Executive Team Clint Burns, 38, discovered the car business at age 18, and it’s been a love affair ever since. His career took him to numerous sales and management posts, until he realized that he had to “come up with my own product, to determine my own fate.” The successful development of a customer-satisfaction index for veterinarians led to the pioneering of a widely used CRM tool for the auto industry, and now to The Next Up. “It’s all intertwined,” Clint says. “Efficiency and customer satisfaction. You can’t ask someone to buy something unless they perceive value in it.” That means maximizing a salesperson’s time with a customer while giving everyone on the sales force a fair shot at fresh business. It’s what The Next Up is all about. “It’s proven that if salespeople are with customers longer, they’re going to sell more cars, and the store will be more profitable,” he says. Burns, a California native, lives in Yorba Linda with his wife and three kids. Kirk Sladen, 48, brings more than 22 years of auto-business experience to The Next Solutions. A native of Toronto, Canada, he has worked in sales and as a general manager, including a long stint with the prestigious Wilson Group in California. Not surprisingly, he’s seen his share of changes in the industry – and those changes have led directly to The Next Up™, a product he calls a “natural evolution” from the old-fashioned way of doing business. “Everything now is customer satisfaction,” Kirk says. “It’s the atmosphere. A customer doesn’t want to get out of his car and see a group of sales staff standing in front of a dealership.” And, from the dealer’s point of view, it’s all about accountability and return on investment – “At no time before could you know exactly how many people came through your front door, what your advertising dollars are doing for you.” Sladen, married with four children, lives in Orange County, California. We at The Next Solutions Inc. are part of the automotive family, with decades of hands-on dealership experience at all levels. This has given us a thorough understanding of the automobile industry and how it’s changing. Those changes have led directly to The Next Up, a product which is a natural evolution from the old-fashioned way of doing business. We work with the most profitable stores and dealer groups in the nation and we’re committed to providing user-friendly products and assistance for many years to come.

© 2008 The Next Solutions, Inc. • All rights reserved.