Preview as a role
Access is issued by level. What you can open below changes with the role — salespeople get the full sales path, assistants get the BDC track, managers unlock class mode and the desk track, finance unlocks the F&I track, and the GM sees everything. Pick a role to preview its view.
Viewing as: Salesperson
Preview mode: this page demonstrates each level's access. On the live site, each person signs in with an issued login and lands directly in their level — no role picker.
How access works on the live site — issued passcodes, no fees
The GM Center of Learning model- Free to the team — no fees, no public signup
There is no price and no register page. If you work here and your role needs it, the store issues you access; if you don't, there is nothing to buy and no way in.
- Per-person passcodes, bound to name + role
Each passcode is issued to one person and carries their login level — the OEM precedent is GM's Center of Learning, where access runs on an issued 7-digit Training Person ID plus password, with role-profiled learning plans that follow the person's LMS profile.
- Activate once, then it's your login
The passcode is a single-use activation that converts to an individual login, with a forced password change and security questions on first sign-in. On the GM model, passwords expire every 90 days, with a help-desk reset path using the Person ID.
- Expiry and revocation are the point
Access expires in step with the certification cycle and is revoked the day someone leaves. Managers issue new-hire passcodes as part of day-1 onboarding — one issuing authority, one audit trail.
- Why not one shared rooftop code
Season-ticket products (DealersEdge sells a fixed number of logins per rooftop) work for content libraries — but shared logins make testing, scoring and leaver-revocation impossible: a certificate earned under a shared code belongs to nobody. Per-person codes are what make the gates on this page real.
- The manager is the commitment device
When learners pay nothing, price can't create commitment — completion comes from manager accountability, deadlines and certification gating. That is by design here.
Sources: GM Center of Learning — instructor's guide to the LMS (PDF) · Microsoft — e-learning portal best practices, access-code distribution (PDF) · NJCAR — DealersEdge Season Ticket. Researched October 12, 2026.
My path
One ordered route per login level — the sales path first, then your role's study units, then (for managers) the hosted classes. Work top to bottom; every item opens where you left it, and this session's progress is tracked here. Switch the preview role above and the path rebuilds for that level.
Scorecard & certification
The Salesperson path runs as a gate chain: each section quiz draws 10 questions from a bank of 16, the pass mark is 90% (9 of 10), and passing unlocks the next section. Every attempt is recorded here — a failed attempt is never erased by a later pass. The chapter exam and the certificate below show their real states: locked until they are earned.
Progress and scores on this page are a prototype. Gates, attempts, overrides, and this scorecard live only in this page session and reset when the session ends. Nothing here is promised as “saved” — permanent per-person records arrive with Phase G: real issued passcode logins on the production host.
My scorecard
Chapter exam — Level 1 · Rookie (Chapter 1, Classes 1–7)
Hosted & witnessed only · pass mark 85%Completion certificate — Salesperson path
Issued only after the witnessed chapter exam is passed
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
Orel Hershiser Chevrolet · Chino, California
Not issued
This is the certificate screen in its locked, not-yet-issued state — the fields above are what the issued certificate will carry. A certificate is issued only after the witnessed Chapter 1 exam is passed at 85% or better; certifications are titled and expiring (Rookie · Professional · Closer) on a roughly 3-year renewal cycle. No certificate is issued — or faked — from this prototype.
Chapter exam — Level 2 · Professional (Classes 8–14)
Hosted & witnessed only · pass mark 85%Orel Hershiser Chevrolet · Chino, California
Completion certificate — Level 2 · Professional
Issued only after the witnessed Level 2 chapter exam is passedCERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
Orel Hershiser Chevrolet · Chino, California
Not issued
This is the Level 2 certificate screen in its locked, not-yet-issued state — the fields above are what the issued certificate will carry. A certificate is issued only after the witnessed Level 2 chapter exam is passed at 85% or better; certifications are titled and expiring (Rookie · Professional · Closer) on a roughly 3-year renewal cycle. No certificate is issued — or faked — from this prototype.
Chapter exam — Level 3 · Closer (Classes 15–20)
Hosted & witnessed only · pass mark 85%Orel Hershiser Chevrolet · Chino, California
Completion certificate — Level 3 · Closer
Issued only after the witnessed Level 3 chapter exam is passedCERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
Orel Hershiser Chevrolet · Chino, California
Not issued
This is the Level 3 certificate screen in its locked, not-yet-issued state — the fields above are what the issued certificate will carry. A certificate is issued only after the witnessed Level 3 chapter exam is passed at 85% or better; certifications are titled and expiring (Rookie · Professional · Closer) on a roughly 3-year renewal cycle. No certificate is issued — or faked — from this prototype.
The 20-module sales path
The manual's 20 sections, in order. Open any module to study its objective and key work, take the knowledge check, and mark it complete. Morning shifts train product knowledge on a real vehicle; afternoon shifts train the steps of the sale — these modules are that same rhythm, on demand.
Role tracks
Each position has its own job to learn. Tracks unlock by login level — gated by what the job actually touches (customer data, gross, credit), not by seniority. Locked tracks show their syllabus; the lesson detail opens with the matching login.
BDC / Sales Assistant track
The BDC track from the by-position curriculum (Track 2 — Sales Assistant / BDC): nine modules defined by the competency each one certifies, built one module at a time at full depth. Modules 1–9 — Speed-to-Lead, Phone-Up Handling & the 100% TO, Appointment Setting & Confirmation, Save-a-Deal Calls, Equity & Lease-End Mining, CRM Data Quality Ownership, TCPA / DNC / Consent Rules, Texting & Email Response Standards, and Handoff Discipline (to salesperson / to desk) — are built. The whole track is DRAFT — pending AJ/counsel review, not store policy.
