Why Your Entire Dealership Staff Needs to Know Trucks

The most successful companies are those in which every employee realizes they’re part of the Sales team even if their job isn’t actually in Sales. They know each and every interaction with a customer or prospect can change the customer’s perception of the dealership or even impact a future sale.

One of the things all successful salespeople have in common is a keen understanding of not only the products and services they’re selling but also of the customer’s business and the markets the customer serves.

Savvy truck dealers invest time and energy into making sure employees understand the dealership’s business, the pain points of their customers, and some trucking industry basics. They do this so that when a dealership employee interacts with the customer or prospect, they’ll be seen as a knowledgeable professional. One of the byproducts of having employees who understand your customers and the trucking industry is that customers and prospects get a sense that there’s a team of people — not just the salesperson — taking care of them. This can help tie the customer more closely to the dealership.

Make Sure Employees Understand Your Business

A good place to start the employee education process is to create an “elevator pitch” and share it with employees. This brief 30-second description should explain what your dealership offers and what sets you apart from the competition.

Of course, the training needs to go beyond mastering this simple statement. You’ll want to make sure that employees have a basic working knowledge of all areas of your dealership. As part of your onboarding process, consider requiring new hires spend a day in each dealership department so that they can learn the basics of what each team does and how they fit into the overall dealership.

You may even want to consider cross-training your employees where that’s feasible. Obviously, you can’t take an Accounting Clerk and put them to work as a Truck Technician. (Though you might find out that your new Accounting Clerk was once an Army Mechanic, for instance.) However, if they spend a day in the shop, the Accounting Clerk can gain some real insight into what goes into maintaining and repairing a customer’s truck, which can allow them to develop empathy for a customer whose truck is down.

If you’re using technology to complete initial vehicle check-ins at the Service department, you could have an employee from another department step in and complete the initial inspections and paperwork if there’s a backlog of trucks waiting for service. This can help the Service Manager with the triage process, which could get trucks in and out of the Service department more quickly.

Also, consider letting an employee sit in on a meeting between a salesperson and a customer so they can learn more about customer concerns and how the salesperson addresses those.

There are some cross-training opportunities that make more sense like having someone from the Billing department work in the Collections department. But even if an employee from one department never works in another department, as they develop institutional knowledge about your dealership offerings, it’ll still pay dividends with customers.

Add Some Trucking Knowledge to the Training Program

In addition to ensuring that employees understand what the dealership has to offer, it’s a good idea to add a little training about the trucking industry to the onboarding process. Trucking is in the midst of great changes as fleets now have more powertrain options available to them. While your salespeople need to be well-versed on which powertrains are best for which applications, it doesn’t hurt to make sure that all employees understand the transformational changes occurring in the industry.

Since you’re possibly drawing employees from the general public, it’s likely they don’t know much about the realities of the trucking industry. You can help them understand that trucks aren’t just big cars but rather purpose-built vehicles that operate in a highly regulated environment. The more they know, the better they can relate to your customers no matter what interaction occurs.

CDK Heavy Truck recently released its 2024 State of the Industry white paper, which is a good primer for any of your employees as well as store leadership.

Big Wins for Your Dealership

When you invest in teaching employees all aspects of the dealership and help them gain a fundamental understanding of the trucking industry, your customers and staff will both benefit.

Employee engagement is based, in part, on employees feeling that they’re an integral part of a business. Studies have shown that engaged employees are more productive, have a lower absentee rate, and have a longer tenure at a company. Another big benefit is that employee engagement translates into better customer satisfaction. Engaged employees make customers feel valued and that leads to more satisfied customers who are more likely to continue to do business with your dealership.

Simply put, there’s no downside to having everyone on your team understand the basic fundamentals of your business.