Serent Capital Invests in CallRevu, Automotive’s Top Performing Call Management Solution

CallRevu, a leading provider of automotive dealer call management software that delivers dealership customers critical call performance data, has entered a partnership with Serent Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in high-growth technology and services businesses.

CallRevu’s solution is comprised of data-rich interfaces supported by sophisticated functionality and machine learning that helps dealership drive higher sales. Because today’s car buyer does most of his or her research online, the inbound phone call has become increasingly important for dealerships. Callers are typically high-value sales prospects, far along in their purchasing journey, and so answering these calls properly is paramount to a dealer’s success. Dealers who leverage CallRevu’s unique platform gain substantial insights into phone calls, both those that convert into sales and, as important, those that are mishandled, but can be recovered. CallRevu serves over 3,300 dealer locations and partners with twenty global automotive manufacturers.

“Since inception, CallRevu has focused on one thing – improving car buyers’ experience on the phone and in the dealership. CallRevu was first to market in this arena providing dealers unmatched services to improve the customer’s journey. Our call management solution has been critical to enhancing this experience, which ultimately allows automotive dealerships to maximize their conversion of valuable leads,” said Chip King, CEO of CallRevu.

He continued, “As we continue to scale, we wanted to bring on an investment partner who could offer the set of resources and expertise that will enable the next phase of our growth plan. We feel that the capability Serent Capital brings is perfectly suited to helping us capture the opportunities ahead, while maintaining a steadfast focus on delivering strong value and service to our customers.”

“We have spent several years looking for the right platform for investment in the automotive technology sector. CallRevu is a differentiated solution and leader in the call management space, and we are tremendously impressed by the business that Chip and his team have built. This success is demonstrated by stellar customer satisfaction, strong growth, and high retention rates,” said Kevin Frick, Partner at Serent Capital.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with the CallRevu management team to drive continued product innovation and growth.”

CallRevu’s dedication to ensure that every call to and from a dealership is a notably different and positive experience for the customer during this powerful next phase is stronger than ever. Focusing on clients and providing top notch customer service to every dealer is CallRevu’s passion. With this investment, CallRevu will be able to take their passion to the next level.

CallRevu was founded by Chip King and David Boice, the CEO of Team Velocity Marketing, which incorporated CallRevu’s services into its marketing and Apollo Technology Platform®. This seamless integration and reporting has provided Team Velocity’s dealers the ability to generate leads and track attribution to the marketing. “Serent Capital is the right partner for CallRevu’s next chapter, and we are thrilled to continue working with CallRevu to provide their call technology to our dealer customers”, said David Boice.

Serent’s investment in CallRevu represents its second investment in the automotive market, including Tricolor Automotive Group. Presidio Technology Partners represented CallRevu in the process.

CallRevu Logo

About CallRevu

Founded in 2010, Baltimore, MD-based CallRevu offers dealerships a range of quality call tracking, monitoring, measuring and lead development services. CallRevu’s key focus is to help automobile dealers measure and improve the most common contact point with their customers: the phone. CallRevu’s solutions are developed by an incredible team of individuals, who offer a broad range of experiences and whose leadership comes from the automotive world, and have an unrivaled commitment to customer service and satisfaction. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.callrevu.com.

About Serent Capital

Serent Capital invests in growing businesses that have developed compelling solutions that address their customers’ needs. As those businesses grow and evolve, the opportunities and challenges that they face change with them. Principals at Serent Capital have firsthand experience at capturing those opportunities and navigating these difficulties through their experiences as CEOs, strategic advisors, and board members to successful growing businesses. By bringing its expertise and capital to bear, Serent helps growing businesses thrive. For more information on Serent Capital, visit http://www.serentcapital.com.

Team Velocity Acquires Leading Video Pre-Roll Provider Car-Mercial

Team Velocity Marketing has acquired the industry leader in video pre-roll, Car-Mercial. Team Velocity will integrate the award-winning video technology into their marketing automation platform, Apollo, to further enhance customer engagement and optimize client performance.

“Team Velocity Marketing is excited to offer best-in-class videos to enhance our dealers’ digital marketing strategies. As Google has documented, video is the fastest growing consumer medium,” said Joe High, Senior Vice President, Team Velocity Marketing. “Both Car-Mercial and Team Velocity share a vision of simplifying marketing efforts through marketing automation technology. Integrating dynamic videos into our clients’ digital strategies will engage more online shoppers with relevant, offer-driven content, resulting in higher conversion rates and an extraordinary customer experience.”

