How The Aftermarket Turns Training Into Growth

Training is everywhere in the automotive aftermarket, yet too many teams still treat it like a checkbox and then wonder why sales, retention, and customer experience stay flat. Stacey Miller sat down with Laurie Bacopoulos, founder and CEO of Cobblestone Consulting, to get practical about what actually works when you need training that scales across employees, locations, and channel partners without watering down the message.

They talk about how Cobblestone helps companies pull knowledge out of subject matter experts and package it into interactive e-learning, micro videos, and software tutorials, supported by a learning management system like TalentLMS. Laurie explains why “completion rates” are a weak finish line and how stronger metrics connect training to outcomes leaders care about: SKU sales, reduced returns, improved partner performance, and better employee retention. We also dig into role-based learning paths in the shop environment, so technicians, service writers, and owners can see a clear growth path and stay engaged.

Then they zoom out to change management and modern formats, including brand transition training and the rising power of video. Finally, they get real about AI in training: where it accelerates development, how it can create realistic scenarios from dense manuals, and why it should augment human expertise instead of replacing it.

If you want partner training that drives loyalty, workforce development that reduces turnover, and a clearer way to prove ROI, hit play, subscribe, and share this with someone responsible for training. 

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Transcript

Women In Auto Care Stories And Solutions

Stacey Miller 0:00

How long have you been coming to women in autocare, by the way?

Laurie Bacopoulus 0:02

Now it's been three years. Yay. And it's thanks all the thanks to Jim, Jim Smith.

Stacey Miller 0:08

Yeah.

Laurie Bacopoulus 0:09

Uh if he hadn't mentioned women in auto care, and he's like, Lori, you've been you know, you've been serving the auto care industry for 25 years. Why don't you get involved with this amazing group? And I said, tell me about it, you know. So he introduced me to Missy, and that's how I got involved. So it was about three years ago.

Stacey Miller 0:30

Shout out to Jim Smith for reining in the women to women in autocare.

Laurie Bacopoulus 0:34

Absolutely. He's a huge, huge, huge supporter. And so that was that was of an amazing recommendation. He's awesome on our team.

Stacey Miller 0:44

What's your favorite part about women in autocare?

Laurie Bacopoulus 0:47

Every really the amazing women that I'm meeting. So for example, I was so honored to be able to host a dinner last night. And so I met some amazing women who are technicians to also career women in more of a corporate setting. And so the challenges that all the different women are facing, um, it's so amazing to hear those stories and and the vulnerability and opening up to really talk about what is and what is going on and and what are some possible solutions for that. And what's interesting is training is a big part of it. And um, so there's also what I understood is there's a really big gap of what's going on in the shop versus what's going on in corporate. And so those are things that number one, I love to hear real stories, and then other women at the table really recommending here's a way that you can fix it. We have a mentor program here, which I wasn't really aware of, which is fantastic. So understanding hearing those stories and then hearing real solutions to help the to help each other out to overcome those challenges was just you know magical. Exactly.

Meet Laurie And Cobblestone Consulting

Stacey Miller 2:23

I'm Stacey Miller, Vice President of Communications at the Autocare Association, and this is Traction Control, where we chat about recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean to the industry featuring guests on the front lines. Let's roll. So Lori Bakopoulos is the founder and CEO of Cobblestone Consulting. And uh this is why you're here on our show today on Traction Control, which is one of our shows here on Auto Care on Air. We specifically talk about some of the trends that are going on in the automotive aftermarket, what are the challenges uh that these present these brands, and how do we kind of turn those into opportunities and turn those into successes? And you mentioned training, of which you are an expert in. So tell me a little bit about your business and uh what you do.

Laurie Bacopoulus 3:12

Well, thank you, Stacy, and I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much. Uh so we are actually celebrating 25 years in business. And so Cobblestone has uh definitely evolved from technology business into technology and training. And as you know, everything has a technology wrapper. So we provide services to the automotive aftermarket ecosystem and beyond. So we have other industries that we serve, and we are a full-service training company providing uh training from e-learning and micro videos software tutorials, as well as uh we're a strategic partner of Talent LMS, which is a learning management system in the industry. So we are there to as an extension to companies to help them develop custom training to help their organizations and people grow and thrive.

Stacey Miller 4:08

I love that you're bringing together the people and the technology of training. I think that's probably a really important kind of way to get success while you're doing this in your business because you have people with the knowledge, but in order to implement that widespread and be able to scale that, that can be a challenge for companies of many different sizes in our industry, right? Absolutely.

