It's a big July 4^th weekend.  I suspect lots of car dealers sell lots of cars this weekend, even in this economy.

This afternoon I brought my son to a local car dealership to take part in their contest.  They were giving away a 2009 Hummer H3, a mortgage paid for a year, an ATV and various amounts of cash.

Some 50,000 households were mailed a flyer earlier this week.  On the flyer is a lucky number, supposedly unique to your flyer.  The way the contest works, you take that flyer down and see if it matches the numbers for the prizes. 

Having been in Radio for most of my professional career, I know what's going on.  But for a chance to win a big prize, the effort on the part of the contestant is minimal.  So why not?

We drive down to the car dealership and park.  There are no signs supporting the contest itself, so we kind of have to guess that we're in the right place.  We check the address.  Yep, this is it.

PROMO LAW #1: Make sure your on-site signage matches your direct mail piece so the customer knows he/she is in the right place.

There is absolutely nothing in the showroom area that links this dealership to the contest.  Nothing.

We walk maybe 10 feet into the showroom area.  No one is there to greet us.  We had just walked past the receptionist.  I walk back to her desk, holding up our lucky number flyer.  “Is this you?” I ask.  She nods.

PROMO LAW #2: Receptionists are often the face of a company.  They certainly give the first impression, which always needs to be perfect.  Take time to greet people.  Notice the flyer in hand.  Use it as a conversation starter.

We venture further into no man's land, a wide swath of salesmanship bravado.  The shiny floor of an American car dealership. 

You would think with the struggle car dealerships are having nowadays that anyone walking the floor would be greeted and treated.  “Hi, welcome to car dealership USA.  Your 4^th of July weekend starts right here.  Hi, my name is Slick.  How can I help you?”  Instead, we get nothing.  No attention at all.

We walk to the end of this long showroom floor, easily 100 feet long.  The big Hummer is the first car in the line.  There are Escalades and Caddys.  Cars line the showroom floor left and right.

There are three plastic fold-up tables in the middle of the showroom for writing and trading information.  Three of them are occupied.  There are other car sales people off to the left in offices and lounges.  No one comes out to greet us.  Maybe we don't look like we're going to buy a car. 

PROMO LAW #3: Everyone is a customer, no matter what they look like.  If not today, maybe tomorrow.

My son, who, because he's my son, has a better sense of conducting a promotion and a contest.  He's getting antsy already because no one has greeted us.  No one has even acknowledged us.  My savvy son says, “Let's hang out here next to the guy at the table.”  The guy is a car salesman who's helping someone else with the contest.  The kid has a good idea.  So we stand right next to the tables.  There's no missing us.  OK, maybe there is evidently because still no one pays us any attention.  One sales guy even walked right by us and didn't say a word.  I expect to hear, “Hi, someone will be with you in a moment.”  Nothing.

Well we just wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Until...

One of the sales guys comes out of those rooms and onto the floor.  He helps one couple with their contest form.  And then he comes over to us.  Looks me right in the eye and says hello.  This was the first thing anyone did right by us since we stepped foot onto the vast sales floor.

I say to our car sales guy, “Can you tell me if I won anything?”  I ask as I'm holding out our contest flyer.  He says, “Let's check the board.”  And we proceed to walk over to the glass walls that make up those rooms over on the left of the showroom floor.  There, propped up on the ledge is a foam core board about 18” high and 24” long.  It looks just like the flyer we got in the mail.  This is full confirmation that we are in the right place.

PROMO LAW #4: Make sure your graphic material echoes all around.  Consistency in signage helps create clarity and eliminate confusion.  You cannot over communicate your promotion.

Our super sales guy fades like a falling star.  He just leaves us there to decipher what's on the board.  I see the Hummer.  I see the house representing the mortgage.  I see the huge tires of the ATV.  I ask my son, who now has the flyer, “what's our number?”  He points to the last box on the promo foam core.  Right above our number we see “$2.”  There you have it.  Our winnings for the day: $2.  Not even enough for a gallon of gas.  But more than we came in with so we'll take it!

PROMO LAW #5: Engage your customers.  Help them understand the contest, how to play, how to win, where to look.  You've got face time.  Use it to make a friend out of a walk-in stranger.

Our studly sales person just left us there with no explanation.  Not even a trivial, “What's your number?”  or “Let's see what you won.”  Engage your customer and make him/her feel like they're the only one on the floor, the only contestant playing and about to win a gazillion bucks.  Watch Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune.  Every spin is the best spin, the next one to win.  And he treats each contestant as if they were the only person playing the game.

In order to collect our winning, we had to fill out a form.  It's a car dealership so I figured they'd want some kind of information.  Why else would they run a promotion like this?  Super sales guy walks us over to one of those plastic tables in the center of the floor.  He slides a piece of paper off a stack and says, “Here, fill this out.”  And then he walks away.

PROMO LAW #5 CONTINUED:  Continue to engage your customer.  Congratulations! Where'd you drive in from? What do you drive?  How old is your son?  I bet you wanted to win that Hummer!  

It's a form for contact and personal finance information.  So, no, I wasn't going to give him everything.  Once he saw that I wasn't writing anything down, he checked and asked, “You finished filling that out?”  I said yeah, and you don't need all that info from me anyway, right?  He took the form and walked away. In a minute he came back with two dollar coins and handed them to me.  Then he was off to some other customer.

PROMO LAW #6: When the customer is done and leaving your promotion, always say “Thanks for coming.”  There are a million choices out there for anyone to make, including not doing anything.  When someone chooses you, you better be grateful!  And please don't act grateful, BE grateful.

Remember this was a car dealership.  Not everyone is in the market for a car (or whatever it is you're selling).  But they might be one day.  And you want them to remember you later.  What this sales guy (and maybe the entire dealership) failed to do was give me his business card for future reference.  I have no idea who he is.  Would I go back if I needed to buy a Hummer?  Yeah, maybe.  But I'm sure I would seek out the most friendly, helpful, courteous person on the floor who gave me the time of day instead of shrugging me off as just some contest player. 

Even though that's exactly what I was today.

There are lots more rules and guidelines, dos and don'ts.  This is just a start; a case-study from a live, actual promotion. Hopefully yours will go much smoother and with far fewer customer relationship mistakes.