MERIDIAN, Idaho -

As they face pressure from digital-savvy and informed consumers, many auto dealers are focusing on their digital experience. But many still face an industry-wide operational problem: employee turnover.

Zach McVicker said that because of dealerships’ generic or outdated training based on transactional selling, buyers and salespeople are going elsewhere.

McVicker is founder and chief executive officer of Onboardian, which on Wednesday launched a training, coaching and communication platform designed to help dealerships develop and retain employees.

Onboardian features patent-pending virtual role-play technology, which the company said provides dealerships with tools to motivate, educate and equip sales and management teams to boost performance and bring operational efficiencies and winning cultures.

The company said auto dealers are undergoing one of the most significant transformations of the last 20 years as consumers become more digital-savvy and informed.

At the same time, salespeople turnover has hit 80%.

That costs the average dealership an estimated $500,000 per year, according to Onboardian. In addition, knowledge and customer relationships leave with those departing employees.

“Today’s customer and salesperson have both changed. Yet, one thing hasn’t changed — the way we train today’s salesperson to connect with today’s customer,” McVicker said in a news release.

He said Onboardian can help dealership leaders deliver modern training to connect with the employees and customers of today.

“With our platform, dealers gain faster onboarding, increased employee retention, and a superior customer experience — all without adding more to sales managers’ plates, creating a single lesson, or adding another program to manage,” McVicker said.

Onboardian said that with its prebuilt guided training, dealership sales managers can deliver onboarding, coaching and encouragement from their phone and on their time.

The company said it can ramp skilled sales pros faster, guiding dealership salespeople through learning experiences and virtual role-play to help develop skills and boost retention.

Onboardian also said it can help dealerships better connect with today’s customer, teaching relational selling and digital communication strategies to sales people that could bring stronger buying experiences and customer relationships.

The company said it can help dealerships become efficient and connected, combining company training, communication, recognition, org chart, and calendar. That can help dealers foster a winning culture. It can centralize operations and reduce information silos.

“Auto sales managers have more on their plates than ever before, making it a challenge to not only onboard and develop sales reps, but teach the right philosophy on how to build long-term customer relationships,” said Peterson Chevrolet Buick Cadillac general manager Chris Poluhoff.

“With Onboardian, our sales reps can easily see what they need to do, execute their learning assignments, and virtually role play customer interactions to demonstrate their knowledge,” Poluhoff said. “Our sales managers can spend more time on their jobs and one-on-one coaching, and less time delivering ongoing training.”