Learning Development in the Retail Setting - Need Some Help
Hello friends!
I have recently moved into a new role within our dealership community and my role will be ensuring that all new hires are onboarded correctly, our processes and procedures are followed and our employees feel that they have a voice to decide where our company is headed.
Here is where you come in...I am looking for anyone to share their hiring process, their orientation outline, their training guidelines, their mission statement and vision, etc. I am looking to review what is submitted to see where we can improve and what may need to be addressed internally to make us a stronger organization. Any help that you all can provide will be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on
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Courtney,
I have some great pointers for you. No charge. Let's talk.
Stan
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Before I went off on my own to consult and train dealerships Internet/BDC departments I was working for another consulting company. We had an amazing Director of Operations who taught me some wisdom. He and I conducted a strong hiring process that consisted of a questionnaire that we had candidates fill out. We would also give them a typing test (the job required it) as well as a phone test to see how well they sound on the phone (another requirement). I would sit down with each candidate and interview them to see how stressed out they were and how they responded. I also found it a great opportunity to break the ice and build rapport with them. I have to say that a proper process for starting the new job needs to established. I watch people get hired into dealerships and then thrown in without guidance only to see them fail days later and let them go. This is part of the reason why dealerships have massive turnover.
When it comes to training, you can never have enough training in the dealership. I come from a Sales, Internet, and BDC background. I believe that managers need to motivate, inspire and train their people every few days. I worked at a Nissan dealership that opened up in this poor economy in a very interesting market. I watched my General Manager/President of the dealership get in early everyday. He ran morning meetings with the sales department. 40% of the meeting was product knowledge training. 40% of the meeting was sales process training and role play. The other 20% was motivation. He made it fun and I enjoyed watching our sales people develop into true professionals. I was inspired to do the same thing with my BDC, We trained three days a week for 30-45 minutes per session. Once a week we would join the sales meeting and be a part of it. We would role play BDC phone scripts with the sales department and they would role play sales process with the BDC. The synergy between the department was strong and we grew the dealership in the first 8 months to producing 200+ units per month.
http://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining
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Permalink Reply by Jim Kristoff on -
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Permalink Reply by David Simpson on
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Find the book, "First Break All the Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman; changed my whole philosophy on hiring, training and managing. One of the foundational principles revealed in the book; people don't quit organizations, they quit managers.
Look at how your managers are continually trained and developed, and how that is measured.
I'd start there. Good luck!
David Simpson
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Permalink Reply by Tony Troussov on
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Hi Cortney! When I worked as the Director of Training and Development for a Dealer group with 1000 employees, I was faced with similar challenges, so I understand your pain. Here is the link to the article I wrote in Auto Dealer Monthly.
http://www.autodealermonthly.com/76/3652/ARTICLE/Attracting-and-Ret...
Many auto dealers do a poor job hiring and even if they hire a great employee, they pay little attention to on-boarding process (which is critical in employee retention). As far as training is concern, nationally a new sales person is exposed to an average of four hours of training. I do have some ideas from my experience of training more than 250 new hires and developing a training curriculum for new hires, existing sales/service staff and group of over 100 managers.
You have an exciting challenge in front of you and navigating through it is like navigating through an ocean full of icebergs - you just see the their top. Feel free to call me at 612-804-1706 or email me at ttroussov@adgtoday.com
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Permalink Reply by Cortney Ewald-Ihde on
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Thank you everyone for your feedback. I am still getting my feet wet and as I get more involved, I see more things that need to be tweeked and adjusted to ensure that we put our best foot forward from the beginning. I will reach out as needed and sorry for the delayed "thank you" for your thoughts!
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