Targeting national dealer groups.

We've added a sales director to help develop our business among the national dealer groups like AutoNation, Asbury Automotive and multi-store chains. Her name is Tara Rahe and she joins us from Procon, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based company that's best known as a seller of GPS devices to the buy-here/pay-here market. Previously, she was a sales consultant at two Iowa-based Ford dealerships, Victory Ford in Dyersville and Finnin Ford in Dubuque.

Here's what Rich has to say about Tara: “We’re pleased to have Tara on board at Guidepoint. She's going to be singularly focused on getting Guidepoint in front of the national dealer groups, and showing them our value-add as a partner. As dealerships look for ways to increase their F&I performance and profit per vehicle, Guidepoint offers them a unique solution that is easy to sell, easy to install and easy to administer.”

Her role at Guidepoint is important for us, too, given the looming consolidation in the auto industry. At NADA last week, the talk was all about the number of dealerships that the automakers were going to need to shutter in the coming 24-36 months. GM, Ford and Chrysler alone were talking about closing more than 1,000 dealerships over the next couple of years. Most of them, of course, will be small, independent dealerships. Kind of a shame, really, when you consider the impact that locally owned dealers have on their local economies -- everything from newspaper advertising to jobs, payroll taxes and sales tax revenue.