I bet this is a press release your company would love to be putting out right now: Dealer.com Closes 2010 with Substantial Growth, Increased Research and Development.  (Kudos to you if you have or will soon.)

This 14-year-old, Vermont-based company's customer base is automotive manufacturers, auto dealers, and media companies – all of which have been especially hard hit by the Great Recession and continuing down economy.  So how exactly did the firm, as their press release yesterday stated, grow revenues 60% over the already impressive $51 million they netted in 2009, the year prior to their entry in our Top Small Company Workplaces award competition (which they won)?

Dealer.com's response to our 2010 award application question "How have your organization's people practices contributed to your top line revenue and bottom line profitability?" provides a large part of the answer (not to mention, a template for cross-departmental employee engagement and team building for adoption by your company):

Keeping employee turn-over low significantly contributes to both the revenue and profitability of Dealer.com.  High employee retention in both management and staff member positions helps provide outstanding and consistent service to clients and sense of well being for employees as a team.  Further, client retention rates are at an all time high.  Hiring and promoting from within also contributes to financial strength by decreasing recruiting expenses and creating a faster learning curve for employees who change positions within the organization.

The sales, account management and marketing teams are joined to commit to each other for strategic teamwork on a daily basis.  The marketing team's number one goal is to generate sales leads for both the retail sales team and for the account management team, mainly through email direct marketing.  In return the account management and retail sales teams spend time gathering email addresses to add to the prospect and customer database.  The marketing team compensation plan has a variable component and is paid out levels that correspond to sales lead generation.

In addition, the account management team is responsible for not just reactive customer service for the customer like the majority of Dealer.com competitors, but to also be proactive Internet marketing consultants to customers.  The account management team's daily call direction is two out-bound for every one in-bound call.  In other words the account management team is pushing our client base to high levels of performance, versus waiting for the customer to reach out and ask for help.  The team collaborated with the marketing team to help prioritize which of their customers had the largest advertising opportunity and sent them email marketing campaigns with the "advertising estimates" customized for each dealer.

For more insights into Dealer.com's profitable people practices, sign up for our free IDEAS newsletter – our upcoming February issue will have a profile of success on the business.

Photo credit: Inc. Magazine