Software Provider Responds to Dealer Sales Rep Challenges of Working Remotely with Series of Webinars
As referenced in previous installments of The Cannata Report’s digital “Business as Unusual Series” powered by GreatAmerica Financial Services – companies across our industry are sharing relevant and strategic information, guidance, and tools to help dealers and their employees navigate the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One such company is ACDI, a four-time dealers’ choice Frank Award winner (“Best Software Provider,” 2017-2019; “Best Print Management Software Provider,” 2020).
Several dealer partners expressed to ACDI Senior Account Manager Kristal Cook that their sales teams were “a little lost in translation from working in the office to working from home and that it has been a struggle to keep appointments and convert them to video conference calls.” Because 95% of Cook’s training, demos, reviews, and sales calls are conducted remotely, she has created a series of webinars focusing on best practices and tools to help ACDI’s partners become more effective at conducting business remotely. She initially created a How to Successfully Sell Remotely webinar for ACDI partners. The webinar was collectively supported and promoted by Cook’s colleagues Director of Sales Jeff McWilliams, Director of Marketing and Communications Pete Taylor, National Sales Manager Jason Andrews, and Account Representative Jeff Vincent.
I participated in Cook’s most recent webinar last week and was impressed with her command of e-tools, ranging from video conferencing applications and chat tools to digital collaboration software. Additionally, she covered timely and thoughtful topics such as: Making Virtual Appointments, Building Your Pipeline, Keeping Customers Engaged, Staying Productive, and E- Tools, among others.
ACDI has engaged just under 1,000 dealer sales professionals across three webinars to date, and webinar creator and host Cook is scheduling the fourth and final How to Successfully Sell Remotely webinar for Wednesday, April 8, at 1 p.m. CDT. The webinar is open to the entire dealer community regardless of their status as an ACDI partner. Click here to register or to pass along to designated members of your sales team.
Given the positive response from sales representatives across the channel, which includes numerous participants having requested the webinar’s PowerPoint deck and presentation recording, Cook and ACDI are expanding this concept into other areas with the first a webinar entitled Connecting with Cold Calls, scheduled for this Friday, April 3, at 1 p.m. CDT. This webinar is open to the entire dealer community regardless of their status as an ACDI partner. Click here to register or to pass along to designated members of your sales team.
“The goal moving forward will be to go deeper into different areas of selling in this climate, [largely] in response to the feedback and requests I am hearing from sales reps in our industry,” said Cook. “If we have a large attendance for Connecting with Cold Calls, we will conduct several webinars on this topic as well.”
Cook and ACDI’s goal is to provide dealers with as much support as they possibly can at this time, “even if it is outside of our conventional role as a third-party vendor,” as Cook astutely stated. “We are all in this situation together, if our partners and the channel succeed, we all succeed.”
I highly recommend that dealer principals and executive management consider having their sales staff, or members of their sales staff participate in one or both of these webinars, schedules, time permitting:
How to Successfully Sell Remotely Webinar
Friday, April 8th, 1 p.m. CDT
Connecting with Cold Calls Webinar
April 3rd, at 1 p.m. CDT
If you would like to share anything your dealership or company is doing to help navigate this particularly challenging climate, please reach out to cjcannata@cannatareport.com and scullen@cannatareport.com.
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