07/03/09

In a slightly vague though classy online video, AutoTrader.com executives talked to its 40,000 automotive dealer advertisers about changes planned for the online vehicle sales giant.

CEO Chip Perry and SVP of Dealer Sales Alan Smith announced the layoffs of an undisclosed number of AutoTrader.com sales staff, but reassured the dealers that few of them would have a new representative. "No one is immune from what is going on in the economy right now," said Perry, calling staff reductions "proactive steps to stay healthy.

 "We're making modest cuts in the sales staff," he said, "but we still have the largest sales team in the auto industry serving car dealers."  The positive spin included statistics - site traffic significantly higher now than this time in 2008; June 2009 traffic of 16 million, the highest month ever in AutoTrader.com history.

Financial cuts at AutoTrader.com, according to Perry and Smith, extend only to staffing, as "tens of millions" are to be spent on marketing, technology, and staff training. "We'll spend three times more than ever before in offline advertising by the end of this year," said Smith. Clearly, the message was that auto dealers mattered - that their success was AutoTrader.com 's success.  Technological improvements included a more prominent home page link to local auto dealers and advanced video features. "We're working with NADA to put our sales people through a vigorous training program to get better insight into how a dealership operates," said Perry.

AutoTrader.com has more than 3 million vehicle listings, including those of 250,000 private owners.