Women in (Car) Sales – National Women's Month

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Matt: 02:11 Welcome, listeners. I am here. It’s Matt with Metro Nissan Redlands. I’m joined today with Chris from Think Creative. Chris, man, how you doing today?
Chris: 02:21 I’m doing good, Matt. And yourself?
Matt: 02:22 Man, I’m doing well. We’re over here at Metro Nissan Redlands. We’re celebrating Women’s Appreciation Month. And we are here with two of the ladies of Metro Nissan Redlands, obviously. We’ve got Liz Meza–
Liz: 02:34 Yes.
Matt: 02:35 –in sales, and we also are joined by Molly Garcia, who’s also in sales, correct?
Molly: 02:39 Yes.
Matt: 02:40 How are you ladies?
Liz: 02:41 I’m great, how are you?
Molly: 02:41 I’m good. I’m good.
Matt: 02:42 Good, good. I’m doing very well. Thank you for joining us. Obviously, you guys are very busy. But we were hoping just to get a word with some of you ladies in here, just to kind of talk about really just your journey in sales, especially car dealerships and things like that. I’ve actually had the opportunity to go to different dealerships around town. And honestly, I haven’t seen too many women on the sales floor. Am I wrong by that? Is there a lot of women in this industry, or–?
Liz: 03:12 Personally, to me, I do feel that right now, women have always played a dominant role in the car business. Yeah.
Matt: 03:20 Nice. Okay. And how long have you been in the business?
Liz: 03:23 With this company? Well, Nissan, it’s going to be five years in sales. Yes.
Matt: 03:25 Wow. Okay. In sales the whole time?
Liz: 03:28 In sales the whole time.
Matt: 03:29 Loving it.
Liz: 03:31 I love what I do.
Matt: 03:32 Perfect. How about you?
Molly: 03:33 For me, I’ve actually only been in sales for about, I think, six, seven months. I mean, even then, I would always go into car dealerships, and my experience with me– when I would go with my family, we would always have a male salesman. So seeing a female was actually really refreshing when I came here. It seems like all the females here are actually the ones that you look up to, the ones that you want to be the role model. So for me, whenever I came here, Liz and Roxy– she’s no longer here. But those two were the main ones that was like, “Okay, there’s particular things that I want to learn from them.” There are things that I even take from them when I even go to my customers. So having female salesmen is actually a refreshing thing to the eye, and I think that’s– as a customer myself, when I had a female, it was actually really refreshing. I felt like I got to be able to open up a little bit more.
Liz: 04:23 That’s very true.
Matt: 04:24 That makes sense. Did you have someone to look out for you when you started, as well, or–?
Liz: 04:28 Of course. Both of my internet directors were actually women. Eva and Lisa Salcedo. Yeah.
Matt: 04:35 Wow. Okay.
Chris: 04:37 That’s great. That’s great. So you said that seven months ago, you started in sales?
Molly: 04:42 Yeah.
Chris: 04:42 So where’d you start previously? Or was it just you went straight into sales?
Molly: 04:46 So I started here. This is actually my first job. I was a student athlete. I went to University of Alabama Birmingham for four years. And I played softball. So I never had a job before. So when I came here, I started off as a cashier and receptionist. And being a student athlete, you constantly climb up the ladder. And I’m not trying to knock down the cashier or the receptionist or anything, but for me, with having that competitive aspect or background, I always wanted to climb up the ladder. With them, there’s no head cashier, there’s no head receptionist. And with the sales, there’s always a top sales. So I always wanted to climb up the ladder and get into that competitive mode again. So that’s why I kind of transferred over to the sales department.
Chris: 05:23 Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot more competitiveness in the sales floor, right?
Molly: 05:26 Yeah. A lot.
Chris: 05:28 Right. So what do you think– how do you think that works for–? I mean, you obviously touched on it. Being a customer yourself at one point, you did actually appreciate seeing other women that were going to sell you– do you feel like maybe that’s an advantage, or maybe even a disadvantage to you when it comes to selling?
