WAYNE, Pa., Aug. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MaximTrak Technologies, the international finance and insurance (F&I) platform provider, announced today that Chevrolet-Buick-GMC and Cadillac (CBGC) Protection, General Motors' Protection coverage group, has selected the MaximTrak Digital F&I Retailing Suite of solutions for its North American Dealers.

MaximTrak's interactive F&I platform, known as FLITE™, helps dealers deliver seamless, efficient, and consistent aftermarket product presentations that save time, promote trust, and engage customers. The system can improve product transparency to help consumers understand how vehicle service contracts and similar investment protection products are a benefit to them.

CBGC Protection chose the MaximTrak platform earlier in the year for its ability to deliver a comprehensive and customizable F&I application that streamlines menu selling, electronic contracting, reporting, and compliance management. Onboarding and training on the application are now being rolled out to GM dealerships throughout the United States.

"Exceptional customer service at the dealership depends on two things: a smooth sales experience and a simplified transactional process. This includes ease of selecting and purchasing a protection plan," said Kenneth Mac, director, CBGC Protection. "Working with MaximTrak's digital F&I e-menu tool is a step in that direction. The technology will streamline the CBGC Protection products purchase with customers and provide dealerships with sales reports on the back end."

The MaximTrak digital suite of solutions consists of four primary product lines:

• MenuTrak™ – interactive digital menus, sales aids, videos, and compliance management
• ETrak™ – e-rating, electronic contracting tools for finance and service lane
• Dashboards™ – customizable reporting tool
• FLITE™ – interactive touch technology, smart survey, decisioning engine, risk profile, and intelligent product recommendations solution
• ServiceTrak™ – service drive menu selling tool for service writers, repair order upsales and vehicle protection options for the customers in the service lane.

As reported in MaximTrak's white paper, The Digital Difference, an investigation of nearly two million F&I dealer transactions using MaximTrak e-menu technology revealed the digital platform was responsible for per-vehicle retail lifts of $538 and 52 percent product penetration lifts.

"MaximTrak is in business to bring to auto retailers innovative F&I technology that increases aftermarket product penetration and reduces the customer's time in the dealership. We are excited to be working with CBGC Protection to deliver these advantages to its dealers," said Jim Maxim, Jr., President, MaximTrak Technologies and Chief Digital Officer, RouteOne.

ABOUT MAXIMTRAK

MaximTrak, a RouteOne Company, offers an all-in-one, digitized platform for flexible F&I and is preferred by leaders in the industry concerned with efficiency, profitability, compliance, and the modern customer experience.  The MaximTrak platform transforms the vehicle delivery process into a flexible, customer-friendly program that converts traditional F&I wisdom into consistent, repeatable, and sustainable results. For more information, call 1.800.282.6308 or visit www.maximtrak.com

TagRail, creators of digital sales intelligence and customer engagement workflow tools for progressive auto dealerships, announced today continued dealer recognition in improving showroom up conversion and vehicle closing ratios.

“Since using the TagRail platform in our dealership, we’ve noticed a more relaxed environment, with our sales consultants now handling decision-making once left to the sales manager, and therefore our closing ratios are on the rise," says Jenan Culic, General Manager for Downtown Toyota, Toronto, a part of the Downtown Auto Group. TagRail went live there this spring. 

“I attribute this improved closing ratio to how TagRail acts like a Fitbit platform for the car dealership, providing performance feedback, accountability, and measurement that tells us how we are doing and how to continue to improve customer engagement, sales efficiencies, and retention,” Culic adds.

The TagRail customer experience management (CEM) platform structures, organizes, and streamlines how:

• Sales departments engage and welcome customers in a shoulder-to-shoulder partnership, so the experience is transparent, seamless, complete, and comfortable for all parties.
• Sales managers monitor, manage and help sales consultants set and attain weekly and monthly performance goals. Built-in accountability provides sales consultants and their managers near real-time feedback that motivates, encourages, and creates powerful competitive incentives to excel.

