The CEO Challenge: Working at an Automotive Software Startup

• Mike Crothers challenged the MOTO(acquire) team to add 300 more dealers before the end of the year, with the office snack budget on the line.

• The team's plan is to get in front of as many new dealers as possible and show them where their website, CRM, service drive, and sales staff are costing them money.

• The point is not more traffic. It is getting more out of the traffic a dealership already has on its website, in its CRM, in the service lane, and from its sales staff.

• Mike describes it as the same system the largest dealership groups in the country are using, and he is asking dealers to follow along as the challenge plays out.

Most dealers already have more acquisition opportunity than they use. Shoppers hit the website, past customers sit in the CRM, vehicles roll through the service drive, and salespeople post on social every day. This video is a look at working at an automotive software startup built around that idea, and at the year-end challenge our CEO, Mike Crothers, just handed the team.

The setup is simple. Mike walked in and said: "We have to get 300 more dealers before the end of the year or else the office snack budget is canceled." Nobody on the team wanted to find out if he was serious.

What is it like working at an automotive software startup?

It looks a lot like a dealership at month end. There is a number on the board, a deadline, and a team that has to figure out how to hit it. The difference is that our customers are the stores, and the product is what helps those stores buy more used vehicles.

Automotive SaaS team culture at MOTO(acquire) comes from people who have spent time in the store. We know what a used car manager deals with when inventory is tight and auction prices do not leave room for gross. So when the CEO sets a goal, the conversation goes straight to the dealer: what problem are we solving, and how do we get in front of more people who have it?

That is the honest version of automotive software startup culture. It is less about perks and more about whether the work actually moves the needle for the stores using it. The snack budget just raises the stakes a little.

The plan: show dealers what their current traffic is costing them

As a team, we landed on a plan that fits in one sentence. Get in front of as many new dealers as possible and educate them on why their website, their CRM, their service drive, and even their sales staff is costing them money.

That last part is the key. We are not telling dealers to buy more leads or spend more on advertising. The opportunity sits in the traffic they already have:

• The website: shoppers who are already visiting and thinking about their trade.

• The CRM: past sales and service customers who own vehicles you would want on your lot.

• The service drive: customers who are at your dealership every single day.

• The sales staff: the traffic your people generate every day through their own networks and social posts.

If each of those is producing less than it could, that gap is money left on the table. Our job over the rest of the year is to make that gap visible to as many stores as we can.

Where MOTO(acquire) fits in your store

Each of those four areas lines up with a piece of the MOTO(acquire) platform, which is used by hundreds of dealers:

• MOTO(convert) is a website trade tool with instant valuations, firm offer requests, and monthly value tracking. It includes the free buying power tool.

• MOTO(retain) sends past sales and service customers their vehicle's value every month. Those value tracking emails have a 36% open rate and 99.5% deliverability.

• MOTO(drive) handles service drive acquisition using DMS data and automated texts, pushes VIN and miles to inventory tools, and alerts the sales team when a customer is ready. MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires.

• MOTO(social) gives each person posting on social their own link, with leads attributed in the CRM.

Mike's pitch is direct: if you want to install the same system that the largest dealership groups in the country are using, it runs on the traffic you already have. You can book a demo to see what that looks like for your store.

Follow along with the challenge

Mike closed the video with one ask. If you are a dealer and you want to help the team hit this goal, follow along, because we are just getting started.

We will be sharing how the challenge goes, what we learn from the stores we talk to, and what life inside the company looks like along the way. You can catch more of that in our Inside MOTO(acquire) video series.