Automotive Training Network CEO Mark Gilbert points out that the cornerstone of customer loyalty is excellent customer service. No matter how great your products and offerings are, no customers will come back if they had poor customer experiences with your dealership. 

If you want to increase repeat business and strengthen your referral base, here are some ways to create lifelong customers:

1. Give time to your customers. As the owner or manager of a car dealership, you should make an effort to connect with your customers. Stepping out of your office to speak to a customer one-on-one speaks volumes about the way your business is run. It is also a great way to make your customers feel valued.

2. Develop reward programs. Mark Gilbert shares that there are plenty of ways you can encourage a customer to come back to your business. Deals such as discounted prices for family members, a lifetime offer of oil changes, and trade-in incentives are all excellent ways to retain and grow your customer base. You also get to build a relationship with your customers along the way.

3. Keep in touch. Do your best to maintain a healthy relationship with customers long after they have driven off. Check-up on them regularly and let them know about new products, deals, and offers through a newsletter or electronic media. In this age of social media, there is no excuse to maintain interaction with your client base.

4. Provide extra details. Mark Gilbert suggests that you brainstorm about what value you can bring to your customer’s experience. Even the smallest things like having a play area for kids in your space can make a significant impact on parents. Offering a free cup of coffee, a cozy waiting lounge, all these show that you care.

These are only a few tips on how you can build lifelong customers. Mark Gilbert also emphasizes that you should remember to focus on customer experience and service. If you want to know more about creating lifelong customers, you should check out the ATN website today.

Automotive Training Network CEO Mark Gilbert points out that in this digital age, customers can search for information anytime, anywhere. The Customer First Dealership Sales Process Training teaches your team the value of sharing information with your customers. 

In what is called the “Truth Selling Strategy,” your team learns how to build trust and rapport with today’s client. After the application of this training, your business will end up with “Life-Cycle” customers.

Tracking Tools

As a manager of both your sales team and dealership sales process, you need to have a clear view of what is going on with each customer in real-time. The Customer First program gives you essential and up-to-date information on your team’s progress. Mark Gilbert stresses that simple installation of tracking tools into your system will teach your people accountability and promote transparency.

Not Just About Cars

The Customer First training package goes beyond selling cars. It trains each of your salespeople to become an expert on why you are the best dealership to buy from. The training will teach you how to create or improve your company image and branding. Your staff will also be as skillful in selling your brand as they sell cars.

All About The Customer Experience

Unique customer experience should be your dealership’s number one priority, and the training program will tell you how to provide that. Your customers will be more than satisfied after doing business with you. Mark Gilbert says that they will rave about their experience, and they will tell more people about it.

The Customer First Training program is made up of a set of experts, and creative strategist who will help you draw up a one of a kind dealership sales process that will set you apart from the competition. 

Mark Gilbert points out that after your training is complete, you will have turned your customers into lifelong friends of your business. If you want to know more about this training program, check out the ATN website today. 

As Mark Gilbert knows, the competition for getting those sales can be pretty steep, especially with over 17,000 car dealerships across the nation. The idea of having to compete against other locations across the state can be pretty daunting. 

It becomes even more essential to have a team that is sufficiently motivated and prepared to take on the task every day, clocking in to do the work every time. Keeping a sales team motivated to sell is what will continue to drive sales even on the slow days. They’ll also help make sure that your dealership becomes the go-to spot for customers in and around town.

Increase morale and the bottom line of your dealership through these sales team motivation tips from Mark Gilbert.

1. Create short term and long-term goals

Goals must be lofty and achievable. How do you do it? Smaller goals, such as sales targets within a month or a season, can be something that your team can work towards. Bigger goals, such as a significant increase in sales bi-annually, can be something more significant to work for.

2. Make a leaderboard

Done healthily, a bit of internal competition can drive up motivation in a team. A clear leaderboard gives them a real-time visible update on how well everyone is doing, and if they’re meeting goals that they set for themselves as well.

3. Great incentives

Mark Gilbert also recommends that you don’t underestimate the power of the right incentive. It doesn’t have to be a financial one either. Offering rewards such as flexible work arrangements, getting to be involved in decision-making processes, and more can be a highly motivating factor for many employees.