“Today’s customers want to feel good about the sales consultant and dealership they are considering spending their money with,” says TagRail CEO Kiran Karunakaran, “or they will go elsewhere if this is not their experience that they are accustomed to in other retail environments. TagRail helps the dealership foster trust and engagement and thereby converting more walk-in traffic into paying customers.”

Offering mobile tools for engaging, tracking, and monitoring workflows throughout the dealership, TagRail brings modern business process management and oversight to automotive retail. www.tagrail.com

WAYNE, PA., June 6, 2017 --  MaximTrak Technologies, international F&I platform provider and technology partner for top names in the industry, has once again been named a Dealers’ Choice Award winner by the readers of Auto Dealer Today magazine, a sister publication of F&I and Showroom.

To vote, dealers and dealership personnel needed to write in providers’ names and then score them on the product or service itself. Scoring also pertained to customer support and service, value, and whether the user would recommend the company to another dealer.

“Regular readers of Auto Dealer Today voted MaximTrak as a best-in-class technology provider in our space – for the third consecutive year,” said Jim Maxim, Jr., President of MaximTrak Technologies. “We thank all the dealers who took the special time to get involved and vote for MaximTrak because of how we impact their business.”

“That dealers went out of their way to voluntarily recognize us affirms to OEMs and our other global partners in the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, South America and Europe that MaximTrak creates world-class F&I experiences that not only handle the challenges of modern F&I but increase profitability and CSI scores.” Maxim added.

MaximTrak, a RouteOne Company, offers the industry’s only all-in-one, flexible F&I system preferred by top names concerned with efficiency, profitability, compliance, and the modern customer experience.

With a comprehensive array of best-in-class products, MaximTrak has redefined the F&I transaction into customizable workflows to meet the demands of F&I Managers, Agents, Dealer Principals, and OEMs around the world. These products include; FLITE™ (interactive touch technology, smart survey, decisioning engine, risk profile, intelligent product recommendations), MenuTrak (interactive menus, sales aids, videos, compliance management), ETrak (e-rating, electronic contracting) and Dashboards (custom executive reporting).

“Using MaximTrak for their F&I processes, dealers deliver a customer experience that replaces any feelings of ‘being sold’ with trust and transparency when offering the best solutions for the customer. This is a significant step in serving modern consumers who demand informed, individualized, and intelligent decisions," Maxim added.

The MaximTrak platform transforms the vehicle delivery process into a customer-friendly program that converts traditional F&I wisdom into consistent, repeatable and sustainable results. For more information, call 1.800.282.6308 or visit www.maximtrak.com

By Ryan Williams, president, Fidelis PPM

Customer loyalty does not necessarily translate into repeat business for your auto dealership. What drives measurable business gains – repeatable business gains -- is customer retention.

A new study reported by Wards Dealer Business notes that 45% of respondents who defined themselves as loyal to an automotive service center go elsewhere for that service.  While loyalty has value, what benefits the dealership is more customers (and the same customers) visiting the service department more frequently.

Customers who develop a habit of servicing their vehicle at your store are 86 times more likely to purchase their next vehicle from you.

As one pundit noted, “A loyalty program can be a great way to bring more engagement with your customers. But it’s not a silver bullet for customer retention.”

Being clear about these distinctions and using the right ones at the right time can have help convert the growing CPO customer base into long-term service and repurchase customers of your dealership.

With CPO vehicle sales an increasing opportunity for new-car dealers, operators should plan to retain that new business beyond the immediate sale.

One very effective way to retain CPO buyers’ service business is to connect them to the dealership through their continued use of prepaid maintenance plans (PPM) provided or sold by the dealership.

A survey by DMEautomotive, part of AutoPoint and Solera Holdings since 2015, noted three of five customers who receive prepaid or complimentary maintenance plans from dealerships “are likely to continue servicing their cars at the dealership after their plans expire.” Retention is only 22-40% range without plan use. 

The study further noted that 86% of customers who kept returning to their dealership for routine maintenance services were 86% more likely to repurchase from that same dealer the next time.

