Week one training sets the trajectory for everything that follows. The habits a new hire forms in their first five days are disproportionately influential on who they become as a rep. A dealership that treats week one as orientation miscellaneous is leaving the most leveraged training time on the table.

This is a complete, day-by-day agenda you can implement immediately.

Pre-Week Preparation

Before the new hire arrives, complete:

• CRM account created and login tested
• Email account set up
• Pay plan printed and ready for review
• 30-day expectation document prepared
• Training schedule shared with all involved (manager, mentor, F&I)
• Loaner plates, door codes, or access credentials ready

Spending the first morning on paperwork and technical setup signals disorganization and wastes irreplaceable training time.

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Day 1 — Monday: Orientation and Expectations

Morning (3 hours)

8:00 AM — Welcome and store tour (30 min) Walk the entire facility. Showroom, lot, service bay, parts, F&I offices, manager's desk, BDC area, break room. More importantly: introduce them to every person by name and role. The new hire should leave day one knowing who the desk manager is, who runs the BDC, and who handles F&I.

8:30 AM — Culture and expectations conversation (45 min) This is the most important non-training conversation of the week. Cover:

• What the dealership stands for and what it's known for in the market
• Non-negotiable behaviors (CRM usage, following the road to the sale, customer respect)
• What the first 90 days look like and what success at each stage means
• The manager's commitment to training and support

9:15 AM — Pay plan review (45 min) Go line by line. Commissions, pack, mini deals, bonuses. "You'll make money when you sell cars" is not sufficient. A rep who doesn't understand their pay plan can't make intelligent decisions about time and effort.

10:00 AM — 30-day goals and milestones (30 min) Set specific, measurable expectations for the first 30 days. Activity targets (fresh ups, test drives, write-ups), completion milestones (training modules, CRM certification), and results benchmarks. Put it in writing.

Afternoon (3 hours)

1:00 PM — Meet the desk and T.O. process (60 min) Introduce the desk manager. Walk through how a deal flows from the floor to the desk and back. Explain the T.O. protocol — when to use it, how to set it up, what information to bring. Run a quick mock T.O. so the language is familiar.

2:00 PM — CRM orientation: Part 1 (60 min) Basic navigation, creating a customer record, and logging an interaction. Don't rush this. The goal today is creating a new customer record and setting a follow-up task without assistance.

3:00 PM — Q&A and day one recap (60 min) Open floor for questions. Review everything covered. Preview day two.

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Day 2 — Tuesday: The Road to the Sale

Full day — The road to the sale (6 hours)

This is the most important training day of the week. Structure it in three blocks.

Block 1: Instruction (2 hours) Walk through every step of the road to the sale. Not bullet points — a full explanation of each step's purpose and the language used at each transition.

Steps to cover:

1. Meet and greet
2. Rapport building
3. Needs assessment / discovery
4. Vehicle selection
5. Walk-around presentation
6. Test drive
7. Trade-in acknowledgment
8. Write-up and pencil
9. Manager T.O.
10. F&I introduction and delivery

Block 2: Demonstration (2 hours) The trainer runs a complete mock road-to-the-sale while the new hire observes. Narrate every decision. "I'm asking this question to understand their timeline — that will affect how I present the urgency of the deal."

Block 3: Practice (2 hours) The new hire runs the road to the sale with the trainer playing customer. Start with a cooperative customer. Do it twice — debrief between rounds.

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Day 3 — Wednesday: Product Knowledge

Morning — Top five volume vehicles (3 hours) For each vehicle: who the buyer is, the three to five most important features (as benefits, not specs), and how to answer the two or three most common questions.

Walk the lot. Have the new hire practice describing each vehicle to the trainer as if they're a customer who just walked up. This is where product knowledge begins converting into presentation skill.

Afternoon — Walk-around practice (3 hours) Focus on the two highest-volume vehicles. The new hire runs a complete walk-around — exterior, interior, cargo, under the hood if relevant — with the trainer as customer.

Repeat until it flows without prompting. Film it if the rep is willing — watching themselves on video accelerates improvement dramatically.

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Day 4 — Thursday: CRM Deep Dive and Follow-Up Process

Morning — CRM: Part 2 (3 hours) Building on day one CRM basics:

• Logging an unsold customer and setting a 24-hour follow-up task
• Email and text templates for follow-up communication
• Pulling customer history before making contact
• How to prioritize daily follow-up activity
• Running a basic pipeline report

Walk through three complete scenarios: a fresh up who didn't buy, a phone-up converting to appointment, and a be-back with history in the system.

Afternoon — Follow-up conversation practice (3 hours) Run roleplay scenarios on follow-up calls. The trainer plays a customer who left without buying. The new hire calls them back using the CRM script. Debrief and repeat.

This is often skipped entirely in week one training — and the cost shows up in reps who never build a pipeline.

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Day 5 — Friday: Roleplay and Simulation

Full day — Simulated practice (6 hours)

Day five is dedicated to putting it all together.

Round 1 (90 min) — Clean road to the sale Full scenario with a cooperative customer from meet and greet to T.O. Debrief between runs. Do it twice.

Round 2 (90 min) — Objection injection Same scenario with the trainer adding common objections: "I'm just looking," "I need to think about it," "What's your best price?" The new hire attempts to respond. Debrief after each.

Round 3 (90 min) — AI simulation with DealSpeak Use AI roleplay for independent practice. The new hire runs two to three scenarios with the AI customer while the manager reviews analytics in real time.

Round 4 (60 min) — Debrief and week one review What felt comfortable? What felt uncertain? What does the new hire want more practice on before taking their first live customer? Set the plan for week two.

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Moving From Week One to Week Two

At the end of Friday's debrief, the new hire should be able to answer yes to each of these:

• Can you run the road to the sale without prompting?
• Can you respond to "I'm just looking" without freezing?
• Can you complete a walk-around on two vehicles without hesitation?
• Can you log a customer and set a follow-up task in the CRM?

If yes: move to supervised floor time in week two. If not: identify the specific gap and address it before live customers.

See the full green pea training complete guide for how weeks two through eight should flow.

FAQ

Is five days enough to prepare a new hire for the floor? For supervised floor time — yes. For unsupervised production — no. Week one prepares them to take customers with support close by. Full independence comes through week six to eight with consistent feedback.

What if the new hire has prior sales experience in another industry? Adjust accordingly. Skip the basics and focus on automotive-specific process and product. Prior sales experience helps with customer rapport — it doesn't replace knowledge of the road to the sale or your CRM.

Should week one training happen one-on-one or in a group? One-on-one is more effective because training can adapt to the individual. If you're hiring multiple reps simultaneously, a small group for instruction and individual practice is an acceptable compromise.

How do you handle a new hire who is slow to learn the road to the sale? Add an additional practice day before moving to the floor. Don't rush it. A week of thorough training that results in a confident rep is worth more than a week of rushed training that results in a confused one.

Can this agenda be delivered by a GSM rather than a dedicated trainer? Yes. In smaller stores, the GSM or sales manager typically delivers week one training directly. The structure matters more than the specific person delivering it.

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Week one done right changes the trajectory of the next 89 days. Use this agenda as your starting point and adapt it to your store's specific needs.

Make AI roleplay practice part of every new hire's week one. DealSpeak gives green peas unlimited practice scenarios and gives you the analytics to track readiness before they hit the floor. Start a free 14-day trial.