By Jacquelyn Walsh   jwalsh@dnronline.com

Anita McDaniel, car salesperson of the year for Dick Myers Automotive in Harrisonburg, shows a car to customer Andrew Bodine of Franklin, W.Va. Photo by Nikki Fox

Hey, Skip! You know what? Come on in here. I know you want a car!” yells Anita McDaniel as she runs out of her office.

“Oh, I don’t. I just came to say ‘Hi,’ ” says Skip Williams, a long-time customer, as the two exchange a hug.

They chat for a little while, laughing like old friends.

“Tell Brenda I say ‘Hi!’ ” McDaniel says as they part ways.

Back in her office McDaniel is surrounded by things she loves: Washington Redskins photos, pictures of friends’ and families’ pets, cards and flowers sent from customers to console her on the recent loss of her husband.

“I thought when it was time to come back to work, ‘How can I come back here and put a smile on my face when my heart is just breaking?’ But you know, I sit back and look at what my customers have done as far as the overwhelming condolences, [and] the sympathy cards are still coming,” she says, holding up a recent card.

“You are not just the one that sells us our vans but you are considered a friend,” is written on the inside.

Just more than a month ago, McDaniel’s husband died and her customers have made sure to let her know they’re there for her.

“It’s just overwhelming,” says McDaniel. “Kindness begets kindness and I guess that’s motivated me to go forward. I put a smile on, and every day is getting better.”

Finding her niche
Even while dealing with the tragic and sudden loss of her husband, McDaniel is the salesperson of the year for the fifth time at Dick Myers Automotive in Harrisonburg, where all of her competition are men.

“She even figured into salesperson of the month even in the month she was hardly here, which is very impressive,” says Sam Lee,  sales manager for the dealership. “We wouldn’t trade her for the world. She’s certainly been through a lot.”

After a 21-year career in banking, McDaniel, 58, became finance manager for several years of what was then Hartman Dodge. McDaniel went to another dealership briefly before running into a friend. “He said ‘You know, you could sell cars,’ and I said ‘Could not!’ At that time you didn’t see a whole lot of women in car sales, you still don’t see them,” says McDaniel.

But her husband, who was in sales all his life, encouraged her. “When I told him about going into car sales, he told me ‘Nita, you can do it. Yes you can,’ ” says McDaniel. “He taught me an awful lot. You know one thing that sticks in my mind? He said, ‘Nita, just always remember you got two ears and one mouth, so that means to listen twice as much as you talk.’ My husband was the one who gave me the courage to do what I’m doing today.”

She started selling cars in 1997 at Dallas Hollar Ford dealership in Harrisonburg and came to Dick Myers Automotive in 2000. She’s sold 1,480 cars in her 13 years — every sale carefully recorded on paper and kept in her office.

McDaniel takes every opportunity to learn more about the car business, she says.
“You have to continue to learn regardless of your age. You have to keep up with what’s going on out there and what the products have to offer,” says McDaniel.

Although there have been three saleswomen since McDaniel started at Dick Myers Automotive, she is the only saleswoman now.

“For years it’s always been men in car sales but women are trickling in. It’s not an easy job,” says McDaniel. “If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. I guess I just found my niche.”

Secrets of success
McDaniel says there’s no certain type of person that feels more comfortable buying from a woman rather than a man, and it depends more on the buyer’s personality than gender.

But no matter the customer, it’s a gratifying experience to get the customer into a car they’ve really wanted, says McDaniel.

“This is my little business here, and Mr. Myers lets me do my thing. You’re going to be as successful as you want to be,” says McDaniel. “You can sit there and look out on the lot and hope for somebody to pull in, or you can be proactive.”

Which McDaniel definitely is. By keeping in contact with customers and sending out personalized thank you notes, she has many repeat customers.

“I think I have a lot of repeat customers because I talk to them, I really listen. You know their wants, their needs. And no, you’re not going to earn everybody’s business that comes on the lot that you talk to but the ones that come back to you to buy again, those are the ones who I get to know personally,” says McDaniel. “The people that do come back to me and buy or send me a customer referral, that’s the big ticket. It truly is because if they come back to you, they trust you and that means more to me than anything.”

When she’s not selling cars, McDaniel enjoys the company of her “Heinz 57” dog and taking care of her plants, inside and outside the house. But the dealership is like her home, and her customers and co-workers her family, she says.

“I’ve been in this business so long that I’ve seen people’s children get married and their children have children. Unfortunately I’ve seen tragedies in families too. I cry with them, I smile with them, I laugh with them,” says McDaniel. “This is my extended family, this is what I need, and they genuinely care about you if you genuinely care about them. That’s what we’re here for.”