Pub. 1 2019 Issue 2

become. Treat them accordingly. Celebrate their length of service and their successes. Give them opportunities to develop their skills so they can become even better. 2. Train employees so they know what to do in order to keep the dealership compliant. (The compliance officer, of course, should be front and center when it comes to teaching employees about compliance.) Make sure you provide reasons for employees to stay with the dealership. Review employee performances, and have benchmarks for salary increases and promo- tions. Everyone should be involved in internal quarterly audits. The goal should be to work together as a team to find problems and solve them. Training sessions should be for new employees and for continuing employees. To be most effective, training should be mandatory, brief, and have a certificate of completion to display for those who have participated. Employees don’t need to lose a lot of time when they could be selling again, but a short, effective message will help them make incremental improvement over time. Provide online classes as well as in-person class- es. Use information gained from the internal quarterly audits to improve what’s being taught in the classes. Dis- playing the certification lets potential customers know about the training. According to one survey, 73% of customers are more comfortable at dealerships where completed certificates are being displayed. Ongoing training should include the following: • Teach employees to emphasize follow-up tasks. Following up on tasks will help employees be more organized and it will also help them to be more productive. • Have employees study what exactly a lead has already researched. When an employee is knowl- edgeable about a potential customer’s needs, it becomes much easier to talk with that customer so that it’s clear the customer’s needs and wants are understood. • Work on phone skills. Keep phone records and use them to identify the employees who would benefit from a little additional training in this area. • Be aware of the customer’s budget. The size of the car payment is only part of what the potential customer should be thinking about. The total price is also important. If you think a third party can do a better job of training employees than someone in-house, then hire the third party and have them make suggestions about how to improve training going forward. Put your dealership association to work Dealership associations, like the CFADA, have one purpose: helping dealerships make the best possible decisions. They have the energy and resources to stay on top of any legislation that affects the way a dealer- ship works, and they also have the muscle that comes from dealerships coming together in order to lobby the legislature when necessary. Automotive compliance is difficult, but it is a neces - sary part of doing business. By paying attention to compliance, you can avoid the pitfalls (and conse- quences) of noncompliance. That is a worthwhile goal. 12 Issue 2 2019