Patrick Clounch
Founder & Creator of the AXIS Alignment Index
Patrick Clounch is the founder of Vantage Alignment Recruiting and the creator of the AXIS Alignment Index - a category-defining, dealership-specific system built to help organizations identify, evaluate, and place talent with measurable alignment before critical hiring decisions are made.
With more than 30 years of real-world dealership and commercial truck industry experience, Patrick has seen one of the most expensive problems dealerships continue to face: talented people being placed in roles they were never naturally aligned to perform in.
That experience became the foundation for AXIS - the Alignment Execution Index System.
Built from inside the dealership. Not adapted from somewhere else.
Unlike generic personality tests or traditional hiring assessments, AXIS was not adapted from another industry. It was built from inside the dealership environment to measure a person's natural traits and connect those traits to specific dealership roles across sales, service, parts, F&I, aftermarket, commercial truck sales, and operational support.
AXIS does more than describe a candidate. It identifies where that candidate is naturally aligned to succeed.
That distinction is what separates AXIS from traditional assessments. It gives dealership leaders clear, role-specific measurables that help determine whether a person has the natural traits to succeed in a particular position, department, or performance lane - before the dealership makes the hire.
"Stop guessing. Start placing people where they are actually wired to perform."
Clarity in Hiring. Natural Alignment for Performance.
Through Vantage Alignment Recruiting, Patrick combines industry-specific recruiting with the AXIS Alignment Index to help dealerships source, screen, assess, and place candidates with greater confidence. The goal is not simply to fill open positions. The goal is to place the right person in the right seat, with the right expectations, based on how they are naturally wired to perform.
More precise. More intentional. More measurable.
Reduce Hiring Mistakes
Know before the offer whether a candidate is naturally wired for the role you are filling - not just willing to fill it.
Improve Retention
People stay when they are placed where they are built to succeed. Alignment drives performance, and performance drives tenure.
Build Stronger Teams
A team of aligned individuals outperforms a team of talented people placed wrong. AXIS gives you the data to build that team.
Sharing what he knows with the industry.
Patrick is also the host of The Hot Topic Podcast and publisher of the Truck Talk U Newsletter, where he continues to share insights on dealership operations, commercial truck sales, employee development, leadership, and the future of performance-driven hiring.
At the core of his work is one belief: performance starts with alignment.
The advantage is alignment.
Vantage Alignment Recruiting exists to give dealerships a more precise, intentional, and measurable way to acquire talent, reduce hiring mistakes, improve retention, and build stronger-performing teams.