CINCINNATI — CallCommand, a provider of integrated, automated and personalized communications for auto dealers designed to streamline work flow, reduce marketing expense and generate superior customer response, appointed Ron Fortt, former vice president of Client Services, to vice president of Dealer Development. In this new position Fortt will leverage his 31-plus years as an innovator and veteran of the automotive retail industry to help dealers choose and integrate their technology and service options. Fortt’s efforts will work to help dealers maximize lead generation, closing ratio, owner loyalty, repurchase behavior and frequency of service. He will be based out of CallCommand’s corporate office in Irvine, California.

“Dealers are faced with very tough economic times. To try and address this challenge they are presented with a bewildering number of different technologies and services. It is impossible for even the most tech savvy and sophisticated dealer to keep up,” commented Al Babbington, CallCommand CEO. “At CallCommand it is not enough for us to just offer another solution to help. We felt it was equally important to offer services to assist dealers in integrating best-of-class solutions throughout their dealership. Ron Fortt has assembled a group of senior automotive executives to do just that,” Babbington added.

Fortt, a graduate of NADA's Dealer Candidate Academy, is well known and respected as an active dealer and leader in the minority dealer community; he served as treasurer of the Toyota Lexus Minority Dealers Association and on the Toyota National Dealer Council Advisory Board.

Before joining CallCommand, Fortt was co-owner of the highly successful California-based Tracy Toyota, which more than doubled predicted sales goals in its first year of operation and went on to become one of the top selling Toyota dealerships in Northern California.

Prior to Tracy Toyota, Fortt served as regional general manager and corporate sales trainer at First America Automotive, which at the time was California's largest automotive consolidator and was later acquired by Sonic Automotive.

Commenting on his appointment, Fortt stated, "My mission is very simple. It is to take ordinary people and help them do extraordinary things. My core ideology for well over 30 years has been to help people accomplish their goals. I have built several high-performing organizations based on these premises. My new role allows me to focus in on my passion for growing people. It allows me to bring my leadership training skills, my extensive automotive background and my people development abilities to our customers.”

Fortt is additionally responsible for the recruiting, hiring, training and screening of all CallCommand personnel and is charged with building a unit of expert business consultant specialists to regularly visit and support CallCommand dealers. He is also responsible for leadership training throughout the entire organization. Fortt will continue his active role as a presenter at key industry seminars and conventions.

“With his many years of active and diverse experience in the automotive field, Ron recognizes the needs of dealers today and understands firsthand the concerns and challenges facing this community. We are excited to have Ron head up a new team at CallCommand that will help dealers to overcome these challenges," commented Babbington.