PPMs’ Appeal to CPO Buyers

A recent CBT Automotive Network broadcast noted the following about CPO buyers that make PPMs attractive to them:

1. They are risk-avoidance buyers who want peace of mind about future vehicle maintenance needs.  They have grown up watching OEMs give PPMs away with the purchase of new cars and come to expect it, just like the base warranty.
2. They are cash flow-strapped consumers whom Bankrate.com notes cannot meet even a $500 emergency expenditure.
3. They have increasingly busy lifestyles and have little tolerance for inconveniences like vehicle maintenance -- prepaid plans help smooth the bumps
4. They are deal shoppers. Retailers report that 85% of consumers look for coupons before visiting. Discount-priced PPM packages convey value to these buyers.

Dealer-branded plan advantage

Every dealer hopes every customer will buy from them again when ready for a new or another vehicle. Car know the power of incentives to bring customers into their dealerships. These are not only cash and finance incentives, but programs like PPMs.

Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Maserati, BMW, and Audi among many luxury brands and many domestics engage customers using PPM incentives to connect them to their brands.

Dealers appreciate these OEM-based PPM plans, but also recognize their weakness: they brand the OEM, and don’t require use at the selling dealership.

Dealers like their OEMs, but they love their own brand, which is why many opt for instead (or provide in addition to) a dealer-branded PPM.

Most of these discount-priced service packages include an oil and filter change, and often other service commodities such as tire rotations, key replacement services, or are bundled with other products such as road hazard insurance.

True retention marketing should create long-term retention that drives full retail customer-pay upsell repair order dollars.

Never assume your store’s retention is as good as it can be. A dealer-branded PPM programs will increase retention and customer-pay service dollars at most any dealership. Choose an automated plan that administers, monitors and manages program details for you – and provide the dealership web-based reporting and usage savings details for plan users.

On a national basis, prepaid maintenance programs like this average an 85% first-year retention rate, with retention at 65% through year three. As most of these plans encourage customers use them three to five times a year, they get into the buying habit at your dealership quickly. Plus, on average plan use nets a $70 per visit RO upsell.

Ryan Williams is president of Fidelis PPM and DRIV Technologies. Reach him at Ryan@getfidelis.com or visit www.getfidelis.com

by Ryan Williams - Fidelis PPM

Margin compression attacks from within and without. Every business should scrutinize every process to stop profit leaks and spot margin opportunities.

Be sure to explore these processes:

Service Turnover: Sales’ failure to conduct a professional and well-structured sales-to-service turnover kills retention. Dean Estep, a former fixed-operations training director for the AutoNation dealership chain and current managing partner at Next-Level Automotive Group, has said this is the point where dealers “stumble in establishing a long-term relationship with the customer.” Cox Automotive notes that conducting this turnover results in customers 2.3 times more likely to use that dealership’s service department.

Advisor Engagement: Service consultant Lou Aronica of MSX International says advisors who sell in the lane at check-in may trade nickels for dollars. Don’t upsell customers in the service drive until techs have gone through their vehicles and report their findings. It’s by choosing not to grab for every penny that trust is built. Both revenue and retention opportunity suffer, Aronica says, where a service department pushes advisors to up-sell in the lane during the R.O. creation. “Customers are more interested in getting in and out quickly than about your advisors looking over their car. They come back because of how they’re treated and the perceived value of the service,” he says.

Retention Sales: Stop wasting opportunities. Every retained customer is future service and vehicle business.  Many dealers kick-start retention by engaging customers with discount-priced dealer-branded prepaid maintenance plans they offer or sell in F&I. Does it work? Our studies show the right plan can drive first-year retention by eighty-five percent and two- and third-year rates by sixty-five percent. They also can boost customer-pay repair order averages by $70 each. Those that return these benefits have the following in common:

• Drive consumers to the dealership, especially the service department
• Deliver a positive experience, which encourage customers continue to come back
• Have baked-in accountability tools to measure the lift in customer-pay dollars for each visit, so program ROI is measurable.

