Pub. 60 2019-2020 Issue 6

9 WINTER 2020 Continued on page 10 sold cars, there would always be a customer who could only come in on my day off; sure enough, I would find another customer once I came in, and I would end up working the entire day. I often put in long hours as a result of trying to help people. Sales is just not a 9-to-5 job. Try- ing to do your job, and do it well, requires a lot of flexibility in that de- partment. If you are unavailable, you often have to split the deal because you were unavailable for some of the time it took. In contrast, there are more women in accounting because the hours are more reliable and set. Our society needs to shift culturally to accommodate people with families. Solving such a big, pervasive problem might be intimidating, but it has to be done. Sometimes people do have to take random days off to deal with issues such as children who are sick. As a dealership, you have to figure out how to accommodate those needs. Do you think the industry needs to increase its efforts to employ more women? The old stereotype was for dealership employees to talk business with men, but not with women. Now, I would say we need more women and also more minorities. There’s an industry trend to hire both because diversity makes for a healthy work environ- ment, whether you are an employee or a customer. We especially need to do a better job as an industry at increasing diver- sity in the sales and service depart- ments. We can still accommodate our customers even if we have to juggle responsibilities. Once we do become more diverse, that’s a selling point, and we need to find ways to tell people about what we’ve done. We all need an atmosphere where ev- eryone is accepted, and customers can identify with some of the dealership’s employees. On a subconscious level, customers who see organizational diversity have a higher level of trust in the dealership. They know the dealer- ship has a broader perspective than is the case at a less diverse dealership. As a family owned business, we work hard to accommodate everyone’s schedule regardless of gender. But when I can hire a female technician, I get so excited. We work to be flex- ible because she brings a more diverse experience with her. Why is the automobile industry an excellent place for women? There are opportunities in this industry if you work hard. You can gain peace of mind from dreaming big and consistently succeeding. The majority of dealerships are very entrepreneurial, and you can make lots of money working at them. If you are a go-getter and have person- al goals, you aren’t limited to what you can earn with an hourly wage. Instead, you can pencil in financial goals and create a path: “If I make this much money, I can get to here.” You can have more control over your life, especially if you save as much money as possible. We have a gentleman from the Middle East at our dealership. He rode a donkey to school when he was young if it was available. He is our best salesperson, earning $400k- $500K, and he is currently on track to sell 800 units. That’s the most he has ever sold. We can’t promote him; he makes more money than I do, but he doesn’t have the same re- sponsibilities or expenses. The man is his own entrepreneurial business. That’s exciting. The next most successful salesperson is at 200 units or so, which is still great. But we also have some people who sell just eight units a month. Are there any specific individu- als who had a major impact on your career? First is my dad. He taught me that employees are like family; with- out them, there is no Ancira Auto Group. My husband, Jason, is important, too. He is the micro, I am the macro, and we work so well together day-to-day. I also credit our former president, Bill Wolters. He was a visionary who also valued involvement, and he had a lot to do with my excitement with dealers as a group. He made