Utilizing the Apollo Technology Platform®, Team Velocity will provide video pre-roll products with dynamic content to complement their current hyper-personalized approach to marketing. Apollo’s proprietary algorithms provide the ability to automatically produce nearly 30,000 payment and inventory based ads monthly across paid search, online dynamic display, and now dynamic video pre-roll. This industry-leading approach generates significant increases in leads and ROI attribution on digital marketing spend. Team Velocity will continue to support Car-Mercial’s current dealer clients as part of the acquisition.

“The Car-Mercial technology platform is perfectly suited to integrate with our Apollo Technology Platform®. We recognize the industry is heading in the direction of videos as a primary medium to communicate with consumers and we want to be ahead of the curve. Car-Mercial and Team Velocity will lead the industry with dynamic video pre-roll ads, something that has never been done before,” said David Boice, CEO, Team Velocity Marketing.

The transaction was an asset purchase, with Team Velocity acquiring the technology developed over 12 years by Automotive Webmercials, LLC, d/b/a Car-Mercial. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Team Velocity Marketing Appointed Retail Marketing Agency For Bentley Motors Inc.

HERNDON, Va., July 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Team Velocity Marketing has been appointed the new retail marketing agency for Bentley Motors Inc. in North and South America. Team Velocity Marketing will implement an integrated targeted marketing program to optimize and support Bentley retailer activity, performance and engagement.

 

“Team Velocity Marketing is honored to serve Bentley Motors Inc. and all its prestigious retailers in North and South America,” said Laura Howe, Senior Vice President, Team Velocity Marketing. “Both Bentley Motors Inc. and Team Velocity share a vision for the future centered around creating an extraordinary customer experience through passion, pursuit of perfection and progressive technology, which makes this partnership a perfect match.”

 

Utilizing the Apollo Technology Platform®, the program will provide Bentley’s 53 retailers with customizable campaigns across a comprehensive set of marketing mediums.  The Retailer Toolkit will provide the fundamental technology platform to manage all marketing assets and insure 100 percent compliance.

 

“We selected an agency that will deliver a first-class solution to support National and Regional marketing efforts, producing an engaging retailer experience for our customers,” said James Pillar, Director of Marketing, Bentley Motors Inc. “Our decision to collaborate with Team Velocity Marketing was based on the agency’s proven strategy for success, commitment to our brand, and its technology platform, Apollo.”

 

About Team Velocity Marketing
Team Velocity Marketing™ is the most sophisticated, data-driven marketing agency serving the automotive industry.  With headquarters in Washington, D.C. and Miami, the company has spent 20 years developing proprietary technology that works exclusively for analyzing the automotive market. A Google Premier and Bing Elite Partner, the 360 Strategy attracts, sells, services and retains more customers with the power of the Apollo Technology Platform®. Apollo generates dynamic campaigns across Mail, Email, Consumer Portals, Google, Bing, Facebook & Point of Sale. The strategy delivers cost-driven results by identifying Perfect Prospects® in the Perfect Market® with equity mining, dynamic call tracking and real-time reporting, all from a single dashboard.

For more information, visit www.teamvelocitymarketing.com.

 

About Bentley Motors
Bentley Motors is the most sought-after luxury car brand in the world. The company’s headquarters in Crewe, England is home to all operations including design, R&D, engineering and production of the company’s four model lines: Bentayga, Continental, Flying Spur and Mulsanne. The combination of fine craftsmanship, using skills that have been handed down through generations, alongside engineering expertise and cutting-edge technology, is unique to UK luxury car brands such as Bentley. It is also an example of high-value British manufacturing at its best. Bentley employs around 4,000 people at Crewe.

SOURCE Team Velocity Marketing

Related Links

http://teamvelocitymarketing.com

Team Velocity Marketing Awarded Rising Star Channel Partner of the Year at Inaugural Global Bing Partner Awards

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft awarded Team Velocity Marketing® with the Rising Star Channel Partner of the Year Award at its inaugural Global Bing Partner Awards ceremony. The awards honor individuals and organizations behind the most impactful, innovative and performance-driven work from Bing Ads’ Partners around the world.

Team Velocity Marketing was recognized with the Rising Star Channel Partner of the Year Award recognizing their strong performance, technological innovation, exceptional customer service and dedication to their partnership with Bing.

 

Pictured Above: Joe High, Senior VP, Operations, Budd Blackburn, Founder, and Bill Reilly, COO, accept Rising Star Channel Partner of the Year award on behalf of Team Velocity Marketing at Global Bing Partner Awards with Kelly Thomas Nojaim, VP, Partner Development at Microsoft.

As a Bing Elite Partner, Team Velocity Marketing is part of a select group of top-performing partners to act as trusted advisors to their growing customer base for search advertising opportunities with the Bing Network. This enables Team Velocity to enhance the expertise and service provided to clients through exclusive access to training, marketing and technology development.

