There have been some changes in the sales environment at Canadian dealerships in recent years. The  "transactional sales" concept is old hat.  Now it's all about relationship selling. The question is, has sales training kept up with this new way of doing business?

Customers still want the best deal. But they also expect sales people to be more knowledgeable, to respond quickly, and to provide value-added customized solutions to their needs. Dealers know their customers do their homework online and come to the dealership armed with the latest information. So what is the best way to train the sales team to meet evolving customer expectations ?

Divided opinions
Researching how adults learn produced contradictory advice. Conventional wisdom says adults prefer self-directed studies to sitting in a classroom. Adult learners are goal oriented and they insist that the material be relevant and practical. But another source takes the opposite approach. "Sales training is no longer about watching or reading or listening. It is about simulating, socializing, sharing and collaborating."  That is the wisdom found at www.allbusiness.com/sales.

A few years ago, many people thought that Internet based training was the miracle cure. Staff could take courses at home, on weekends, or at the dealership, whenever and wherever they wanted to.
 
Canadian auto dealer contributor and trainer, Duane Marino (Team Relmark ) commented:  "One merit with online is that it's trackable. The employer can determine just which screens an employee has visited and when."  But Marino is not a big fan of Web-based courses.   "They may visit the page, but they don't necessarily learn anything," he said.

Another leading Canadian trainer, Warren Cederberg, president  of  ISI-PAL Automotivaters, put it this way: "People say they like doing things at their own pace and on their own schedule, but is it effective? I'm not sure.  Web-based training has its place. It's good for some kinds of content, like the technical aspects. It's also useful when you have a new hire and you need something right away."

For Dean Norris, the Web-based Chrysler Learning Academy is a good tool.  "They're not just sitting there reading the screen," said Norris, who manages new car sales at Triple Seven Chrysler Plymouth in Regina. "A couple of our guys do it from home and the feedback is positive."  Much of the content is interactive, and there are tests leading to certification. 

It's all about communication
Buying a car is still a huge decision, says Cederberg, and people need people to help them through it.  And that's the other side of how adults learn.

Traditional training tended to be standardized, mandated, and structured.  That approach is no longer regarded as effective. Relationship marketing remains the flavour of the month according to Paul Wilkins (Mills Pontiac Buick, Oshawa). Wilkins tells his sales staff:   "You don't wear the same style of shirt you did years ago. You have to adapt to today's customers. You have to be more knowledgeable, and more informative, and more in tune with what they want."  

Relationship selling is all about the soft skills, says Cederberg.  "It's difficult to make this effective online, or even through video. You can show it being done right or wrong, but most people can't internalize it and apply it simply through watching."

I suggested that theory has followed practice, that great sales people are naturally likeable and instinctively create relationships. Cederberg agreed that, in a way, relationship selling has always been there; it just wasn't labelled before.   "Some people just have it. For  those who don't, we give them tips, systems, and urge them to make these part of their work pattern", he said.   "Labels get thrown around and eventually thrown away, but the activities are essentially the same."

Factory involvement
What is new is the push from factories to put more homogeneous processes in place in all their dealerships. That can mean that every sales person in every franchise must follow the same basic procedures. To achieve this, many manufacturers are providing more and more training. 

Morrey Mazda is one of two BC dealers taking part in a pilot project for Mazda Canada called the Mazda Experience. They have been test driving a complete sales system approach at the Vancouver dealership for the past six months, and it is very effective, according to sales manager Roger Bhajan. The system stresses mandated and enhanced follow-up procedures.

Others are concerned by this drive for standardization. Marino agrees that sales people and managers need a process and they need a check list. In his view, however,  "the cookie-cutter approach doesn't work. Customers won't follow the script. Sales people have a tool box; but they have to figure out which tool to use when, and how to best use that tool. We know that customers frequently shop same-brand dealerships. If one dealership is pretty much like another, where is the competitive edge?" 

In Paul Wilkins opinion, you have to do business to suit your marketplace.  "The product is the product. But we're always trying to improve how we present ourselves as an individual store. There isn't any one formula for the sales process that works in every dealership."

Warren Cederberg is more generous. He believes the factories are looking for success and for happy customers, so they are trying for consistency across the brand.  "Their intentions are good; their hearts are in the right place."

His firm believes strongly in process. The basics should be the same within one dealership.  "No sales manager can cope with 15 individual sales staff all doing things their own way," he said. But he acknowledged that dealers have sometimes resented training being jammed down their throats.   

John Welsh (Georgian Pontiac Buick, Barrie, Ontario)  is happy with what the factory offers. "GM has a lot of training now, but it's well linked with incentives and awards," he said.   "It may be more than our people want or need, but we have a very high completion rate."  Factory training seems to be doing the job for this dealership  which set an all time record for volume in April.

Coaching is key
Marino and Cederberg both emphasized that even the best training can only be truly effective if there's a commitment to follow-up coaching.  And they both talked about how important it is for sales managers to participate.  "They're the ones doing the coaching after we're gone, " said Marino.  "They have to know what we've been doing."

Cederberg summed up:  "Training by itself doesn't change behaviour. The key ingredient is the coaching that goes on after the training sessions.  Without coaching, people get unwound just as quickly as they got wound up."

Mary Hughes is a freelance journalist based on Salt Spring Island, B.C.

 

< Prev		Next >