Automotive Training Network (ATN) Review: An Honest 2026 Look

Automotive Training Network (ATN) is one of the longer-standing names in dealer training. Founded and led by Mark Tewart, ATN has built its reputation on practical sales discipline: a structured road to the sale, persistent follow-up habits, and the professional mindset that separates average closers from consistent performers. If you've attended a dealer 20 Group in the past decade, you've likely heard Tewart's name.

This review covers what ATN actually offers, what it does well, where it falls short structurally, and which dealerships are the best fit. It's a fair accounting, not a takedown.

What Is the Automotive Training Network?

ATN is a training organization built around Mark Tewart's methodology and personal brand. Tewart is a former car salesperson and dealership manager who has spent the past 25-plus years consulting with dealers, speaking at industry events, and developing training content specifically for automotive retail.

The brand name "Automotive Training Network" reflects the broader ecosystem Tewart has assembled: live events, online learning, books, and in-dealership programs delivered under one umbrella.

ATN is not a software platform or a coaching franchise. It's an expert-led content and consulting organization — a meaningful distinction when evaluating fit.

What ATN Offers

ATN's catalog covers four primary areas:

Keynote and live event training. Tewart speaks at NADA, regional dealer events, and private dealer group sessions. These are high-energy presentations built around actionable frameworks, not motivational vagueness. The live format is where ATN is at its most impactful.

Books and self-study resources. "How to Be a Sales Superstar" is Tewart's flagship book and remains one of the most-recommended reads in automotive sales. It covers the sales process, negotiation psychology, and the professional habits that separate top performers from the average. Several follow-on resources address follow-up systems and customer relationship management.

Online courses and modules. ATN offers digital training content covering sales process fundamentals, phone skills, internet lead handling, F&I fundamentals, and service drive selling. The format is primarily video-based with accompanying workbooks.

In-dealership programs. For dealers willing to invest in direct access, ATN can deliver customized workshops and consulting engagements inside the store. These are typically structured as multi-day intensives with manager and rep sessions running in parallel.

Mark Tewart's Training Style

Tewart's approach is high-energy and direct. He does not dress up the basics or soften the discipline requirements. The message, consistently delivered across formats, is that sales performance is a professional craft — and professional crafts require deliberate, sustained practice.

Several themes run through all ATN content:

Sales process rigor. Tewart is a process-first trainer. His framework covers every stage from meet-and-greet through delivery, with specific guidance on how to handle transitions, handle objections, and maintain control of the conversation without pressure-selling.

Follow-up discipline. ATN dedicates more attention to follow-up systems than most training programs. Tewart's position is that most sales are lost not in the showroom conversation but in the 72 hours afterward, when follow-up is either inconsistent or absent.

Professional identity. A recurring Tewart theme is treating automotive sales as a career, not a fallback. The motivational element in ATN content is grounded in professional standards, not generic positivity.

ATN's F&I, Internet, and Service Drive Content

ATN covers more than front-end sales, which differentiates it from trainers whose content is limited to the showroom floor.

F&I modules address income development, compliance-aware product presentation, and the F&I manager's role in the overall customer experience. The content is not AFIP-certified curriculum, but it covers the practical mechanics of F&I selling competently.

Internet sales training covers lead response speed, email and phone follow-up cadence, appointment-setting techniques, and how to maintain engagement across longer digital sales cycles. For stores where internet leads are a primary source, this module is directly applicable.

Service drive selling covers service advisors on the basics of upsell communication, customer education, and appointment retention. It's not as deep as programs built exclusively for fixed ops, but it provides a functional foundation for stores that need service staff to participate in training.

Cost and Investment

ATN does not publish standardized pricing on its website, which is typical of training organizations that customize scope by store. Based on publicly available information and industry conversations:

Live keynote sessions and conference appearances range from mid-four-figures to low-five-figures depending on format and audience size.
In-dealership workshops are typically quoted per engagement, with multi-day programs running $5,000–$15,000 or more depending on travel, duration, and group size.
Online course access is priced per user or per dealership, generally in the range of $200–$600 per user annually for digital-only access.
Books are available at standard retail pricing ($15–$25 per copy).

For a single rooftop, ATN represents a meaningful but not unusual investment for live and in-store programming. For dealer groups, the per-store math improves somewhat on digital access, though live sessions still scale linearly by location.

Who ATN Fits Best

ATN's format and depth are best matched to specific store profiles:

Independent dealerships that do not have a dedicated training director benefit from Tewart's structured methodology. ATN provides a complete framework rather than assuming the store already has one. The books and online modules are accessible enough for a store to self-administer between live sessions.

Mid-sized franchise stores with 15–40 sales reps looking for a recognized, methodology-grounded program. Tewart's credibility with sales floors — especially with experienced reps who are skeptical of programs delivered by people who have not sold cars — is a practical advantage.

Stores that compete on process. If your competitive advantage is that your team runs the tightest sales process in the market, ATN reinforces that identity. Stores that compete primarily on price or inventory selection will find less differentiation from the methodology content.

ATN is a less obvious fit for large dealer groups that need per-rep analytics and performance tracking, or for stores whose primary training gap is daily practice volume rather than content knowledge.

Where ATN Falls Short

A fair review accounts for structural limits, not just strengths. ATN, like most training programs built around live events and LMS-style video content, has predictable gaps.

