David Wilke, Manager, National Training at LGM
LGM’s national F&I training program is gaining popularity.
Since the program’s inception in the fall of 2013, the provider of automotive warranty, finance and insurance products has already coached more than 208 people through its program dubbed PowerTrain.
To meet growing demand, LGM moved its Oakville office down the street to a new space that is designed to accommodate more F&I training.
“We’ve been training for a while but we’ve been going to places like hotels,” said Jeffrey Fallowfield, President, Distribution and Marketing, for LGM. “We felt it was time for us to actually have a training centre and make a commitment,” he said.
The new office has been operational since the beginning of December but the company unveiled its new Oakville, Ont. facility with an Open House tour on March 12, 2015.
Canadian auto dealer, along with LGM’s dealer and OEM partners, were able to drop into the office and take a tour of the facility, grab a bite to eat, and sit in on some of the mock training sessions.
The boardroom walls are plastered with large white pieces of paper with notes such as “sales resistance reasons” and “response techniques,” that add to the training environment.
There’s also a small, square room in which dealers can role play and practice their F&I sales pitches. Equipped with a video camera, dialogue recorded in the room can be played back on a large screen in the main boardroom.
The demo video playing on the screen during the tour captured LGM’s “ethical selling and guided discovery process,” which is meant to help strengthen the communication between F&I manager and the sales staff throughout the customer buying process, and to make customers feel more at ease when they walk into the F&I office by determining the best products meant to fit their driving conditions and needs.
Dealers who bring their children to LGM’s office can take them through a separate entrance into a designated waiting room complete with a kitchen and pool table.
With the company’s OEM partners backing the new training facility, Fallowfield said the new centre will help to drive dealership profitability, customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of consumers returning to the dealership.
“Our whole process is making sure everyone is happy with the experience.”
