A conversational interview (Jacqueline Elliott Show) in which two women discuss women’s experiences in male-dominated industries, focusing on sales and the car business. Speaker A recounts moving from T-Mobile into car sales for higher income, facing customers who preferred male salespeople, discovering a competitive ‘game’ aspect of sales that motivated her, and committing to ethical boundaries (refusing to trade sexuality for sales).
Chapters
Actually had customers that said that they didn't want to work with me. I felt really embarrassed, shy, hurt, hurt because I knew that this person was about to write a check for X amount of money and they're gonna go spend it with a guy that doesn't even care about them and just give them terrible customer service. And I'm just like, you have no idea how much I really care about finding the right vehicle for you and your family. And that pained me pretty badly. And I got a little bit of an ego and you know, I was just like, well, f you. And then that kind of created like a grudge inside of me, you know. And then I kind of was starting to hate sales because I'm like, why, why don't these people, why wouldn't they want to work with me? But I think they just had such an old school mentality or, you know, all I know is to business is done by men. Men, men carry out business.
What is it that attracted you to go into a man's world? Because I think a lot of women, you know, they see certain industries and they think that they're treated differently or something because it's a man's world. Now we have a lot more women coming into the workforce that, you know, are honestly kicking the guys butts like in a lot of different things. And it happened to me. I'm older than you, obviously, so I had a lot of that experience. But what, what was it that made you go into like a man's world business? Like the car business, for example.
You know, the. I think I initially just started in because I wanted to make more, more money. So I was just looking. I started off at a, at a T mobile store and I was working there for like six months and somebody approached me and was like, hey, do you want to make more money? I got a friend of mine that, that sells cars that, that makes really good money. And I was just kind of like, okay, like if I have a better opportunity where I can go to college and get that paid off first, like, sure, why wouldn't I? Because I'm coming into work every single day. And I was the number one person on the board at T Mobile. I was busting my butt. But it's like you got the T.
Mobile colors capped off.
I know we are. Look at that. We got the magenta. She gets shout out by. Who's the new CEO? I don't know his name, but he should feature us. We should do some sales training with him. They may need it. But I remember working There. And no matter what, it's like I could never get over that threshold of like $3,000 a month or 3,500. And it's like I would be number one. I sold the most phones packages, so. So then I dipped into the car business, and I always kind of knew, like, sales was geared more towards men. But once I got the taste of, like, my first real paycheck, like making, you know, six, seven figures, I'm just like, oh, like, there's a whole nother side to sales. And then it wasn't about the commission and the money, but it was about winning. And I think men. One thing that I love about men is they set a really good standard for us of, like, bringing a check home to the household and taking care of your family at home. And I would see all these guys where, you know, they would make such good income that the wives would stay at home, take care of the kids, and they would pave the way for the family and create that. That foundation.
That's an interesting way to look at it. So I was going to ask you, going into the next question, it was going to be like, what kind of challenges did you get into when you did enter that world? Obviously, you saw that the income was better, but before you made that income, what did it look like for you, like, when you first jumped in?
Yeah, I actually had customers that said that they didn't want to work with me. I felt really embarrassed, shy, hurt. Hurt, because I knew that this person was about to write a check for X amount of money, and they're going to go spend it with a guy that doesn't even care about them and just give them terrible customer service. And I'm just like, you have no idea how much I really care about finding the right vehicle for you and your family. And that pained me pretty badly. And I got a little bit of an ego. And, you know, I was just like, well, f you. And then that kind of created, like a grudge inside of me, you know, and then I kind of started to hate sales because I'm like, why? Why don't these people, why wouldn't they want to work with me? But I think they just had such an old school mentality, or, you know, all I know is business is done by men. Men. Men carry out business, not women.
So what was the turning point?
I saw sales as a game, and I started to fall in love with the game. When the ward started coming and the recognition and the bonuses and the spiff. I'm like, oh, I like this game. And then I became addicted to the game. And then I can't stop because winning is in my soul. Like, that competitiveness. And that's what my parents had throughout the military. And I started getting a taste of that, and then probably, like, the title of it. I think that I was, like, part in a good way. I was chasing the title of saying, I'm number one, I'm number one. If you want excellent service to me, to serve you at the highest level, I'm number one. You do business with good people, believe.
You were number one before you were even number one. But also totally, like, you had to, like, shut demons out of your head and be like, hey, you know what? I'm here to prove myself. Because I think a lot of women and a lot of people in general, they start something and people are always going to test and poke at them, right? Yeah, they're going to test and poke at them, and they'll be like, oh, well, you don't belong here. Or they're going to make you doubt why you're there. It happens naturally when you work around people. It just happens when somebody else comes in. You want to. Them to. You want to see if they're really going to stick around. Because you see people, you see turnover. You see a lot of people just kind of mess things up or whatever. So people tend to do that. It happens in any business. Right. But you have to come in and prove yourself, and then they started respecting you for that. What are some of the things that you had to. You know, obviously you saw it as a game. Like in my case, for example, I started. I made myself get into debt so that the. I knew that I paid my bills with louder than the people talking about smack, you know, So I went and I started going and I got into major, major debt. And I knew that I could. I had to do that, so I just made that louder. And I ignored people, was very pleasant with everybody. Hey, how are you doing? But I wasn't like, you know, I was focused because I knew I needed to pay those bills, and I went in that. But in you. Like, it's funny that you say that because Andy always talks about it being like a game. It's like almost like, you know, when you do certain things, but you. You have that special gift of caring, and you have that compassion. And people that don't know you, they don't really understand that you really do have emotion in what you do. People say it's business, it's business, it's business. And yes, it's business. But I believe as a woman, I know you share the same because I know you. It also is personal and you really do care. How, when is that balance where it could affect you in a negative or a positive way? As a woman, where do you see that?
I want to share a story with you. Probably like my first three years in sales, I worked with a few other women and one thing that I noticed that I told myself that I would never do is I would never sell my body for a sale. And I feel like, and this was 10 years ago, so times are a little bit different than now, but I feel like everybody was in a fake world 10 years ago. Like everybody pretended to be a certain way, acted a certain way. Now it's like people want more natural, real people. But I remember working with some women that would, gosh, they would just do anything. I mean, they would wear provocative style clothing, low cut shirts, they'd give test drives over to their home. It's like, why do you need to be doing a test drive an hour out of the way and then back? Like that's just, wow, you know, and it'd be like to go see if the truck fits in the garage kind of thing. And it's like, I don't have, I'm here to conduct business. Like we can go on the freeway, come back, but I have other appointments. So I told myself when I saw those certain women, I said, you know what, I'm never going to be like that because I don't want to conduct bad business. And then you're just pouring more bad things into the sales industry, a stereotypical industry. And I told myself, I said, I'm never going to go that route and I'm always going to do the right thing.
