Most everyone understands that creating new habits is difficult. Time, attention and review are necessary parts of developing successful strategies. This applies to increasing sales to women for your dealership.

Over 80% of all car purchases are influenced by women and over 50% of car buyers are women, and that percentage increases to 53% for millennial women. Slightly less than half (48%) of women purchase cars by themselves. One in three women now out earn their husbands.

If you were asked about how successful your dealership is in converting women guests, how would you answer? Do you know how many women visit versus buy? Do you know how women find out about your dealership?

Tracking shopping and buying results
Competition in the auto industry is stronger than ever and dealerships must use facts and figures to analyze success in marking to the largest car buying segment, women.

Key metrics to track for success analysis are as follows:

1. Number of Female Guests: This statistic applies to a woman who comes into a dealership to buy a car for which she will be the registered owner. This applies to a woman shopping by herself, or with someone else, as long as the car is specifically for her.
2. Number of Female Referrals: Inquire at the beginning if the guest was specifically referred by someone else.
3. Number of Female Sales: This is the number of sales to women each week and month.
4. Total Sales: Total ALL sales for your dealership by week and month.
5. % of Total Sales to Women: This is the percentage of sales to women compared to all sales for the week and month. This provides an at-a-glance view of how your dealership compares to the national numbers for sales to women.

The Importance of Tracking
When you begin to track these numbers, several things will occur:

1. The attention of the sales advisors will be drawn to the figures being tracked. The numbers will be front and center. If your conversion numbers are low, you can implement strategies to raise them.
2. Focusing on the numbers elevates their importance. Understanding that the intent is to increase sales to women will capture more attention from the sales advisors.
3. Tracking referrals that come directly from others helps you understand how well you are being perceived by your prospects. It’s nice when a customer sees your advertising, but a customer who has been referred already has a positive outlook about the shopping process.

Future Payoff
Once a tracking program is implemented and reviewed, your dealership has much more information to help design sales strategies. If the referrals number points to online reviews, sales advisors can focus more attention on encouraging reviews from customers. Having a better understanding of customers always leads to positive results. Programs can be tailored to enhance what is already working and change what isn’t. Numbers provide concrete proof about what is happening at a dealership. Formal tracking of guest numbers and conversions is the first step toward capturing the valuable market segment of women buyers.