Company History

 

Direct Dealer Services, Inc. was founded in 1992 with a vision to help our dealer, agent, and lender partners realize their maximum profit potential by providing industry-leading technologies, products, solutions and training.  Our complete solutions portfolio and exceptional customer service have served as the foundation for a long history of success in the automotive finance and insurance arena.  Headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL, Direct Dealer Services serves dealers, agents, and lenders throughout the U.S.  Our team takes pride in representing only the most respected automotive aftermarket administrators in the industry.

Over the past 20 years, the automotive, powersport, RV, and marine industries have realized major change.  Lenders who provide consumer financing in these areas also find themselves with completely different lending models than in years past.  Profits are squeezed as competitive markets expand.  Direct Dealer Services is a partner you can rely upon to help you provide a quality sales experience for your customers.  Customer satisfaction means repeat business and referrals, which equals profit.

Every product in our portfolio is 100% compliant in the ever-watchful regulatory arena, and all are underwritten by insurance carriers rated A- (Excellent) or better by A.M. Best, and our administrators are some of the most seasoned in the industry.  What this means is our partners can concentrate on what they do best – Sell!  Our programs promote employee confidence, fewer regulatory risks, improved sales production, higher customer satisfaction, and a higher incidence of repeat business.

Direct Dealer Services embraces a strong discipline in training.  We continually train your personnel to be at the top of their game.  We understand our partners share fundamental similarities, but we recognize that each is uniquely dynamic.   Our team personally performs an on-site evaluation in areas such as your operational philosophies, available capital, experience, reputation, goals, employee counts, inventory, consumer demographics, and servicing ability. This allows us to effectively customize solutions to meet the needs of our valued partners.   We’re committed to finance and insurance development, regulatory compliance, training, technological advancement, and operational  efficiency in each of our solutions.

Staff

Patrick Kane
Pat Kane graduated Northwood Institute in 1982.  Upon graduation Pat worked in the parts, service and body shop operations for the Tom Benson organization in Texas.  From 1985 to 1988 Pat purchased, operated, and grew a five-line General Motors dealership as well as a Toyota dealership in northern Michigan.  Both stores were acquired by large dealer groups in the area.  From 1988 till 1992 Pat worked for General Motors, first as a national sales manager for “Dealer Services”, a capital equipment provider to General Motors dealerships, then as a regional manager for “EDS Dealer Systems” providing DMS solutions to General Motors dealerships.  Pat saw there was a need for a company that could provide industry leading technologies, products, solutions and training services to dealer, agent, and lender partners in the Midwest.  In 1992 Pat left General Motors to form Direct Dealer Services.   Today Direct Dealer Services serves dealers, agents, and lenders throughout the country.  Pat oversees the day-to-day operations of Direct Dealer Services.  He brings over 34 years of automotive experience, encompassing every aspect of the industry.

Joe Cirillo

Joe has an automotive sales and management career spanning 30 years. Joe has a degree in communications and has put that knowledge into developing his understanding of the automotive industry from a sales, marketing, and product development emphasis. Using his experience in sales at several prominent franchise dealerships, he worked his way into management.  For the last 20 years as an automotive consultant, he has been working with both independent and franchise dealerships.  In this role, he specializes in sales and marketing as well as product development to help increase dealership profits. With an emphasis on training dealership staff on new and innovative products. Today he works as a Sales Manager for Direct Dealer Services as well as lending his expertise in new product development and training. 

Connie Cirillo

Connie has been a leader in sales development and training across multiple disciplines for over 30 years. She specializes in product development training. As a training manager at Direct Dealer Services, her specialty is to follow up to make sure that the dealership staff and management understand the benefits of each product available to provide the best possible experience to improve customer retention.

Joan Eggert
Joan has been with Direct Dealer Services for over seven years and runs the nerve center of Direct Dealer Services – administrative services.  Joan brings over 30 years of administrative experience to the table and our partners know they will receive the best service available in the most efficient manner.  Joan works daily with our product administrators and has the solid relationships with all our administrator’s support and claims departments.  With Joan’s personal emphasis on creating solutions quickly, our partners can rest assured that they are getting the best service in the industry.