Try not to take your eye off the ball when it comes to competing for sales. The manufacturer of your dealership’s brand of car has a very different focus than you do. Remember that if your manufacturer builds Chevrolets and you are a Chevy dealer, you have different goals.

Chevrolet, the manufacturer, wants to sell as many Chevys as it can, and doesn’t really care which Chevy dealer sells them. If there is more than one Chevy dealer in your market, your real competitors are the other Chevy dealers. By the time customers get to the dealership level, they have already decided to buy a Chevy. Your job is to convince them to buy that Chevy from your dealership.

Picture this: Let’s say your market will sell 500 new Chevrolets next month. If there are five Chevy dealers, they should each sell an average of 100 Chevys. It’s your job, as a competitor, to get more than your share. If you can differentiate your dealership from the other Chevy dealers, you might sell 200 Chevys, while two of your competitors will sell only 50 each. You took more than your share because you were able to differentiate your dealership in the minds of consumers.

Your manufacturer doesn’t really want you to do that. That’s why it tries to get you to run generic-type television commercials. That’s why it wants all Chevrolet dealerships to look the same. You need to buck the trend with your advertising. When you run generic co-op commercials, you will be selling Chevys for every dealer in your market. When you run unique commercials that set your dealership apart, you will be selling Chevys for yourself.

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