eCarlist CEO Reveals Keys to Online Car Sales Success

DALLAS, TX, Sept. 27, 2008 - Len Critcher, chief executive officer of ecarlist, a dealership software company, will talk about how he founded one of the first Internet-based dealerships – eCarLink.com – at the fifth annual Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition held October 6-8 in Grapevine, Texas.

Critcher will outline the strategies that enabled him to grow his dealership with online marketing and limited resources into a business with more than $50 million in annual vehicle sales. In 2003, Forbes featured Critcher as one of the first individuals to build a completely online dealership.

“I’ll tell of how I started the company in 2001 and grew it to the point where eCarLink.com is presently selling over 100 high-line exotic cars per month with only two salespeople,” said Critcher, who is the dealer principal of eCarLink.com.

eCarLink.com is ranked as the eighth largest pre-owned Internet retailer in the country by sales according to Auto Dealer Monthly. Critcher credits much of his success to the software his dealership developed to handle the Internet sales process.

“I came from a dot-com background and was discouraged by the lack of software available for dealers that could use the Internet to their advantage,” Critcher said.

As other dealers became interested in licensing his dealership’s software, Critcher co-founded a software development firm called ecarlist in December 2006. ecarlist is among the fastest-growing software firms in the industry, providing dealerships with a wide range of marketing tools.

Growing at a rate of 20-30 new clients per month, ecarlist currently employs over 20 people with more than 400 nationwide dealerships as clients.

The topics of Critcher’s presentation on web-based sales will include:

• How and where to market vehicles,
• The importance of building a trusted brand,
• How to maintain profits despite the “transparency” of online pricing,
• Keys to effectively managing and outsourcing staff and outsourced services,
• Ways to generate repeat business and referrals through customer-relationship management and
• How to close new-car sales online with web-savvy customers.

“More and more new-car buyers are shopping online,” Critcher noted. “It’s become critically important for dealers to understand the dynamics of today’s Internet-based marketplace.”

The company’s web-based software provides dealers with the “dashboard” for all their Internet management/marketing activities.

“It can list and manage a dealership’s entire inventory to almost any automotive website, whether it’s AutoTrader.com or eBay Motors,” Critcher added. “Our software provides for digital document delivery, Internet lead management, pricing tools, dealer website management and even an integrated vehicle shipping tool. We also design, build and host some of the most feature-rich and dynamic search-optimized websites in the industry.”

Users of ecarlist also have access to the ‘ecarlist analytic’ products that can obtain up-to-date used vehicle pricing. By keeping track of competitors’ prices, dealers will know when and how to adjust their inventory prices.