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Cars.com is being told to profit or sell

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#4
To our valued customers,

Today, Cars.com took additional steps to better serve you. We’re out there right now with 1.8 billion targeted campaign impressions to drive connections to dealers, and now we are expanding to provide more reputation management, websites and retail technology that sells for you.

As a result, we are restructuring our dealer sales team into: a more focused Field and Inside team that’s responsible for your success and growth, an expanded Account Management team who will partner with you and the Field team to ensure performance, a specialized product sales team who will consult on our more technical marketing and platform solutions, and our Group Accounts team who will work across large dealer groups to coordinate support across your entire footprint. With these changes, we have eliminated more than 100 sales positions and shifted many employees into new roles.

Whether you are a long-standing Cars.com customer or recent addition, allow me to thank you for your business. We have always viewed our relationship as a partnership and only seek to strengthen it through these changes. We’re here to help you sell more cars. We have heard your feedback and it is our ultimate goal to serve you better.

More specialized Sales and Account Management teams will provide better service to you and ensure we drive more customers through your doors. Our investments in Marketing have increased traffic for 11 consecutive months to drive more eyeballs to your inventory. With qualified traffic, turnkey social solutions, platforms from DealerRater and Dealer Inspire, Cars.com is the place where you future-proof your business.

You will be hearing more from us shortly about how these steps will help drive your business today and well into the future. We are always here and ready to help. You can write me directly at domiller@cars.com. Thank you for your continued partnership.

Sincerely,

sig-doug.png


Doug Miller
Chief Revenue Officer, Cars.com
 
#5
reverson said:
To our valued customers,

Today, Cars.com took additional steps to better serve you. We’re out there right now with 1.8 billion targeted campaign impressions to drive connections to dealers, and now we are expanding to provide more reputation management, websites and retail technology that sells for you.

As a result, we are restructuring our dealer sales team into: a more focused Field and Inside team that’s responsible for your success and growth, an expanded Account Management team who will partner with you and the Field team to ensure performance, a specialized product sales team who will consult on our more technical marketing and platform solutions, and our Group Accounts team who will work across large dealer groups to coordinate support across your entire footprint. With these changes, we have eliminated more than 100 sales positions and shifted many employees into new roles.

Whether you are a long-standing Cars.com customer or recent addition, allow me to thank you for your business. We have always viewed our relationship as a partnership and only seek to strengthen it through these changes. We’re here to help you sell more cars. We have heard your feedback and it is our ultimate goal to serve you better.

More specialized Sales and Account Management teams will provide better service to you and ensure we drive more customers through your doors. Our investments in Marketing have increased traffic for 11 consecutive months to drive more eyeballs to your inventory. With qualified traffic, turnkey social solutions, platforms from DealerRater and Dealer Inspire, Cars.com is the place where you future-proof your business.

You will be hearing more from us shortly about how these steps will help drive your business today and well into the future. We are always here and ready to help. You can write me directly at domiller@cars.com. Thank you for your continued partnership.

Sincerely,

sig-doug.png


Doug Miller
Chief Revenue Officer, Cars.com
Click to expand...

Like anyone knows who Doug Miller is...
 
#7
That's a ploy to save their own asses.

I know far too many dealers that thought or think their support guys (area managers) basically suck = just didn't understand auto. Probably not an easy thing to have to hire for and scale, let's be honest. Easy to point fingers; difficult to come up with a workable, viable solution.

I've no skin in the game, just sayin'.
 
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#9
Hmmm... 100 layoffs during the Christmas season? Wow.

Cars.com (I believe) took pride in not having automotive people working for them. I always got the impression (even from the most senior levels) that they felt their knowledge of digital and publishing trumped "car dealer knowledge." I've witnessed as their teams talked down to dealers (believing, I think, that the dealers and their managers were idiots).

When others (like CarGurus) were delivering trackable leads and sales, the Cars team was touting attribution and partnering with those who would carry this message. The dealers I've spoken with were not moved by these efforts.

It's too bad, of course, because there's no reason in my mind Cars.com cannot be a $5 billion company (in terms of Market Cap). Moreover, I think this could happen with just 12-24 months of executing a better (and very simple) strategy.
 
#10
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