Participation in General Motors’ DVIM program means Inventory+ can now syndicate inventory to any GM-participating website provider or program

DALLAS, October 26, 2020 — DealerSocket, Inc., a leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry, today announced that its Inventory+ inventory management software is now participating in General Motors’ Dealer Vehicle Inventory Management (DVIM) program. That means GM dealerships using DealerSocket’s Inventory+ can now syndicate inventory to GM-participating website providers and programs, including the automaker’s Shop-Click-Drive e-commerce tool.

“Dealers can now utilize more digital retailing solutions to meet customers where and how they want to shop,” said Brad Kokesh, general manager of DealerSocket’s Inventory+ line. “With so much uncertainty in the current market, it’s critical for dealers to have access to more marketing channels while utilizing Inventory+ to identify and source true profit drivers.”

General Motors’ DVIM program improves the consumer experience at GM-branded shopping sites. With DealerSocket’s Inventory+, GM dealers can automate processes and quickly access the latest vehicle costs, options, and suggested sales prices. Using a data-driven approach to inventory management ensures that every lot unit has a chance to sell at a profit, establishing an Ideal Inventory Model for every dealership.

General Motors dealers interested in learning more about DealerSocket’s Inventory+ software can call 888-655-1435.

 

About DealerSocket

DealerSocket is a leading provider of software for the automotive industry, offering a suite of seamlessly integrated products to help dealers sell and service vehicles more profitably while improving their customers’ experience. DealerSocket’s suite of products gives dealers of all sizes advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM), innovative Digital Retail, Marketing and Websites, robust Vehicle Inventory Management, insightful Analytics Reporting, and solutions to streamline dealer operations such as Desking, Credit Reporting, Compliance, an independent-geared Dealer Management System (DMS), as well as Auto/Mate, a leader in DMS. DealerSocket serves more than 9,000 dealerships and 300,000 users. DealerSocket’s software has helped its customers sell more than 100 million vehicles throughout its history. For more information, visit DealerSocket.com, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 

Contact:

Gregory Arroyo

[email protected]

949-900-0300, ext. 6112

CARRBORO, N.C. — TradePending, the leader in data-driven trade-in tools and dynamic inventory merchandising, today announced that DealerSocket, Inc., a leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry, has chosen its SNAP API to power trade-in valuations for its award-winning PrecisePrice digital retail solution.

Launched in 2016, the SNAP API now powers 26 of the automotive industry’s most influential digital retailing, finance, and chat solutions. The API provides instant access to real-time vehicle listing data and TradePending’s valuation methodology. The goal is to ensure that consumers have a seamless and uniform experience when valuing their trade-ins through any channel on a dealer’s website. When a consumer visits a dealer’s website using both TradePending’s SNAP trade-in tool and DealerSocket’s SNAP API-powered PrecisePrice tool, the consumer receives the same trade-in values and local market customizations across all products.

“We’re thrilled to partner with DealerSocket. We both share the common goals of providing more transparency and simplicity in the car buying process,” said TradePending CEO Brice Englert. “By implementing the SNAP API, DealerSocket provides its more than 9,000 dealer customers with access to a digital retailing solution with the most modern, accurate, and effective trade-in valuation methodology on the market today.”

Critical to the success of the trade-in process is providing real-time and localized market data. TradePending continues to be the only solution that operates on as tight a radius as possible from a specific ZIP code, measuring local retail “ask prices.” This methodology adjusts values based upon a proprietary matrix of reduction calculations, as well as retail supply and demand forces. Most importantly, TradePending updates these values daily to stay aligned with the market.

“If the past few months have proven anything, it’s that trade-in valuations need to be based on real-time data from the retail market, and localized to the consumer’s location,” Englert continued. “Using book values or wholesale prices based upon national averages or large regional areas provides consumers with inaccurate values. Nothing erodes confidence in a dealership more quickly than when a consumer feels like they’re being misled about the value of their car. Our transparent approach, easily enabled for other partners via the SNAP API, creates more realistic conversations and better outcomes for consumers and dealers alike.”

PrecisePrice empowers dealers to deliver a true omnichannel buying experience, allowing car shoppers to engage the platform’s self-desking capabilities online, then save and retrieve their deal at a later time or in the dealership’s showroom. The functionality also allows BDC staffers and showroom salespeople to guide phone-in and walk-in shoppers through the PrecisePrice buying process on a mobile device.