“Our dealers push us to be the best. The Rising Star Award recognizes the tremendous amount of work our team has put into our strategy and technology to deliver the performance and growth this award represents,” said Joe High, Senior Vice President of Team Velocity Marketing.

“We are pleased to recognize Team Velocity Marketing’s work with the Rising Star Channel Partner of the Year Award as part of our inaugural Bing Partner Awards,” said Steve Sirich, General Manager of Bing Ads. “This award celebrates the high-performing and inspiring work from our global Bing Partner Program, and the results realized by Team Velocity and their customers. Congratulations on this deserving achievement.”

For more details about Team Velocity Marketing Digital Marketing & Paid Search solutions, please click here.

Are You Ready to Change the Automotive World?

Wanted: Partners in progress and innovation!

As a result of our continued success and growth, we are seeking passionate, creative professionals to share our vision & offer a unique outlook to enhance our team.

 

 

Our Mission:
We are a family of individuals passionately committed to the success of our clients, making a difference in the lives of the employees and their families, and changing the automotive industry for the better.

 

In a flat market, are you Pushing and Pulling to win?

So, the experts were right. The first quarter is over and YOY sales are slightly down. Not so bad in general, however March was down 1.7%, with some brands down in double digits. Unlike the past few years where everyone could win, this year we will see actual winners and losers. Market share gains and losses have already been realized and now is a logical time for OEM’s and dealerships to re-evaluate everything.

This reminds me of the old adage “give a man fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.  Since 2009, most dealers have benefited substantially from consistent YOY growth. In 2017, it’s a different story, you must know how to fish to catch more than your fair share. Just waiting for fish to jump in your boat or dropping a line into the same old spot isn’t going to work.

This fishing analogy is really called “Push-Pull Marketing”. It’s simple, “Pull” marketing is a strategy to pull consumers who are already in the market into your dealership. To fish where the fish are biting. A “pull” strategy is easy when there are more and more fish to catch, plenty for everybody. However, “pull” marketing won’t be nearly as easy in 2017 because more people are fishing and the number of consumers in the market will be the same as 2016 or potentially less. We also have an increasing number of 3rd party lead providers trolling the waters. They are going after the same fish and they are really good at fishing for in-market consumers.

Digital Advertising has evolved substantially and the number of vendors that supply this type of “pull” marketing has never been greater and dealerships have never devoted more of their marketing budgets to fishing online. We are looking forward to releasing some case studies with Google in Q2 2017, that highlight the dealerships that have the most successful digital strategies to “pull” in market consumers into their dealerships and show continued growth in a flat market. If your digital strategy does not include content that features every year, make and model you sell with real payments based on live inventory and OEM incentives, online fishing is going to be very difficult for you in 2017. Why? Consumers are no longer biting on ads featuring “Save Thousands”, “Dozens in Stock” or “Whopping Good Deals”. If your ads don’t look like this, then change your bait! And you have to update them daily to make them accurate, real and compliant.

You should be testing your ads often against your competitors, including third parties who are amazing at generating click bait. Don’t pay for this, Google has a free Ad Preview tool that simulates your ads on any device without costing you any clicks or impacting your click through rate (I suggest desktop and mobile) and you can set it for your local market. Just go here, it’s easy.

www.google.com/adpreview

But, to really win in 2017, you have to PUSH.
The dealers who will gain the most in 2017 also know how to “push” consumers in a flat market. They fish off the back of the boat, really well. Its harder, the fish are deeper, but they are also much bigger. In addition to “pulling” in-market consumers, they have strategies and processes to “push” consumers who are not yet shopping… into realizing all the logical benefits of upgrading into a newer vehicle. They know that 50% of consumers don’t realize they can upgrade for a lower or similar payment. Most dealerships do some very basic equity mining, but are not good at this type of fishing. Think about it, they have people (who don’t want to call customers all day…that are very likely not in the market) calling consumers who don’t want to be called.

How do we push customers into the market? To start, STOP sending generic static email blasts. Rather, send custom emails with actual upgrade options built into the email for the vehicles your customers are most likely purchase. Use your historical trade patterns to build customized offers and stop sending your core models to everybody. It’s got to be personal. Also, stop sending your own customers to your public website. Can you imagine starting over every time you went to Amazon? Instead, build private shopping portals for every customer and stock it with custom, personal offers that include their equity, service coupons they can download to apple wallet, and pre-configure their lease and finance payments on every model you sell. Finally, when your customers visit your service department…don’t present them with some bad paper printout. Get yourself a 55” touchscreen display and show them their options right on their private portal in seconds, then offer to email or print out what they are really interested in purchasing. Or save it, so they can review it when they get home on their private shopping portal. Or maybe just do something crazy and walk them over to that exact vehicle you already know they want because you saw them shopping for it the day before on their portal history. That’s how the best dealers fish for the big grosses by logically “pushing” people into the market who are not yet shopping. Technology is key and there are some incredible companies pushing this industry. Don’t settle for a flat market, you can have a balanced approach to fishing and gain market share. Good luck and let’s make 2017 a winner.