Laurie Bacopoulus 4:29

And the scaling is the key, right? So in many companies, they may have one or two folks that are building, developing, deploying the training. And so that's not sustainable, especially if you have, you know, you're in a growth mode, which many companies are. And so what we do is help take that intellectual capital out of those subject matter experts and thought leaders and put them into interactive e-learning with a standard message, interactive, interactivity so that folks can really be engaged and take that training to their job so they can deliver better customer service, increase product sales, increase uh partner relationships and things of that nature. So

Turning Expertise Into Scalable Training

Laurie Bacopoulus 5:15

it really is about scaling so that you can help uh your training organizations be more successful.

Stacey Miller 5:22

Absolutely. And and training is nothing new, right? Like companies should know by now that training is essential to a productive workforce. Like you said, it increases profitability, it can increase customer loyalty. But you said something that I want to dig into a little bit more, and you said partner training. So not just training the people internally at your company, but the people who are utilizing, selling, marketing your products and services. So tell me a little bit

Channel Partner Training And Loyalty

Stacey Miller 5:51

about that.

Laurie Bacopoulus 5:51

Yeah, so at the end of the day, when you uh educate your your channels, and so at the end of the day, if you're educating your channels, you have um partners that are more loyal, you have partners that are able to sell more appropriately, more efficiently, such that you don't have the returns in the industry, which is something that is a big challenge in the automotive aftermarket industry. And so um really making sure that your partners understand your products and really it's it's a no-brainer that it helps you grow your organization and your product sales.

Stacey Miller 6:36

Yeah, I saw I was doing some research on this because um very familiar with internal training, but when it comes to taking it a step further, I thought, wow, this seems like it could be a challenge for some companies. But when you look at the benefits, um, I found from a brand called Continue that apparently channel partners influence 75% of B2B transactions. Um, revenue generated by trained partners helps them close deals almost three times more often and get 30% larger deals. Like that's not not stats to ignore when we're talking about bottom line and profitability.

Laurie Bacopoulus 7:12

Yes, absolutely. And um, Forester had some stats similar to that around 30% increase in sales if you're educating your partner channel. So um absolutely. And it's it's a very, you know, at the end of the day, it's a differentiator, you know, for companies. So if you're you know, with training, it didn't have a great uh, you know, a great it was something that people it was an afterthought. Yeah, but now it's it is a you know, it's an investment and it's a risk mitigator. So if you're not investing in training, then you could be uh behind in sales, in profitability, and in employee loyalty, because as we all know, the shift uh in our employee ecosystem, the younger generation want to be educated, and that's one growth is one of the key factors of them staying at a company. Of course, leadership is number one, but if you're not investing in your people, then um you're gonna be experiencing high cost turnover.

ROI Metrics That Leaders Trust

Stacey Miller 8:27

Absolutely. So you said the word investment, and obviously um, that's a big deal to businesses because when you're going to invest in an employee, you're gonna invest in training or partner training, you want to know what the ROI is. And so businesses, when they hear training, they think expenses, this is gonna be expensive. So, in your line of work, when you're working with some of these companies, how how do you help them reframe that conversation so they understand like this is not a cost center, this is going to be a profit center for you?

Laurie Bacopoulus 8:56

Yes, that's that's a great point. And to be honest, in the industry, we are this this is an area of of gap, let's say, and it's a maturity um issue. In the past, many folks in many industries are are evaluating and measuring training by how many people are taking the training. Now, what we're finding, what we're doing is working with our customers to really ask that question up front in our discovery and strategy meetings to understand, you know, if we're investing in this training, what kind of ROI can we get out of it? And really we're helping to guide our customers to think more strategically about the investment. And so we're we're really finding, we're really trying to close that gap and helping to measure that. So if you're investing in a partner training at the end of the day, are you seeing the you know, the SKU sales that you're expecting from that partner training? Um, if you're training sales folks, which we do a lot of sales, custom sales training as well, clearly there's the sales metric there. Um, so there's some great metrics. Uh, there's also the return metrics that you can tie. But if you start simply at first and then get used to those metrics, then you start reframing the the training investment.

