To help new car dealerships throughout the U.S. and Canada be more profitable, Westland Associates Inc. has named the College of Automotive Management as their exclusive automotive career training and education partner.
“Every dealership wants to achieve a 100% absorption rate in the back of the dealership to be more profitable and sustainable during tough times. Achieving that loyal, repeat business goal is problematic for most dealers due to high turnover in the front of the house. A quality education delivered professionally to all employees (salespeople and managers alike) with an emphasis on servant leadership, doing what is right at all times, and the benefits of deciding to love other people is the key to permanent customer relationships and changes everything. I’ve seen the results for myself,” says Tom Leatherby, President & CEO of Westland Associates, Inc.
“Our dealers continually express their concerns to our executive staff regarding attracting and retaining top talent. Therefore, we made the decision to add Automotive Career Training (ACT), provided by the College of Automotive Management to our other money-saving programs for our dealers and create an opportunity for our members to address the real problem at its root. Through this education and training initiative, Westland member employees will be able to access a superior quality education and have the ongoing training and coaching support they need to be successful. This program will equip dealers to not only address a critical area for newly hired employees it will also provide all front end employees including the managers and department heads an opportunity to stay focused on the dealer’s objectives and work together to raise the bar for the organization as a whole,” continued Leatherby.
“Tom Leatherby, and the entire Westland Associates, Inc. organization is the epitome of good character and the type of organization any company would be proud to be associated with or do business with,” says Lloyd Andersen, Chairman and CEO of the Lloyd Andersen Group of Companies, Inc., parent company of the College of Automotive Management. “We respect Tom and his team for their strong commitment to values and ethics and we couldn’t be happier to be selected as Westland’s exclusive training partner in the retail automotive space. We look forward to serving Westland dealers with our very best.”
The College of Automotive management provides a unique brand of automotive career education referred to as the (ACT) program that helps employees take a career view of their job. By teaching all employees on various aspects of the sales, desking and F&I process at the dealership employees learn how what they say and what they do affects other employees and the overall buying experience for a customer. The (ACT) program provided by the College of Automotive Management also teaches employees in all departments to work as a team to monitor and positively control customer satisfaction throughout each step of the buying process.
“Key employee retention, repeat customers, and customer loyalty are just a few of the objectives the College of Automotive Management has been focused on helping dealers achieve for more than 20 years. Training provided by the College includes best in class processes, scripts and procedures to help dealership employees embrace these objectives as their own. We are seeing impressive and measurable results in all three areas with our new online solutions when accompanied with our unique brand of personnel coaching. The natural result is higher CSI scores, more customers willing to fill out and submit those 100% satisfied score cards, higher online reputation ratings (more 5 star ratings more often), and stronger relationships between the dealership staff and the surrounding community,” reports Eric Andersen, President of the College of Automotive Management.
More information about Westland Associates, Inc.
Westland Associates currently does business with over 8,000 dealers Nationwide (1/3 of the retail automotive industry). Westland has leveraged the buying power and influence of new car dealerships, businesses, churches, and non-profit organizations to become one of the largest and longest running Group Purchasing Organizations working with the automotive industry in the United States. Since 1957, the company has been providing new car dealers with financial savings on business products, supplies and services. Average reported savings per dealership amount to over $200,000 annually.