Advanced track — Assistant Manager / Closer
The Advanced Track (Assistant Manager / Closer classes, ordered 2026-10-15) builds beyond the Manual's Classes 15–20: eight modules defined by the competency each one certifies, built one module at a time at full depth. Modules 1–8 — Advanced TO & Early-TO Mastery, Save-a-Deal & Be-Back Mastery, Working the Desk as Assistant Manager, Appraisal Ride-Alongs & Landing the Trade, Closing with Transparent Numbers, the Referral & Retention Engine, and The Assistant Manager's Daily Cadence, and Coaching the Close — are built: the Manual teaches no TO process at all — Class 17 gives only the salesperson's side (stay quiet during the manager's close) — so Module 1 teaches being the second face, Module 2 teaches the no-sale side of the desk (the exit interview, the be-back log, and the second visit), Module 3 teaches the desk pass from the AM's side of Class 17's named-but-never-explained Three-Hit System — reading a pencil, presenting to the manager, one variable per pass — with the manager only: the AM presents, the manager decides, and no solo desking authority is taught — and Module 4 teaches the real appraisal beyond Class 17's silent trade walk: the ride-along driven and noted factually, two market sources on every appraisal, the history report read within what it actually shows, and the figure presented with condition shown, not implied — appraised with the manager/buyer, whose call the final ACV is — and Module 5 rebuilds the close itself around one disclosed number, from Class 17's Confirm Commitment and Class 18's full-disclosure rule: the SB 766 total price presented first and whole, the commitment ladder run only after the full numbers are shown, the four closing objections answered without moving a number off-book, and no handoff to F&I until “yes” is complete — closed with the manager: the AM holds no solo desking authority (Module 3's rule, unchanged) — and Module 6 extends Manual Class 19's referral ask from an ask into a system: referral capture at four moments (delivery, next-day call, service visit, 30/60/90 ownership touches), a referral log with source attribution replacing the loose paper form, the review ask held separate, later, and unconditioned under the FTC endorsement and review-rule bounds — a referred name is not consent, and no referral-fee structure is taught anywhere in it — and Module 7 builds the AM's day itself into a system, from the Manual's two fragments (Class 20's daily one-on-ones note and the early activity-log headers): morning lot readiness with aged units flagged TO the manager, the TO and desk logs kept complete through the day — nothing unlogged — the save-a-deal and be-back logs reviewed, dropped be-backs recovered, opted-out records left alone, and end-of-day activity reconciliation done with the manager — taught as a 60–90 day habit build on the store's own tracked activity numbers only, with no settled activity standard taught: “25 contacts per day/month” is DRAFT-flagged / UNVERIFIED until AJ confirms the real standard. Module 8 — Coaching the Close — completes the track: the AM's coaching system built from Class 20's seed sentence alone — “become their coach instead of their boss” — observe → score → correct against the same rubric the classes use, feedback specific and same-day, never a bare score, a Level 3 hosted session run end to end, and the shared AUDIT-33 teach-back gate — one gate, one rubric, one record, first implemented in this module — passed before hosting solo, with no certification by viewing anywhere on the track. The Advanced Track is complete — 8 of 8 modules built. The whole track is DRAFT — pending AJ/counsel review, not store policy, and it teaches the practitioner rung only: the TO system itself — its design, its staffing, its desk policy — is Sales Manager Track 3 content and is not duplicated here.
Sales Manager track
The Sales Manager track from the by-position curriculum (Track 3): nine modules defined by the competency each one certifies, built one module at a time at full depth. Module 1 — The Manager's Daily Cadence — is built: the system rung — the manager running the whole team's day (1-on-1s, KPI review), distinct from Advanced Module 7's practitioner rung, the assistant manager running his own day under the manager, which it cross-links and does not duplicate. Module 2 — Desking — Transparent First Pencil — is built: the desk rung, Gate T2 — the first pencil as the first promise, the two totals never confused, the clean pencil, and the desk that promises structure, never credit outcomes. Module 3 — Appraisals Done Right — is built: the desk rung, Gate T2 — every trade driven and never appraised from the window, a history report on every appraisal, two named/dated market sources, ACV vs allowance documented separately, and no trade figure promised before the appraisal. Modules 4–9 are in the build queue as locked slots. The whole track is DRAFT — pending AJ/counsel review, not store policy.
Quick Classes — “Sales I Think I'm Missing”
The classic 25-item self-assessment AJ supplied, built as an interactive diagnostic: answer honestly, watch your TOTAL PER MONTH build live, then see your gaps ranked largest-first — each one pointing at the Quick Class written for it and the full class that teaches the step in depth. The diagnostic is standalone and open with every login — it gates, unlocks, and blocks nothing on this site. Quick Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 — Professionalism, Work Ethic, Sales Goals, Attitude, Treat Customers Like Buyers, Proper Greeting, Building Rapport, Investigation, Price Talk, Presentation, Demonstrations, Creating Urgency, Closing, Objections, Controlling The Sale, Getting Commitments, Complete Credit Applications, Negotiation, Follow Up — Working Prospects, Follow Up — Previous Customers, Outside Prospecting, Incoming Sales Calls, Sell From Stock, Women Buyers, and Leasing — are built below (each opens on a genuine pass of the Quick Class before it, or a logged manager override); the Quick Classes set is complete — 25 of 25 — their slots are listed under the diagnostic in item order.
Why Buy — the four lists
The four 25-item Why Buy lists — Why Buy (a new vehicle), Why Buy Chevrolet, Why Buy Here (Orel Hershiser Chevrolet), and Why Buy Today — 100 reasons, drilled until they are reflex, then deployed by selection: read the customer, pick the two or three reasons that are true for them, and say those like you mean them. A standalone class: it is not Class 21, not Quick Class 26, and not part of either gate chain — it gates, unlocks, and blocks nothing, and its knowledge check records on its own scorecard row.
Pocket cards
The 19 pocket reference cards, distilled for the phone in your pocket. Verbatim scripts are quoted exactly as printed — and carry the compliance note in the section below before you use them in writing.
Class mode — click-through teaching
Two ways to run a class. Hosted is the Trainer's Guide as a presenter — a manager picks the class and the length that fits the clock (5-minute huddle, 15-minute express, 30-minute standard, or the full 45) and clicks the room through it; facilitator notes stay visible only to the manager. Solo runs the same class self-paced: study the material, practice the word tracks out loud, and pass the knowledge check on your own — open to every login.
Drill room
Short, repeatable reps — the cassette-tape principle from the Film Room, built for the phone in your pocket. Run the pocket-card flashcards until the word tracks are automatic, then test yourself in the lightning round.
Pocket-card flashcards
Lightning round — knowledge checks
How this academy works
This site is not a video library with a login. It is built on what the learning research actually supports — short, spaced, retrieval-based practice; scored role-play with immediate feedback; weekly manager coaching; certification gates tied to observed behaviour — and it deliberately avoids what the research says fails. Every claim below is sourced; where a number is a vendor claim or a single trade report, it says so.