Stacey Miller 10:27

I appreciate the conversation around metrics. Um, because that that kind of shocked me when you said the, you know, probably the main metric they're doing now is if their employees are actually taking the training or if the partners are taking the training. And, you know, if maybe X percent completed it, then they're good, right? Yeah. Um and I find that really interesting because I definitely think there is a gap in the aftermarket for us to be able to tie some of this back to some of those business outcomes. Obviously, ROI is the hardest thing. That's what everybody wants. I paid, you know, $40,000 to train my employees through this program or this module, and we saw a 2x return. Yeah. But how do you do that? You know, like that's really difficult. So some of these other metrics that are measurable, like the employee retention, the engagement. I mean, I can think of a million times where I had an employee turnover and I thought, oh, I have to retrain them. I have to onboard them. And I wondered, was there something that we could have done to have kept them or retained them for longer and the value of that employee, right? Like I would have much rather kept that employee for more years and retrained a new employee because that costs more money to my business. Absolutely.

Learning Paths For Shop Roles

Laurie Bacopoulus 11:35

And now there's some great opportunity to solve that problem. And that is, you know, uh just working with your HR group. So uh to define learning paths. So for instance, the system that we implement, Talent LMS, there's learning paths that we can develop. So when we develop custom training for our customers, uh, that custom training supports a different learning path. For instance, we work um very closely with Napatrack. So we help support their training initiative. So in the in the field, in the shops, you have various roles. You have your owner, you have your service writer, um technician. And so, in order to properly train these folks, there's a learning path so that they understand exactly what they need to know to be successful in their job. And many of the store uh owners pay their employees to take training and they are looking for the reporting on a monthly basis to make sure that their folks are getting trained. So that is a great, great story there, and it's starting to be wide more widely adopted and spread in that way. But at the end of the day, back to growth. So if you're setting your uh employees and speaking with them and understanding where they want to go next, then establishing those learning paths so they can then grow to the next learning path and start getting educated about that. That's a great way to keep your employees engaged and you know, training and learning of what's come what's to come.

Stacey Miller 13:23

Yeah, that's a really great example. I've definitely heard feedback on the industry. You know, we talk about workforce development a lot on this podcast too, and the need for um attracting and retaining talent and being able to draw the path for them. Hey, if you start at this role, here's where you could end up, you know, because it's not easy for them to see that path, right?

Laurie Bacopoulus 13:45

Yes. And uh so this is where some of our other friends in the training, we have lots of uh folks here at Women in AutoCare who provide more of the shop advisory training and uh training like that. We are more of the the custom um software training, sales training, and things of that nature. But um I did hear that there is, uh, although there is this great software training on how to do certain things, we have a gap in how do you manage all of these customer, um, customer requests all at once. So as we know, you know, taking your car and there's lots of people that are requesting lots of things. So there's that other soft skill human piece of training that I'm just saying uh that's a gap where people could use some more um help with understanding how to deal with anxiety and um and demand when you have a bunch of customers right there and you're trying to help them with so many tickets and things of that nature. Yeah.

Stacey Miller 15:01

Wow. I we're really mirroring the human oops, we're really marrying the human element of training um and that need for that 101 and 1 on one, sorry, excuse me. Um, and the technology, the need for the technology as well through the digital learning pass or the digital modules to get some of that training.

Brand Transitions And Video Training

Laurie Bacopoulus 15:19

Absolutely.

Stacey Miller 15:19

Um, I think there was an example we had talked about earlier. Um, was it Napa Carlisle?

Laurie Bacopoulus 15:26

Yeah, so the the Carlisle brand, that was a very interesting project that we helped develop that training. And that training was a little more unique in the fact that it's training on a brand transition. So you had the Carlisle tools that took on a completely different brand that was they were going after the Gen Z market, and uh the training was really to educate uh the entire Napa ecosystem on this new branding initiative. And so that was deployed, and as you can see, the Carlisle brand is is is booming.

Stacey Miller 16:08

It's very cool. I was gonna ask you, was that training deployment, was it digital, was it in-person, was it both? Because it felt very unique. And I was really impressed when I saw Napa bring that to Apex. I was floored, honestly, because they had, you know, Napa employees, but they were wearing the Carlisle brand. It was a different tone, it was a different feel. If you haven't seen it yet, for anybody who's listening or watching, like it looks like monster energy. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but it's very Gen Z. Yes. And it got me very excited. And I thought, wow, what a well-executed brand marketing launch, but especially from a brand that is very hearkened in its in its legacy, right? Napa is you bleed blue and gold, and I know exactly like what that shade of blue is. It's very specific. Yes. Um, so it was very interesting brand departure, but the employees were very well trained on that implementation. So kudos to you.

