. She made a commitment to all of the employees of DCH Auto Group, which is a bit over 2,800 right now, that she would personally travel from dealership to dealership getting to know who we are. Can you imagine the President and CEO of one of the nations top 10 Auto Groups caring so much about the employees? Making time to meet people and get to know everyone? This is the type of person Susan is…caring and committed.

Susan knows that employees that are proud to work for DCH Auto Group are the key to our success. I've often heard her tell employees that "If you're not proud of where you work that how can I expect you to deliver The DCH Way to our customers and to each other?" "Our business is not just about the car"…her favorite page from our brand book entitled "The DCH Way". In 2007, Susan traveled from cost to coast visiting every dealership to speak to every single employee about the importance of practicing The DCH Way…doing the right thing; the importance of behaving with honesty, integrity, and the highest ethical standards. Not only has our Employee Satisfaction seen an overall increase, so has our customer satisfaction. As a matter of fact, in 2007 DCH Auto Group had more J.D. Power certified Dealers of Excellence than any other dealers group in the nation!

Susan has always made time for the good of our communities as well. She has been a sponsor of Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children with life threatening illnesses and their families for many years. She is an integral part of making DCH Auto Group SADD's (Student's Against Destructive Decisions) exclusive vehicle dealer partner in the Tri-State New York area and Southern California. I could go on an on! 

On an even more personal note, as a woman in this industry for almost 15 years, I have never been so proud of my company as I have been since I began to work directly for Susan (when she became President and CEO). She has managed to maintain such a perfect balance of still being a woman, but a firm and respected woman. She is soft spoken, but speaks with conviction. She is an inspiration to me and is undoubtedly not only the best leader that I've worked for, but a person that I will reach out to for the rest of my life. People are better off for knowing her…I am better off for knowing her."

Networking, networking and more networking!

Why did you join the WAAI? Was it for support? Advice? New friends? Business ideas? Fun events? Crying? (this is why I joined...because every event I went to was so touching that I cried and I felt as if I needed more happy crying in my life) Lorraine? (Oh, this is another reason I joined) Whatever the reason, for most of us it involves some aspect of networking - the most overused, but underutilized phrase/activity in business. I think the WAAI has stumbled upon the two best ways to network in our industry and it's up to you to take advantage!

Each year, the automotive industry plays center stage to dozens of "networking" events. These events purport the 3-day long conference will be filled with good information and even better "networking." I find this interesting because for each one I go to, rarely do I "network" with people I didn't already know. Sure, I get talked at by the speakers and panel members, but I don't typically meet any of them let alone get anywhere near networking with them and I may meet the people at my table or sitting next to me, but hardly does this constitute great networking.

The structure of these events just don't cater to true networking. Sure, there are "networking" coffee breaks and cocktail hours, but again I am typically talking with people I already know and unfortunately for those who are trying to work the room and network, they are always interrupting my conversation and therefore, irritating me more than interesting me. I can't help but get caught up in conversations with dealer friends and our current vendors at most conferences, thus not allowing for others to get a word in edge-wise. How do those in the "networkig" biz rectify this situation?

Speed networking and social networking! This may seem eerily similar to an article from last month, but it's a big topic, so I need to hammer it home! The speed networking format (stolen from the SEMA women's group) is absolutely BRILLIANT! Think speed dating....then think business...then think networking. Essentially, you rotate who you are talking to every few minutes - therefore even if you do get into a conversation with someone you are already acquainted, it can't drag on too long for in a few minutes the organizer is crying out "SWITCH!" and on to the next person you go! With speed networking, you can meet dozens of people quickly and then determine after the event with whom you would like to continue talking.

As I mentioned in last month's newsletter, WAAI did our first Speed Networking event in SoCal before the ENG Next Generation CRM Summit began. It was such a huge success that it was the talk of the ensuing conference. Many people told me during the conference that they talked with many more people than they would have normally, since the speed networking event opened so many doors!

