Edmunds.com Taps KBB.com Exec For Post

  • December 16, 2011

Edmunds.com has tapped Michael Grave as director of national accounts in its Dealer Initiatives area. Grave joins Greg Smith, who has been in a similar role at Edmunds.com for almost a year.

The web auto research and shopping site says it has hired 130 people this year to build its Dealer Initiatives business and expand the new Edmunds Direct program, where dealers can get access to car shoppers using Edmunds.com. The new system is meant to be more productive for dealers than the standard system in which dealers get leads from web aggregators. 

"It became clear to us that the model for Internet leads just wasn't working as well as it could," said Donna Sechrist, SVP, Dealer Initiatives at Edmunds.com, in a statement. "It didn't treat consumers the way they want to be treated, and dealers deserved a better quality of leads as well as access to buyers who don't like filling out online forms. We challenged ourselves to address the pain points and committed to a better way to connect dealers with shoppers that would be a win-win for both."

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Edmunds.com is hiring 17 open staffers, eight within the Dealer Initiative area. Grave will work with Greg Smith to continue to build and manage relationships with dealer groups – many of whom he worked with in his previous position as Director of Business Development for Kelley Blue Book. 

In that role, he was responsible for corporate sales and relationship management and served clients such as AutoNation, Carmax, Lithia, Mile One, Enterprise Car Sales, Sonic and Asbury. 

 

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