Laurie Bacopoulus 17:03

Well, uh really the kudos goes to the marketing department. Yes, we executed their vision, uh, absolutely, but the marketing department put that brand uh vision together and uh in conjunction with the training department who we were helping execute that. But thank you. Uh I thought that it was a very uh great project, and you know, the results uh showed for themselves.

Stacey Miller 17:32

Yeah, and it exemplifies how many different types of training there can be, right? I think when I think training, I specifically think how to use this product or how to sell this product, right? I don't necessarily think, oh, how to market this brand. So there's all these different realms and avenues of ways that you could enrich your employees and your sales force to do different things for your business. And it's through this simple concept of training.

Laurie Bacopoulus 17:57

And if you think about training from a change management perspective, right? So this is a change of a brand. If you have a change in, you know, an organization, what better way to deliver that but through video? Yeah. You know, and it doesn't have to be a full training, but uh a really nice, almost infomercial, if you will, to get people excited about a change. So it you know, the landscape is changing and people are really embracing video and visual. And I think that that's the way of the future.

Using AI As A Training Partner

Stacey Miller 18:34

No kidding. And I mean, you mentioned the landscape is changing, so that means we have to bridge the conversation now into the more technological side of it and uh AI, right? Like I can't have a podcast without mentioning AI because it's on everyone's mind. And there's clearly probably implications for training when it comes to AI and opportunities to utilize that technology to help train your workforce and your partners. So are there some ways that you view it or that you're kind of implementing it in your business? Yeah.

Laurie Bacopoulus 19:06

So AI is here to stay. And um, you know, we leverage it for um, so I have instructional designers on my team, and it takes skill to take, let's say we have a customer that uh is Canadian and they are a commercial uh development company and they are growing and they have a sales force, so they needed to hand over, you know, uh, they needed to train their their sales folks and beyond. And what they had was a hundred-page sales manual. Wow. And a lot of companies have this, and so they um they engaged with us to take this hundred-page manual and turn it into interactive e-learning. So that takes some skill, it takes somebody who understands uh learning development. So so back to AI. So we were able to take the document and it actually ended up being 12 short modules for the sales folks. But it's important when you're selling something or even in a partnership with somebody that you need to see real-world examples. And many times this was more in cartoon type uh display or but we are using state-of-the-art AI to actually develop scenarios so that you see real people and you understand all the road blockers that you might encounter when you're selling to um, you know, to your customer around whether it be part sales, of course. Uh, so you can see real-world examples in a human sense, and then you can see how they're interacting and how they're overcoming uh the sales challenges right there and then. And more importantly, right after that, just as an add-on, you're you're having knowledge checks along the way so that you're retaining that information. But that's how we're leveraging AI is uh really with that we're real-world scenarios. We're building custom graphics uh that match um, that match the customer's story so that we can provide those pretty quickly. And so we're very much uh using AI as a partner versus a replacement tool.

Stacey Miller 21:36

That's a great philosophy. I appreciate you saying that because I think there's a lot of trepidation around AI. And there was um one of the AI co-founders came out this week and they were saying about how many jobs are being replaced and it caused a lot of pandemonium, and then you've got other experts saying, Hey, now like this is not we get it, it can replace some things, but should it ethically? But also, you know, what are the checks that you need to put in place? The checks And balances to make sure that it's doing all the things you need properly. It's augmenting what you're doing, not necessarily replacing it, right? Because there's a human element that we still can't touch when it comes to AI.

Laurie Bacopoulus 22:10

It's still about human, it's, you know, and again, based on every company has its secret sauce and has their own ways of doing things. And that's where the custom training comes into play. But um what I was going to mention about that is as far as um, you know, so companies might think, oh, we could go build, you know, training and and ourselves. At the end of the day, the reason why people bring us on board is because they don't even have the time to think about how to position the hundred-page manual into something that people can consume, retain, and then be successful with in their job. Yeah. And it takes thought and expertise. So um, so can AI help develop training a little bit more quickly and with a little bit more of a custom flair? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it's still awesome to have a strategic partner that cares about your business, your outcomes, your people, and enjoys being just an extension of your organization.

Stacey Miller 23:22

That's amazing. I think there's so many opportunities that it unlocks. Um, you know, before we we spoke, flew on a plane here. I was reading a book. I can't remember the name of the book, um, on my little Kindle thing, but it's it's by one of these guys who's one of the the best like hostage negotiators in the world, and he talks about how to negotiate in sales the way he negotiated hostage situations. I know this book. It's great.

Laurie Bacopoulus 23:49

I know this book. Uh I've read it before, so I I know what you're talking about.