F&I: Studies by digital F&I technology provider MaximTrak Technologies, show that use of e-menu technology lifts per-vehicle retail (PVR) lifts of $538 and product penetration  fifty-two percent. When more customers buy more products, especially ones like service agreements, prepaid maintenance plans, and tire and wheel services you build retention and service dollars.

Used Car Reconditioning: Keep an eye on at least two costs here: (1) Holding cost depreciation, which accumulates at an average of $50 a day per vehicle you own until you sell it, and (2) Over- reconditioning. Both accumulate to eat margin. Dennis McGinn, CEO for Rapid Recon, pushes dealers to get vehicles through recon in three to five days to reduce holding costs and get cars to the frontline quicker.  When done, cars sell faster for more gross.

Lost Opportunities: Never give up on Declined Service customers. Call them back the next day, the next week and a month from now – they may not yet have attended to those services. You may find them in a better frame of mind, with more time and even a little more cash.  Consider offering credit services for repairs. Tim Clay, Chief Revenue Officer for Confident Financial Solutions, notes that the service provides a desirable alternative to credit card financing. He notes that many dealerships report a 20 percent or greater increase in monthly service revenues because of signing up for the company’s service.

Ryan Williams is president of Fidelis PPM and DRIV Technologies. Reach him at Ryan@getfidelis.com or visit www.getfidelis.com

ATLANTA, GA, January 16, 2017 – CompetitorPro, the first competitive intelligence software built specifically for auto dealerships, reported today that December dealership performance metrics signaled caution as we move into the new year: 

• Consumer engagement on dealership websites softened, despite record vehicle sales in December.
• Widely predicted weaker car sales may be upon us.
• Dealership inventories of new and used vehicles shrank per store, while sales per dealership increased for both new and used vehicles. 

“It’s a healthy sign that dealers were able to reduce inventories of new and used vehicles on their lots, in anticipation of a softer Q1 2017,” said Steve Greenfield, founder and CEO of CompetitorPro. 

CompetitorPro is the auto retail industry’s first competitive intelligence solution, providing automobile dealers with actionable, in-depth performance metrics on their top competitors. 

“With the record-breaking level of new car incentives driving consumer demand, car sales are likely to start to slow down in the near future,” he said CompetitorPro’s analysis indicates. “This is supported by the fact that we’re seeing softening consumer engagement metrics across franchised dealership websites." 

CompetitorPro will provide NADA ‘17 attendees a free analysis of how they compare against their top local competitor. Visit Booth 5607 during January 26-29 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Visit http://www.competitorpro.comfor a demo. 

Key web metrics

CompetitorPro’s analysis of over 20,000 franchised dealership websites shows that consumer engagement metrics softened in December: 

• Average website visits to dealer websites continue to move downwards, averaging 1.64K, down 12.8% versus November
• Average bounce rate was 21.0%, up from 20.0% the previous month
• Average page views per visit was 3.36, down from 3.46 in November
• Average website visit duration was at 1 minute, 28 seconds, down from 1 minute, 38 seconds the month before

Weakening website engagement in December may mean we see a softening in new and used vehicle sales for dealers in Q1 2017. Research shows that consumers typically spend an average of three months shopping online before they buy a vehicle, although consumer traffic to dealership websites is closer to their date of purchase.

Other industry sources also point to shifting short term market dynamics. 

AutoWeek reported that new car sales in December hit a record high, driving the seventh straight year of sales gains. Last year full-year sales came in at 17.5M cars and light trucks. The seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate (SAAR) in December hit 18.38M, the highest of 2016, and the fifth-highest SAAR of all time. 

OEMs have their new car incentive spigots wide open. ALG estimates that the average incentive on new vehicles increased 20% last month to $3,673 per vehicle sold. 

For used cars, Edmunds estimates that December was the highest sales month of the year, beating December 2015’s count of 1.1M used vehicles sold. The SAAR for used-car sales for 2016 sits at 37.9 million units. 

Industry analysts are cautiously optimistic about vehicle sales in 2017, but few (if any) are forecasting higher overall sales. Peaking vehicle sales is supported by weakening consumer engagement on dealership websites. 

