Training vs Coaching

?Host

Now you've been coaching dealership personnel longer, and with better results than most folks I know. So the question is going to be why does coaching work so much better than traditional sales training?

Sean

Great question, thank you for asking. At the end of the day, when it comes to helping people master and implement skills, training is critical. In fact, it's the foundation for success. What we find is that most dealerships have very skilled managers, and very talented salespeople. Of course, you know, there's always a range. But for the most part, they know how to sell a car. And they've had a lot of training both on the job and sometimes formalized. And training helps with “can I do it?” In addition to “can I do something?” Okay, “will I do it?” Right? “Do I want to do it?” “Do I need to do it?”

?So training helps with that very first layer? Can I do it? But when it comes to will I do it and do I want to do it, and do I need to do it, that’s where coaching comes in. With coaching, we're able to help get buy-in from that individual around doing something, help them understand the why connect the dots to what they want to accomplish in their immediate future and their long term career goals. And by helping them better understand how that will help, how that sort of skill, using that skill will help them achieve their goals, they're more likely to do it.?

And in addition, we don't just coach, it's not just a grassroots approach. It's also a top down approach. So we're helping the managers of the dealership become better leaders. And as a result of that, they're able to create accountability measures. And that's where the need comes in. So we're able to expertly ease people out of their comfort zone, and build on the foundation of training that the dealership already has, you know, imagine you have two avenues, right, you can come in and say "you guys are selling cars all wrong, use my approach." And I've heard trainers in the industry say, "if you're not selling cars the way I teach you, then whoever's success has been just luck!"

I'm sorry to say, but there's some really strong talent in the car business. And, they've been successful without that type of training. And they'll probably continue to be successful without that type of training. But again, if a dealership needs that foundation of training, we'll suggest that too. So training is important. But coaching is where?the rubber meets the road. I always say training is like having a shiny car in your driveway. Coaching is the gas that makes that car get from A to B.

Host

That makes sense. It's more of a personal development and a motivational/ inspirational concept there that I think is longer lasting. But that's just my opinion.

Sean

You're right. To your point, you know, every person on your team, every manager on your team needs individualized development. It's that simple. Training is a one size fits all approach to people development. You know, it's a floodlight, right? You're giving everyone the foundation and it's pretty candid, pretty off the shelf. This is the best practice, this is how we're going to do this and everyone, you want everyone to be aligned with that. In reality, when you try to implement training, think about how many salespeople say, "Well, I'm not going to do it that way, my way works better", or the manager poo poos that if the team isn't aligned to doing something, if they're not all on the same page, then what are the odds of it being implemented effectively? It's just not going to happen.?

So with coaching, we're able to get alignment, we get the managers, the salespeople and everyone on the same page. And we don't have to tell them, we don't come in and say you're doing it all wrong, do it our way or no way. We're going to work with them because it's a lot easier to tweak and enhance their process and methodology for selling. Of course, we're going to take our best practices from our dealers, our highly successful dealers from across the country and suggest things to improve the systems and processes and, and training and methodologies that our dealers are already using. But that's a lot easier than trying to get them to rebuild everything from the ground up. So that's where dealers find a lot more success with car motivators coaching than they do with canned, one size fits all training.