Stacey Miller 23:54

It's unreal, and it's it's ext it's extreme to relate um something so life and death um to sales and to business, but he does it in a really effective way, and I'm not a salesperson by any means, like picking up the phone and asking someone to do something scares me. Um so it means I could probably use a bit of sales training. But as we were talking about how to unlock AI and use it for training, I thought, wow, this book had me riveted on this plane. What if we took case studies, asked AI to take case studies from that book and turn it into interactive modules that got people a little bit more excited about learning how to sell this product using the world's best negotiation tactics from FBI CI. Like, I don't know, it makes sales kind of sexy. It makes it kind of fun. These are kind of black sunglasses, but I don't know. Just an idea.

Laurie Bacopoulus 24:41

Exactly. That is a very good idea. I don't know. And at the end of the day, um I have another, I did a book club for Give to Grow, uh, Mo Bunnell's book, and it is it is fantastic around um really you're reframing how you're providing your services in a way that you're um you're you are actually um you have talent that you're giving you're offering to folks. So it's really more of how can I help you and what kind of skills do I have or products that I have to help you. So if you think about it more in a sense that you're helping others, like look at how much you're helping others, Stacy. Like you're you're you're bringing out great topics and helping the industry um understand different points of view. So you're you're giving your expertise every day. And so when you think about reframing not just sales, but you're offering services that'll help people, genuinely help people, then it really uh reframes the the sales word. Yeah. In a way that you're providing your services to better an industry, to better a company, to better a person, you know. And so I really that really resonated with me and um have been taking it, you know, forward with me.

Stacey Miller 26:18

Oh, I appreciate that. That's why coming to these events is so amazing. The people that you meet and the things that we learn, this is this is what it's all about. And, you know, it used to be that, you know, women in autocare had a hundred women and we're here and we're learning, and we go back and we're so excited about our companies. Now we're over 400 people at this conference and we're podcasting, and this is gonna go to tens of thousands of people because we've got an amazing listener base so far, and they're gonna share in some of this with us. So I'm hoping that some of these takeaways that we're sharing are really helpful here on training.

Advice, Contact Info, And Closing

Stacey Miller 26:52

Lori, if there is something that uh you could tell companies who are hesitant about training or partner training or bringing on a partner to help them partner train, what would you tell them today?

Laurie Bacopoulus 27:03

I would say that it is uh it's now really more of uh an investment. And if if you're not investing in training, then uh it could be uh detrimental to your business. But more importantly, it's it's nice to bring in uh a partner that will work with your organization and help you along the way to develop that training. So even if you don't really understand uh the process at all, we educate along the way. We educate, we educate your staff. So at the end of the day, you bring your expertise to the table and we package it up in a way that you can deliver it to your employees, your partners, um, and your ecosystem very easily. And um so I would say that it is uh the way of the future and uh a great investment.

Stacey Miller 28:07

Very approachable. And if people want to get in touch with you, how could they find you?

Laurie Bacopoulus 28:11

So they can find me at Lori Bacopola LoriB at cobblestoneconsulting.com or they can give me a call at 404-786-1125. Awesome. And I'd love to hear from you.

Stacey Miller 28:27

Is there anything that um we didn't chat about today that we should have mentioned?

Laurie Bacopoulus 28:32

So the only thing I would also like to offer is if somebody was interested but didn't really underst didn't know how to apply it to their business, I'm definitely open to having a quick call to understand what you have, even what you have internally from a resource perspective. Um, because we also make sure that, you know, if you have staff that you would like to learn the process or be able to um be able to self-serve moving forward, we love to educate our customers so they can continue on internally uh with maybe some little little guidance going forward. So I just wanted to add that we're there as an advisor and can help you navigate whether it's something that you need right now or in the future. And and also that we like to help uh organizations feel that they can do this on their own as well. So the only other thing I would uh the only other item that I would say is that um, you know, everyone is feels so much more confident when they have the training that they need, um, and when they understand the company that they're serving, the the just the results are so much more um impactful when you uh help educate your entire ecosystem. So I think that it's a a great investment.

Stacey Miller 30:13

I love and appreciate that, and I could not agree more. Lori, thank you so much for joining us today.

Laurie Bacopoulus 30:18

I appreciate it. It was so engaging and thoughtful. I appreciate all the great items that you brought to the table. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Daisy.

Stacey Miller 30:28

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care on Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode. And don't forget to leave us a rating and review that helps others discover our content. Auto Care on Air is a production of the Autocare Association, dedicated to advancing the autocare industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocare.org.