Automotive Coaching and Training (ACT) Group FAQ’s

Business is good, why do I need a Coach/Consultant?

Business may be good, but is it as good as it could be, are you making money despite yourself? Unless you can answer both of those questions definitively, you probably need a coach/consultant! Our coaches in most cases are not any better business men & women than you are, so why do you need them? They have the advantage of looking at your business without the blinders caused by working in your business day to day. Our coaches are not caught up in the day to day operations and they are not caught up in the personal relationships that happen in EVERY facility. Finally, they work from and with proprietary business spreadsheets designed specifically for the automotive industry and it is through these spreadsheets that we help you make educated decisions on everything from personnel, marketing, gross profit minimums, labor rates to just about anything pertaining to your facility.

What Makes the ACT Group different from all the other Coaching/Consulting Companies out there?

Short answer: EXPERIENCE!

A slightly longer version is that almost all of our coaching staff came from the Automotive Industry and that is where they have spent most of their professional careers. And we draw on our vast experience to bring you real world solutions for today’s issues, not techniques and information from years ago. Some of our staff currently own repair facilities which give the collective ACT Group a place to test theories and ideas while others work in the field day to day as coaches, consultants and trainers honing their crafts. Bottom line, we have the experience of working with hundreds of shops across the country and beyond. We know what works, but almost more importantly, we know what doesn’t!

With business down, how can I afford any ACT Group program?

If business is down, there is no better time than now to start changing the items needed that WILL make a difference in your business. Let us evaluate your business @ NO CHARGE to you to see if/where the ACT Group can make a difference (see our “Get Started” Tab), it takes only minutes but could provide a lifetime of relief!

Why do I need the ACT Group?

Our experience with owners tells us that when business is good, many owners experience a euphoric type feeling, and this can lead quickly to issues. Marketing becomes secondary to….well…. everything else because “we are busy, why should I spend money on it now?” Our coaches are trained to look past being busy and will push you to keep you on track and more importantly “keep on task”! Where others might be content patting you on the back, we work hard to continue to drive you and your business regardless of it being “good”.

I’ve worked with other consulting and 20-groups, will your program still give me benefit?

Most all the coaching/consulting companies teach/train similarly in content and application, what makes the ACT Group different is the personal touch. The personal touch I speak about is that not only do you have weekly or monthly meetings with your coach, you also have access to him or her just about 24/7. And although I am NOT an advocate of 24/7 working schedules, all of our coaches understand that “client needs” don’t always follow a Monday--Friday, 8:00--5:00 working schedule, so we all try and make ourselves available when/as needed. We focus on the numbers FAR more intensely than other consulting companies because we all believe that the numbers will tell us almost everything about the business. In addition, we’ll take the time needed to make sure what we are teaching you stays with you. If you don’t get it, we’ll go over it until you do. In short, if we do our job effectively, we’ll work ourselves out of a job by teaching you what you need to know and do to become and stay successful.

A couple of CRITICAL differences between the ACT Group and other coaching companies:

Our main focus is on coaching and training the Owners, Managers and the Service staff. We don’t teach Technical training and we are only working in the independent automotive facility business!

We don’t use contracts! Almost every other automotive coaching & training company in this industry needs contracts to keep you with them, some even sell the contract to a leasing company to help isolate themselves further from the client. We have always felt that if we needed contracts to keep clients, we MUST being doing something wrong! Our clients stay because we get results and we keep them happy through those results!