It’s worth noting, according to CompetitorPro data, the large variability of individual dealership performance across these consumer engagement metrics: 

• The top 25% of dealers experienced average website visits of 29.3K per month, compared to the industry average of 1.64K
• The bottom 25% of dealers experienced average website visits of 149 per month
• Top performing dealers are experiencing average page views of 10.8 per visit, and average website visit duration of 9 minutes, 52 seconds 

Dynamics driving sales efficiency

An environment of increasing sales with decreasing website engagement metrics is driving more efficiency — taking fewer website visits to yield a sale: 

• The average dealership experienced 14.5 website visits per vehicle sold, compared to 16.8 website visits per unit sold the month before
• The average dealership experienced 9.5 visits for the average unit held in inventory last month, compared to 8.5 visits the month before
• Finally, there is a wide difference between how some of the large dealership website vendors are performing for dealers: 

Dealer.com

• Average website visits of 2.9K per month
• 20% bounce rate
• Average page views per visit of 3.6
• Average time on site per visit of 1 minutes, 39 seconds 

CDK Global

• Average website visits of 1.7K per month
• 20% bounce rate
• Average page views per visit of 3.0
• Average time on site per visit of 1 minutes, 15 seconds

 DealerOn

• Average website visits of 5.7K per month
• 19% bounce rate
• Average page views per visit of 3.8
• Average time on site per visit of 1 minutes, 50 seconds 

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring this level of transparency to helping dealers benchmark their website performance,” said Greenfield. “Dealerships now better understand how they perform relative to their competition, enabling more informed conversations with both their dealership website vendors as well as their marketing agencies. 

"At CompetitorPro, we’re a big believer in bringing actionable insights to a dealer’s operations. Despite having access to an overwhelming amount of data, the industry has a long way to go towards providing dealerships with comparative metrics versus other dealers — so they know exactly where to focus to improve their operations,” Greenfield said. 

About CompetitorPro

CompetitorPro is the industry’s first competitive intelligence tool built specifically for automotive dealerships. 

As dealers look for ways to compete more effectively, advanced competitive intelligence solutions provide accuracy, analytics, and actionable recommendations that are missing in the market today. CompetitorPro’s competitive intelligence solutions utilize complex algorithms that summarize insights so dealers can perform at the highest level of effectiveness in today’s dynamic marketplace. 

Visit NADA, booth 5607 to get a free competitive analysis of how your store compares to your key competitor’s performance metrics. Visit www.competitorpro.com now for a demo. For more information, contact Steve Greenfield at (470) 223-0227.

CAMPOBELLO, SOUTH CAROLINA, January 16, 2017 – Auto dealers could add tens of thousands of dollars a year to their bottom line by asking their OEMs to increase their parts and labor reimbursement rates, says OEM warranty reimbursement expert Mike Volkman, founder and CEO of Service Department Solutions. 

Most OEMs will not voluntarily increase their standard rates, though, he noted. 

At NADA, Booth 5847, Volkman will reveal for dealers secrets for appealing to OEMs for obtaining higher warranty claim reimbursements. See Volkman at the convention for show specials. 

Most dealers fear retribution by doing that, said Volkman, a former dealership technician who then spent 34 years with General Motors and FCA in positions of dealer placement, parts and service operations before opening Service Department Solutions. 

“In our history of providing warranty parts and labor reimbursement services for dealers, that fear is unwarranted,” he said. 

Most OEMs extend their dealers a 40 percent markup, the standard reimbursement rate, less than OEMs should pay, Volkman stressed. Petitioning OEMs for a scaled up parts reimbursement rate to 50 to 60 percent is why dealerships employ his services. A dealer that uses matrix pricing for parts can expect a 100% increase in markup; a dealer using list pricing can expect to increase gross profit by about 50 percent. 

Currently, 38 out of 50 states have some variation of the law which requires auto manufacturers to reimburse the dealership for warranty repairs at the average rate of what the service department would charge the retail consumer. 