This past year, we had our Second Annual SoCal Speed Networking event in cooperation with OneCommand and sponsored by DealerSocket, R.L. Polk, and DealerCentric Solutions (see pics adorning this post) and again, attendees loved it! One attendee in particular, Charlie Vogelheim from JD Power, loved it so much that he decided it was a great activity to incorporate into his own upcoming event in October in Las Vegas (see upcoming events to the left to register), the JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable. One of my complaints from his event last year was not the information, for I found the event to be full of great information to take back to our dealerships, but was the lack of real networking. I had a little bit of networking in the roundtable format, but it was tough to get conversations going when the event was so fast moving and didn't provide a good format for meeting new people. Speed networking during his event became a no-brainer.

"We want to provide our attendees not only the best information for making decisions about their internet business, but the relationships with those who will be able to help them and guide them," said Vogelheim. "It's clear to see the speed networking format helps put together these relationships quickly and of course, we are happy to support the WAAI and get recognition for such a great association"

The final variable in the networking equation is online social networking. While attending speed networking events is quite possibly the most fun and exciting option for networking, it is not easy to appease over 500 women all over the world with speed networking events in their area. Therefore, we had to give our members another way to interact and to do it frequently and we did this through our site, thewaai.ning.com. On this site, members of the WAAI create profiles with not only pictures but information about themselves ranging from business accomplishments and goals to hobbies and favorite vacations. Then, once the profile is created and approved, members can view other member profiles, read posts/articles by other members, start discussion groups about anything and really interact with the other women from all over the world that are members of WAAI.

As of post time, we have 41 members who have created profiles on the site and we are hoping more of you will take the time to create your profile and start networking. Use this site as a way to organize speed networking events in your area, or find a mentor/mentee, or ask advice about business or life. This member-only site takes our association virtual and puts us in touch with women from every aspect of the industry. I truly believe once we really start taking advantage of this site, we will truly be reaping the rewards of networking for we will be fostering new relationships, sharing ideas and information, organizing events and providing guidance to those who need it. So stop waiting and start networking! Click here to join the WAAI Social Networking Site (Note: the site is for active members only, therefore if you got the email that says "Time for renewal!" or you are yet to sign up, please renew your membership or join and then access to the site will be granted!)

Most Influential Women in the Automotive Industry; WAAI Women Named

I won't repost the entire article, but you can go here to read about who Forbes Autos deems to be the 13 most influential women in our industry.

When I first saw this story come across my RSS reader, I thought how in the heck do they determine "influence?" Author Elizabeth Blish Hughes seems to quantify it as those making a "big impact" and again, I am struck by how do you quantify "big"? And then I saw some WAAI members and past award recipients made the list and I decided to give up the nitpicking and celebrate instead! Women are getting called out as Influential in Automotive, which is good enough for me despite the somewhat vague categorization. Even if only 13 percent of the top execs are women, we are making a move and I have a feeling that number won't stay at 13% for long! (See the marketing/selling to women article below for some interesting factoids on women and education and business.)

At first, I didn't like how you couldn't see the full list without viewing the slideshow, but then I found I enjoyed the little tidbits of information about the women provided in the slide show such as their current/favorite car. Did you know Teri Mulcahey loves the smart ForTwo? Not totally surprising since Penske is the distribution arm for smart, but it's still fun and I give her credit for telling the world. I was the laughing stock of my office when we got our smart dealership and I begged for one as my demo. Though in my office's defense, I don't think it was the design they were against, but my poor driving skills and their fear for my life in such a small car (though they have excellent crash ratings).

Congratulations to the following WAAI Forbes Auto "Most Influential Women" and members who got either quoted or mentioned in the article:

Annette Sykora, President of Smith Ford Mercury, and current NADA Chairman, WAAI Member
Sandra Gillespie, Senior VP of Procurement and Supply for Mistubishi, WAAI Spirit of Leadership Recipient
Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway of California, WAAI Spirit of Leadership Recipient
Teri Mulcahey, Vice President of Business Development for Penske Auto Group
Lorraine Schultz, Founder of WAAI
Jody Devere, President of AskPatty.com, President of WAAI

Marketing/Selling to Women...how different are
we from men each other?

