Steve Barnett: Independent Automotive Telecom Advisor
30+ years in the dealer seat. 10+ years building dealership telecom companies. Now working for you, not for a vendor.
Steve Barnett spent over three decades on the dealership side before he ever thought about telecom, running stores and living through every bad phone vendor pitch a GM sits through. That experience is exactly why DealerTEL exists today. As an independent automotive telecom advisor, Steve built DealerTEL to be the dealership telecom consultant he never had access to himself: someone with no stake in which vendor wins, just a stake in what actually works for the store.
How DealerTEL Works
Think of us as your insurance agent. We’ve evaluated the market, we recommend what’s right for your store, and we’re compensated by our technology partner (CallRevu), not by you. Your audit, consultation, and implementation support cost your dealership nothing.
- 30+ Years Dealership Ownership
- Technology Board Member, Major DMS Provider
- 10+ Years Dealership Telecom Company Founder
- Authorized CallRevu Partner
Why Dealers Trust DealerTEL
Being a CallRevu authorized partner means DealerTEL has direct access to the platform’s engineering and support teams, not just a sales relationship. Combined with Steve’s own background running dealerships, that gives DealerTEL a rare vantage point: enough technical depth to configure a system correctly, and enough dealer experience to know what actually gets used day to day versus what just looks good in a demo.
About the Author
Steve Barnett is the founder of DealerTEL Services. After 30+ years owning dealerships, he noticed something odd about the technology built for dealers: every system got attention except the phones, even though it’s the one piece of technology a store can’t survive without for even a single day. That gap led him to spend the next decade-plus founding dealership-exclusive telecom companies of his own. He created DealerTEL to give dealers an advisor with no stake in which vendor wins, and partners with CallRevu to deliver it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Steve Barnett spent over 30 years running dealerships before serving on the technology board of a major DMS provider. That combination showed him nobody was solving the dealership phone problem the right way, so he founded DealerTEL to fill that gap.
An automotive telecom advisor evaluates a dealership's current phone setup, identifies gaps or overcharges, and recommends the right technology partner, similar to how an insurance agent works. DealerTEL fills this role at no cost to the dealership.
Both. DealerTEL is an independent advisory firm and a CallRevu authorized partner, which means Steve's team can recommend CallRevu's platform with full technical support behind them, while still working for the dealer's interests first.
A dealership telecom consultant understands how calls move between sales, service, and BDC teams, and how that traffic ties into the DMS. A general IT consultant usually hasn't worked inside a dealership and misses those specifics.
You can reach Steve directly through the contact page, or call (855) 968-6500. Most conversations start with a quick chat about your current phone setup before anything else.