“That is a huge amount of money we generate for dealers, and our success is founded in knowing the right way to approach and appeal to OEMs on this matter,” Volkman said. 

Service Department Solutions is a full-service fixed operations audit and consultancy, specializing in helping franchise automobile dealerships drive cost out and profitability into their service, parts, and warranty departments. Company experts have experience interacting with all domestic and foreign automotive manufacturers. For more information, contact Volkman at info@ServiceDepartmentSolutions.com or telephone 412-651-2356 or www.servicedepartmentsolutions.com.

TORONTO and ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich., Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dealer-FX, the leading customer experience management platform for dealers and OEMs, said dealers using ONE Platform, its mobile service technology suite, report more engaged customers who spend more dollars with them across their entire ownership experience.

ONE Platform is comprised of seven hardware and software components which together manage the entire service experience, from initial Connection through Scheduling, curbside Check-In, Inspection, mobile Check-Out and Retention marketing. An intuitive set of dealer-facing tools, Total Service Management gives dealership employees real-time visibility into the whole process, so they can easily plan, adjust and communicate both internally and externally to ensure expectations are properly set and met. ONE Platform optimizes dealership workflow and efficiency by improving capacity management and cycle time. By benchmarking dealer operations, ONE Platform enables dealership employees and management to continuously improve customer satisfaction and dealer profitability.

Dealers report ONE Platform helps them drive meaningful improvements in key metrics, including:

• 24% increase in parts and service
• 21% increase in number of repair orders
• $75 increase in dollars per VIN
• $295 increase from appointment to final RO
• 3x improvement in retention

"Dealers using ONE Platform deliver a demonstrably better experience to their service customers and simultaneously drive improvements in all the metrics dealers care about. Our mobile applications help create an enduring bond with customers, starting at the sales-to-service handoff, and nurtures those relationships well into the highly profitable post-warranty ownership years," said Dealer-FX President and CEO, Gary Kalk.

"OEMs and their dealers using Dealer-FX report the kind of performance results that leave no doubt about ONE Platform's ability to increase service lane volume, repair order dollars and customer retention," Kalk said. "In a world of heightened consumer expectations, churning ROs doesn't lead to long-term business success. Instead you need tools and processes that build consumer trust, which translates into highly profitable long-term relationships," he said.

A preferred vendor of Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Audi and other global automakers, Dealer-FX will demonstrate ONE Platform and its relevance to modern dealer service trends at booth #2360 at the NADA convention in New Orleans, January 27-29th.

About Dealer-FX
Dealer-FX is transforming how millions of consumers interact with automotive brands and their retailers. Our customer experience management platform uses advanced data analysis and mobile applications to deliver convenience, transparency and trust to consumers, and increased efficiency, profitability, retention and brand loyalty to OEMs and dealers.

The ONE Solution Platform comprises seven components which together manage the entire service experience from initial contact through drive-off and to next visit. It delivers the best dealer service experience available.

Dealer-FX is the exclusive or preferred service technology provider for several OEMs in the US and Canada, and has more than 2,000 dealership customers. Dealer-FX is based in Toronto and maintains an office in Rochester Hills, MI. For more information please visit dealer-fx.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Maurice Benatar
Director, Marketing
416.493.0039 x206
MOBILE: 416.788.9239
maurice_benatar@dealer-fx.com

ATLANTA, GA, December 19, 2016 – CompetitorPro today announced the auto retail industry’s first competitive intelligence solution, providing automobile dealers with actionable, in-depth performance metrics on their top competitors. 

“CompetitorPro has figured out how to bridge the gap in business intelligence, that missing piece that now enables dealers to benchmark their business against their top competitors,” said Dinos Constantine, COO at Holler-Classic Automotive Group, Orlando. 

CompetitorPro sources over 1.4 billion data points collected daily, including multiple redundant sources of both vehicle and dealer data. All data sources are publicly available, and they do not pull any data from dealership management systems (DMS). Using proprietary machine learning and natural language processing algorithms, CompetitorPro gives dealers actionable insights in an easy to read dashboard, to help them outmaneuver their competition. 

