Dealer management system company DealerBuilt appointed long-time automotive sales team leader Keith Baker as chief revenue officer, with his duties including oversight of new business sales and marketing. He will also work to help improve client utilization and product strategy. 

Baker said he joined DealerBuilt in part because dealers need a company “that is genuinely dealer-centric.”

“The DMS space is extremely dysfunctional,” Baker said in a news release.

Most of the negative consequences of that dysfunction “fall squarely on the shoulders of the dealers,” he said.

“I've seen it too many times; smart, experienced, dedicated operators are stalled at best,” he said. “In the worst cases, they are so tightly squeezed they are losing ground in the middle of a tremendous economic boom. They need help. They need allies.”

Baker plans to provide some of that help, coming to DealerBuilt with 25 years of experience building and growing field sales teams. He is also a speaker and a peak business performance coach, with experience building auto industry sales and service teams for companies such as ALLDATA and Autobytel before coming to Cox Automotive in 2012.

During his time at Cox Automotive, Baker helped lead strong growth of vAuto’s client base, according to DealerBuilt. He then became vice president of sales for DealerTrack DMS at Cox Automotive.

“I am truly excited to add Keith to our strong DealerBuilt team,” DealerBuilt/LightYear Dealer Technologies LLC chief executive officer Mike Trasatti said.

Trasatti continued, “He has a track record as a real 'growth innovator.’ However, with a similar passion to take care of each customer…one at a time. As our company continues its growth trajectory, the chief revenue officer is a pivotal role directly influencing our future expansion. Keith will lead the charge as he takes on the responsibility for all aspects of driving revenue to the company.”