Women Who Roll: National Cycles Ann Willey

National Cycle’s Ann Willey has received her fair share of cold shoulders from men. But she believes expertise demands respect, enabling most to disregard gender. “You have to work hard at becoming a professional at your job, knowing your job well, knowing your product line,” she says.Obtaining expertise comes down to two things, Willey says: ongoing learning and tenacity.In 1977, Willey worked for a company designing apparel for the likes of Harley-Davidson and Parts Unlimited. She designed both the original garment samples and the full size run. “Things weren’t all made overseas then, and they weren’t all computerized,” she notes.Willey was displaying apparel at a distributor’s trade show when she met Barry Willey, National Cycle’s founder and CEO. He offered her a job. She accepted.One of her first jobs at National Cycle was inventorying 50 years’ worth of neglected parts, cleaning the tool room, and cataloguing all the dies. “It was dealing with steel and plastic and punch presses and screw machines and lathes and routers,” she says. “I spent a lot of time in manufacturing in the beginning, getting to know all the parts.”A few years later Willey created an internal sales department and began to travel to trade shows and rallies. She continued to get her hands dirty by installing products at dealerships and events nationwide.Willey has four motorcycles and hires only salespeople who ride. National Cycle even has its own in-house fleet from which employees can borrow motorcycles equipped with various National Cycle windshields.Willey is sales and marketing manager for National Cycle’s Aftermarket Division. But as an intenal auditor of the factory, she continues to be involved in manufacturing. “Staying close to manufacturing makes my sales and marketing job a lot easier,” she says.Her advice? Don’t let others define you. “I had to choose my own career path,” Willey says. “Once you find something you like, the more experience that you can get within that organization, the better. You can’t be afraid to do anything, and you should try to get involved in a lot of different areas outside your realm of responsibility. Because I think a lot of women — a lot of men, too — get pigeonholed.”This story originally appeared in the Dealernews May 2011 issue. http://www.dealernews.com/dealernews/article/women-who-roll-national-cycles-ann-willey #yashta