Liz: 05:45 I think it’s both, just from my personal experience. It’s an advantage because if you have a husband and a wife, and you address the wife, and let’s just say that the husband makes the decision, we always say, “Happy wife, happy life.” So if I connect– the first thing I do walking up to a couple, I make eye contact with the wife, and shake her hand, and acknowledge her children. And to us, that’s all we need. “You’re nice to me and my kids? Honey, you’re going to buy what she’s selling to us.” You know? But I also think it’s a disadvantage, maybe just a little bit more– I do have more of advantages, is that when a male comes in, and he wants to know certain specs. And I’ve been doing this for a while. So I could tell you that it’s either a 1.6 or a 1.8 or a four-cylinder, or what’s miles per gallon. And so they trip out because they’re like, “Wow.” Yeah. I do know the extra stuff.
Matt: 06:38 Sounds like you’re [crosstalk].
Chris: 06:39 Yeah, you know your stuff. Yeah.
Liz: 06:40 Yeah. I do, but because I love what I do. So when you love what you do, it’s not like homework, you know? It’s like, you want to learn more. You want to know more things. You want to know about the trucks. When I first started in the car businesses, coming from a law background – I worked at a law firm – it was like all these different lines. Nissan has so many lines of cars. Different models. And you’re just like, wow, you have to memorize all of these. The S, the SV, the SR, the SL, the platinum.
Molly: 07:06 Platinum, yeah.
Liz: 07:06 And you learn them all. You learn every single one of them. Yeah.
Matt: 07:09 Wow. Geez. And every year there’s something different to learn, huh?
Liz: 07:13 Yes. That is very, very true. Now we’re doing the Nissan Intelligent Key. There’s a lot of intelligent stuff, like the cruise control, the blind spot warnings, and stuff like that. So it’s good.
Chris: 07:26 Are you guys seeing a lot of– are there a lot of families that come in, man and wife? Or do you see a lot of women come in on their own?
Liz: 07:37 I see both.
Molly: 07:38 Yeah, I see both. But for me, I feel like– I see both, but I se the majority– when I do see a lot of women coming in, but they always say, “Oh, I need to discuss it with my husband.” So they end up leaving and always coming back with their husband. But for me, I’ve always experienced women coming in, and then always coming back with their husband in a couple hours, or a couple days later. So, I mean–
Liz: 07:58 What I do see– I’ve had the privilege of selling vehicles to selling women that are in top positions, like that run an emergency department at a big hospital, or that are at another law firm office, that are like– they run the firm, you know? Yeah. So I do see that a lot.
Matt: 08:20 Shoutout to those women, man.
Chris: 08:22 Yeah. You get to meet a lot of interesting people on the job.
Liz: 08:24 Everything here.
Chris: 08:25 And then at the end of the day, it might not even seem like a job, right? I know you talked about how much you love coming to work, you know. That’s good. That’s good.
Matt: 08:32 Yeah. No, that must be a good feeling. I mean, the environment here at this particular dealership, it always seems pretty welcoming when we come, so I imagine it’s like that all the time. When you first got here, though, did you think there was anything– was it extra challenging because it was, at one point, more male-dominated? Or you think you came it, and there was just big diverse–
Liz: 08:56 At this particular dealership?
Matt: 08:56 At this one, yeah.
Liz: 08:58 Personally, for me, coming to this particular dealership, I’ve already had like four years under my belt, you know? So it was, treat everybody with kindness. Treat them the way you want to be treated. For me. I don’t know how it was for her.
Molly: 09:13 I would say, for me, it definitely was kind of challenging because I was a newbie, so everyone was kind of trying to– “Oh, she doesn’t know anything, so I’m just going to take advantage of it.” But again, learning from Liz and from Roxy, that’s where I became– that’s kind of where the tiger came out. I really wanted to build on my own. I wanted to learn on my own. I wanted to learn from the best. And that’s kind of where I did it, and that’s where I grew. So now, I don’t feel any of that. But in the beginning, I certainly did. But that’s kind of where I just, again, learned from my role models.
