If you’re still looking for a New Year’s resolution, I’m happy to offer one: Utilize your membership often and take the reins when it comes to training your dealership employees. When I started in this business, dealers solely trained their own people and I know it’s different today. Lucky for us, ATD provides a wealth of training guides and resources at our disposal but it’s up to you to take advantage of them.

As truck dealers, our job is to sell trucks and teach other people how to sell them properly and efficiently too. ATD is the only place where we can get dealership-branded training for all our employees. That’s extremely unique because there’s no other entity that creates and aggregates this body of work for us, not even third parties like manufacturers and vendors.

When I looked at the ATD website just last week, I saw more than 400 online resources available for any dealer to use at any time. And the educational materials run the gamut: Academy, Driven Management guides, seminars, webinars and workshops just to name a few. The best feature of these resources is that they were tailored for employees like mine. The goal of ATD training is dealer-specific, and its ultimate purpose is none other than to make our businesses stronger and more resilient for the years ahead.

ATD’s education equips our talented men and women with the knowledge and skill to succeed and move through the dealership ranks. And, most of all, it creates well-rounded employees who know how to represent interests which are distinct to a dealership.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: You should take full advantage of your ATD membership and join our signature programs like the ATD Dealer Academy. The Academy provides top-notch, instructor-led classes on everything from parts and service to the EV revolution. I find incredible value in the online courses for my own employees where they can access education and training from the comfort of a computer. The dealership environment is always changing so content is regularly updated and all offerings continue to meet our needs.

So, make this new year’s resolution with me. When it comes to training, don’t take the path of least resistance. Visit ATD today and take the reins back on training.