Along with highlighting its latest Bronze-level National Corporate Partner, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association described how Dennis Pope of People's Financial Corp. in Mableton, Ga., “carried the ball across the goal line” to claim the top prize in the second quarter of NIADA's Membership Drive Challenge.

Pope led the association's football-themed membership campaign, which ran from November to January, by sponsoring 82 new members.

Other prize winners include Jayne Harris and Jenny Myrick of the Carolinas IADA, who brought in 44 and 40 new memberships, respectively. Julie Colgate of Independent Dealers Advantage in Suwanee, Ga., contributed 39 new members as Ohio IADA executive director Wendy Rinehart added 34 members and Debbie Braswell of the Carolinas ushered in 25 members.

The association indicated the winners will select from a group of prizes that includes

—Complimentary full registration for the winner and a guest to the NIADA Convention and Expo, coming up June 13 to 16 at the Mirage in Las Vegas
—An Apple Watch
—A GoPro 4 camera
—Autographed sports memorabilia from a team of the winner's choice
—A free subscription to NIADA's online dealer compliance training

NIADA mentioned the football membership campaign — part of a year-long membership initiative that began with a baseball theme — accounted for 380 sponsored new memberships, bringing the total from the first two phases to 614 new members.

The football promotion was followed by a basketball campaign that wraps up on Thursday. The membership drive’s last lap — an auto racing-themed promotion — begins in April and runs through May 15.

“NIADA’s membership initiative has been a tremendous success so far, but it is far from over,” NIADA president Frank Fuzy said. “Once again, I urge every member, every auction and every vendor to get involved so we can finish strong.”

AutoRaptor now a NIADA National Corporate Partner

In other association news, AutoRaptor, a provider of Web-based customer relationship management, Internet lead management, sales and marketing applications for independent dealers, teamed with NIADA to become its latest Bronze-level National Corporate Partner.

“Our partnership with NIADA has been an exciting way to give even more independent dealers of all sizes access to the most intuitive CRM platform in the market,” AutoRaptor director of business development Isaiah Osofisan said.

“Keeping pace with the needs of independent dealers has been our primary focus, and we're excited to be able to reach NIADA member dealers who are invested in technology for the continued success of their dealerships,” Osofisan continued.

“Too often dealers are left with ineffective options for their business and AutoRaptor's philosophy of simplicity coupled with a suite of powerful features, provides dealerships with a dynamic tool to capitalize on every opportunity and see a direct increase in profits,” he went on to say.

With a focus on leading edge technology for customer data management and through its partnership with NIADA, AutoRaptor is offering special setup and integration pricing for its full suite of CRM capabilities, including

—Lead assignment and sales workflow
—Texting
—Push and pull integration with many dealer management systems
—Inventory and website integration
—Mobile apps
—Email marketing

“AutoRaptor is a leading independent auto dealer CRM provider, with easy-to-implement, cost-effective, high-impact solutions," NIADA senior vice president of member services Scott Lilja said.

“AutoRaptor has been a longtime supporter of our industry and NIADA and I am pleased to announce their endorsement as our newest National Corporate Partner,” Lilja added.

For more information, including special NIADA member pricing, visit autoraptor.com or call (888) 421-6533.