Just like "networking," female oriented-marketing/selling is also a popular buzz phrase right now in all business verticals, not just automotive. In automotive, we have companies like AskPatty.com who is trying to not only attract and educate the female automotive consumer, but also the dealers helping that consumer. (I would think by now, most of our members are fairly familiar with AskPatty.com - at least the blog portion of the site, as the president of AskPatty.com is also the current president of the WAAI.) And companies like JD Power, who will be having an entire panel session at their upcoming Automotive Internet Roundtable event all about marketing to women and will include panelists like Jody Devere and moderated by Melanie Kovach from Automart.

However, I can't help but feel like many people marketers/dealers seem to be looking for some kind of "silver bullet" or better yet, some kind of "silver stereotype" with which they can load their marketing ak-47 and take down an entire gender. Us women just aren't that easy! Geez, you would think people would get that by now! And it's not just men that want to use and abuse worn out stereotypes. Female marketing executives are notorious for thinking "I am a woman, so I know how to market to women." Mistake number 1.

I recently finished the book the "Power of the Purse" by Fara Warner in preparation for an upcoming meeting with our service task force, hoping it would give me that "insight" on how companies like McDonalds, Home Depot, Proctor and Gamble and others made their transformations in marketing/product to better connect with and sell to women. However, the only thing each company had in common was not their end marketing strategy, but the means to the end; each company asked their female consumers their opinions. Not their female execs, female employees, friends/family, but their customers were asked THEIR thoughts/suggestions/criticisms.

Of course, each company found their female consumers were all over the map. As were the male consumers. McDonalds was able to focus by trying to find the "Woman inside the mom," but they were smart enough to know how to tailor this message depending on the medium they were using to get their messages out and knew that the non-mom was also a customer. Home Depot found that having a more "inclusive" marketing strategy versus "exclusive" suited them better...the message/renovations didn't skew too far either way and included both men and women, so as to not leave either out and therefore get more of both. And I could go on, and on - she did for about 188 pages, just to get out the message: ASK THE WOMEN YOU WANT TO SERVE!

Why don't we do this already if it's that simple? Writing out that sentence and actually asking are two totally different things. The manufacturers survey our customers, but they don't always know the answer to question number one below...are the recipients of the completed survey (dealerships) ready to listen. Not to mention response rate to the surveys can be abysmally low. The results to the manufacturer surveys are somewhat helpful, but it's not really covering the crux of what our customers want and goes for the "completely satisfied" which is hardly true. When in life have you ever been completely satisfied? There is ALWAYS something that can be better!! To our individual dealerships credit, some of them do try to survey their customers, but none yet have focused on the female segment. Therefore, I have nominated myself to take on this challenge opportunity. Here are some of the struggles I am encountering and my proposed solutions.

1) If we ask....are we ready to listen? I think this is a BIG reason people don't ask. If women say the waiting area in the service department is stuffy and uncomfortable are we ready to throw down the money to renovate and update? Before you embark on this mission know the answer to this question.

2) Method of asking:

Email Survey? These are relatively inexpensive if you already have the software through your CRM (DealerSocket) or email deliverability partner (Exact Target - that's what we have). If you don't have an already established partnership, there are a lot of web companies that offer robust survey platforms. Zoomerang is a very commonly used tool and I found it to be very inexpensive. The trick here is delineating your female customers. It just so happens our CRM does not track male versus female, but I think this is pretty common for most automotive CRMs. Therefore, to do a "female" survey, I have to manually go through and pick out names that are obviously women. This is inefficient, especially when survey return rates are low and many of them have already done one for the manufacturer. Zoomerang claims they have a tool that can guarantee x number of answers for the demographics I am searching. The cost for 500 answers: $1900. Don't know if my team will go for that just to get initial information.

Calling? More labor intensive, but may get not only more results, but better quality results as further discussion ensues. If done internally, won't be able to contact as many people, but to bring in a third party will cost around $3.25/call.

Point of Purchase Surveys? Easy to disseminate and don't have the male/female identification issue, as you do with email/calling, however return rate will be lower than calling and possibly lower than emailing. Also, someone will then have to manually tabulate all results after the survey.

In-person? Most labor intensive and more than likely the slowest option, but may have a serious upswing in having interaction with customers and creating a true sense of involvement between customers and the direction of the company.