Matt: 09:44 Right. And you’ve also mentioned to me off-camera before how you’ve had other women that actually climbed the ladder, and now are kind of in higher positions, or whatnot. So is that something that is pretty much open to anyone? It’s just all based on performance, obviously. So it’s just pretty equal, huh?
Molly: 10:04 Yes.
Matt: 10:04 That’s good. That’s good stuff.
Chris: 10:06 That’s good. So today, we took a look at the 2019 Altima and the 2019 Sentra. Got a chance to drive both of them. Took them around, you know. We shot some video for them. I just want to know, what are your guys’ favorite features about those two cars? Or–
Molly: 10:23 I would say my favorite feature is definitely the Ford emergency breaking. I mean, that’s always been the thing that I always mention the very first thing when I demo a car, is Ford emergency braking. There’s a sensor. It comes on all of our vehicles. It’s if your vehicle ever senses it’s coming too fast upon the vehicle ahead of itself, it will apply the brakes for you. So I actually really do enjoy that because I do get a lot of older couples that really gravitate toward that. “Oh, really? Oh, I feel like that would really benefit me.” So for me, I love talking about that. That’s just always my favorite thing. And then the blindspots.
Matt: 10:56 Listen, man, I’m not that old, but that excites me. That’s something I could use.
Liz: 11:01 My favorite feature on the ’19 Altima is that it’s a little plug away for the Android and Apple car play. Whatever you have on your phone, it automatically pops up on the screen, whether you’re looking for music, whether you’re looking for your navigation, your text messages, your telephone calls. You could be driving and have a whole conversation with someone. You could be driving and text someone a paragraph and never touch your phone. And you’re never going to get lost. Yeah. So I really like that about that car.
Chris: 11:30 That’s awesome. Okay, I got another question for you guys. What’s your guys’ favorite Nissan on the lot? Favorite Nissan.
Molly: 11:39 Well, for me, I’m always stuck in between the two. It’s just depending on what kind of mood I’m feeling for the day, I guess. Because I love both the SUVs and sedans. But I would say my favorite sedan would definitely be the Altima, and then my favorite SUV would be the Rogue Sport.
Liz: 11:53 And mine would definitely be the Altima. I drive one now, the SR. And the Pathfinder as a SUV because I’ve owned a Pathfinder before.
Matt: 12:03 Man, you know, both of those are pretty impressive. Like you said, we were doing the Altima today. Man, it looked so much different.
Chris: 12:10 Yeah. I love the 2019 model. It looks so sleek, and it doesn’t look like a Nissan, you know?
Molly: 12:17 It doesn’t.
Chris: 12:17 I don’t know. It looks more luxury car, I guess you could say.
Molly: 12:20 It does, yeah.
Matt: 12:21 Yeah. They didn’t give me a chance to drive because, like I said, I need to Ford brakes.
Liz: 12:26 Ford emergency braking.
Matt: 12:28 So yeah, yeah, yeah. So they didn’t let me drive it. But I was in the backseat, and it drove smooth. It was fine.
Molly: 12:33 It was really smooth, yeah.
Liz: 12:33 There’s a lot of space. There’s a lot of room.
Matt: 12:34 There is a lot of space back there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Next time, let me drive. [crosstalk].
Chris: 12:40 [crosstalk]. Okay. So let’s talk about other women that maybe want to come into sales, or anything like that. Do you encourage that, or are you just like, “Try something else”?
Molly: 12:52 I encourage it. Because I never thought this was going to be for me. I mean, I came from a background of softball, and then I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. And I always had a dream of mine being a detective, and also even probably even being a paralegal, as Liz was in the past. I mean, I’ve always– that was my set dream. I had a full ride scholarship, and I was like, “Oh, that’s exactly what I’m going for.” And here I am now, successful, five months in, actually out of training, being in sales, and I’m very successful. I’m hitting my quota every month. And I never thought in the back of my mind, “Oh, this is not for me.” But it turned out that I love interacting with customers every day. Even though you do the same thing every day, every day is a little bit different. So when people are like, “Oh, how is sales? Should I do it? Should I go for it?” Yes. Because the first person that I asked– believe it or not, the first person I asked when someone said, “You should do sales,” I automatically asked Liz. And I said, “What do you think I should do?” “Go for it. Yes. Do it. You would definitely do great. You have the personality. You have the look. You attract people. You would definitely do great in sales. You can make people smile. You can make people laugh. You can make good rapport with customers.” So that’s kind of what made me want to do it. And if other girls did it too, they would realize that they would be very successful.
