Her Story
About Ginni
As a sales account manager, I wear many hats, but I would say that I lead cross-functional teams to meet customer requirements, which in the automotive industry at this time has been a lot of flux. We have to be able to pivot quickly and react to changing requirements and direct teams to figure out what that looks like and how to make those changes, usually under kind of tight timelines. I do a lot of sales and cost analysis, meet with customers to review open issues, collections for open invoices, and work on claims for program cancellations. I quote new business, work with our engineering teams for tech review sorts of things, and make sure that we're responding to any quality issues. I'm the main point of contact for all of the customer interaction. Automotive is a very male-dominated industry, and in my time at all three of the places I've worked within automotive, I've been one of the only women in sales. Learning how to communicate and be heard is something that has taken a lot of time and trial and error. I've had to really learn how to communicate a little bit differently to get men to respect my opinion and understand that I am knowledgeable.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ginni
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to my love of learning and also that I work really, really well under pressure. I've always loved learning, and that has allowed me to pivot and adapt throughout my career, even when I took a departure into the education industry during the pandemic. Being able to work well under pressure has been crucial in the automotive industry, especially with all the flux we're experiencing right now, where we have to pivot quickly and react to changing requirements under tight timelines.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to really think about what makes you happy in terms of your skill set. What do you feel good about doing, and what do you feel like you are genuinely good at? For me, I've been in a lot of different positions, but knowing how much I love to learn and how much I love to problem solve, I can kind of harness those skills into any area. I can use them in pretty much any area, but if I had chosen something that didn't allow me that, where I just had to strictly follow rules and was not allowed to kind of think outside the box, I would be suffering. I'd be really unhappy. So just finding something that allows your real, kind of, inner strengths to shine in at least some facet.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Automotive, especially domestic OEMs like Ford, GM, and Stellantis, have made major changes in reaction to the current administration's policies. They've canceled most of the electric vehicle lineup and moved back to ICE, and so it's really in flux. I think there's a lot of opportunity for people who are problem solvers, strategic thinkers, who can adapt quickly. Also for engineers, because there's so many changes going on in the infrastructure. There have been a lot of programs canceled in the major domestic OEMs recently, so we're working on a lot of claims for program cancellations.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Open communication is huge. Being able to call something out as soon as it happens, even if you're afraid to report bad news, full transparency is so important. And then also just being willing to work with people from various backgrounds. We work with a lot of international teams, so there are a lot of cultural differences and things that we have to be understanding of and open to, even if we normally don't do that.
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