Training takes up an enormous amount of any management team’s time and energy. Small companies spend an average of fifty-nine hours a year per employee, and you’ll have to multiply that by all the employees on staff to deliver a truly individualized program.
However, in many cases, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Hiring trainers (and managers to supervise them) is a lot of time and money too, and training departments are a never-ending drain on your bottom line. Many companies have discovered that the ideal solution is outsourcing their program. This allows them to pay for training as needed and avoid setting up expensive training departments.
Smart business operators know that you’ve got to balance needs against cost and look for options that maximize your ROI. Training programs are no different. Free auto sales training videos supported by a great training consultant can offer amazing value—but only if you pick the right partner! We’ll help you identify things to look for so you can get connected with the best training materials.
Beware of “Freemium” Services
We’re all familiar with this business model: the free introductory material is pretty good, but getting the valuable content that will actually make a difference always comes with a paywall. It’s not that spending on training is bad—in fact, it can be one of the best investments you ever make. But freemium services don’t let you know what you’re paying for until it’s too late, and they’re almost never a custom fit for your business.
You’ll need to thoroughly examine the whole training model of any potential agency to make sure those “free” auto sales training videos don’t just provide a few empty speeches that drive you to paid content to get the real training module.
Of course, there are definitely add-on services that are great for your company. A good example is post-video one-on-one training; if a consultant works to make sure employees have fully mastered the basic information, that’s a reasonable expense and often a necessary one. Even the best employees only retain about 20% of what they learn after a month, and you’ll want an expert to help guide them.
Points All Videos Should Cover
At a bare minimum, any video you expect to use should hit the following basic sales techniques:
- Active listening: Knowing how to listen shows customers you’re listening, and responding appropriately is incredibly important to building trust in a sales environment.
- Focus on Solutions: Yes, you’re trying to make a sale. But selling solutions instead of products means customers will be happier about their experience as they get the product they need, not the most popular model.
- Industry Expertise: A few talking points about general sales strategies are completely inadequate for motor vehicles—and your expert team doesn’t need them anyway. Auto sales training videos need to point out key techniques and industry-specific challenges that lead to increased appointment rates and meeting sales goals.
- Pricing Knowledge vs. the Competition: Your people need to know how to keep on top of the competition’s prices, financing options, warranties, and emerging industry trends. Your videos should address strategies for keeping this knowledge current, organized, and close at hand.
- After-Sale Care: This is critical to maintaining lines of communication with your customer base. Already important in car and truck sales, it is even more vital for specialized industries like motorcycle and commercial sales.
Make Sure the Video Is Up-to-Date
Training videos can be incredibly expensive to make, with just a single production costing an average of over $30,000. So, if a consultant or company is offering free auto sales training videos, there’s not a ton of incentive for them to keep re-making them as the sales landscape changes.
And in our business, it can change fast. Many elements of sales are eternal, but there are plenty that are evolving right before our eyes. Technology, post-COVID realities, and each year’s new models are great examples.
Now this is not to say older videos are useless; staying up to date is not about the latest CGI or fashion trends making it into training materials. As long as the areas where your staff are looking to improve are appropriately covered, you should be good to go.
That’s where your consulting partner can really add value to your free auto sales training videos. If the basic information is solid, you can bring in a coach to deliver the key updates and context to keep it fresh and answer any questions your employees have.
Back Up Video Training With In-Person Coaching
On their own, the value of auto sales training videos—free or otherwise—is going to have a limit. That’s because they are a single component of any quality learning program, not a substitute. Hands-on training is irreplaceable, and coaching over time is also incredibly important for creating lasting outcomes.
Phone Ninjas delivers a proven coaching program that converts your existing sales and business development strategies into massive bottom-line improvements. Our clients regularly convert their leads into live customer appointments at rates of 60-80%. This is head and shoulders above the industry average of 20%, and it’s just one of the important KPIs we focus on for your business.
Our training program includes an initial group training session that’s followed up with weekly one-on-one coaching sessions. These ensure your employees not only remember what they learned in the initial training but know how to implement it effectively in your business. We’re also able to adapt our program and its components to work within any budget, including supporting strategies based on free auto sales training videos.
We can’t wait to hear from you! Contact us today for a free demo and two free mystery shops!
As the COO | Partner of Phone Ninjas, Chris delivers leadership, coaching, and mentorship to 55 team members providing software sales and phone skills coaching. He fosters powerful partnerships and collaborations with leaders across various business sectors, establishing expectations, communicating vision, and escalating performance to maximize productivity and effectiveness.
Chris is an innovation-driven business executive with over 25 years of experience delivering leadership to teams of up to 75 overseeing development, launch, and sale of website lead acquisition, reconditioning process software systems, and technology that support automotive dealerships across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