The barriers to entry for these new vendors is next to nothing and there are few credentials to verify their claims versus their actual results. Unfortunately, many dealers have found themselves in a “buy and try” cycle for years. That trend will change as the market flattens and real YOY growth becomes harder to achieve. If you need help or just advice about fishing in a flat market, contact us.

 Source: David Boice on LinkedIn – Read the original article here.

#ThinkWithGoogle at Digital Dealer 22!

Come see us in Tampa at Digital Dealer 22 Booth #402 and learn how to think with our Google Premier Partner, Danny Veliz, Director of Digital Marketing. Danny will walk you through your current digital strategy using easy-to-use tools from #ThinkWithGoogle. .

WEBINAR – Learn how to think with a Google Premier Partner

During this webinar you will learn how your ads rank using Google’s free and easy-to-use tools! Get tips from the #ThinkWithGoogle experts and ask yourself some basic questions about your ads:
– Do I have an ad for all my products? New & CPO inventory, leases, service?
– Are my ads bigger than competitors?
– Are my ads relevant or generic?
– Do my ads have pricing, offers, product features and calls to action?
– Is my website fast and friendly?

Have you seen your vendor’s digital report card from Google?

To all our automotive friends, clients and partners. When it comes to digital marketing there are more options than ever and everybody has the same old “according to Google…we are the best” sales pitch. That can’t be true for everyone.

What you know is that you are spending more money with Google and Bing than ever before. What a lot of you may not know is that Google and Bing both have amazing teams that conduct quarterly business reviews of their highest certified companies in the industry. To put it in perspective, these companies generate about 2/3 of all automotive digital ad spend which is in the BILLIONS annually.  Yup, Billions. Our favorite and most invaluable part of their reviews are the reports that compare key performance metrics of each company to the rest of the industry’s largest and certified vendors…across their entire portfolios. We are like kids in a candy store waiting to see how we rank against our peers. It’s a report card that you have most likely never seen from your current vendor. Collectively we are talking about a comparison of metrics on billions of annual ad spend. It’s the only raw un-biased data in this multi-billion-dollar industry that serves as a report card on some of the metrics the search engines consider the most important factors for their advertisers. You can’t fake it, hide from it, or create your own definition of those metrics. It is what it is.

The reports clearly illustrate there are major differences in each company’s performance. I will let our incredible numbers speak for themselves against any and all certified companies. I wish I could post last quarters reports right here, right now but Google and Bing have very strict rules on sharing this information and do not permit it be shared publicly via mass communications. However, each partner can share this invaluable report with their clients and prospects in one on one communications. But nobody really does, until now.  For us, it’s all that matters. You should be asking for this report regularly. It’s free, its available and its unbiased. Every company has every right to share it…or not. Some vendors focus on inexpensive brand campaigns and others include off-brand conquest campaigns which are much more expensive. But everyone is running model specific campaigns that are critical for dealer’s sales. Make sure you know how aggressive your vendor is working for you, it impacts the metrics. This report just breaks it down in a no-nonsense way on the industry averages and who generates the most quality traffic for the lowest cost…plain and simple. Since it covers all certified companies and the billions spent by advertisers…its impossible to argue it’s not right.

So, if you are a dealer, member of an Ad Association or OEM and want to see our data, just comment on this post and we will send you the latest reports directly. Our only requirement is that you not post it anywhere publicly because that violates Google and Bing’s rules for sharing this data.

Now that you know this unbiased data exists, our strongest advice is to stop listening to these hyped-up sales pitches…just ask for the reports directly from their Quarterly Business Reviews. If they say they don’t have those reviews, find out if they are actually certified. The irony is most of the certified partners will not give it to you. It would clearly showcase their actual results, for their clients, compared to the rest of the industry.  Ask yourself, if your kid wouldn’t give you their report card from school, would you be ok with that? Trust me Dad…I am doing great and my grades versus my peers don’t matter. Really?

Dealerships, Ad Associations, and OEM’s don’t have to settle for average or below average results. Google and Bing are keeping score for you. See for yourself.

#ThereIsADifference

FCA Approved!

Team Velocity Marketing is excited to announce all online and offline products are 100% PAP Fund Eligible! We take out the middle-man. Our partnership is directly with FCA, meaning more dollars spent on your marketing and less spent on agency fees. Even better, Team Velocity is the only full service marketing agency to be recognized as both a Google Premier Partner and a Bing Elite Partner.