My solution? I plan to go through our CRM and search people who have serviced in the last 6 months and pick out 100 women (based on name) and email them the survey. I will also pick 50 women from a list of customers we sold in the last 6 months, who have not been in for service and send them a similar survey. I will then follow up the survey replies with a call to see if I can clarify and enhance the feedback.

With this sample of data, we will then decide if we want more at this time or if we feel this is enough to formulate a plan of action.

3) Time to make some changes! Once we get feedback, now we have to put it all together, makse sense of it and then act on it. I plan to prioritize responses based on frequency and ease of implementation probably plotted on a point graph of some form with ease of implementation being one axis and frequency of request being the other.

We then decide what our phases of implementation will be and then put together training videos on our virtual trainer to help disseminate the information to our team and then blog about it on our internal company blog.

4) Continuous Feedback Loop: It's not enough to ask once and say "Now, we've got it" and continue the next twenty years with this "newly" found customer insight. Once you figure out how to get feedback, you must make it continual and easy. I find the easiest way here is to tie it into our current marketing efforts. Surveys would become a staple of our messaging and we can use them to shape the way we market to all segments. In addition, we can tie it into our Loyalty Program and offer "points" or discounts for each survey completed.

I will keep you posted on my progress through the blog on the networking site and the results...if I ever get any and how we are making changes. For those of you out there who are market research geniuses, feel free to email me below or to go onto the social networking site and comment on this post on the blog.

Erica Sietsma, WAAI Membership Director,
Manager of Corporate Communications for MileOne Automotive

Celebrating Women in Racing

As you know, the Women's Automotive Associaton International supports women from all sides of the automotive industry including racing. For the third year in a row, we are proud to support Lyn St. James, a board member, and her "Women in the Winner's Circle" luncheon in Indianapolis on July 24th. The event honors the many women and girls in motorsports who have participated in Lyn's world-famous WWC Driver Development Program.

Tickets are going quickly as this is a favorite event of women not only in racing, but from all over who enjoy celebrating the accomplishments of some amazing women and girls! Some of the younger members in her Driver Development Program are only five years old! You don't want to miss this event!


When: July 24, 2008 11:30AM - 1:30PM
Where: Indianapolis Motor Speed Way Plaza Village Pavillion
Ticket Information:$100 per person/$1,000 per table/$500 for program ad/$500 to sponsor a driver to Race Academy
Guests: 100 to 500
Register: Click here or call 317-244-9790

WAAI Summer BLOCKBUSTERS: Speed and Social Networking!

This summer, the WAAI launched our much anticipated Social Networking Website - thewaai.ning.com! On the site, members can create profiles, search other members profiles, watch videos posted by members, start discussion forums, see upcoming events, create groups and MUCH more!

We are hoping the networking site will open up many new opportunities within the WAAI. Members will be able to use the site to post open positions, jobs wanted, give support and advice on business strategies and personal goals/interests, set up corporate or vertical specific groups and establish mentor/mentee relationships. The possibilities with a virtual network are endless and we believe this is the first step to the revitilization of the WAAI.

Also this summer, we will be holding our second annual WAAI Speed Networking Happy Hour in cooperation with onecommand and additional sponsorships from DealerSocket, R.L. Polk & Co. and Dealercentric Solutions, Inc. The event, which is held the night before the start of the ENG Automotive CRM Summit, is open to WAAI Members and non-members. Last year this event was a smash hit and WAAI members got to network with men and women from all around the automotive industry and Michael Baker from the Bob Baker Group even won an iPod Nano thanks to Century Interactive. This year, we will be doing a drawing for a $200 Visa Gift Card, so be sure to bring an extra business card!

When: August 12, 2008, 7PM-10PM
Where: The Clubhouse, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA
Who: Anyone you think would enjoy meeting a whole lot of people in our industry
Tickets: $15 for members, $30 for non-members, appetizers, beer, wine and sodas are included in the cost
Door Prize: $200 VISA Gift Card
RSVP: Please email Erica Sietsma by July 28th, esietsma@mileone.com

From the Desk of the WAAI President: Help Wanted? Hire More Women!

