Product Prep, an online learning, compliance and certification platform provider, has reached major milestones on engagement and is evolving its content for the next phase of growth and development to keep automotive teams in finance, sales and management departments on point for the current and post-pandemic market.
Few industries have been as impacted by COVID-19 as the auto industry. From forced adoption of new technologies that push the entire car-buying process online to an unprecedented surge in demand for used vehicles that has customers lined up around the virtual block, industry professionals have had to adapt quickly to a lot of change thrown their way. Pile on remote working and cancelled classroom trainings and it’s enough to leave anyone professionally paralyzed.
“I started listening to the webinars during quarantine back in the spring so I could use the time to ‘sharpen the sword’ so to speak,” said Johan Bonilla, sales consultant at Nissan of Bayshore, NY. “I picked up some pointers, applied them at work and have been consistently on every webinar ever since. Product Prep content gives me talking tracks, the understanding of the right questions to ask customers and confidence in my job. I listen to them on my way to work every day and when I show up, I feel like I’m the best guy on the floor.”
The company said its online learning and training development system has been a life raft for many, if not a positive resource to stay competitive, engaged, current and inspired. The company recently passed the mark on 5,000 active users; 41,359 courses taken; 3,548 certifications issued; and 30 lessons and 28 hours of sales, finance and management training from industry veteran and lead trainer Gerry Gould. Now, Product Prep is expanding its partnerships and adding new features that will make the user experience even better for both live webinars and recorded trainings.
“Whatever resistance the auto industry had to adopting new modernized practices and technologies is now gone because of the pandemic,” said Todd Rothman, CEO of Product Prep. “For anyone in a dealership, it is ‘now or never’ in terms of updating your skill set. We’ve seen a major spike in engagement with Product Prep as it keeps individuals well positioned to handle the surge in demand rather than scrambling to be relevant. And maybe even more importantly, it has been an opportunity for them to invest in themselves and to look toward the future with a better sense of preparedness and a more flexible mindset.”
Coming in the first quarter of 2021, Product Prep will introduce Course Coach, an application which keeps attendees on task and engaged with personalized reminders and motivation to achieve their goals. A new partnership with the hallmark insurance provider Gundermann & Gundermann, a division of EPIC, is also being rolled out, which will give attendees access to a range of services for property & casualty and employee benefits including, risk management strategy, cost reduction solutions, claims mitigation and management as well as safety and loss control education.
“We are evolving the proprietary Product Prep platform and our partnerships to ensure we are delivering the most relevant content in the most engaging way,” added Rothman. “Our team is gathering analytics on the front end and back end and continually applying these insights to develop content and meet the needs of the market.”
In June of this year, Product Prep partnered with the Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals (AFIP) to deliver a program targeted toward F&I. The course, called ‘Compliance Prep Powered by AFIP,’ unites AFIP’s strict adherence to regulatory compliance training with Product Prep’s innovative education technology to help dealers stay up-to-date and compliant on all F&I aspects of dealership operations.
For more information, visit www.prodprep.com.
