I'm not a salesman but I am in charge of the IT across a 6 dealership car sales business. Having worked within the industry now for over 7 years I have seen and spoken to a fair number of salesman and picked up a thing or three.

On the whole car salesmen actually know bugger all about cars, half of them couldn't change a wheel if their life depended on it. So knowledge of the innermost workings of a car are obviously not needed, they do know how many doors a car has and what colour it is hehe. The specs they actually just get on a printed sheet as and when they need them (read when a customer asks them anything other than how many doors does it have).

So what makes a car salesman successful? This one is a bit tricky because some people like a brash in your face salesman and some like a quiet fellow. What ever their tactic / act is (all the good ones are acting in a since) all the successful ones have one thing in common and that is the ability to have a conversion with a customer.

I always ask the top salesman how they do it. Most say that they get talking to bthe customer about something they like, could be fishing, could be their kids, could be straight razors It doesn't matter so long as its not cars Once they find that something they say they are 90% there with the sale as the customer then no longer sees them as a slimy used car salesman but just a "decent nice fellow" who happens to be selling them a car

I have lots and lots of little tricks they use, when I have time I'll list a few out.

Good luck and congratulations on your new job