How to attract women to sales roles in the car industry

Earlier this year, while hunting for my next car, I attended at least six showrooms for the major car brands in Melbourne.

In every single one, I entered the showroom and looked out for a female salesperson, and in every one, I was addressed by either a male salesperson or a female receptionist who apologised that there was either one or no women working in sales.

One female salesperson was in such high demand, she couldn’t keep up with the queue of men and women who specifically wanted to deal with her. According to a 2024 US survey, approximately 40 per cent of women would prefer to deal with women in the car showroom and women either buy or influence 85 per cent of new car and truck sales.

The demand for women in car sales is evident to anyone in, or engaging with, the auto industry. So, why aren’t women pursuing this potentially lucrative career path, and why aren’t sales managers creating the environment that would allow women to thrive?

Rachel Reed Butler is the director of Women in Automotive – an independent Australian organisation aimed at empowering female participation in all levels of the motoring industry – describes it a ‘missed opportunity’.

“It’s a missed opportunity—plain and simple,” said Reed Butler.

“In a market that has never been as competitive as it is today with more and more brands entering, a business that is not supporting and hiring women will not have a strategic advantage in the near future.”

She adds, “The data is clear: women are powerful decision-makers in the car-buying process, yet many dealerships haven’t aligned their hiring and training strategies with this reality… the dealerships that are excelling are realising and embracing the value of a more equal workforce.”

The antiquated idea that buyers want a blokey, macho man selling them a muscle machine are out of touch, and dealerships that don’t shape up their hiring systems will also go the way of the dinosaurs.

Reed Butler says “When training and career paths are designed with only one type of candidate in mind, women get left out. There needs to be a cultural shift at the leadership level, where diversity is not just a checkbox but a strategic priority.”

Women face a tumult of challenges in entering the automotive aftermarket sector that men don't, which was illuminated in a 2022 survey by the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA).

A small percentage of men said that negative responses of friends and colleagues were an obstacle to pursuing a career but triple the number of women claimed the same.

Similarly, women were twice as likely as men to have claimed the negative responses of family members dissuaded them. Women were also four to five times more likely to experience a lack of diversity in the workplace and in their apprentice group.

A quarter of female apprentices felt forced to change employers during their apprenticeships based on adversities faced in their workplace, well outpacing their male counterparts.

Importantly, women outpaced men in seeing their entire career in the auto industry, embracing new technology, and putting effort into relationships with colleagues.

All of these qualities ought to put women ahead of their male counterparts in job prospects in car sales and services, so their absence is glaring.

In October 2022, women made up barely more than one-quarter of car salespeople (28.6 per cent), and 20 per cent of the automotive workforce in Australia. An even starker statistic is that women represent less than three per cent of automotive and engineering tradies.

It certainly isn't the result of a full house. According to the AAAA research from last year, there's a lack of 40,000 technicians and apprentices in the industry, meaning most workshops in this nation require at least one skilled technician. In attracting women, and skilling them accordingly, the automotive industry would be tapping into an underappreciated source of skills and experience.

Deloitte's 2025 Women at the Wheel report into the automotive industry globally pointed out that women felt they could not see other women in leadership roles, and that absence in the top echelons resulted in a sense of loneliness, lack of support in the workplace for women's contributions, and no evidence of a route up the career ladder.

The Deloitte report rings true, Reed Butler says.

“Women working in car sales tell us that while they enjoy relationship-building, the satisfaction of selling and problem-solving aspects of the role, they strongly feel that they are still in a traditionally male-dominated space and sometimes the culture can still feel unwelcoming.”

Sadly, Reed Butler adds that there’s a pressure, overt or covert, on women to “work harder to prove their knowledge and credibility to both customers and colleagues. This can lead to women often feeling isolated or unsupported in environments that haven't evolved much in terms of inclusivity.”

It’s far from doom and gloom, however.

“We are seeing a real effort from some of the larger dealership groups to turn this around with flexible working hours, introduction of maternity and paternity leave and diversity and inclusion councils and activities,” she explains.

For women who have sales or customer service backgrounds and are curious about working in a vehicle showroom, Reed Butler says, “Go for it. If you’re someone who enjoys connecting with people, solving problems, and building trust, automotive sales can be incredibly rewarding—and lucrative. Your customer service experience already gives you a competitive edge, because today's buyers value transparency, empathy, and professionalism over hard-sell tactics.”

She continues, “I would also encourage you to seek out dealerships and brands that are genuinely committed to diversity. We know they are out there because we interact with many of them including some of our corporate members like Autosports Group and Jowett Motor Group. Ask about their support systems and policies—training, mentorship, work-life balance. The more women we have entering and excelling in this space, the more we collectively change the culture for the better.”

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