What works — the load-bearing findings
Retrieval practice beats re-studying
Practice testing and distributed practice are the only two “high-utility” techniques of the ten Dunlosky et al. reviewed (2013); highlighting, rereading and summarisation rated low-utility. Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan's meta-analysis (2017) puts practice testing at g ≈ 0.61 overall — and g ≈ 0.51 against restudy, the honest comparison, because rereading is what people actually do instead. That is why every module here ends in a knowledge check, not a “mark as read.”
Dunlosky et al. 2013, Psychological Science in the Public Interest · Adesope et al. 2017, Review of Educational Research
Feedback roughly doubles the testing effect
Rowland's meta-analysis (2014, Psychological Bulletin): practice testing with feedback reaches g ≈ 0.73 against restudy; without feedback, ≈ 0.39. It is the single most actionable number in role-play design — so reps here are scored by a manager against a rubric, with the correction the same day, not just performed and forgotten.
Rowland 2014, Psychological Bulletin (via research synthesis — check the original before quoting externally)
Spacing beats cramming
Cepeda et al. (2006) — a meta-analysis of 317 experiments and 839 assessments: spaced practice reliably beats massed practice, the optimal gap grows with how long the skill must be retained, and gaps of a day or more help long-term retention. Refreshers here run on expanding intervals — roughly 1, 3, 7, 16, 35 days is a defensible schedule from that literature.
Cepeda et al. 2006, spacing-effect meta-analysis
Coaching works — when the coach is skilled
A 2023 workplace-coaching meta-analysis finds a medium, significant overall effect (Hedges g = 0.43). Dahling et al. found manager coaching skill explained ~19% of the variance in reps' sales-goal attainment, and frequency helped mainly when skill was present. So this academy trains the managers' coaching skill first — Class Mode is a coaching tool, not a video player.
Frontiers in Psychology 2023 · Dahling et al., multilevel model of managerial coaching
Habits take about two months, not 21 days
Lally et al. (2010, n=96): mean 66 days to automaticity, range 18–254 — and missing one day did not materially harm habit formation. That is why the ramp below runs 90 days: it is a habit-formation window, not a mastery promise.
Lally et al. 2010, European Journal of Social Psychology (UCL summary)
Microlearning — promising, with a caveat
A higher-education meta-analysis finds learning outcomes around SMD 0.74 (trim-and-fill adjusted ≈ 0.68) and retention odds ≈ 1.87. But most samples are not workplaces, a 2026 systematic review warns that long-term retention is rarely measured, and brevity alone is not the mechanism — short modules work here because they carry practice and feedback inside a broader, manager-led pedagogy.
Microlearning meta-analysis (higher education) · 2026 systematic review of microlearning
- One-and-done seminar days. Massed delivery is exactly the condition spacing research beats. A motivational day produces fluency and confidence at exit — which learners misjudge as learning, the metacognitive trap documented in the retrieval literature — and rapid decay after. No reinforcement means reversion to old habits.
- Video-only training for a verbal skill. Watching is the rereading equivalent: recognition, not retrieval. Video is efficient for knowledge (product, process, compliance) and for modelling what good looks like; the skill itself — greeting, discovery, objection handling, the desking conversation — only moves with performed practice and scored feedback, under Ericsson's deliberate-practice conditions (1993): attack a specific weakness, at the edge of current ability, with immediate informative feedback and repetition-with-correction. Mere experience — “work” — does not improve performance.
- Content nobody completes. Self-paced e-learning without accountability has chronically low completion: secondary round-ups put typical online-course completion around 5–15% (MOOCs 3–6%), with corporate click-through modules described in the 15–20% / 20–40% bands depending on source. Those figures are inconsistently sourced vendor/blog statistics, so we cite the pattern, not a single number. The documented countermeasure is cohort accountability: deadlines, manager chasing, certification gates.
- Quizzes that don't match the job. Testing transfers to new questions only modestly (Pan & Rickard 2018: d ≈ 0.40 on average, and the effect often shrinks or disappears after publication-bias correction) unless practice is elaborated and format-matched. So this academy tests in the format of the work — live role-play and real-call reviews, not only multiple choice.
- Poster statistics. The “70% forgotten in 24 hours / 90% in a week” vendor staples are extrapolations from Ebbinghaus's 1885 relearning of nonsense syllables, measured on himself (the curve itself was replicated in modern form by Murre & Dros, 2015) — directionally right about rapid early decay without review, numerically not citable for dealerships. The same caution covers the widely repeated onboarding statistics (Brandon Hall Group's “strong onboarding: +82% retention, +70% productivity”; SPI's “55% name lack of implementation”; Ventana's “ROI quadruples with in-field coaching”): repeated by vendors without the primary reports openly accessible, so they are directional background — never academy claims.
The 30 / 60 / 90 ramp
Why 90 days and not 21: Lally's 66-day mean to automaticity, and the ramp reality — peak productivity takes about three years, so 90 days builds the habit, not the master. Each phase ends in a certification gate scored on observed behaviour.
Learn the system
Daily 10–15-minute micro-modules with a retrieval quiz; shadow top performers; scored role-play before live customers on each step. Buddy plus manager daily check-in. Gate 1: greeting, discovery, demo — performed and scored.
Perform with feedback
Live selling with a weekly scored call or floor review; spaced refreshers on days 1–30 material on expanding intervals. Gate 2: presentation, trade-appraisal walk, objection handling.
Own a book of business
Prospecting, self-generation and follow-up discipline — the relationship model (see Ali Reda in The Masters) belongs here, not in week 1. Gate 3: the full deal cycle plus the F&I handoff, then a formal 90-day review against ramp targets.
The coaching cadence
One skill per week; the manager observes and scores one real or role-played interaction per rep per week against a rubric, feedback the same day; a daily 10-minute huddle for retrieval prompts. Monthly: certification progress review. Quarterly: re-certification spot-checks — certification here is re-earned, on the IMI principle below.
Why this is worth doing — the turnover maths
NADA Dealership Workforce Study, via trade reporting- Most hires leave before they peak
Sales-consultant turnover ran ~62% in the 2012 study year and ~67% in 2016-study summaries — the highest of any dealership position — and turnover hit 72% for staff required to work four weekends a month vs 50% at two (2012 study). Three-year retention for sales consultants was ~35%, against 65% for the US nonfarm sector, while employees take an average of three full years to reach full productivity. Average cost of a new dealership hire: ~$10,000 (Cox staffing study).
