On this week’s episode of Service Drive Revolution, Chris and Christian pose the evergreen question: is service training just as valuable as sales training? It should go without saying that they’re both in agreement on the answer. But why is service training just as valuable? Christian breaks it down pretty quickly: regardless of your industry, does it make sense to only offer employee training to half of your business?
Christian’s Sales Training: A Cautionary Tale
Coach Christian blew my mind this week.
He told me the story of how he got hired at his first sales job and it spoke volumes about the disconnect between the sales and service departments.
After his initial interview, he got brought in for training with 7 other sales trainees. With the other guys, he went through a 2-week sales training program. They covered everything, toured the dealership, and came out the other end of the process with a real crash course.
Only 2 salesmen made the cut.
Just Christian and one other guy.
So the sales department was willing to invest all of that time and energy into training 6 guys that they didn’t even end up hiring! I don’t think this is unusual, but it really jumped out at me.
Sales can afford to train 6 people they don’t even hire on, but we can’t afford to train the service teams that actually work in the drive every day? How is that the norm?
Service Training: Show Your Employees You Care
Is it really possible to create a career path for your employees without offering training?
How can you create a culture of high-performance without offering training?
How do you prepare new employees, who often come from outside the auto industry, for success without offering training?
Most importantly: what message does it send to new employees when you don’t offer training?
YOU DON’T CARE.
That’s the bottom line. Offering training to your new employees is the best, easiest way to show them that you actually care about them. It shows that you want them to grow and develop. It shows them that you’re invested in their future. Especially for those new employees that come from outside of auto. If you don’t offer them substantial training, they’re going to operate at a severe disadvantage.
The service department is at LEAST half of your business. How can you afford to not train half of your employees? It’s more than an oversight. If you consider just how much profit can really come out of the service department, it’s more like self-sabotage.
Invest in your employees and you invest in the future success of your business. That’s it.
