Training.  It's an important element to any successful department.  While it's my livelihood now, when I was managing dealerships, I think I missed a lot of opportunities to be a better trainer.  Standing in front of a room for an hour or less delivering a technique or other instruction, just didn't create the improvement I was looking for.  Later in my career, many managers confirmed that belief with their own experience.  While multi-day training programs, with notebooks and class participation are very effective, sales meeting training sessions often missed the mark. 

Eventually, I developed a three step process for effective training.  The results are an incredible retention rate, whch eliminates having to have multiple sales meetings about the sme thing.  But the real benefit was a higher participation by the sales team which led to improved results.

As a confident leader, you must have the confidence of your team.  There is now better way than to show that something new can and will work.  What better way than with step number one of this process than to do exactly that.  The next time you want to implement something new, explain it and discuss the potential results.  Then, for the first few times, "do it for them," until they see the proof of success.  After each performance, review with them why certain things happened, how you handled them, and what they can expect when you move to the next step.

After they've seen evidence that it works, split the task.  Tell your team that they will be respsponsiblefor a portion and you will be there to back them up, jump in, and do the remaining part.  The #2 Do is to "do it with them,"  and give them a bigger portion of the task as they progress.  As soon as you finish, talk about their performance.  I strongly recommend only correcting one thing each time.  I would compliment them on the things they did right and close with, "If you improve this one thing, the result will be better," and leave it at that.  As long as they feel they are getting more of it right than wrong, they will strive to improve.

The final phase of the "Do Do Do" process is to let them do it while you watch.  This will flow directly out of the #2 Do as you graduallygive them a larger portion of the task.  As you "Let them do it," you can review after each result, make adjustments, and reinforce the better results.  This is a test for both of you.  You'll get to see how well they pay attention while also evaluating how confident you made them feel through the earlier parts of the process.

We can all agree that a good portion of any success is attitude.  Following these simple steps will result in a much more confident team.  Confidence always imporves attitude.  As an added benefit, you'll find that other areas of prformance improve as your team adopts this process for themselves in other areas of the job.  So, the next time you have to implement something new; "Do it for them, then do it with them, and finally, let them do it."

John Fuhrman is the Senior National Trainer for Carolina Automotive Resource Services, a unit of The Dealer Resource Group.  His ten books have reached 1.5 million readers and he has trained sales professionals around the world.  When your dealership needs amazing results when hiring new people, visit http://www.thedealerresourcegroup.webs.com.   ATTENTION DEALERS:  VISIT OUR WEB SITE AND REGISTER TO KEEP UP ON MONTHLY TRAINING SAVING SPECIALS.  Our trainers are ready to show you our "WOW!" factor.  (c)2011 by John Fuhrman - Permission to reprint this post in its entirety, including contact information, is hereby granted.