Solid sales performances are valuable yet difficult for many dealerships to achieve. The key lies in consistency and cultivating a culture that appreciates and supports professional development. This way, teams consistently hone their product knowledge, sales territory planning, competitor intelligence, scouting, lead management, professional communications, and more.
Unfortunately, ongoing training programs take up a lot of company time and resources. Instead of paying for training opportunities, why not initiate job shadowing? The following are reasons why it's important to shadow your business managers during sales.
What is Job Shadowing?
This on-the-job training program allows new hires or existing teams to closely observe highly skilled employees as they go about their daily sales activities. The goal is to provide practical details that depict a typical "day in the life" and highlight a dealership's best practices. One of the most common types of shadowing is observation, in which the "shadow" follows a sales manager/mentor around.
They watch and learn how the business operates, including everything a manager does, such as deciding how much a dealership wants to get for a car. In the regular briefing shadow model, shadows follow the sales mentor only during specific activities or events preceded by a brief or debriefing. Hands-on shadowing allows mentees to accomplish specific organizational tasks while guided by the mentor.
Reasons for a Shadow Program in Your Dealership Company
Is a shadow program beneficial to your company? Here are four reasons to start one.
Helps With Identifying Improvement Opportunities for Teams
Car dealership owners and general managers have numerous key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure sales results improvement. Those attainable, well-cataloged milestones known as operational objectives are critical to ensuring a sales team has the structure and resources to perform optimally. For example, you want to measure the average sales per employee to gauge a portion of your sales performance.
To implement this, you set up operational goals that help you identify high performers and employees who need assistance to make their quota. Job shadowing training lets you pair highly skilled personnel with current employees or new hires. It enables you to identify areas within the company that require improvement or where to direct valuable resources to boost revenue.
Ensures Regulations Compliance
Automotive compliance legislation for car dealerships should be taken seriously. These are all local regulations that every dealership must adhere to, including laws pertaining to selling, buying, financing, insuring, and customer communication. When onboarding new staff, job shadowing can act as compliance training to teach them the ins and outs of automotive legislation that protects your dealership.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is critical for businesses to succeed in today's competitive market. That said, customer experience plays a significant role in the auto industry for client acquisition and retention. Car dealerships must prioritize their customer experience by using shadow training to teach sales teams how to respect and make clients feel great. This can turn clients into repeat customers who won't hesitate to recommend your dealership to friends and family.
Improves Sales Efficiency
Dealerships are constantly receiving new vehicles and products. Sales teams must know all key features of each car, including favorable benchmarks against competing models. The sales team also benefits from one-on-one time with the dealership sales manager. They can get an update on their performance, including feedback on improving their sales, and much more. These shadowing opportunities can help everyone at the dealership enhance their sales skills, which, in turn, benefits the business's bottom line.
Refine Employee Training and Business Sales with Shadowing Programs
A job shadowing program allows dealership employees to quickly learn crucial skills and adhere to compliance requirements. Walking a mile in the shoes of a sales manager fosters empathy and collaboration while keeping teams motivated.
Contact us today to learn how to leverage a shadowing program to boost your return on investment.
