DealerSocket

Founded in 2001 by Jonathan Ord and Brad Perry, DealerSocket provides a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform tailored for the automotive dealership industry. The founders, who met while pursuing graduate degrees in accounting, initially launched the business from Perry's garage. To ensure their product truly met market needs, they spent a year working in car dealerships to understand the operational intricacies firsthand before officially launching the product in July 2002. The company was self-funded for its first eight years. In 2021, DealerSocket was acquired by Solera Holdings, a global company specializing in data intelligence and technology for vehicle lifecycle management.

DealerSocket serves both franchise and independent auto dealers by offering a suite of integrated solutions designed to manage the entire customer and vehicle lifecycle. The company's business model is based on providing this technology platform to dealerships, helping them to streamline operations, enhance customer relationships, and increase profitability. The core of its offering is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that manages sales leads, marketing efforts, and customer communications. This is complemented by a Dealer Management System (DMS) that handles the daily operational tasks of a dealership, including sales, inventory, and service scheduling.

The product portfolio is extensive, featuring tools like 'DealerFire' for website creation and digital marketing, 'Inventory+' for optimizing vehicle stock based on market data, and 'PrecisePrice' for digital retailing. Another key product, 'RevenueRadar', mines the dealership's existing customer database to identify new sales or service opportunities. These tools can be used as a fully integrated platform or as standalone products, providing flexibility for dealerships of all sizes. The platform automates workflows, manages marketing campaigns, and provides analytics to give dealerships a comprehensive view of their business performance. By integrating CRM and DMS functionalities, DealerSocket aims to provide a unified digital backbone for all areas of a connected dealership.

Keywords: automotive software, dealership management system, car dealer CRM, automotive retail, inventory management, digital marketing for dealers, sales process automation, customer relationship management, vehicle lifecycle management, auto dealer technology, Jonathan Ord, Brad Perry, Solera, DealerFire, RevenueRadar, PrecisePrice, Inventory+, auto dealer software, SaaS for auto industry, automotive marketing, service scheduling software, dealership operations, lead management