For Mark Gilbert, a genuinely motivated and energetic sales team can work wonders with the bottom line and help keep the dealership chugging along. With a well-trained, eager, and motivated team, you’ll find that “when there’s a will, there’s a way.”

It’s easy to say that car dealership marketing has not changed much in the past forty years, but Mark Gilbert says customer behaviour has changed a lot. It is true that 95% of car sales take place inside the dealership premises, but online advertising has completely overhauled the way people find cars to buy and dealerships to buy them from. Here are some tips from Mark Gilbert about using your online presence to boost your sales.

1. Strive to make it to the top of Google searches. Around 70% of new car buyers use Google to find a car dealership in their area. Since Google is where you’ll get most of your referrals, you need to invest in your search rankings. The first few listings get the most clicks, so Mark Gilbert says your Google Ads and SEO strategy has to be tight. And don’t forget to consider other search engines, like Bing – searches for automobiles on Bing run up to around 11 million per year. Considering the demographics of Bing users, who happen to be older people, you can open a potential market that can invest in higher-end cars.

2. Know your “unofficial” car-buying days. While car buying habits tend to be steady year-round, there are certain days where dealerships sell more cars than usual. May, for example, is one of the best times to buy a car. And it’s not just Memorial Day weekend. New Year’s Eve is another popular time for buying a car. Planning sales campaigns around these days will help boost your sales and increase your incentives.

3. Take care of your reviews. Around 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from a vendor when they see positive reviews, while 80% are less likely to buy if they see negative reviews. This makes online reviews the most effective marketing strategy available. If you could get your customers to leave positive reviews on your Yelp or Google page, you can expect a bump up in your sales figures.

For Mark Gilbert, the customer experience within the dealership is one of the most critical aspects of running a sales floor. It’s all about the buyer experience: if they feel comfortable, heard, and if they see and hear things that they like out on the dealership, it’s far more likely that you’d be able to close a sale.

What’s more, exceptional customer experiences lead to repeat business. The customer, having enjoyed their time in the dealership, will more than likely return and recommend your dealership to others. And word-of-mouth can be quite a powerful thing. This is precisely why cultivating an excellent customer experience is so important.

Mark Gilbert has a few great reminders about making that excellent customer experience happen.

Awareness, Consideration, Decision

Always remember this critical process. The customer realizes they have a problem and comes to you. This is your chance to show them that they have an opportunity to solve that problem. Now that the customer has defined and considered that problem, they are currently looking for a specific solution. You have to present that solution to them and lead them to the decision to solve it.

Make use of your digital resources

In this day and age, a customer wants fast work and convenience. That’s an issue that technology can quickly address. Mark Gilbert recommends going for the gadgetry. Implementing new technology on the sales floor such as tablets, virtual reality experiences, or even just as simple as giving your staff new headsets can make things go so much more smoothly.

Let them know you’re there

Being present, interacting with your customers in various ways, leads to better customer experience. Above all else, customers like knowing that their problem is addressed, the issue is getting heard, and best of all: that the dealership has a solution. Listen, interact, and even prompt them along through messaging.

Mark Gilbert believes in the power of positive customer experience. If your customers are happy in the dealership, sales will undoubtedly follow.

Mark Gilbert has an extensive history in the automotive industry, as well as handling and managing the staff in his dealerships. He places great importance on training his staff, as he believes the people running the dealership can make or break it.

Making or closing the sale, coming up with better marketing strategies, and more: all of these rely on the minds and skills of the people in the dealership. A highly skilled team is a competent, capable team, so they need to gain all these skills through training.

Here are some of his tips:

Build through job shadowing

Having been mentored and becoming a mentor himself, Mark Gilbert recommends management to promote “job shadowing.” This is because every employee on the dealership has the potential to become a leader. They need the opportunity to learn it. And how better to do that than being allowed to follow the footsteps of star employees and leaders?

Developing hires

The hiring also doesn’t just end when the new employee signs on the dotted line. They need to be adequately trained in how the dealership operates, how they do things, and what the new hire can do to maintain the standard in the dealership. In fact, 72% of employees say that one-on-one time with their managers is the most crucial part of the process. Mark Gilbert adds that this is the management’s chance to train them.

