Root & Associates provides comprehensive research solutions and strategic guidance to stakeholders in the automotive industry. Our offerings are tailored to assist automotive companies and their technology partners in navigating the intricate terrains of product development, marketing, sales, business planning, customer experience, and B2B relations. We leverage our first-hand knowledge in automotive retail sales, technology product strategy, and product development with a focus on digital retailing, marketing, and advertising. Our quantitative and qualitative research services target a range of areas, including concept exploration, optimization of the buying experience, dealer-customer interactions, and advertising concepts, along with consulting in Artificial Intelligence adoption. Specializing in consumer insight studies and product launch strategies, we harness the power of data to clarify and predict consumer needs, shape product strategy, and enhance marketing initiatives. Our outreach encompasses dealers, vehicle owners and prospective buyers via our online panels, employing a blend of traditional and innovative research methodologies.Our methodologies include, but are not limited to, surveys, focus groups, generational segmentation and CX/UX evaluations. With our in-depth industry knowledge, we're well equipped to address challenges such as digital retailing, enhancing product offerings using AI, managing complexity, measuring intangibles, and presenting pertinent stimuli. We're committed to driving success in the automotive industry by delivering data-driven insights and actionable executive-level recommendations.

Responsible for driving new product innovation, managing the product portfolio, developing strategic roadmaps, and ensuring profitable product line P&Ls. Additionally, I oversaw proprietary research and analytic services, while leading the development of training curricula. Drove efforts to improve the use of artificial intelligence to enhance core product offerings. Led an effort focused on researching generative AI solutions and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This evaluation aimed to determine its suitability and potential for adoption in improving our core product's conversational quality scoring.Led proprietary research to unravel the intricacies of trust-building or erosion in initial conversations between sales representatives and prospects by leveraging extensive analysis of millions of phone calls. Led the development of AI-driven models that established trust scoring.Conceptualized and led the productization efforts for an innovative analytics service offering designed to provide enterprises the ability to identify emerging trends. The extraction of trends and themes from millions of anonymized sales-related phone calls was harvested using call coding and artificial intelligence models. This enabled clients with the power to measure and monitor both positive and negative trending topics and act ahead of competitors or before issues became widespread.

Supported CEO in executing strategic vision while leading operations and providing critical guidance to the firm’s training and data services teams. Delivered processes and structure that enabled productization and scaling of early-stage products and services. ● Grew revenue by 84% between 2013 – 2014 while doubling the DrivingSales team. ● Conceived, designed and led a $1M consumer research study that defined how customer experience drives or impedes brand and dealership selection and purchase. Insights converted to profitable training curriculum for dealerships and OEMs.

Hand-picked by the CEO to guide the company in defining a core strategic vision and competitive product strategy through a period of rapid growth. ● Brought consensus and a common corporate vision to Dealer.com for the first time in company history, driving alignment and easing decision-making related to potential strategic partners, 3rd party integrators and M&A activity.● Led a key research study on social media’s impact on vehicle purchase decisions. The study guided the firm’s product roadmap and deepened a strategic partnership with Facebook.

Developed and executed a core strategic vision for the startup’s consumer portal, DriverSide.com, and its B2B service marketing platform. Defined channel partner and go-to-market strategy and created the firm’s behavioral tracking strategy.● Conceived and led the development of Reputation Driver™, which offered automated ratings and review generation for auto dealers, while reactivating lost customers. Project success led to an offer to join the Dealer.com executive leadership team.

Promoted by the CEO to turn around a maturing lead aggregation business unit for the $80M Dealix division of Cobalt. ● Relaunched a next-generation B2C site, UsedCars.com, increasing consumer traffic by 26%, accelerating revenue and cutting marketing costs. The portal also garnered extremely favorable reviews from both consumers and dealers.

Developed and executed the unified strategic vision and tactical implementation plan for a key, $70M business unit covering six product lines. ● Directed a pioneering research effort that reported on dealership performance drivers and the impact of social media reviews on consumers when selecting a dealership. Presented findings to 700 industry executives at the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates International Roundtable.● Monetized research efforts by creating a new training curriculum platform and new product line.

Promoted to lead the new business development, revenue generation and training service sales initiatives. ● Grew revenue from zero to $6.5M in three years. Clients included Lexus, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, VW, Audi, Kia, AutoNation and Subaru.

Hired to develop a new, strategic organization focused on providing online sales performance improvement training and consulting services to automotive dealers.● Created eMystery Shopping™, a leading service that electronically measured automobile dealership responses to email inquiries, that was later adopted by nearly every OEM and major dealer group.