Turn Managers Into Leaders and Teams Into Winners
Our training programs are powered by our proprietary Manage by Winning platform, designed to assess and elevate both management and front-line professionals.
This two-pronged approach pairs experienced trainers directly with department managers to evaluate business acumen, use of management tools, and team efficiency. Side-by-side, our trainers mentor staff to foster a culture of learning, accountability, and exceptional customer service.
Manage by Winning trainers are seasoned industry professionals who guide your team through hands-on development—transforming managers from daily “firefighters” into mentors and leaders. The result is measurable personal growth and long-term dealership success.
Our Training Programs
Every engagement is customized to your store, delivered on-site, and reinforced through the Manage by Winning platform. Three core programs cover your entire fixed operations team.
Service Manager Training
Our Service Manager Training program focuses on how service personnel impact both customers and dealership success. We help managers build consistent leadership habits, optimize department processes, and improve overall efficiency and profitability.
We begin by meeting with the dealer principal and fixed operations leadership to define:
- A service model — establishing your dealership’s business philosophy, ethics, sales approach, career development, and customer service goals.
- A process template — outlining customer service, job dispatch, invoicing, warranty handling, and role-specific responsibilities.
We then conduct on-site observations to understand how each employee performs key processes. These are non-intrusive assessments focused on understanding—not criticizing—current practices.
From this data, we build a customized operations manual with actionable steps and measurable goals. Managers receive tools to track individual performance and foster accountability through ongoing reviews and mentorship.
In-store visits are tailored to address specific team challenges and ensure long-term adherence to the dealership’s processes and customer service culture.
Service Advisor Training
Many dealerships maintain outdated job descriptions for service advisors that fail to reflect evolving expectations. Our Service Advisor Training program helps define, implement, and maintain consistent service standards across every customer interaction.
We meet with decision-makers to establish core behavioral and performance standards that guide all advisor-customer relationships. Managers are then trained to conduct quick, weekly check-ins to reinforce accountability and progress.
Through our Manage by Winning software, service managers can track advisor performance metrics, maintain consistency, and build a strong, customer-focused culture that endures beyond initial training.
Phone Sales Training
Why Mitchell’s phone training? With over 40 years of experience in dealership sales and culture development, we’ve crafted real-world training that transforms reactive teams into proactive communicators built on accountability and teamwork.
What is a Mystery Caller? A professional caller simulates real customer inquiries using pre-determined scripts to evaluate staff performance, professionalism, and adherence to the dealership’s sales strategy.
Objective: Establish a sales process that aligns with your dealership’s culture while revealing unseen opportunities for improvement in inbound communication. This program provides the insights leaders need to coach effectively and enhance customer satisfaction.
How a Training Engagement Runs
We do not deliver a seminar and leave. Every program follows the same arc — understand the store as it actually operates, define the standard with leadership, then stay involved long enough for the new habits to hold.
1. Leadership Alignment
We meet with the dealer principal and fixed operations leadership to define your service model — business philosophy, ethics, sales approach, career development, and customer service goals.
2. On-Site Observation
We watch how each role actually performs key processes. These assessments are deliberately non-intrusive and focused on understanding current practice rather than criticizing it.
3. Custom Operations Manual
From that data we build a process template and a customized operations manual with actionable steps, measurable goals, and role-specific responsibilities.
4. Reinforcement
Managers get tools to track individual performance, plus in-store visits tailored to the team's specific challenges so the standard survives past week three.
Why Most Dealership Training Doesn't Stick
Most stores have paid for training before, and many have watched it fade within a month. The pattern is consistent, and it is rarely about the material.
Off-the-shelf programs describe a generic dealership rather than yours, so the first time reality diverges from the workbook the team reverts. Training aimed only at front-line staff leaves managers unequipped to reinforce it, which quietly signals that the old way is still acceptable. And without a measurement loop, nobody can tell whether behavior actually changed — so the investment becomes unverifiable and the next budget cycle cuts it.
Our two-pronged approach exists specifically to close those gaps: trainers work with department managers on business acumen and management tools while simultaneously mentoring staff side-by-side, and the Manage by Winning platform gives managers the metrics to keep coaching after we leave. The goal is to move managers out of daily firefighting and into mentorship — that shift is what makes the change durable.
Who Each Program Serves
- Service Manager Training — for dealer principals and fixed ops directors who need consistent leadership habits and repeatable department processes.
- Service Advisor Training — for stores running on outdated advisor job descriptions, where the customer experience varies by whoever is at the desk.
- Phone Sales Training — for teams handling inbound calls reactively, where opportunities are lost before a customer ever reaches the drive.
Programs are frequently combined. A store that fixes advisor standards without also equipping managers to reinforce them usually finds the gains temporary.
Training FAQs
Is training delivered on-site or remotely?
Engagements are delivered on-site at your store. Observing live processes is central to the method, and it cannot be replicated over a video call.
What is the Manage by Winning platform?
It is our proprietary platform for assessing and developing both management and front-line professionals. Service managers use it to track advisor performance metrics, maintain consistency, and sustain a customer-focused culture after the initial training.
What exactly is a mystery caller?
A professional caller who simulates real customer inquiries using pre-determined scripts, then evaluates staff performance, professionalism, and adherence to your dealership's sales strategy — giving leadership objective evidence of what callers actually experience.
Can training be combined with inventory work?
Yes, and it often is. A physical inventory corrects the numbers; training addresses the habits that let them drift in the first place.
Ready to elevate your team? Contact us for a free, no-obligation quote, or explore all of our fixed operations services.