First off, I have been genetically engineered to dislike balloons. Its the unpredictable factor of when they are going to burst. The noise bothers my ears, but more importantly its the snapping followed by flying rubber.

So today is the balloon war day. Two weekends in a row the competition has had helium balloons tied to the antenna’s of all their cars. The first weekend this happened, the salesmen at our dealer falsely threatened to run across the street and pop the competitions balloons.

So today, the competition has again attached balloons to their cars PLUS they have two giant SALE blow up fabric balloons. It is these fabric balloons that have really ignited the war.

What does a car dealership war mean? It means having all the sales people huddle around a helium tank, blow up balloons that every 4th one pops, add some string and attach them to cars on the lot. Its more than balloons. It is also a barbecue tent on the front patio, hamburgers, sausage, cookies and other treats. These balloons will draw customers onto the dealership lot right? In the 1980’s this certainly worked, and its GOT to work 2 decades later 🙂 .

With a mostly open mind, I am going to validate the effectiveness of balloons on a cold rainy day. Its the perfect day for such research since the predictability of warm weather driving traffic into the showroom has been conveniently removed with the cold, wet day. The assumption is that people leave their houses more often in nicer weather and may miss the bright cheery balloons due sunglasses. I have no data to back this up except that the roads are more crowded on a nice day and I see more sunglasses during a sunny day than on a rainy, cold day.

The question that needs answering: Are potential buyers driving by more likely to visit the dealer with the most balloons? Seeing as we have the most balloons, this store should see more customers than the competition.

I am tempted to wander across the street to see how the multitude of balloons popping up on our lot is affecting the competition’s spirits.

We all know that its the positive, I can do attitude that more often than not closes the sale. And knocking the competition off their game is half the battle.

Why is this so important, knocking the competition down a notch on the pole of positive outlook?

Well, it means the customer’s will sense the lack of interest with their super sensory processes, leave the dealer after seeing all the offers possible, walk across the street and make the deal at the second dealer. These deals are called “lay downs” and the easiest to close. The customer is tired of visiting dealerships and just wants to buy a car. I call it customer fatigue and its when you hope your competition are terrible closers.

Its 10:30, the BBQ is fired up, balloons are waving in the wind, we are READY!