- The first 90 days are the cliff
One NADA-reported analysis put ~40% of salesperson terminations within the first 90 days — single-source trade reporting of workforce-study commentary, so treat it as indicative. An academy that only improves 90-day survival and ramp is already valuable.
- The one measured OEM training case
GP Strategies' redesign of a major brand's trainer certification (100+ trainers, 25,000 sessions a year, 4,000+ dealerships): across 11,000 sales consultants over three years, consultants sold on average 2.4 more incremental vehicles in the four months after their first training session, new-hire training reach within three months rose from 58% to 80%, and six-month new-hire retention rose 12 percentage points. It is a vendor case study with no control group and no brand named — the most credible outcome report found, and still not causal proof.
Sources: Dunlosky et al. 2013 (full text) · Adesope et al. 2017 (full text) · Workplace coaching meta-analysis, Frontiers in Psychology 2023 · Lally habit formation — UCL · Auto Remarketing — NADA Workforce Study coverage · GP Strategies — OEM trainer-certification case study (PDF). Researched October 12, 2026.
The classics & the film room
The trainers this store's method descends from — and the famous sales scenes managers run in class, each one wired to the class it belongs to and paired with what it teaches and the line it must never cross. Read this first: every film below was made as a cautionary tale. Trainers who screen Glengarry Glen Ross, Boiler Room or Suckers as inspiration are misreading them — all three are indictments. Used well, each scene teaches one durable skill and one bright red line.
Joe Verde — the process anchor
Joe Verde Group / JVTN® · Founded 1985, Southern California- The 8-step process
Warm-up (greet, rapport, investigate wants/needs and hot buttons, service walk, select the vehicle) → build value & demo — the salesperson drives first, presenting targeted Features–Advantages–Benefits → close for a firm commitment → a separate, multi-pass negotiation. In substance, this is the road-to-the-sale most Chevrolet stores already teach.
- Question technology
Three question types: open-ended (rapport and information), either/or (direct the conversation, find hot buttons), and yes/tie-down (build value step by step). Plus the daily disciplines: practice–drill–rehearse, unsold follow-up, and tracking your closing and demo ratios.
- His books
Earn Over $100,000 Selling Cars — Every Year, How To Sell A Car And Close The Sale Today, and A Dealer's Guide To Recovery & Growth. The full curriculum lives at JVTN®; the YouTube channel is a sampler — the right model for this site too.
- The 2026 correction
Verde's signature bypass/rephrase-price word tracks predate the CARS Act. Teach them as acknowledge → disclose → pivot: on the lot the pivot is fine; in writing, the total price goes in the first written response, then you pivot. (His claimed $844 average gross loss at the first price discussion is a company figure, not independently audited.)
Watch — official Joe Verde Training channel:
Joe Verde's Fast Start To Selling For SalespeopleOfficial channel
Joe Verde's Desking And Negotiating ClassOfficial channel
Dealer Insight – Online vs OfflineOfficial channel
Andy Elliott — energy, used with eyes open
The Elliott Group, Scottsdale, AZ- What he's known for
Identity and standards before tactics; text-first, phone-mastery word tracks; and objection handling run as role-play sport — short reps, tonality, pacing, immediate retry in front of the room. His catalogue includes Phone Mastery, Elite Closing & Negotiating, and Advanced Overcoming Objections.
- How this store uses him
For energy, phone tonality, and role-play reps only — clips pre-screened one by one, with a manager intro that names the history below. His employment and fitness standards (the viral “six-pack” rule) are a culture/HR story, not a sales technique, and are not imported here: copied as employment conditions they create discrimination and hostile-work-environment risk.
- Reach — reported with hedges
Aggregator counts conflict: roughly 616K–880K YouTube subscribers across crawls, with ~1M+ Instagram/TikTok followings claimed by aggregators. His company scale claims ($150M company, training in 176 countries, 1M+ salespeople) are self-reported marketing, not independently verified, and his founding year is inconsistently self-reported (2010 / 2011 / 2019). Do not republish any of it as fact.
- “Close anyone” needs a consent log
Overcome-every-objection and text-blasting word tracks, taught without consent and opt-out discipline, map directly onto TCPA, FTC Act §5, and CARS Act exposure. The drill format is worth borrowing; the cadence runs only on consented leads — see Pairing 3 below.
Watch:
@AndyElliottOfficialOfficial channel
Objection-handling exampleOfficial channel
Critical counter-programmingCriticism — not Elliott material
Jackie B. Cooper — the cassette-tape era
Jackie B. Cooper and Associates · Woodruff, South Carolina (1937–2001)- Get the right Jackie Cooper
The trainer is Jackie Belton Cooper of Woodruff, SC — founder of Jackie B. Cooper and Associates / Jackie Cooper International, affiliated with NADA, NIADA, and the National Speakers Association. He is not Jackie Cooper the Oklahoma dealer/philanthropist and not the child actor. Dealer websites routinely conflate the three; this one doesn't.
- The tapes
The canonical memory, preserved by DealerELITE: a sales manager handed a new hire a 12-pack of Jackie B. Cooper cassette tapes in his first week, and the fundamentals “ring as true today as 30 years ago.” His Tape of the Month Club was spaced, repeated audio learning in the car — the direct ancestor of JVTN and of today's podcast/short-video training, and the design principle this site steals: short, repeatable chapters, manager-reinforced.
- The line
His signature moment, microphone to his lips: “If it is to be, it's up to me.” Peer recollections (an F&I trainer in F&I and Showroom Magazine called him “the best of us all”) credit him with averaging 52 units a month in a town of 5,000 people. Mark Cooper specifics as recollected by peers — much of his catalogue survives as used tapes and quoted lines, not an official archive.
- Availability
No official channel was found in this research. The clip below is an unofficial upload of an early-1990s GM training excerpt — link only, expect scarcity, and never treat a rip as the store's copy.