“Aggregated data we collected during the height of COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders shows that consumers continued to initiate trade appraisals through online lead forms,” Darren Harris, executive vice president and general manager of retail solutions at DealerSocket. “That tells us that online trade evaluations represent a key opportunity for dealers. That’s why we’re excited to partner with TradePending, which has developed a quick and mobile-friendly process that sets up dealers to have meaningful conversations with in-market customers.”

PORTLAND, ORE. — Foureyes, the sales intelligence software company, today announced it has joined the DealerSocket Certified Partners program as part of a newly forged integration pact with the leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry. Through an application programming interface (API), Foureyes’ sales intelligence software now seamlessly integrates with DealerSocket’s award-winning CRM to allow users of both solutions to harness customer insights from their database for transformative sales process improvements.

“Foureyes is excited to be a certified partner of DealerSocket, because it means that we’re working together to help dealerships uncover the insights in their own data,” said Foureyes CEO and Inventor David Steinberg. “With a customer-first approach, we’re partnering to achieve our shared goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of sales organizations.”

Businesses have the data they need to make informed decisions; they just need it to be accessible and actionable. To help unlock insights while maintaining data privacy, Foureyes collects data from disparate sources, combines it with CRM data available via the DealerSocket API, and turns it into actionable tools and resources to improve the sales experience for everyone.

Launched in 2013, the DealerSocket Certified Partners program leverages a suite of APIs to provide exceptionally quick integration points between DealerSocket and third-party solution providers. The program currently counts hundreds of certified partners.

“Today’s announcement reaffirms DealerSocket’s commitment to making system integration easy for dealers,” said Darren Harris, executive vice president and general manager of retail solutions at DealerSocket. “We’re excited to welcome Foureyes to the DealerSocket Certified Partners program.”

Graham brings 27 years of automotive experience to DealerSocket as executive vice president and general manager of Auto/Mate

DALLAS, September 1, 2020 — DealerSocket, Inc., a leading software provider to the automotive industry, today announced the appointment of Tony T. Graham as executive vice president and general manager of its Auto/Mate business unit. Graham brings a proven track record of success, experience, and leadership working with automotive dealerships to his new role.

Graham served in various leadership roles during his 26 years with CDK Global and ADP Dealer Services, including vice president of sales, multiple regional general manager roles, and chief customer experience officer.

“I am thrilled to welcome Tony to DealerSocket and our executive team,” said DealerSocket CEO and President Sejal Pietrzak. “Tony has a deep understanding of and experience in the automotive retail industry, especially the DMS space, and he shares our commitment to our dealers and team members. Tony will be a tremendous leader of our Auto/Mate business unit.”

Credited with successfully launching CDK’s Minority Dealer Business in 1999 and running the program until last year, Graham also served as executive sponsor of the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. In 2019, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD).

“I’ve known Tony for well over 20 years. He has a tremendous amount of integrity and empathy for his dealership customers and just has a real passion for whatever he’s doing,” said Ernest Hodge, CEO and President of Atlanta-based March/Hodge Automotive Group. “I have been thoroughly impressed with him throughout his entire career. He’s just outstanding.”

Graham now joins DealerSocket as executive vice president and general manager of Auto/Mate, which DealerSocket acquired in February 2020 to offer dealers a comprehensive new choice for an all-in-one, intelligent software platform for their dealerships.

“The two things I’m most proud of are the number of employees I helped develop and grow as their mentor, and that I have been dedicated to supporting automotive dealerships from the smallest to the largest operations. My focus has always been on customer relationships and service, and that matches DealerSocket’s and Auto/Mate’s commitment to customer service for dealers,” Graham said. “These are important times in the industry, and the combination of DealerSocket with Auto/Mate offers dealers a full platform solution with deep focus on customer support and innovative software. I’m excited to get started with DealerSocket.”

Award-Winning Website Provider Partners with Fully Integrated Digital Agency

DALLAS, July 14, 2020 — DealerFire, a business unit of DealerSocket, and Stream Companies, a full-service, fully integrated, tech-enabled ad agency, today announced a strategic partnership that brings together expert advertising solutions with award-winning technologies to offer dealers a consolidated approach to digital marketing management.

This new partnership taps into the power, strengths, and capabilities of both companies to provide dealers with an innovative way to accelerate their digital marketing performance. Stream will serve as the full-service ad agency and ad tech provider and DealerFire as the website and SEO provider for dealers who will now have the best of both offerings combined together. Dealers will continue to receive the white-glove customer service for which both companies are well known.

