You are not a brand. When you own car dealerships it's tempting to begin to think of yourself as a brand and that a branding campaign will over time convince future car buyers that you are the better choice and they will buy from you when in the market. Although there is some value in staying visible of course, personally I have yet to see a branding campaign outperform a strong retail campaign.

In a day when consumers are shopping five or more dealerships simetaniously on this phones and then arriving at just one dealership before signing papers we need to remind ourselves that's it's a major lead grab going on.

While you read this there are no less than six lead aggregators on national television telling consumers that they can "trust" a specific website more than the local dealer. These same lead aggregators are also displaying the new and used inventory of local dealers and then taking credit for the "hit" by a local retail customer.

As an ex-retailer I find this preposterous that a retailer would pay a vendor to display their proprietary products and then pay again for a consumer's contact information. Imagine going to Wal-Mart with this arrangement? They would roar with laughter.

Today it's all about owning the retail customer and the longer car dealership owners pay others to do the retail heavy lifting then dealerships will continue to be brand-identical annonamous buildings that simply transact paperwork for cars.

Here's a solution. Strike out on your own. Yes, you need to confirm to the EBE's and play nice with the factory, but you don't have to passively let others reach into your market and create a relationship with your customers and then charge you for the privilege of finding out who wants to buy a car this week.

Did JC Penny just learn a painful lesson when they began to think that they were a "brand" and not just another retailer selling back to school jeans? Yes, they did, and it cost the CEO his job and JCPenny one billion dollars. Anyone with experience in retail marketing saw this slow motion rain wreck occurring early on.

Please note that the new CEO has JCPenny airing TV ads with brands and prices and coupons, and sales are recovering nicely.

So now to you. Are you being told that your dealership is a "brand"? If so, just say no.

Be a retailer, market like a retailer, and you will get a retailers' fast and measureable sales response.

Strike out on your own and create a shock wave of impact on these weeks' buyers of the brands that you sell. That's called retailing and that's what you need to do to grow sales now. Just say no to those that want to list your inventory and then promote that webpage on national TV. Buy local broadcast TV yourself and promote your own inventory. If you don't know how, call the TV station, many actually care about your sales results and will help you succeed.

Tell consumers the reasons why buying from you this week save them time, money, and they will get the best price faster from someone who actually sells cars. An interesting thing will happen…consumers will come to you instead

I know that consumers go where they are invited. Have you asked your buyers over this week? Lets take back our customer.

-Adam Armbruster is a partner in the business growth firm Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster & Company located in Red Bank, New Jersey and can be reached at adam@esacompany.com or 941-928-7192.