Buying and Selling Motors

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 6, 1 February 1916, Page 547

Buying and Selling Motors

These remarks are not intended for the man who "knows all about it," such a man, be he salesman or purchaser, who has even a half-formed idea at the back of his mind, to this effect, is simply wasting time reading them. "We have yet to meet the man who can convince us that he knows all there is to be known in motor development up-to-date, though we can name dozens in the Dominion who are perfectly self-satisfied that the knowledge is theirs. We have dealt in motors from the date of their introduction to New Zealand, everything from the tiller-steering runabout, through the whole gamut of pleasure cars, motor-lorrys, motor busses and many curious machines that run (or were meant to run) on wheels, acting in turn both the parts of buyer and seller; we have seen cars tried out in every part of the Dominion, and on their own testing grounds in England and the United States, and even after this admittedly varied experience, the predominent impression that our mind has grasped is, how particularly, little .we realty know about the varied aspects of our subject.

That is a perfectly candid and truthful statement. and if we could only persuade both sellers and buyers to put their cards on the table, and own up to a certain amount of intelligent ignorance, while honestly striving their best, the one to impart and the other to absorb knowledge, many egregious mistakes and disappointed buyers would be avoided. There are first-class salesmen in the Dominion

who know their subject as thoroughly as it is possible to know it out here, know local conditions, and the machine they represent .thoroughly, and in the hands of such men the buyer is safe. But the unfortunate part about it is that the would-be buyer does not know whether he is in the hands of a good man or merely a '' catologue seller. ' '

When an inexperienced man starts out to enquire about motors, he has, at the beginning anyhow, a fairly open mind, and it is an open chance as to whether he strikes a safe salesman or a "catalogue seller." In fact the chances are about twenty to one that he will come across the latter first, for they abound in every town, while good men are correspondingly few. One of the chief dangers to the buyer is that nine times out of ten the "seller" (as against salesman) is a magnificent talker. He has to be, for he has very little else to back him. Plausibility and a good flow of language do not constitute knowledge of a subject, and yet judging by the "misfits" one sees in the motor business they are responsible for a larger number of sales than any other attribute the seller can lay claim to. Practically anyone can learn a catalogue off, and by interspersing a few technical names and road terms, convince the uninitiated that they have found both the man and the car they were looking for. Beware of technical phrases if you are a buyer! The poor salesman uses them mostly to impress you

and lead your line of thought where it is impossible

for you in your inexperience to follow, while a man who knows his business and his car, will be particular to keep his explanations down to your level, and take you along step by step until your own common sense gets a grip and you feel that the ultimate point claimed has been arrived at in a consecutive manner that will in itself carry conviction.

Always remember that in buying a car, you are buying something that you want to fulfil certain conditions, and that when you first approach a salesman, you are the only one of the pair who knows what the motor has to do. A good salesman knows this, and will let you do all the talking until you have made your require-

ments known, a "seller" won't, for his one and only object is to sell a car, and even if he is well-mannered enough to let you make known your wants, the information is of little use to him for he does not possess the necessary knowledge or experience to profit by it. He is out to sell a car, and if talking and promises of performance will sell it, and possibly a demonstration over a road of his own selection will help, all these are at the buyer's command, and in all probability the sale is effected absolutely irrespective of whether the machine is best suited to the work to be performed. On the other hand a salesman who knows his business and has the good of his firm at heart, will first of all find out exactly what conditions of service are required, and if anything beyond the normal is wanted, in the way of grades to be negotiated or difficult roads to be traversed he will, before giving a definite promise of performance make a personal inspection of the route, and estimate the chances of successful operation over that route, with the knowledge he possesses of the capabilities of the motor he

represents. Then if he is a really good salesman, and finds on inspection that the work is such that his machine cannot fulfil the conditions, he will turn the order down. That sounds drastic but it is honest, and apart from that, it is good business.

Nobody nowadays, with the competition there is on every hand, can afford to have "failures" running round, and the agent who invites them by making sales that should have been passed over, is going just about the quickest way to end his own career. So it should be. Neither the motor trade nor the public want that type of man any more than he is wanted in any other sphere of business, but the trouble is that the process of elimination is so slow that there are still dozens in the Dominion who all get a certain amount of earing, and do a corresponding amount of harm to the trade in general and the misled buyer in particular.

We have pointed out that the buyer is safest with the best salesman, for he will not sell a machine that

will not "deliver the goods," and if the buyer is desirous of dropping into the good salesman's hands first, then we say go to a good and recognised firm.

The reason for this is obvious. The first thing a salesman has to sell is his own ability, and if he knows he is a good man he naturally expects to get a good figure for it. But at the same time if he is a good man who knows his business he is not going to prostitute his knowledge by selling poor goods. He has got to be convinced in his own mind that the goods he handles are right, or he would never be the salesman he is, for no man can convey conviction to a buyer unless he is himself convinced. That is the reason why good men will usually be found selling good machines, a good man will sell nothing else, and the manufacturers or agents who pay good men good salaries, are the safest insurance a buyer can have against disappointment.