“Stream’s partnership with DealerSocket’s DealerFire will allow both companies to innovate faster and provide the best client service in automotive marketing,” said Dave Regn, co-founder of Stream Companies. “Innovation and integrated advertising, plus retailing, are key to long-term growth and competitive positioning in the marketplace.”

By leveraging each company’s technology and expertise, the ongoing partnership aims to drive client success under the following “Core Four” goals:

“When I took a closer look at Stream’s offerings and what it has done to accelerate automotive dealerships’ advertising returns on investment, I knew it would be a perfect partnership and complement our websites and SEO offerings at DealerFire,” said Darren Harris, executive vice president and general manager of retail solutions at DealerSocket. “Today’s announcement allows us and Stream to jointly deliver successful digital marketing that dealers need right now. Our partnership will allow dealers to optimize their clicks-to-showroom buying experience with DealerFire websites while fulfilling their broader digital advertising needs with a full-service, fully integrated ad agency with Stream Companies.”

DealerFire’s website platform is now available through Honda’s Digital Certified Program

DALLAS, June 29, 2020 — DealerSocket, Inc., a leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry, today announced that its award-winning DealerFire website platform earned acceptance into the Honda Dealer Website Solutions Certified Program. This certification means DealerSocket’s DealerFire website platform is immediately available to Honda’s approximately 1,000 U.S. dealers.

Today’s announcement marks the 20th OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) certification for DealerFire, which completed Honda’s robust selection process that measured best-in-class services, a national reach, and extensive automotive industry expertise.

“Honda was looking for a cutting-edge website and search engine optimization partner, and they found that with DealerFire,” said Eric Giroux, vice president of product management for DealerSocket’s digital solutions. “Our DealerFire website platform helps dealers have a seamless shopping experience, the fastest mobile websites in the industry, and more control over their virtual showroom versus any other solution on the market today.”

Capable of mobile load speeds of less than one second on 4G and less than three seconds on 3G networks, DealerSocket’s DealerFire websites are built on the first platform specifically designed for the automotive retail industry. The result is fully responsive websites optimized for maximum visibility right out of the box.

DealerFire websites feature native mobile functionality for an app-like shopping experience designed to efficiently connect car buyers to the inventory they’re looking for with Google-like, search-as-you-type functionality, and a search-by-features module.

For dealers who want more control over their virtual showroom, DealerFire websites tout a robust back-end editing system for do-it-yourself web and landing page creation with no HTML coding required. The platform also offers more than 100 different inventory and incentives modules users can drag and drop onto a page, as well as a set of optimized webpage templates and container themes through DealerFire’s new Snapshot Studio.

A winner of 12 Automotive Website Awards, DealerFire also offers a host of digital marketing capabilities, including digital advertising, content development, and social media marketing.

The new solution is fundamentally redesigned and re-engineered for a faster, more flexible, and cohesive experience for dealers and their customers.

 

DALLAS, June 22, 2020 — DealerSocket, Inc., a leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry, today crossed another milestone in its drive to improve the clicks-to-bricks experience for dealers with the release of its next-generation Desking solution. Sporting more intuitive, easy-to-navigate workflows designed to prevent errors and reduce time to first pencil, the all-new Desking tool comes equipped with a robust calculations engine, flexible payment options, custom presentation capabilities, and seamlessly integrates with DealerSocket’s PrecisePrice digital retail solution.

The sleek new interface, which has been architected within DealerSocket’s award-winning CRM, gives the new Desking tool a uniform user experience with other DealerSocket solutions. The solution opens up a host of new opportunities to modernize a dealer’s road-to-the-sale process, and enhance save-a-deal and data-mining activities, CRM-generated campaigns, and remote deal-making.

“There are several critical storylines captured in this exciting launch of Desking. For DealerSocket, our next-gen Desking solution represents another critical step as we unify our suite of integrated solutions,” said Darren Harris, executive vice president and general manager of retail solutions at DealerSocket. “Then there’s what the tool can do for dealers from a clicks-to-bricks perspective. Yes, our new Desking solution allows dealers to reimagine their buying journey, but it also puts them in total control of just how far they want to go.”

The main advantage of DealerSocket’s new Desking tool is that it operates within the CRM as an in-app program, allowing dealers to seamlessly move between Desking and throughout the CRM to update a sales opportunity’s vehicle of interest, follow up with appointments, or send communications. That deep integration within DealerSocket’s CRM also means no pop-up windows for Desking and an efficient and easy process that begins with a single click on a sales opportunity to start desking a deal.

