Dealers Realize Increased Revenue, CSI Gains and Cost Savings Using the Fully Integrated Family of CRM Solutions from The Cobalt Group

LAS VEGAS--Jan. 3, 20041, 2004--

Cobalt Unveils Complete Suite of Customer Relationship Management Solutions for Every Segment of the Automotive Retail Industry

The Cobalt Group today unveiled its fully integrated family of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for the automotive retail industry at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Conference in Las Vegas. Cobalt, the leading provider of CRM and e-business products and services to the automotive retail market, is the first technology provider to fully deliver on the promise of integrated CRM products and performance improvement strategies to every segment of the automotive industry, from single-point dealerships, to dealer groups, to enterprise-class solutions for large automotive manufacturer networks.

"Only Cobalt offers dealers and OEMs a complete suite of CRM solutions that are seamlessly integrated and backed by industry-leading training, consulting, and support," said John Holt, The Cobalt Group's president and CEO. "By using Cobalt CRM, our dealer customers have boosted their sales closing rates, and increased employee productivity and customer CSI, all while reducing the cost of advertising."

Cobalt helps dealers implement comprehensive CRM strategies that successfully develop profitable, lifelong customer relationships. Cobalt's powerful CRM solutions, which include Cobalt Prospector, Lead Manager Customer Central, and Media Tracker, combined with industry-leading training and performance improvement strategies, result in a comprehensive business strategy for turning more prospects into sales, and more customers into repeat buyers.

"Cobalt Prospector is a great product. I know it's been an integral part of our success," said Jim Mangano, General Manager at World Ford of Kendall in Miami, Florida, speaking of Cobalt's flagship CRM product. Mangano began using Prospector at World Ford of Kendall in July 2003. The month before getting Prospector Mangano sold 221 vehicles. Three months after installing Prospector, Mangano's CSI ranking and sales had increased dramatically. "We reached a record total of 322 vehicles delivered in September," said Mangano.

Cobalt's industry-leading customer relationship management applications include:

Prospector(tm)

Cobalt Prospector is the industry's most advanced CRM solution available today. Prospector helps dealers automate their prospect management and follow up processes, manage their showroom floor with sales desk management tools, promote products and services to their customers throughout the customer lifecycle with automated campaign management tools, and provides management with enterprise reports.

New enhancements and alliances make Prospector even more powerful for every department in the dealership. Prospector features a newly refined user interface that makes Prospector easier to use. Reverse search functionality offers dealers the ability to automatically acquire and store critical customer data, which makes it easier to capture new floor ups in Prospector. The Cobalt F&I Web Services Initiative announced earlier this month gives dealers the flexibility to integrate an F&I (finance and insurance) application with Prospector from any partner supporting Cobalt F&I Web Services.

Cobalt has teamed up with automotive dealer training company Stuker and Associates to offer new in-depth workshops to help dealers implementing Prospector realize lasting CRM results. The workshops, offered monthly in regions across the United States, will help dealership senior management create a customized performance improvement strategy for successfully increasing sales, customer satisfaction and customer retention with Prospector.

"I think Cobalt is really going to take CRM forward farther and faster than anyone else in the market," said Jim Mangano. "Prospector has been great for the store and it's helped me to accelerate my career."

Lead Manager(tm) Customer Central

Lead Manager Customer Central offers powerful lead management tools to help dealerships and automobile manufacturers increase sales and profits. Building on the success of Cobalt's Lead Manager, the automotive industry's most popular lead management product in use by 5,000 dealerships, the new Lead Manager Customer Central gives dealers the tools they need to turn leads into sales and gives manufacturers performance, reliability and reports they need to successfully manage large-scale Internet lead programs.

"Lead Manager is easy to learn and easy to use," said Chris Hanson, Internet Manager at Hibbing Chrysler Center, a Five Star Chrysler dealership in Hibbing, Minnesota. "I'd recommend it to anybody who wants to sell more cars." Hanson, who first started using Lead Manager in early 2002, upped his closing ratio on online leads to 34.5% by the end of Q1 2003 using Lead Manager.

Media Tracker(tm)

Media Tracker is a complete performance measurement system that enables automotive marketers and automobile dealers to maximize the return on their marketing investments, improve showroom processes, and increase customer satisfaction. Media Tracker, combined with Cobalt's Prospector and Lead Manager, helps dealers enhance their call and lead handling skills, improve phone lead to appointment conversion, and boost sales closing rates. Media Tracker is a fully integrated solution within Cobalt's CRM suite, enabling dealers to seamlessly record and access all prospect and customer information and transactions in a single CRM application.

"Cobalt is definitely leading the CRM charge," said Cathy Morse, Director of E-Commerce for Morse Operations, a 17-store dealer group in the southeast. "Not only is Cobalt's Prospector the best CRM tool on the market today, it's a big part of how we run each of our dealerships. We're extremely pleased with the results we've been getting. The combination of Cobalt products and process training delivers the results you want and then some."

For more information about how Cobalt can help dealers implement a comprehensive business strategy for finding and keeping good customers, contact Cobalt at 866-439-2258 or e-mail sales@cobaltgroup.com.

About The Cobalt Group

The Cobalt Group (www.cobaltgroup.com) is the leading provider of online retailing and CRM solutions for the automotive industry. Cobalt works exclusively in the automotive retail market developing integrated e-business programs that help manufacturers and dealers increase their profits and operational efficiencies. Cobalt offers a broad range of products and services, including enterprise software; customer relationship management (CRM) applications; e-commerce applications; the industry's largest OEM parts locating and marketing service; and e-business best practices training and consultation. Cobalt's network includes 12,000 franchised dealers and more than 70 of the 100 largest dealer groups. Cobalt is the only software technology provider ever endorsed by 18 manufacturers and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).