America’s largest auto dealers, including AutoNation, Hendrick and Sonic Automotive, are placing a growing emphasis on employee education, according to Automotive News.
Hendrick Automotive, a large group of auto dealers with about 13,000 vehicles, has not only spent $1 million on a training center at its headquarters, but is spending another $1 million on regional training facilities.
What’s driving this investment is that a lot of new managers are good salespeople, but lack any experience or expertise at managing employees. Hendrick is teaching managers motivation techniques, meeting skills and other managerial necessities.
A lot of the training is being done by in-house trainers. At Sonic, for example, national training director Dan Hinic says he prefers to have “Sonic people” doing the instruction. “We believe that our people have a vested interest in effectively training the people in our organization,” Hinic says.