Watch:
Early-1990s GM training excerptUnofficial upload · no official channel found
The supporting canon
Brief entries — attitude, closing, and follow-up vocabulary- Zig Ziglar (1926–2012)
Selling as helping: integrity, attitude, and service produce the close. Framework: Secrets of Closing the Sale (1984) and the Feel–Felt–Found objection response — empathise, normalise, reframe with a found benefit. Lawful only if the “found” story is a real, documented customer.
- Tom Hopkins
How to Master the Art of Selling (1980). Selling is a learned skill; rehearse word-for-word responses. Framework: the alternative-choice / assumptive close and the porcupine (answer a question with a closing question) — safe for delivery slots and accessories, unsafe if it manufactures consent to buy or finance.
- Grant Cardone
Auto-first: 1980s–2000s dealer consulting (Cardone On Demand / Cardone University) before general 10X fame. Framework: information-assisted selling — Road to the Sale plus the “Million Dollar Follow-up.” Volume of action beats perfection; the follow-up cadence still obeys TCPA consent and opt-out rules.
- Brian Tracy · Og Mandino · Dale Carnegie
Honourable mentions: Tracy's Psychology of Selling (law-of-averages professionalism, consultative questioning), Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968, the ten scrolls), and Carnegie's human-relations principles behind every rapport lesson on this page. Background reading, not a car process.
The scenes — what to play, what it teaches, what never to copy
Timestamps are given only where a source supports them — streaming editions differ, so verify any mark against the licensed copy used in class. Only Glengarry's Blake speech is reliably placed (the first ~10 minutes; the speech itself runs about 7 minutes). Every other scene is located by its place in the story, not an invented minute-mark.
Ten pairings — classic material, modern correction
How old-school material runs in a compliant 2026 class- 1 · Verde “bypass price” + the SB 766 total-price card
Teach Verde's acknowledge-and-pivot, then drill the compliant version: acknowledge → state the total price (required in the first written response) → pivot to investigation questions. Pass/fail: no trainee may evade price in a mock text. Runs in Class 12 — Stay Off Price.
- 2 · Glengarry: Blake + Roma
Screen Blake, then Roma's listening close as the counter-scene — “Always Be Compliant, Always Be Listening.” Debrief prompt: what did Blake's contest produce by the end of the film? A burglary and a collapsed sale.
- 3 · Elliott role-play reps + the TCPA consent log
Borrow his drill format (short reps, tonality, immediate retry) and run it only on consented leads: check consent, honour STOP, stay inside the 8 a.m.–9 p.m. window, log the outcome in the CRM before the next rep.
- 4 · Wolf of Wall Street pen + the Verde investigation worksheet
Run “sell me this pen” live; fail anyone who lists features. Pass = five investigation questions first (current car, use, pain, budget, timeline) and a FAB tied to an answer. Runs in Classes 10–11.
- 5 · Cooper's line + Pursuit of Happyness
Pair “if it is to be, it's up to me” with Gardner's phone persistence: build a 7-touch unsold follow-up cadence that is persistent and stops instantly on opt-out or a CARS Act cancellation.
- 6 · Boiler Room “act as if” → act as you are
Teach it as preparation — know the inventory, the total price, the programme. Ban acting as if you hold a licence, an approval, or an affiliation you do not have: pre-approval claims are an SB 766 misrepresentation category.
- 7 · Suckers / Used Cars + a lot audit
After the clips, trainees audit the store's own website and ads that week: does every specific-vehicle ad show the total price? Does any claim (“mile of cars”) literally hold? Fix one real listing as the class exercise.
- 8 · Tommy Boy guarantee pitch + the honest coverage close
Replace competitor-bashing with a factual FAB: state what the Chevrolet warranty / certified programme actually covers, in writing — and what it does not. Any “found” story (Ziglar) must be a real, documented customer.
- 9 · Matilda's workshop tour + the used-car delivery checklist
Freeze the lesson at Matilda's objection. Trainees build the anti-Wormwood checklist: odometer statement accuracy, safety items actually repaired (not masked), title/stolen-parts checks — and, for eligible used cars at $50,000 or less, handing over the 3-day cancellation notice without being asked. Runs in Class 18 — Delivery.
- 10 · Hopkins/Cardone alternative close + add-on consent
Practise alternative choice where it belongs — delivery slot, two real in-stock colours, accessories — then close every F&I menu presentation with SB 766's written “not required; you may buy or lease without it” disclosure and express, informed consent before any charge.
House rules for clips — read before you screen anything
General information, not legal advice — counsel signs off before launch- Link or embed only — never download
Downloading, ripping, re-uploading, or burning a clip into this site is copying plus distribution plus public performance — the riskiest path, and “it's just for training” does not cure it. Internal training is not automatically fair use; fair use is a defence weighed case-by-case, not a safe harbour.
- Official first, unofficial second
Embed uploads on official or licensed channels (Movieclips, MGM, Shout Factory, a distributor channel) wherever one exists, and only where the upload offers an embed player. Unofficial uploads get a manager's written summary as the takedown fallback — never the sole copy a class depends on.
- Playing a scene to a class is a public performance
Even internally. Either rely on the embedded official clip or hold a motion-picture licence (MPLC / CCC Motion Picture License type) and keep the certificate on file. A personal streaming or DVD account's terms do not grant this right.
- Keep the commentary attached
Every clip on this page travels with its teaches / do-not-copy debrief. That is better teaching — and genuine criticism and commentary is the core of any fair-use argument. Re-check every link quarterly.
The masters we learn from
First, the honest framing: there is no independently ranked “world's best” list. The field is unregulated and unaudited, and nearly every headline number in it is self-reported — so this roster separates what is verified from what is marketing, and this academy borrows methods, never claims. Joe Verde, Grant Cardone, Andy Elliott, Jackie B. Cooper, Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins are profiled in depth in the Film Room above; Hopkins and Ziglar are foundational reading on fundamentals, not dealership process systems, and no dealership outcome evidence is claimed for them.
The practitioner roster
Ali Reda — Auto Training Academy
Method
The relationship model over the transactional “ups” model: build a personal book of repeat and referral business so rapport pre-exists the sale. Codified in How to Sell 100 Cars a Month (Thanet House, 2017).
Format
Book, podcast and office-hours appearances, Pinnacle Society (with Jonathan Dawson).