Once engaged, the Desking tool displays a calculations worksheet, customer details, and payment options on one screen. The latter views are collapsible when structuring deals using the calculations worksheet, which eliminates the need for mental math with smart fields within Desking that can calculate dollar value increases or decreases in MSRP, selling price, cash down, and rebates.

Users can then compare and present a variety of lease and finance options with different cash-down amounts, term lengths, and APRs, as well as view and adjust other deal influencers like doc fee, buy rate, and gross. Dealers can also take advantage of the following innovations:

“Especially in the digital environment, dealers need a platform that allows data to flow across a single ecosystem, and allows users to easily navigate software tools and features seamlessly,” said Alok Tyagi, DealerSocket’s chief product and technology officer. “Today’s release of our next-generation Desking tool represents another significant step toward delivering a simplified experience to our dealers, who now have a tool that allows them to create new opportunities.”

ARLINGTON, Texas, June 9, 2020 — Agora Data, Inc. (Agora), a provider of data, analytics and liquidity solutions for the buy-here, pay-here segment of the automotive industry, announces its integration with DealerSocket’s web-based IDMS. This integration will increase dealer visibility into portfolio and loan performance, as well as create access to much-needed capital and cashflow. The addition of DealerSocket further expands the number of Agora integrated DMS partnerships.

“Access to reliable analytics is the difference between success and failure in today’s market,” stated Agora founder and CEO Steve Burke. “Trying to run a business without all of the information is like trying to build a puzzle without knowing what the picture is — it’s possible, but far more difficult.”

AgoraInsights is Agora’s first of its kind portfolio and loan valuation analytics. It empowers BHPH dealers to manage more effectively their most significant asset, their loan portfolio, and confidently manage liquidity negotiations. By combining this technology with DealerSocket’s innovative IDMS, dealers will now have a more holistic picture and greater control of their business operations.

Historically, auto dealers have relied on “book value” guides to buy and sell vehicles. Now, BHPH dealers can leverage AgoraInsights to understand the current value of their loans. Additionally, they gain the ability to compare their underwriting strategies with their industry peers through Agora’s benchmarking analytics.

“The partnership with Agora’s Insights platform provides incredible opportunities for our dealers to be empowered to better manage their business. More importantly, they gain access to capital through various finance channels,” said Jeff McCurry, DealerSocket’s vice president of product. “Agora’s program is one of a kind and is an exciting addition to the IDMS platform.”

About Agora Data, Inc.
Founded by industry veterans, Agora Data, Inc. is an Arlington, Texas-based developer of AI-infused financial services software and solutions. Agora was launched in 2017 to improve the lives of every BHPH dealer in the industry, providing access to actionable industry information, robust portfolio analytics, and a reliable source of liquidity/capital. Agora has empowered a community of thousands of BHPH dealers across the nation. Visit AgoraData.com for more information.

DealerSocket’s new report provides a snapshot of inventory and web traffic trends

DALLAS, May 12, 2020 — DealerSocket, Inc., a leading SaaS provider to the automotive industry, today released new insights based on aggregated Inventory+ data that shows positive signs for the automotive market. Contained in the company’s new “DealerSocket COVID-19 Impact Report,” the aggregated data set of insights will be updated on a bimonthly basis. The first edition reveals a 34.3% increase in consumer trade appraisals between the weeks of April 6 and April 20 this year.

The report’s first edition also provides a deeper dive into inventory management trends during the COVID-19 period between the weeks of March 2 and April 20. Aside from insights from DealerSocket’s Inventory+ team, the report includes online shopping trends from DealerFire (DealerSocket’s digital and websites business), and regional lists outlining the top 10 pre-owned vehicles based on sales count, average turn, front-end gross, and average sales price.

“Dealers are optimistic by nature, and the data outlines trends pointing to potential recovery signs for the industry from the COVID-19 pandemic, with activity spiking since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deemed auto sales essential on April 17,” said Brad Kokesh, general manager of DealerSocket’s Inventory+ business unit. “The report also outlines a pick-up in activity among consumers. What’s interesting is consumers continued to initiate appraisals through online lead forms throughout the month of March, and consumer trade appraisals have jumped more than 30% since the first full week of April.“

Here are key findings from the DealerSocket COVID-19 Impact Report:

To access the DealerSocket COVID-19 Impact Report, click here.

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