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Joe Verde knows how tough it is being a salesperson, manager or dealer in today’s market

Automotive Industries caught up with Joe Verde, president of the Joe Verde Group.

Joe Verde knows how tough it is being a salesperson, manager or dealer in today’s market, selling to today’s customer. Headquartered in Southern California, the Joe Verde Group works with thousands of dealers regularly and Joe and his staff talk to over 500 dealers, managers and salespeople everyday. With that many daily contacts, if anyone has a feel for what’s going on today in automobile sales, it’s Joe.

With Joe Verde’s Workshops and Online Training and Testing (JVTNâ„¢) plus the customized packages available, everyone from salespeople to dealer groups and manufacturers can have 24/7 access to the most complete training and sales processes in the car business today.

When asked how he can provide effective training to groups of all sizes, Joe replied, “Our training is effective for everyone, because whether we train one person or a large Dealer Group, our focus is the same: Professionalism in Selling, Effective Sales Management and Leadership, from the top down. We’re known around the world for the results we get for everyone serious about growth.”

“Selling and growth are both processes, and I was fortunate to have been taught simple, repeatable success formulas which we’ve used at JVG since 1985 to average over 60% growth rate, every year. That’s exactly what we teach salespeople, managers and dealers, and they get incredible results.”

In live workshops and online, JVG offers a broad range of training modules and the success of Joe’s formula is evident from the current testimonials on joeverde.com:

“JVTN™ has helped our dealership double profits over this same four month period last year.” Don Long, Dealer, Tri-Lakes Ford/Chrysler

“Five of our salespeople doubled their unit sales and increased gross more than 40% this month thanks to JVTN™!” Chris Tecmire, Trainer, Ferguson Pontiac/GMC

“Our units sold increased 27% over the last 12 months, and our gross increased 58%! I attribute this increase to Sales and Management training daily on JVTNâ„¢ and using other Joe Verde Training materials. Joe’s training has given me a 20-to-1 return on my investment and I’ve dramatically decreased my advertising budget.” George Vollman, Dealer, Vollman Ford

“After your Team Leadership Workshop and your videos, the last 90 days I’ve (personally) averaged 76 retail units each month.” Todd Booth, General Manager, Platte Valley Auto Mart, Ford/Chrysler

Automotive Industries caught up with Joe Verde, president of the Joe Verde Group.

AI: What was the impetus for your setting up the Joe Verde Group?

I started selling cars in 1973, had a very rough, very average first five years, got no training and quickly became that average, double-shift 8-car guy I refer to in class. After 5 years I quit and opened an accessory business for two years.

I read over 100 books by some of the most successful salespeople in history and learned to sell professionally, manage a sales team and lead an organization to consistent growth. I discovered there are four fundamentals of selling expensive products, like cars: honestly care about your customers, forget price and build value, close the sale today with professional skills, and turn everyone into a ‘customer for life’ to guarantee future business. There are a thousand other things to learn, but until you get these four down, the other 996 won’t help much.

With my new skills, I knew I could do much better than before, so I started selling cars again. In 7 months, I earned more than my first five years combined. In 1985, I started the Joe Verde Group to teach other people what I’d learned.

AI: Do you think you have achieved your objective?

Definitely! In 22 years we’ve had more impact than any other training company. Below are the tracked numbers from an ongoing survey at joeverde.com that we’ve had online since 2002. This survey includes over 3,000 validated responses across North America. The left column only includes our workshop training. In it, you can see the drastic difference in salespeople’s income who attend our workshops. The right column includes JVTNâ„¢, which we added in 2006. Our students have always sold 20% more units, and now with Online Training in combination with our workshops, gross profit has skyrocketed:

Monthly Income – 2002 to 2005

No Verde Training = $ 3,710
With Verde Training = $ 5,821

Monthly Income – January 2006 to October 2007

No Verde Training = $ 3,774
With Verde Training = $ 8,746

Offering the same information we cover in our live workshops on JVTNâ„¢ has generated tremendous results for salespeople and for their dealerships. Available 24/7 online, they can review a chapter again and again to develop specific skills, which we call “Targeted Training”. With over 1.2 million chapters viewed in 2007, they’re definitely interested in developing more skills and earning more money. Plus when salespeople sell 20% more units and earn almost double per sale, dealership gross profit goes up dramatically.

AI: What has changed in the business of selling cars in the past few years?

Customers are more informed than 20, or even 5 years ago, and have more great products to choose from. While most dealers know this, most still aren’t training salespeople much differently than 10 years ago. Manufacturers and dealers, in trying to make up for the lack of sales and management training, spend between $6,000 to $10,000 per NVR to generate a sale … yet we can generate 20% improvements in units and millions in revenue for under $15-20 (USD) per NVR with JVTNâ„¢ . For under $50, manufacturers could train every manager and salesperson in every dealership in our live workshops and with JVTNâ„¢ – the sky’s the limit on returns. But everyone says training is too expensive, try to figure that one out!

AI: What are some of the gaps in sales training in the automotive industry you felt had to be plugged?

Sales and Sales Management are problems everywhere. We can teach any salesperson to sell more, but logically to improve the organization, you have to teach everyone to do their job more effectively, especially management because change for improvement starts at the top, not the bottom.

AI: Please tell us about your Online Training Network mentioned so often in your customer comments – how is it unique?

Our goal with both our workshops and online training is simple: develop skills and get results for clients. And JVTNâ„¢ is the only online service offering our training and management tools to reach these goals. We have Reporting, Testing, Sales & Activity Tracking, the only Sales Level Certification based on production, and only JVTNâ„¢ offers our new VSAâ„¢, an anti-CRM that salespeople really like to use.

On JVTNâ„¢ you’ll find the only complete training series on “How to Sell A Car From A-Z”. We have the only complete series on “How to Close the Sale, Overcome Objections and Stay Off Price”, “How to Build Your Business By Phone”, and “How To Follow Up and Prospect in Today’s Market”, plus over 100 “Hot Sales Tips”. We have the only “Fast Start Series” for both new salespeople and managers that gets them up to speed and productive within days. As for uniqueness, one of our customers said it best, “The others tell stories, you guys teach skills.”

AI: Joe, when will we see you again?

I’ll be speaking again at the NADA Convention in 2008. We’ll have a booth, as always, and my topic this year is “How To Sell More In Sales, Finance And Service”. Sean Gardner, one of our Senior Trainers speaks on “How To Flood Your Floor With Traffic / Lead Generation And Lead Management”.

We hope to see everyone there!

Joe Verde Group
Sales, Management and Complete Dealership Training Solutions Online 24/7 and Live Workshops. The Joe Verde Group is the largest sales and management training company in the Automotive Industry. Joe Verde Group has a 22 year, verifiable track record of success with over half the top 500 dealerships as their customers. Additional information is available at http://www.joeverde.com/AI or (888) 409-1404.

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