“We’re on top of business intelligence applications here at the Del Grande Dealer Group, but the industry has never had this kind of day-to-day insight about their key competitors,” said Jeremy Beaver, COO of the Silicon Valley-based group. Like Constantine, he has been testing CompetitorPro for several months. 

CompetitorPro will provide NADA ‘17 attendees a free analysis of how they compare against their top local competitor. Visit Booth 5607 during January 26-29 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Visit www.CompetitorPro for a demo. 

CompetitorPro’s intuitive dashboard user interface delivers side-by-side operating metrics comparing a dealer’s performance to their top competitors, as determined by the dealer, in these categories:

• Sales Data: For both new and used vehicles, month-to-date totals, top volume models, current and historic monthly sales, average inventory by month, days in stock, total sales, average MSRP and price to market, and average price change per VIN.
• Inventory Data: Days to sale and inventory turn, vehicle aging, pricing, repricing frequency, price-to-market data and days to sell.
• Website Analytics: Including monthly site visits versus competition, site engagement statistics, organic and paid keyword engagement data, cost per click, bounce rates, traffic sources, other websites your consumer is cross shopping, and the competitors’ top referring sites.
• Advertising Analysis and Spend: To identify competitors’ media choices and those advertising sources’ performance data. 

“Until now, dealers have been unable to instantly view this level of competitive insight, and have been challenged with benchmarking the performance of their stores against their main competition. CompetitorPro allows visibility into your competitor’s strategies, ultimately allowing you to outsmart the competition,” said CompetitorPro CEO Steve Greenfield. 

The U.S. automotive landscape is very competitive: 2,500 dealerships have more than 10 same-brand competitors within a 20-mile radius. Except for very rural operators, most dealerships have multiple local competitors with whom they compete aggressively, whether same-brand stores or other make retailers. 

“In the used car space, dealers have other tools to help them price vehicles and identify the best models for their market. But without CompetitorPro I wouldn’t be able to find used car data about the dealership up the street,” said Emanuel Jones II, General Manager for Legacy Automotive, Atlanta. 

Visit NADA, booth 5607 to get a free competitive analysis of how your store compares to your key competitor’s performance metrics. Visit www.CompetitorPro now for a demo. For more information, contact Steve Greenfield at (470) 223-0227.

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Olathe, KS, November 15, 2016 – LotPop, the virtual dealership management team for franchised new car and independent used car dealerships, announced today LotScore powered by LotPop, a weekly report of a dealers’ top inventory, market and pricing indicators to help drive more used car sales at higher margins. 

LotScore will challenge dealers to question how they traditionally look at inventory management. 

“Dealers using inventory management systems have access to so much data the information confuses decision making. Instead, LotScore distills that data and, along with analyzing third-party party website data, presents managers with 23 essential and actionable inventory performance metrics,” said Jasen Rice, LotPop founder and CEO.

LotScore represents more than a decade of research isolating key inventory performance metrics that actually point to inventory, pricing and market trends. This is the insight a GM, GSM or used car manager needs at their fingertips to isolate opportunities or trouble before things go off track,” Rice said.

LotScore scores a dealer’s inventory in four key areas weekly and scores their progress toward goals. This service focuses on scoring: 

• Inventory Status
• Inventory Marketing
• Inventory Stocking
• Inventory ROI 

LotScore is available as part of LotPop’s virtual inventory management service for physical and online inventory management success. It is available to dealers using LotPop’s full services, which include all-encompassing professional inventory oversight, recommendations and management of inventory aging and turn, and online listings and merchandising best practices. 

LotScore is also available separately, for dealers who manage their own inventory but would benefit from having the used car inventory trends metrics provided by LotScore powered by LotPop. 

For more information, contact Jasen Rice at jrice@lotpop.com or call 1-844-568-7674 or 314-568-2754 or visit www.lotpop.com and to obtain a free Inventory Evaluation from LotPop.