The conference, whose focus is on the most relevant topics influencing business decisions, featured a programme with various (yet always relevant) workshops supplied by both Italian and foreign speakers. The variety of participants was impressive: there were dealers, authorized and independent repairers, manufacturing managers, product/service suppliers for dealers, repairers and other interested operators. It was a full house.

DOOR Italy was required to design and manage a workshop entitled “Customer Satisfaction as a Business Tool”. After brainstorming and logistical planning, they received a very high evaluation rate. The success of this workshop has been largely attributed to Aristide Quaglietta, DOOR Italy’s associate facilitator. It was due to his skilled delivery techniques and enthralling anecdotes that kept participants engaged and, more importantly, entertained during the workshop.

Aristride’s career has been eclectic - he spent 25 years in marketing, sales & people management and development - as well as prestigious - he also worked for two of Italy’s major car and light commercial vehicles dealers (Ford and Nissan). Since then, he was certified by Raytheon Training (at the GME training school) and was a leading member of the trainers team working for the Opel Academy from 1997 to 2002. To further add to his CV, he has written several sales manuals for the automotive industry (again aimed at cars and LCVs) and recently published a book titled “Client: Satisfied or Lost” dedicated to giving helpful tips and tricks of the trade to operators within the automotive market.

The big idea was sparked “after a tasty seafood dinner on the shore of beautiful lake Garda” according to Franco. He and Astride spent the rest of the night brainstorming what would eventually become the “Automotive Salesmen Academy”. The ASA aims to certify dealer’s Sales Representatives on two different levels. The first level is aimed at "Juniors", or representatives with at least 3 years sales experience. The second level is begins is aimed at reps with a minimum of 5 years working experience, or “Seniors”. Each level  would be supplemented with focussed training programmes, a dedicated website (for legal, administrative and fiscal assistance) and a sophisticated competencies data bank, matching offers and demands between companies and professional salesmen.

The reference market of automotive salesmen is noteworthy: 2,500 people of which 80% are employed in the automotive market. They are currently assessing the feasibility of this challenging project and have promised to keep the network informed.