Follow the Leaders Interview Automotive Digest | Novemnber 2007
1. STRATEGY & COMPANY MISSION
What are now the basic strategy and mission of the Company?
Before launching DealerSocket in 2001 we (Jonathan Ord and Brad Perry) worked for free in a dealership for one year to gain the in dealership experience to couple with our knowledge of the CRM world. Our goal and mission in 2001 and today is to make it possible for Dealers to better service their customers and prospects. We are the best at creating this ideal customer experience at a dealership and we have the drive and determination to continue to be the leader in the dealership space. This drives repeat business, higher profits, less employee turnover and higher efficiencies across departments. Our internal mission revolves around our employees – making sure that they are learning and growing and that they have a workplace where they feel confident that they are making a difference every day.
2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR 2007 & BEYOND
What are the focused sales & marketing objectives for your company in the next year?
We have been one of the top 2 fastest growing companies in Southern California over the past 6 years and we are ranked number 37 this year nationally by Deloitte and Touche. We want to stay on top -- But our sales goals do not take precedence over our zeal for customer satisfaction and retention. Over 95% of all customers that we have ever rolled onto our product still use us today. That is the metric that we strive to maintain. As we continue with a mindset of customer service excellence the sales numbers become the result as well as a goal.
3. MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD IN 2008
What do you see as your company's biggest opportunities in the next year?
We still have less than 1000 dealers on our product out of 22,000 new car dealers and many more used, power sports, motorcycle… The marketplace is becoming more educated on the absolute necessity to manage customers and prospects better and that there is a tool, DealerSocket, that can help enable that management simply and easily. This is not new to most industries and is becoming more and more of a “have to have” to compete in the Dealership space. Our opportunity is to make sure that every dealer knows that we can best enable their goals and processes. They need to know who we are so that we can demonstrate how we can help better than any other vendor.
4. MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
What are the major or specific challenges for your management team in 2008?
The biggest management challenge that we have is scaling the ales and marketing team. We have excellent customer support, we have a secure and scalable technical architecture, we have more functionality that any other tool in the dealership space and we just need to get the word out. It is still amazing to me that we have 5 of the top 10 volume Toyota Stores, the top Chevrolet,BMW and many of the top Nissan stores… as well as the top dealer groups in the country using our product (Mossy, Larry Miller, Garff, Van Tuyl…) and there are still so many dealers that have not heard about us.
5. MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
What are the major or specific challenges for your management team in 2008?
The biggest management challenge that we have is scaling the sales and marketing team. We have excellent customer support, we have a secure and scalable technical architecture, we have more functionality that any other tool in the dealership space and we just need to get the word out. It is still amazing to me that we have 5 of the top 10 volume Toyota Stores, the top Chevrolet, BMW and many of the top Nissan stores… as well as the top dealer groups in the country using our product (Mossy, Larry Miller, Garff, Van Tuyl…) and there are still so many dealers that have not heard about us.
6. MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
What are the major or specific challenges for your management team in 2008?
The biggest management challenge that we have is scaling the sales and marketing team. We have excellent customer support, we have a secure and scalable technical architecture, we have more functionality that any other tool in the dealership space and we just need to get the word out. It is still amazing to me that we have 5 of the top 10 volume Toyota Stores, the top Chevrolet, BMW and many of the top Nissan stores… as well as the top dealer groups in the country using our product (Mossy, Larry Miller, Garff, Van Tuyl…) and there are still so many dealers that have not heard about us.
