Dealer loyalty is hard to come by in today’s competitive market. But that didn’t stop one enterprising TPA from taking a fresh approach. They looked beyond traditional agent training for an innovative program that would embed best practices into the culture and create a deeper understanding of new products and effective selling processes.
Old habits are hard to break.
Live training sessions are effective in the moment, but the core messages tend to have a short shelf life. Sales team performance begins to lag almost as soon as the session is over. Even the best staff tends to revert to comfortable, less effective behaviors soon after the training concludes. But for this TPA, breaking old habits was essential to increase F&I results.
A well-trained producer can increase F&I revenue by as much as 70 percent per car.
Training can be quite an investment.
They also had to figure out how to go head-to-head against larger, better funded competitors that could offer multi-day, instructor-led workshops on a regular basis – a luxury they could not afford. The high cost of time and travel associated with repeat onsite visits was too much to bear, especially when servicing remote dealerships.
Help comes from a trusted partner.
So what did the TPA do? They turned to Assurant. A long-time partner and one of the strongest underwriters in the business, Assurant had a track record for innovative solutions. And their ability to leverage technology platforms and data-driven insights for their clients made them seem like a natural fit to provide a good solution.
The Ask: Provide dealers with affordable, frequent and consistent training, with message reinforcement that ensures a lasting change in sales behavior.
Assurant’s Performance Institute fit the bill.
Assurant built a fully customized and TPA-branded training solution, providing consistent and measurable training content in three ways:
Self-paced. Live. Virtual.
Performance Institute delivers personalized training to key individuals, supporting remote locations online. All learning is measurable and fully compliant. And the customized content increases process adoption and helps maintain higher sales production levels for the long haul.
That was important for the TPA. They needed a range of delivery options, but they also needed a way to keep content fresh and in step with advancements in the dealer market. Performance Institute continually develops new content that keeps dealer partners satisfied and agents engaged.
Hello, competitive advantage.
The result? After launching Performance Institute, this TPA:
- Increased account acquisition
- Increased VSC product sales by 200 contracts per month over the previous year’s sales results
- Delivered more effective training in a cost-effective way
- Increased agents’ accountability for their own learning
- Consistently monitored and measured performance with online assessments
- Increased product knowledge, ensuring compliant sales methodology