Evidence
Detroit Free Press reporting says the dealership's books showed 1,530 new + 52 used vehicles in 2017 (~130/month), past Joe Girard's 1,425 from 1973, and the store submitted it to Guinness. Girard publicly disputed it, and no source found confirms a Guinness title — so he is never called a Guinness record holder here. Later “209 sales in a month” claims circulate in podcast marketing only: self-reported, unverified.
Sean V. Bradley — Dealer Synergy
Method
Internet sales and BDC. Signature tool: the Money Mind Mapp — backwards-planning from an income goal to the contacts, demos and deliveries required per day, week and month. Runs the Internet Sales 20 Group and a 5-day Internet Director Immersion.
Format
In-person 20 Groups and conference workshops; Bradley On Demand (video with tracking, testing, certification); Millionaire Car Salesman podcast and Facebook group.
Evidence
17-time NADA/ATD convention speaker and FranklinCovey-certified facilitator per his speaker-supplied Digital Dealer bio; Dealers' Choice internet-training awards reported in trade press back to 2008. No independent outcome study found. The platform's own materials claim 6,000+ modules in one place and 9,000+ in another — internally inconsistent — and its podcast/community figures (1.5M+ downloads, 30,000+ members) are company claims.
Glenn Lundy — 800% Elite Automotive Club
Method
Not front-line closing skills: a membership club built around the daily #RiseAndGrind / 800% Club morning show — gratitude, goal-setting, “celebrate the behaviours you want repeated.” A daily-habit, culture and morning-routine system.
Format
Membership club plus a daily live morning show.
Evidence
“Grew a small-town dealership 800% in five years into the second-largest used-car franchise in the US” is repeated verbatim in conference bios — self-reported, with no independent audit or franchisor ranking found. What this academy takes from Lundy is the format proof: a daily, short, live morning ritual can hold an audience — which is why there is a daily huddle in the ramp above.
Jonathan Dawson — Sellchology
Method
Sellchology® — selling through psychology: teach why a technique works — buying behaviour, body-language clues, pre-empting objections rather than overcoming them, “out-experience the competition,” and a raving-fan referral culture.
Format
In-dealership consulting, 1–2 day seminars, Sellchology University (online), Pinnacle Training Center workshops, a CBT News show. He is also a dealer principal and states he still sells cars.
Evidence
“3,000+ dealerships, 9 countries, 3 continents” and his NADA-speaker count (24-time on one page, 26-time on another) vary between his own pages — directionally consistent with a long conference career, not independently audited. His seminar's “$10,000 in 90 days or refund by noon” offer is a marketing guarantee, not an outcome study.
David Lewis & Associates
Method
Inspirational Selling — non-confrontational questioning rules (in his materials: don't ask questions that invite a lie, an unwanted answer, or defensiveness), across Sales, Management, F&I, BDC and Fixed Ops. Book: The Secrets of Inspirational Selling.
Format
The most academy-like legacy model found: in-dealership training 1–2 days every 4–5 weeks, each visit on a pre-agreed topic, split into two repeated sessions so the floor stays covered, with workbooks and assignments due at the next visit — plus training centres and David Lewis Training Online.
Evidence
Founding in 1986 is consistently stated in the company history. The cadence is the point: it independently matches what the spacing and coaching research supports — see How This Academy Works.
David Kain — Kain Automotive
Method
Internet sales, BDC and digital marketing. Rather than inserting a fixed programme, Kain co-built client “Success Blueprints.” He came up through his family's Ford store and led FordDirect's early dealer work.
Format
In-dealership training and consulting, conference teaching; the practice continues inside NCM Associates.
Evidence
NCM Associates acquired Kain Automotive in a strategic merger reported by Auto Remarketing (2024); Kain and staff joined NCM, continuing from Louisville. NCM founded the first automotive 20 Group in 1947. His repeated Dealers' Choice Diamond/Platinum “Internet Trainer” awards are trade awards, not outcome studies.
Jim Ziegler — Ziegler Super Systems
Method
“How to Work a Car Deal,” Profit Masters, the Sales Managers' Forum, and F&I word-tracks.
Format
2-day seminars, books, conference keynotes.
Evidence
Voted top sales training outfit in Auto Dealer Monthly's Dealers' Choice Awards, as reported by the magazine. Attendance claims (e.g. 100,000 managers) are self-reported in his own event marketing.
Paul Cummings — Level 10
Method
Motivational/process training, best known for “Winning Words” vocabulary discipline and the It All Matters / Lessons at the Fence Post books; Level 10 culture and performance language.
Format
Keynotes, in-dealership programmes, and a video series — “Winning Words” ran to 82 segments per period reporting.
Evidence
Thin and dated in the open web: most accessible sources are his own or low-quality republications, and no independent outcome evidence or recent critical coverage was found. Classified here as a legacy motivational trainer — no specific result claims are imported.
DealersEdge
What it is
40+ live webinars a year with outside experts plus an on-demand archive, sold per-webinar or as a per-rooftop “Season Ticket” with a set number of employee logins (partner pages describe 10 logins, 250+ recordings). It also hosts long-running professional forums.
Evidence
Historic pricing of $497–$1,000 per rooftop appears in dated partner marketing — verify before quoting a current price. Its lesson for this academy is about access, not content: rooftop tickets work for libraries and fail for certification — see My Access.
The institutions — and the rest of the world
NADA Academy
What it is
A year-long leadership programme, not a sales-skills course: six one-week classroom sessions (or live-online equivalents), covering financial management, parts, service, used, new-vehicle sales and leadership — using the student's own dealership financial statement as the case study. Classes are composed to keep competing dealerships apart, per FTC antitrust rules.
Structure
The “education escalator” (CBT News, 2026): service-advisor level → Professional Series (four modules per department, any order, within 12 months, with certification) → seminars → Academy.
Evidence
Fee listed at $14,995 on nada.org at research time. The education subscription was reported by CBT News at $799/month for the first rooftop and $499 for each additional; an older brochure shows $699/$399 — pricing has changed, so the CBT figure is quoted as “reported 2026” only.
Wye Management
Method worth stealing
Simplify the road to the sale to five steps or fewer, post it everywhere — including to customers — and train and coach it in 60–90-minute weekly sessions, on a monthly / bi-monthly / quarterly in-dealership cadence with no long contract (listed at $2,500/day + expenses). Programmes end with a playbook, handouts and a framed certificate of completion.
