On 9/24/2015 3:55 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

The way the country is going I bet not one in 100 , maybe 1000 know enough
to ask anything about a car other than how much is the down payment, and how
much a month.

That's probably true. But, if the only question will be those pertaining
to color and payments, there's no need for a sales droid! You could
design a vending machine to handle those requests!

As a salesman, knowing about your product gives you things to talk
about that can highlight its assets and differentiate it from the
competition.

I did a lot of research before we looked at each vehicle that we
considered in our search. It was embarassing to have to correct
salespeople about how certain features operated, etc.

We also tended to notice a lot of details that salesfolks either
didn't notice or chose to ignore. E.g., we found all of the Subaru
SUV-ish products "imposed" on the legroom of the passenger in a
way that made it very uncomfortable for either of us to occupy that
seat. On a repeat test drive, SWMBO sat in the passenger seat and
complained that she was uncompfortable. Having sat in that spot
on the first test drive (different model vehicle, same problem),
I immediately told her what to look for -- how she was being
forced to sit: "Oh, my!"

It was unfortunate as I really liked the layout of the engine compartment
in those vehicles (given that *I* would be doing all the maintenance
work). But, we quickly ruled them out solely because of this
"seating problem".

The same for most other large priced items. The color is probably the most
important thing.

It is actually the first or second question that we were asked.
The other being related to financing, our budget, etc. Amazing
how many salespeople were unable to get past this issue! "We'll
be paying cash for anything you have on your lot. Your job is
to convince us that we should buy one of YOUR vehicles instead
of one of the vehicles from any of your competitors that line
the street, here..."