Though women make up more than half the U.S. population and buy more than half the new vehicles purchased in this country, their representation as employees in dealerships remains disproportionately small.

Several years ago General Motors launched a program to boost the number of female-owned dealerships. Currently, 267 are owned by women, which is slightly more than 8 percent. Among Ford brands, 358, or 7.4 percent, of dealerships are owned by women.

Female owners, however, tend to run more successful dealerships, industry officials say. Although just 8 percent of all U.S. car dealerships are owned by women, those stores average a higher rate of sales than those owned by men.

Women hold about 7 percent of all jobs in dealerships, according to CNW Marketing Research. But while women account for 60 percent of the office staff, they fill only 7.1 percent of the general manager roles and 4.9 percent of the ownership positions, numbers that haven't changed much in the last decade.

Acknowledging the importance of women in the marketplace, automakers have long been rethinking how they design vehicles. But automakers' efforts to raise the number of dealers who are women have proved inadequate. Of General Motors' 7,400 dealerships, 226, or 3 percent, are owned by women. At Ford Motor, women own 278, or 5 percent, of the 5,165 dealerships. It's much the same for other automakers.

The retail car business, like many others, has long been a father-son story. Sons took over dealerships as their fathers retired or died, and showrooms and service bays looked much the same for a century, with few women or members of minorities.

Then, if sometimes only by circumstance, a few women started inheriting dealerships from their fathers or, increasingly, from their husbands, and it appeared that time was finally marching on. But only some women have advanced in the auto dealer business beyond that -- by ascending to management jobs that put them in the line of succession to run a dealership, or by coming up with the money to buy one.

Women who own dealerships tend to do well, and several manufacturers report that franchises owned by women are at or near the top in overall sales volume. Some dealers and industry analysts have an explanation for that. The reason women become so successful is they are interested in treating women right when they come in.

CNW says 39 percent of women would rather deal with women in the car showroom, compared with 10 percent of men who prefer to buy cars from other men. On the flip side, 13 percent of women prefer to deal with men, and 11 percent of men want to deal with women. The rest are indifferent about the sales representative's sex.

The National Automobile Dealers Association estimates there are more than 100,000 jobs available at 20,000 dealerships across the nation. How do dealerships attract and hire more women to fill these vacancies?

It should not "take a special kind of women" to handle working at a car dealership, in my opinion.

Long hours and almost total lack of flexibility are obstacles to many women, especially those who want to work part time because of family or child-care conflicts. Compare the auto-dealer numbers with those in real estate, which requires night and weekend work but also is highly flexible: about 60 percent of real estate offices are owned by women.

For car dealerships to attract more women, they need to establish and enforce best practice HR policy, provide a female friendly culture, environment and policies that will make these job opportunities more attractive.

If the dealers are eager to hire more women, it might be a good idea to staff up the dealer management with women so that policies that women employees favor are practiced.

Smart dealerships can provide flex schedules and day care support programs to attract these highly qualified women to apply and retain them.

Please send me your thoughts on this topic to jdevere@askpatty.com.

Jody DeVere
President
Women’s Automotive Association International

Do you know someone who deserves a Professional Achievement Award?

Every year, the WAAI honors one woman deserving of the Professional Achievement Award. In years past, recipients have included Indy car driver, Lyn St. James, Pamela Rodgers of Rodgers Chevrolet, Lynn Myers from General Motors and Irma Elder of Elder Automotive Group.

Recipients of this award all have in common the following qualities:

a) outstanding accomplishments in career,
b) leader in business and community and
c) influence and support of other women in the automotive industry.

Does this sound like someone you know? If so, please let us know! The Professional Achievement Award Dinner is moving out west to Los Angeles this year and we need nominees. The event will be held in November, probably around the time of the Press Preview Day for the Los Angeles Auto Show, therefore we need your help in finding a recipient of the award.

Please email Jody Devere (jdevere@askpatty.com), our President, and let her know the woman you would like to nominate, her current title and company, and the reasons you believe she meets the criteria for "Professional Achievement." A recipient may be actively engaged in or retired from the automotive industry when selected. The International Board of Directors of the Women's Automotive Association International ratifies selections.