DAVENPORT, Iowa — Dealer Marketing Services, the creator of ProMax Online, has launched Instant Screen, a new system designed to quickly enable dealers to pre-qualify customers for automotive financing simply by entering their name and address.

"After receiving feedback from dealers on Instant Screen, I believe this will completely revolutionize the automotive industry the same way lender portals have changed automotive financing today," said John Palmer, president/CEO of Dealer Marketing Services. "We surveyed over 100 dealerships before embarking on this project, and 100 percent of the dealerships in that survey said that having a system like Instant Screen would greatly improve their business."

In making the announcement, the company cited research showing that the percentage of Internet leads that do not qualify for financing can be as high as 75 percent. The new system was designed to allow dealership employees to instantly know which leads can be prequalified — greatly reducing the time wasted chasing after bad leads — simply by entering the customer's name and address or swiping their driver's license.

"Creating custom solutions that fill the gap in the automotive sales process and allow the dealer more insight into their customers is what we do here at Dealer Marketing Services," said Denny Long, senior vice president of Dealer Marketing Services and Special Finance's "Marketing Insights" columnist. "This solution helps consumers, dealers, and lenders during a very difficult economic business cycle."

The inspiration for the Instant Screen came from hundreds of dealers who expressed the desire for a solution to reduce the time they spend qualifying incoming showroom traffic and leads, according to the company's chief executive.

"The thought of not having to guess which customers need special financing assistance was at the top of their wish list," Palmer said. "The dealerships also pointed out that knowing the credit status of the consumers that enter their dealership early in the sales process would help determine if you have a special finance customer that needs to get their financing worked out first or a conventional customer that can go right to product selection. Over 100 dealers committed to install Instant Screen in their dealership once they were able to see that the final product is simple and inexpensive. Instant Screen will truly change the way we sell vehicles!"