Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Dealer Solutions Executive

🎯 Role Definition

The Dealer Solutions Executive is a hybrid account executive and channel strategist responsible for growing product adoption among franchised and independent dealers, optimizing dealer economics through tailored solutions, and acting as the primary liaison between dealer partners and internal product, marketing, and operations teams. This role requires deep knowledge of automotive retail processes (sales, F&I, service), experience selling SaaS or technology solutions into dealerships, strong consultative selling skills, and the ability to translate dealer feedback into product improvements and commercial strategies.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Territory Sales Representative (Automotive or SaaS)
Account Manager – Channel or B2B (Automotive preferred)
Field Sales / Dealer Development Representative

Advancement To:

Regional Sales Manager / Area Director
Director of Dealer Solutions or Channel Sales
Head of Strategic Partnerships or VP of Sales (Automotive Tech)

Lateral Moves:

Product Manager – Dealer Experience
Customer Success Director – Dealer Accounts

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and execute a territory and dealer growth plan that drives new revenue, increases penetration of existing solutions, and achieves or exceeds quarterly and annual sales quotas.
Build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with dealership owners, general managers, fixed-ops and variable-ops leaders, finance managers, and digital retailing leads to become the trusted advisor on dealer transformation.
Prospect, qualify, and close new dealer accounts for dealer-facing SaaS, digital retailing tools, inventory management, or marketing solutions using a consultative, solution-oriented sales approach.
Conduct in-dealer product demonstrations, onboarding workshops, and virtual training sessions to accelerate adoption and deliver measurable business outcomes for dealer partners.
Create tailored commercial proposals, ROI analyses, and pricing models to demonstrate value for dealers and to shorten deal cycles.
Negotiate contracts, service level agreements, and commercial terms in coordination with legal and finance teams while maintaining margin and compliance objectives.
Manage a full sales cycle within the CRM (e.g., Salesforce) — from lead generation to opportunity management, forecasting, pipeline hygiene, and deal closure.
Build and maintain an accurate sales forecast and pipeline reports, and present performance updates to sales leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Coordinate dealer onboarding and implementation with project managers, technical integrations teams, and customer success to ensure successful go-lives and time-to-value delivery.
Drive dealer retention and expansion by identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities, launching pilot programs, and promoting new features or products to existing accounts.
Gather dealer feedback and market intelligence to feed product roadmaps, feature prioritization, and go-to-market messaging in partnership with Product and Marketing teams.
Monitor dealer KPIs (e.g., lead conversion, online sales penetration, inventory turnover, F&I revenue, service retention) and use data-driven insights to recommend operational changes and product usage improvements.
Develop and execute local marketing and co-op campaigns with dealers to generate leads, increase showroom traffic, and support seasonal promotions and model launches.
Manage and administer dealer incentive programs and performance-based pricing campaigns to drive targeted behaviors and commercial outcomes.
Serve as the dealer advocate for technical integration projects (DMS/CRM/website/API), ensuring scope, timelines, and data integrity during integrations with partners like CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, or other DMS providers.
Collaborate with finance and implementation teams to validate P&L impact, billing structures, and payment terms for dealer customers.
Represent the company at dealer group meetings, OEM events, trade shows, and regional conferences to expand the dealer network and strengthen brand awareness.
Lead competitive analysis and maintain a clear understanding of alternative solutions, pricing models, and unique selling propositions to position our product advantageously.
Ensure dealer compliance with contract terms, usage policies, and regulatory obligations (data privacy, consumer disclosures, advertising rules).
Drive continuous process improvements across sales, implementation, and support workflows to improve dealer experience, reduce churn, and scale operations efficiently.
Mentor and train less experienced sales team members and share best practices, playbooks, and case studies that improve team performance.
Maintain accurate customer records, notes, and deal documentation to support renewals, audits, and escalations.
Lead pilot and beta programs with strategic dealers, measure outcomes, and create case studies and success stories for wider adoption.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to identify dealer opportunities and optimize sales strategies.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by surfacing dealer analytics requirements and business metrics.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements for dashboards or integrations.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team to prioritize dealer-related enhancements.
Assist marketing with content creation (case studies, testimonials, product collateral) based on dealer success stories and performance data.
Facilitate cross-functional postmortems after major implementations to capture lessons learned and reduce future friction.
Help coordinate warranty, claims, or dispute resolution escalations with operations and support teams when dealer-facing issues arise.
Act as a resource for compliance or audit requests related to dealer transactions and contractual obligations.
Volunteer to pilot internal enablement programs that improve sales productivity and demo effectiveness.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven proficiency with CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) for opportunity management, pipeline forecasting, and reporting.
Deep familiarity with dealer management systems (DMS) and common integrations (CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack) and the ability to coordinate technical integrations.
Strong financial acumen — ability to build ROI analyses, pricing models, and P&L impact statements for dealer solutions.
Experience selling SaaS and subscription-based products into dealer accounts, including contract negotiation and renewal management.
Demonstrated ability to run product demonstrations, onboarding sessions, and technical trainings for non-technical dealership staff.
Data literacy: comfort with KPI tracking, basic SQL or BI tools (Looker, Tableau, Power BI), and deriving actionable insights from dealer performance metrics.
Familiarity with digital retailing platforms, inventory management tools, and online lead management workflows.
Project and implementation management skills — ability to drive cross-functional rollouts and ensure timely go-lives.
Experience with eSignature, payment gateway, and F&I solution integrations within a dealer workflow.
Proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets for scenario modeling, territory planning, and sales analysis.
Understanding of API-based integrations and ability to coordinate technical specs with engineering teams.
Knowledge of automotive retail processes (sales, F&I, service, parts) and dealer operational priorities.

Soft Skills

Consultative selling: ability to uncover dealer pain points, build trust, and tailor solutions that map to business outcomes.
Strong presentation and public-speaking skills for in-dealer demos, webinars, and conference sessions.
Relationship building and stakeholder management across C-suite dealer owners and day-to-day dealer managers.
Negotiation and influence to close deals and secure favorable commercial terms.
Analytical problem-solving with a bias for measurable, data-driven recommendations.
Time management and the ability to balance a field-sales travel schedule with administrative responsibilities.
Adaptability and resilience in a fast-changing product, competitive, and regulatory environment.
Cross-functional collaboration aptitude — works effectively with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, and Finance.
Customer empathy and a service mindset focused on long-term dealer success.
Coaching and leadership skills to mentor junior sales colleagues and grow team capability.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, Automotive Technology, Finance, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree plus relevant certifications (automotive industry, sales enablement) or an MBA for senior roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing / Sales
Automotive Technology / Management
Finance / Economics
Information Systems / Computer Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4 – 8 years of progressive sales or account management experience, with at least 2–4 years working directly with automotive dealerships or dealership groups.

Preferred:

5+ years selling into dealer networks or automotive retail technology (digital retailing, DMS, inventory, F&I solutions).
Proven track record of meeting/quota achievement in field sales or channel roles, managing a book of business, and executing multi-stakeholder implementations.
Experience collaborating with Product and Engineering teams on integrations and feature requests derived from dealer feedback.