Matt: 14:09 Liz, what do you think it takes? Because you’ve been in the industry for a while now. What do you think it takes for anyone, really?
Liz: 14:14 A great smile, and a great attitude. And anyone can do it. I’m a mother of four. Four kids.
Matt: 14:20 Shoutout to you. Shoutout to you. That’s right.
Liz: 14:21 Two boys and two girls. And my kids are all in sports. And I have like the biggest support group here at work, and at home. And yeah, it comes natural. It’s really nice. Especially working for Metro Nissan of Redlands. They’re like a big family, so it makes your job easy.
Molly: 14:40 It really is. It’s all about not– when you see a customer in face, you have to just be a person. Don’t try to be a salesman. Don’t try to sell them a car. Just build a rapport. If they like you, and you end up loving them, and they end up loving you, that’s what sells the car. It’s not about selling the feature function of benefits. It’s not all about that. If you just show them that you really do care, and you mean it, then that’s what will make the sale.
Liz: 15:08 I agree.

Matt: 15:09 You got anything else, Chris?
Chris: 15:11 No, I think that’s about it.
Matt: 15:17 You know, one thing I do want to say is that it is definitely a family environment when you come to Metro Nissan Redlands. They actually treat me like a little brother here. They always clown on me. They always talk about, “Shirt’s too big, bro!” Or something like that. “Hat don’t match today!” Something like that. So I do appreciate it. It’s cool to get teased. No, but everybody here is very friendly, man. So, listeners out there, if you’re looking to maybe purchase a car, or just find any information on a car, even, maybe not ready to buy just yet, but definitely want to start looking around, I definitely feel like Metro Nissan Redlands is the place. People here are just genuine. Male and female, doesn’t matter. Anyone’s here willing to help. And I honestly feel like– just because I’ve actually had to wait around a little bit, so I’ve got to see how you guys interact with customers that come in. And not everyone that comes in is a sale, you know? And I think you guys do a great job of just– when you come in, everyone is a friend at the very least, you know? So I appreciate you guys for doing that. I appreciate your time, how you deal with us. If you’ve got nothing else, man, I think we got some good info.
Chris: 16:31 I just want to say it’s International Women’s Day today, so we appreciate you. I just want to say, I appreciate you guys for doing what you.
Liz: 16:37 Thank you.
Molly: 16:38 Thank you.
Chris: 16:38 I know it’s not easy. I know it’s not easy. You guys are making moves all the time, all day. Super busy. And you guys took the time to give us some time so we could talk to you today. And I really appreciate that. And shoutout to all the women because it’s Women’s– what is–
Matt: 16:55 Women’s History Month.
Chris: 16:55 Women’s History Month. That’s what it is. Women’s History Month. How’d I forget that?
Matt: 17:00 Yeah. We appreciate any time. You got any questions for us?
Molly: 17:05 No.
Liz: 17:05 No. But if our viewers have any questions, they can call us.
Matt: 17:08 Definitely. So who are we looking for? If you got any questions, make sure you come to see…
Liz: 17:12 Liz.
Molly: 17:13 And Molly.
Matt: 17:14 And Molly. Shoutout mom, grandma. Happy Women’s–
Chris: 17:19 International Women’s Day.
Matt: 17:20 International Women’s Day, and Women’s History Month. We’ll be talking to you guys more. Maybe you guys can let me test drive an Altima?
Liz: 17:27 I’ll take you [crosstalk].
Matt: 17:28 Let’s get it. [crosstalk]. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
Liz: 17:32 Thank you. Thank you.
Molly: 17:33 Bye. Thank you. Thank you.