Practice volume does not scale with content volume. A rep can watch every ATN video, read "How to Be a Sales Superstar" twice, and attend a live keynote — and still struggle to close consistently. Content tells you what to do. Practice builds the motor pattern that lets you do it under pressure. ATN's format does not include a mechanism for daily, low-stakes repetition.

Feedback is absent between sessions. After a workshop or a video module, there is no system that tells your manager which rep needs which specific skill reinforcement. The manager is left to observe floor behavior and guess. That gap widens for managers running large teams or multiple rooftops.

Per-rep skill visibility is limited. LMS completion tracking shows who watched a video. It does not show whether the rep can execute the technique in a live conversation. For stores trying to identify their weakest links and tighten them before month-end, that's a meaningful blind spot.

In-dealership programs are episodic. Even a two-day in-store workshop produces an energy spike followed by gradual reversion. Without reinforcement built into daily workflow, the lift from a training event is typically 60–90 days before behavior patterns drift back toward default.

These are not criticisms unique to ATN. They are structural characteristics of any training program delivered as live events and recorded content — which includes most of ATN's named competitors. See how similar patterns show up in the best automotive sales training companies roundup.

How AI Roleplay Complements ATN Training

ATN's strongest asset is its content: a structured, field-tested sales methodology delivered by a trainer with genuine automotive credibility. Its structural limit is the practice gap — the space between training events where reps need repetitions but managers cannot run live drills for every person on the floor.

That gap is exactly what AI voice roleplay tools like DealSpeak are built to fill.

The combination works in a straightforward way. ATN teaches the framework — the road to the sale, the objection response, the follow-up system. DealSpeak gives reps a place to run those techniques 10–15 minutes a day against AI buyers who push back in realistic ways. Each session is scored. Each rep gets specific feedback on where their delivery broke down. Managers see aggregate data on which techniques the floor is executing consistently and which are still weak.

The content knowledge and the practice volume reinforce each other. Content without practice produces reps who understand the process but cannot execute it under pressure. Practice without content produces reps who repeat bad habits fluently. ATN plus daily AI roleplay closes both sides of that equation.

At $30 per user per month, DealSpeak adds structured daily practice at a cost that runs well below a single workshop seat. For stores already invested in ATN's curriculum, it extends the return on that investment across the full year instead of just the weeks surrounding a live event.

Comparison: ATN vs. Other Named Training Programs

Dimension	ATN (Mark Tewart)	Joe Verde Training	DealSpeak
Format	Live events, online modules, books	Live workshops, LMS (VTN)	AI voice roleplay, daily practice
Content depth	Sales, F&I, internet, service	Sales process, phone, negotiation	Practice scenarios across all roles
Per-rep feedback	None	None	Scored after every session
Practice mechanism	Self-directed	Self-directed	Structured daily reps
Manager visibility	Completion tracking	Completion tracking	Rep-level skill data
Price range	$200–$600/user/yr (digital)	$300–$700/user/yr (VTN)	$30/user/month
Best fit	Independent, mid-franchise stores	Stores standardizing methodology	Any store needing daily practice

For additional context on how named training programs compare, see the best automotive sales training companies guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ATN accredited or certified? ATN is not a nationally accredited program in the way that NADA Academy or AFIP certifications are. It is a practitioner-developed training curriculum with strong industry recognition but no formal certification credential. If your store requires accredited training for compliance roles, ATN alone does not fulfill that requirement.

Is Mark Tewart still actively involved in ATN training? As of 2026, Mark Tewart continues to deliver keynotes, consulting engagements, and content associated with the Automotive Training Network brand. His involvement distinguishes ATN from programs that license a founder's name after the founder has stepped back.

Can small dealerships afford ATN? Single-rooftop stores can access ATN through books and digital course access at a reasonable cost. Live and in-dealer programs are a larger investment but not outside the range of what comparable training organizations charge. The cost scales primarily with live session access.

How does ATN compare to Joe Verde? Both programs are methodology-first and live-event-anchored. Tewart's style is higher-energy and direct; Verde's is more systematic and curriculum-structured. Both leave the same practice gap. The choice often comes down to trainer preference and whether your floor responds better to Tewart's style. See the Joe Verde alternative breakdown for more detail on that program's strengths and structural limits.

Does ATN work without additional reinforcement tools? ATN's content is sound. Whether it produces durable behavior change depends almost entirely on what happens between training events. Stores that pair ATN with structured daily practice — through manager-led drills or AI roleplay tools — consistently see better retention than stores that rely on the content alone.

Conclusion

Automotive Training Network is a legitimate, field-tested training program with real content depth across sales, F&I, internet leads, and service. Mark Tewart has been in dealerships long enough to know what actually breaks down on the floor, and that experience shows in the specificity of the methodology.

The structural limit is not unique to ATN: live events and recorded content do not produce daily repetitions. Discipline and practice are what convert knowledge into consistent performance. Content provides the map; practice builds the muscle memory to follow it under pressure.

If your store is evaluating ATN, the honest recommendation is to treat it as what it is — a strong content foundation — and pair it with a daily practice mechanism. DealSpeak gives your reps structured AI roleplay sessions every day, at a cost that extends the return on your ATN investment across the full calendar year instead of just the weeks surrounding your next workshop.

DealSpeak AI