A culture of learning

It’s also through training that employees get a feel of the company culture. The culture is what separates a dealership from every other. Excellent employees who stay in a dealership without good company culture won’t thrive. This is why it’s essential to start getting employees acclimated in good company culture starting from their training days. As they thrive within it, they’ll continue spreading the company culture to new hires.

Mark Gilbert says that success is achievable if employees are adequately prepared. That is why training matters, as it’s a stepping stone to great things in the long run.

It is not a stretch to say that Mark Gilbert knows the qualities of an automotive industry leader better than anyone. He’s one such leader himself. With 35 years of industry experience under his belt, dealer principal of no less than eight dealerships, and a nationwide speaker on the industry, there’s no doubt that he knows what it takes to go from the bottom rung to the top of the hill.

Becoming a Leader

Leadership in the automotive world is not always synonymous with management. True, to get a managerial position requires leadership qualities, but that quality is something that is found in the best personnel no matter what level they are in. Mark Gilbert also emphasizes that while managers typically complete their tasks, coach, and clarify the vision for everyone, a leader inspires the rest of the people around them, sets an example, and truly embodies the vision itself.

An Effective Leader

Steady sales are a goal of a leader, but that is not all that a leader should aspire to. Leaders watch and listen to the staff around them, can read the room, and see what the team is ready to handle. Leaders know their teams well, what motivates and drives them. Scheduling one-on-one talks are also a part of leadership, according to Mark Gilbert. It enables excellent leaders to truly get to know the people they work with, particularly when bringing in new talent. That allows them to take decisive actions and understand which tactics will work for the team in their area.

Overall, a leader brings the vision to fruition and allows the employees to cultivate it on their own. Leading them towards independence and achieve their milestones are among the things that Mark Gilbert has enjoyed when leading others towards success himself. A good leader, therefore, is one that creates other leaders.

Mark Gilbert understands the role of the manager in a car dealership. Many managers just sit at their desks and gaze at sales numbers instead of actually engaging their salespeople. However, this management style leads to high employee turnover and a lack of control over sales. Mark Gilbert suggests that car dealership managers adopt the following habits:

1. Daily and weekly check-ins. Daily check-ins take less than a minute per employee and focus more on sales operations. As a manager, you are responsible for reviewing completed tasks and those that are pending in the CRM. Mark Gilbert suggests that by 5 PM, you should call each salesperson into the office, review what has been accomplished for the day, and alert them of any discrepancies. Weekly check-ins, in contrast, involve discussing weekly sales, reasons for missed sales opportunities, and how you could save those deals from going down the drain. They are also ideal opportunities for asking employees about their life at home and how they are affecting their performance.

2. Process and Product Training. Process training discusses workflows, sales tactics, ways to deal with disputes and objections, and other operational matters. Product training, on the other hand, involves educating your team on the specifications and features of the vehicles that you sell as well as categorizing your vehicles according to price range, features, seating capacity, and others. Mark Gilbert also thinks making comparisons between the products that your competitors carry and those that you sell will help prepare your sales agents answer questions from prospective clients and close the deal.

Getting yourself familiar with operations and products will help you and your team increase product knowledge and the chance to get the sale done. Management is all about keeping these meetings light yet informative, leaving each sales representative with a positive outlook and the drive to do more for the team and the dealership.

Dealership trainer Mark Gilbert agrees with other experts in saying that the current system of paying technicians a flat rate should be overhauled. Meanwhile, most also agree that a pay scale depending on technician skill level should be adopted.

Supposedly, a flat rate or commission-based system, while still being used today, is not maximizing the potential of dealership personnel, particularly in the service department. For example, bringing in a manager to supervise technician payroll is more often counterproductive. Having a flat rate also works against the career focus of the employee since most technicians cannot see their future in a flat-rate payroll system. Supposedly, having a stagnant career is also one of the main factors in the high attrition rate for service technicians.

While it has yet to be finalized, Mark Gilbert is closely observing developments among dealership groups that advocate an overhaul of the system. Accordingly, one idea is that technicians are paid based on their skill levels since depending on the job, some tasks are admittedly harder than others and require an upgraded skillset.

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