Evidence
One of Canada's longest-running auto training firms, with trainers from metropolitan retail backgrounds. Wye states it has built or facilitated national training for 13 OEMs across Canada, the US, Germany and Russia — a company-reported client list: specific and plausible, not independently audited.
MotorVise
Structure
Bronze → Silver → Gold with named competency titles — e.g. Service Advisor: Bronze “Certified,” Silver “Advanced,” Gold “Master.” In sales: Sales Excellence, then Advanced Selling Skills (Gold), a 2-day interactive workshop that is a prerequisite gate before Transaction Manager / Sales Manager Excellence courses.
Evidence
Published course structure — the cleanest published example of level-gating found, and the template for this academy's titled levels and management gates.
IMI — Institute of the Motor Industry
What it is
Standards, qualifications, a Professional Register (launched 2013) and IMI Accreditation for the motor industry.
The lesson
Accreditation tests current competence and expires after about three years — certification with a renewal clock, not a lifetime badge. This academy's quarterly re-certification spot-checks copy the principle, compressed.
AADA Dealer Academy
What it is
A subscription LMS sold per dealer per month on a 12-month term, with a role-based catalogue spanning sales, service, parts, F&I/fraud and EV knowledge.
Evidence
Its course guide prices units per dealer — e.g. “Road to a Sale – General” at $50/dealer, Sales Manager at $70/dealer at guide publication; guide prices, may have changed. The single-store analogue of its model is per-role enrolment with role-based paths — the login levels at the top of this page.
Sewells MSXI
What it is
Dealer performance and development groups (the regional analogue of 20 Groups), dealer business consulting, training-needs analysis, curriculum development and learning administration for OEMs and dealer networks across APAC, Africa and the Middle East.
Evidence
Directory listings conflict on founding details, headcount and headquarters — so only the service model is cited here, never the corporate statistics.
Total Selling Solutions
Method
Phone-call recording, scoring and coaching for dealerships, benchmarked nationally — score real calls, then coach against the scores.
Evidence
Its own material claims 200+ dealerships — self-reported. Noted because its model matches the learning evidence in How This Academy Works better than most seminar products.
New Zealand & continental Europe — an honest gap
No verifiable NZ-specific or continental-European independent automotive sales trainer of comparable standing was found. In both markets the visible provision is OEM academies, MSXI-type outsourced programmes, and — in the UK/EU — the IMI qualification route. We don't invent names to fill this row. The lesson stands on its own: outside the US, the winning model is institutional and qualification-based, not personality-based.
Structure lessons — what the best programmes taught us
And what this academy copies- Levels with titles, gates with teeth
MotorVise titles its levels as job identities — Certified, Advanced, Master — and gates management courses behind Gold. NADA's Professional Series reaches the same end by a different route: four modules per department, in any order, inside a 12-month deadline, then certification. This academy uses both: titled levels, order flexibility inside a deadline, and management training gated on them.
- Certification expires
The IMI's accreditation re-tests current competence on a ~3-year clock. A permanent badge decays into wallpaper — so expiry and re-certification are built in from day one, not bolted on later.
- Split by kind: knowledge self-paced, skill manager-led
Every high-structure programme above converges on this split, and every failure mode in the evidence section comes from collapsing it to self-paced only. NADA's own model is instructor-led, with hands-on application in the sponsoring dealership between sessions — spaced and work-integrated.
- The accountability layer is the product
Dealers citing Bradley On Demand praise tracking, testing and certification — not the video count (whose claimed size conflicts across the company's own materials). Joe Verde's JVTN was breaking courses into short interactive chapters back in 2003 — a 25-chapter closing course, for example. Chunking is table stakes, not a differentiator.
- Seats move with people
Cardone On Demand's transferable licences acknowledge a 60%+ turnover trade: when a rep leaves, the licence moves to the next hire. In a store-issued academy the equivalent is cleaner — revoke the leaver's passcode, issue a new one. Nothing is re-sold, because nothing was sold.
- Use material no outside trainer can touch
A single-dealership academy can safely train on its own deal data, recorded calls and live pipeline — material no external programme can use. That is this academy's structural advantage, and it stays inside the passcode wall.
Sources: Autoblog — Reda/Girard record dispute · Detroit Free Press — Reda's 2017 sales · Digital Dealer — Bradley bio · Digital Dealer — Lundy at DDCE2026 · Sellchology — about · Auto Remarketing — NCM acquires Kain Automotive · NADA Academy · CBT News — NADA's education escalator (2026) · Wye Management · MotorVise — training levels · IMI — summary · AADA Dealer Academy course guide (PDF). Trainer sites are marketing sources unless a second, independent source is named above. Researched October 12, 2026.
Compliance layer — CARS Act
The classic scripts meet California's CARS Act (SB 766)
The manual's “Stay Off Price” word tracks were written for lot conversation. In writing, the rules are different: under the California CARS Act (effective October 1, 2026), the first written response about a specific vehicle must be accurate on price and availability — and those messages are kept for two years. Build value first in conversation; answer honestly and completely in writing.
House rule for every first written response about a specific vehicle:
- Availability, stated for what it actually is — in stock, in transit, or a dealer-trade locate (see the three cases below).
- Total price as one all-in number — every mandatory dealer charge including the doc fee; only government fees and taxes sit outside it.
- Full VIN and stock number on the vehicle being discussed.
- A booking question — a specific next step and time.
- Signed “— Orel Hershiser Chevrolet” — no personal info in the sign-off.
State it as “available.” Total price, VIN, and stock number still required.
State it as “available” — with the in-transit disclosure in the same message.
Never “available.” Frame it as a locate service: price is contingent, and disclose the vehicle is not in inventory.
Which “CARS” is which — the three-way distinction. (1) California SB 766 (the California CARS Act) is the operative duty taught on this page — effective October 1, 2026. (2) The federal FTC CARS Rule is not live law — vacated by the Fifth Circuit in 2025 and withdrawn from the CFR effective February 12, 2026. (3) The live federal advertised-price standard is FTC Act Section 5, as spelled out in the FTC's September 15, 2026 staff Pricing Transparency FAQs. Wherever this site says “CARS Act,” it means the SB 766 California duty — and this framing itself is draft material for AJ / counsel review, never store policy.
