Case Study: ATX

Design and implement training for over 2,000 Mercedes-Benz dealership sales personnel to increase their understanding of one of their most valuable safety related features in an engaging and impactful way!

“Leveraging the experience of Sherpa Marketing for this sales training program was an easy decision for us – they added value not only in the design and development of the program but were able to support us all the way through the delivery of it! In three months we collectively trained over 2,000 dealership personnel in an 8-city tour event. We would never have been able to deliver a program of that magnitude without additional staff support and Sherpa Marketing was able to fill that need for us.”

- Chris Stout, former Vice President Brand Management, ATX Technologies

ATX is a leading provider of customized connected vehicle (telematics) services to global automobile manufacturers. Services by ATX provide enhanced safety, security and driving convenience to vehicle owners, and include location-specific emergency and roadside assistance, automatic collision notification, stolen vehicle recovery, remote diagnostics, and real-time traffic and navigation assistance. ATX also customizes services to help automobile manufacturers and their affiliated dealerships use telematics data and multiple customer contact channels to reduce costs, enhance vehicle servicing, and more closely manage customer relationships and contacts with the vehicle through its lifetime.

Go-To-Market Execution Challenge
ATX, the provider of the Mercedes-Benz, USA telematics service needed to develop an educational program among the nationwide Mercedes-Benz dealer personnel on the system in order to impact the number of consumers who signed up for the service. They needed a training solution which would be informational and educational but also engaging in such a way that they would want to be more involved in communicating the service to consumers.

ATX had been challenged with dealership personnel not getting required signatures on documentation about the service with new vehicle purchases as well as getting consumers to fully understand the value and impact of the safety feature in the vehicle. The end goal was to reduce “drive offs” (unsigned documents) as well as increase education on the current and new features of the solution and identify where the issues with the tools or processes lie in order to implement new or revised solutions moving forward.

The Sherpa Impact
Sherpa Marketing worked in conjunction with ATX to develop the training module to ensure it was educational, informational as well as entertaining. With ATX, we collectively trained over 2,000 personnel during a 45-minute face-to-face training session. We led the development and implementation for the following key elements of the training:

• Quiz with associated prizes for winning group
• Tracking system of quiz results to gauge the learning gaps
• List development of all questions posed by attendees to determine how training sessions differ and how the learning gaps and challenges dealers faced with telematics varied regionally
• Modifications to the training module throughout the events to address issues/questions from dealers and ensure module was on-target and as effective as possible based on regional challenges

Results
The telematics module, which was just one of several the dealership personnel participated in through their day-long participation at the event, was overwhelming well-received. The dealers commented on how the tools and examples we used impacted their understanding of the solution and how significant the benefits of the telematics solutions are to their consumers. We saw an average post-training survey score of 92% by attendees based on the quiz of the material reviewed. ATX gained clear definition around the “problem areas” among the dealers which need to be addressed to impact take rate change. And ATX garnered greater awareness and support for the program by the dealers by taking the time to participate in and educate them in the program.

ATX Technologies at Mercedes-Benz