It’s a busy Saturday afternoon at your dealership, and the phones are ringing off the hook. In the middle of the flood of incoming calls, there’s Steve, your star service advisor. He’s juggling conversations, developing sales opportunities, and keeping customers happy. What makes Steve cool as a cucumber on the week’s busiest day? He receives phone training for automotive service advisors, memorizes excellent scripts, and spends regular sessions with a hands-on coach.
A service advisor’s phone skills are crucial to your sales engine, driving new leads and cementing relationships. However, not every advisor is a natural-born salesperson. They’re much less likely than your primary sales team to have spent time sharpening their selling chops, which is why solid training can make all the difference.
We’ve curated a list of must-have phone training techniques to help your advisors master proven sales techniques, delivering quality service while drawing in more business for your dealership.
Personalized Training for More Effective Upskilling
Let’s get back to what makes Steve such a great salesperson. It’s not innate charm (though he has that in spades); instead, it’s training that focuses on his unique strengths and growth areas. The “secret sauce” of individualized training lies in its ability to identify and amplify positive developments while dealing with challenges on a one-to-one level.
Personalized learning means coaching sessions can focus solely on an individual advisor’s progress. These aren’t just standard performance reviews. Instead, they’re interactive, feedback-oriented, and filled with constructive tips drawn from precision insights. Feedback should also be adapted for ongoing skill development. The goal shouldn’t be a one-time boost but a long-term path to mastery.
The final key component of personalized training is individualized roleplaying. Exercises that reflect real-world interactions are a fantastic way to get closer to the boots-on-the-ground experience, providing more tangible learning opportunities. Meanwhile, as the marketplace changes, so will your roleplay methods. New customer expectations should be incorporated into your program, and real scenarios from the service floor can be integrated as they arise.
Mastering Scripts for Lasting Relationships
Remember those scripts Steve committed to memory? They’re vital for building lasting relationships that turn into future sales. These connections aren’t about a quick conversion, though. They’re focused on building a foundation of trust and loyalty that keeps customers returning.
Scripts also provide the perfect blend of professionalism and personal touch. They equip advisors with the correct language to address complex issues, provide accurate information, and reassure customers. But it’s not just about the words—it’s how they’re delivered. Advisors should be trained like actors for a play, memorizing their lines and injecting warmth into scripted responses. This helps each interaction feel more organic and part of a meaningful conversation.
It may surprise you that exceptional communication skills can be developed using scripts. Good phone training for automotive service advisors emphasizes active listening, empathy, and the ability to answer questions confidently. All these components can be reinforced by good scripting. For example, solutions to objections are already in front of the advisor, and follow-up questions are presented with clear flows based on customer statements. As they continuously weave scripts to suit each unique customer, they’ll attain a more consistent foundation—one built on your brand’s voice rather than a different approach for each interaction.
Active Coaching for Continuous Improvement
Imagine if every call Steve gets could turn into a learning opportunity and was a step toward mastery. For your dealership, this isn’t wishful thinking. It’s the core tenet of active coaching. Unlike traditional, one-off training sessions, active coaching is a dynamic, ongoing process that evolves with your team’s needs and the constantly shifting automotive marketplace.
One of the main pillars of active coaching is real-time implementation. As we discussed in the first section, the best training isn’t focused on hypothetical scenarios but on real-world exercises. Live call coaching takes this one step further by having coaches listen in, provide immediate feedback, and help advisors refine their approach on the spot.
Active coaching also incorporates incentives and motivational targets to keep advisors engaged. Recognizing and rewarding milestones achieved through active coaching can significantly boost morale and productivity. Whether through internal recognition programs, competitions like Phone Ninjas’ Perfect Score Contest, or even more growth opportunities, these incentives encourage advisors to embrace the learning process and strive for excellence week after week.
Start Your Phone Training Transformation With a Mystery Shop
Active coaching begins with a mystery shop—a third-party phone or online audit in which the coaching team scores your performance. It’s a great way to get an outside view of your customer experience, pinpoint weak spots, and kickstart the road to improvement. At Phone Ninjas, we provide two free mystery shops to get you started: one for your digital channel and one by phone.
Our mystery shopping service objectively assesses your sales team’s effectiveness. We’ll build a customized report highlighting your strongest areas, potential improvements, and untapped potential. By monitoring response times and analyzing the chronological flow of your interactions, we offer insightful feedback to enhance your team’s communication strategy.
Ready to see how Phone Ninjas can elevate your phone training for automotive service advisors? Contact us now to schedule a free demo!
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.