Corrections queue — being worked with AJ
From the full read of all three source books, Oct 12, 2026- Stay Off Price vs. total-price disclosure
Module 12 teaches the classic deflection; the website version adds exactly when deflection is fine (early, general conversation) and when disclosure is legally required (first written response on a specific vehicle). The classic scripts are not published for written use as-is.
- Follow-up statistics
Class 4 cites a 78% eventual-buyer rate, 33% return rate, and 67% close rate on returns with no source. Being sourced or softened to dealership experience before it is taught as fact.
- The 4-square worksheet
Module 17's write-up material is built on the 4-square. Open decision: still the house method, or moving to a single-pencil / menu format? The site will teach whichever is confirmed.
- “25 contacts per day/month”
The phrase reads both ways across the three books. The confirmed standard will be stated one way, everywhere, so the manual, cards, and site can never drift apart again.
- Tape Review Checklist → this site
The manual's Tapes 1–9 (first 90 days, follow-up, closing) are the self-study syllabus of an older era. Each tape series maps to modules here — this website is their replacement.
- Used-car 3-day cancellation right
SB 766 gives qualifying used purchases/leases up to $50,000 a 3-calendar-day cancellation right (400-mile cap; restocking fee 1.5%, $200 min / $600 max). Every role learns to explain it accurately and never talk a customer out of it.
The three books
Everything on this site traces back to these files — one source of truth, so a correction made once fixes the manual, the class, and the card at the same time.
Sales Training Manual
“The Orel Hershiser Chevrolet Method” — 201 pages, 20 sections. Email-sized edition (compressed from 28.6 MB; text identical to the original).
Download PDF · 5.8 MBTrainer's Guide
20 classes × 45 minutes — verbatim opening & closing scripts, facilitator notes, discussion questions, role-plays, knowledge checks, and the Manager Scoring Checklist.
Download PDF · 211 KBPocket Reference Cards
All 19 cards on 10 pages — phone scripts, walk-around, F.A.B., stay-off-price tracks, daily requirements, and the write-up checklist. Print and cut on the dashed lines.
Download PDF · 61 KBWhere this goes next
New research into the best training material for each role folds in as it lands — each batch ends with modules published, a corrections-log entry for anything changed and why, and open questions batched for AJ.
Salesperson path
All 20 modules in self-learn mode, pocket-card library, knowledge checks, and the CARS Act compliance layer.
● Live in this build
Class mode + scoring
Full click-through presenter for all 20 classes with the digitized Manager Scoring Checklist — one per trainee, per class.
● Presenter live — 4 lengths, hosted + solo · checklist next
Assistant / BDC track
Speed-to-lead, appointment science, TCPA & texting consent, CRM mastery — built from the role research brief.
● BDC Modules 1–9 built at full depth
Advanced track — Assistant Manager / Closer
The track beyond the Manual (Classes 15–20): being the second face — Advanced TO & Early-TO Mastery, Save-a-Deal & Be-Back Mastery, Working the Desk as Assistant Manager, Appraisal Ride-Alongs, Closing with Transparent Numbers, the Referral & Retention Engine, the AM Daily Cadence, and Coaching the Close. Practitioner rung only — the TO system itself belongs to the Sales Manager track.
● Advanced Modules 1–8 built at full depth · Advanced Track complete
Quick Classes — “Sales I Think I'm Missing”
The 25-item self-assessment as an interactive diagnostic: honest per-item estimates, a live TOTAL PER MONTH, and ranked gaps that link each item to its Quick Class and to the full class on the same step. Standalone — it gates nothing. The compact Quick Classes (focused lesson + drill + 5-question check) build one per pass, in item order — Quick Class 1, Professionalism, Quick Class 2, Work Ethic, Quick Class 3, Sales Goals, Quick Class 4, Attitude, Quick Class 5, Treat Customers Like Buyers, Quick Class 6, Proper Greeting, Quick Class 7, Building Rapport, Quick Class 8, Investigation, Quick Class 9, Price Talk, Quick Class 10, Presentation, Quick Class 11, Demonstrations, Quick Class 12, Creating Urgency, and Quick Class 13, Closing, and Quick Class 14, Objections, and Quick Class 15, Controlling The Sale, and Quick Class 16, Getting Commitments, and Quick Class 17, Complete Credit Applications, and Quick Class 18, Negotiation, and Quick Class 19, Follow Up — Working Prospects, and Quick Class 20, Follow Up — Previous Customers, and Quick Class 21, Outside Prospecting, and Quick Class 22, Incoming Sales Calls, and Quick Class 23, Sell From Stock, and Quick Class 24, Women Buyers, and Quick Class 25, Leasing, are built.
● Diagnostic built
● Quick Classes 1–25 built
● Quick Classes set complete — 25 of 25
Why Buy — the four lists
The standalone class AJ ordered 2026-10-16, built after the Quick Classes: the four 25-item lists — Why Buy, Why Buy Chevrolet, Why Buy Here, Why Buy Today — taught in full, with recitation practice, a scored true-reasons scenario drill, a 5-question check on its own scorecard row, and printable reference cards for all four lists. Not Class 21, not Quick Class 26, and part of no gate chain.
● Why Buy class built
● Sales Manager track — Modules 1–3 built (see the Track 3 step)
Sales Manager track
The manager's own track, beyond the Advanced practitioner rung: the daily cadence, desking, appraisals, the TO system, desk-log auditing, inventory & aging, documented coaching plans, running Class Mode, and the first compliance control — nine modules built one at a time at full depth.
● Sales Manager Modules: Modules 1–3 built at full depth · Modules 4–9 in the build queue
Manager, Finance & GM
Desking and appraisal discipline, the full F&I compliance set (ECOA, Red Flags, OFAC, Form 8300), and GM program ownership.
● Syllabus + path study units live
Issued logins
Production hosting with real per-person accounts, saved progress and scores per login, and team completion reporting for managers.
● Follows this prototype
Forms & Documents
The Forms Section register (9 forms registered from the deal jacket) and the four drafted lessons — Four-Square, Cover Sheet (Updated Cover Sheet 9-2026 is the live version), Sale / Trade-In Worksheet, Vehicle Payoff Information — converted to website modules and class decks, with lessons for the remaining live forms (VIN Verification, Down Payment Receipt, Customer Reference Sheet, New Car Reporting Form) queued behind them. Shown on the Role tracks and My path pages now as a locked, syllabus-only entry.
● In the build queue — lessons drafted