Any training helps, so don't quit any kind of training that is helping you sell more cars. Normally trainers simply touch on the topics that Skillset focuses on. Skillset takes a deep dive into activity management. They don't tell the staff why the phone is so important or why is it important to smile and be professional, you get hours and hours of what to say and why to say it specifically to put customers on your showroom floor. Think of Skillset as a specialist. If you have a heart problem, you will surely not go to a general practitioner but go to a cardiologist because it's that important.

In today's environment when dealers state that one of the biggest problems they are facing is gross profit, how important is it that their people get ahead of the game and draw their past customers in the market before they are even thinking about a purchase or before they have had an opportunity to shop your closest competitors. We don't want your dealership to be the last place they go, we want your dealership to be the first and last place they go on the same trip. These are some of the things Skillset focuses on. Its telephone, internet training and management training and a lot more. Think of Skillset as a specialist while others are more general practitioners. That is, what makes us different.

Let's say you wanted to learn to drive a car. If you hired a:

Therapist, the therapist would help you find out what might be holding you back from driving the car. He would delve into your past to discover what kinds of experiences you have had with automobiles.

Consultant, the consultant would bring you an owner's manual and tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the workings of a car. The consultant would then leave you. He might return six months later to see how you had managed the actual driving part.

Mentor, the mentor would share his experiences of driving cars and the wisdom and lessons he has learned in his more rich experience with the matter.

Coach, the coach would seat you in the car, place himself in the passenger seat, and teach you key life skills and emotional regulation, encourage and support you, and hold you accountable to your goals until you felt comfortable enough to go it alone.

If you go on many life coaching websites, or read through books on coaching, you'll often see something quite facile like this: "A therapist typically works with a dysfunctional person to get them to functional. A coach works with a functional person to get them exceptional." That said, the primary distinction lies in the client's need and intention.

Generally speaking, clients seek:

• Traditional counselling when they sense something is wrong.
• Coaching when they sense something is not quite right, or off a bit, or out of balance – note the distinctions in degree, wherein things aren't as you'd like them to be.
• Coaching when they want to focus more on changing future behaviour.

At Skillset, with years of Automotive Sales & Service experience with manufacturers and dealers i.e BMW, Mercedes Benz, Honda, General Motors, we strive for dealer and individual excellence through coaching techniques combined with training which leads to developed and successful employees. Training and Coaching go hand in hand, and yet so often, many people, including senior managers just do not understand the difference between the two. So putting it into simple terms, training someone is teaching them something new, coaching someone is improving their skills to develop what they have learned and put best practices in place. Hence training and coaching go hand in hand.

Coaching can cover such a variety of areas, both in terms of personal and professional development, and the truth is we all need coaching as an ongoing support structure. Even those of us who are coaches often use the services of other coaches for ourselves as we understand in life everyone has a journey, what we call an A to B journey. Sometimes in order to achieve the desired goal or outcome, it is simply down to changing a perspective, and we all know life is about choices, isn't it?

Why are so many Managers in Dealer environments afraid of having their staff coached? Is it because they have not been able to address their own issues? If so, why have they not considered coaching for themselves? Personal development is for everyone, and often personal development will lead onto professional development and can be the hidden ingredient to success in life. Remember we said everything is down to perceptions, Simply by making a small shift in a perception can lead to major positive change, and I urge anyone who is skeptic regarding coaching to start to consider a different view point.

The word training has normally a negative connotation on the Automotive industry. Dealer Principals normally say "we have tried to train our people, but you know how it goes, it never seems to stick". Its not that training doesn't work or you can't train your people, the problem is that what is much called training in the Automotive Industry never really was. Training is a process comprised of several elements. If any one of these elements is missing, what you are trying to accomplish isn't going to happen.

The components of real training are, Education, Simulation and Accountability. While many programs provide one element or maybe two, Skillset provides a complete training solution, which will change your staff behaviour and it's not just telephone training, we focus on everything that you want your sales and service teams to do when they are not with customers to be with customers. It's by offering a complete solution which will help drive traffic to your showrooms. It's by Coaching and training! Striving for Automotive Sales & Service Excellence is the need of the hour.

The only investment that you will ever make on which you will never lose out is the one that you make in yourself. Realizing, that there are many sales people and sales mangers out there who are more driven to succeed than their dealerships in some cases, Skillset offers solutions for individuals. Think about this, how much does it cost you personally when you talk to a customer and don't know what to say or say the wrong thing or you talk to people on the telephone and they never come in or you follow up with a customer and are relieved to hear his voice mail than actually talk to them. All this actually costs you money.

In the past, you may have not focused on the things that are being talked about and still sold your targets, in today's conditions; it just may have been a one off chance. Why?, because it was a different market then. Not anymore!

Skillset believes, that nobody is going to make a living this industry anymore, unless they achieve Professional Automotive Excellence. Its time to quit making excuses and be good at your job, invest in yourself. You will learn, how to control a conversation, how to stay away from price, how to handle price effectively when it does come up, how to handle specific inquiries, how to create more repeat and referral business and a lot more. Hours of what to say to customers to put them in front of you, better still, higher closing ratios.

Most managers in this industry despite being good desk people and closures, lack the specific ability to handle sales staff. It's not their fault as in most cases it's often the top sales person who is normally given a chance to handle the sales team. No one questions if they have the qualifications to run a sales team. Isn't it equivalent to taking the best man in the football and making him a coach. The best coaches are not necessary the best players. Coaching is an entirely different skill set than playing. Managing a sales team requires a different set of skill set than selling. You may be a great closure, that's wonderful, in the meantime you have an empty showroom and salespeople taking to each other.

A managers two most important functions is managing salesperson activity and training. We normally wait for someone else to make things happen, we normally hope for things to be better and don't make it better.

"Hope" is not a business plan or a strategy for success. It's time to get good at your job, it's time to adapt. Every opportunity to do business counts.

Don't wait, call us today to get started or e mail us.