RA # 6

For the encounter RA I will be analyzing a sales experience that my wife and I had with a car salesman at a mazda dealership. We drove up in my 2006 civic and started to look at the new Mazda 3 series that they have. The salesman quickly appeared and started to inquire about our interest in a new car. His audience of course was me and my wife but to be even more specific, he definitely treated us like a new married couple with a tight budget. However, he treated us with a decent amount of respect and interest. His argument of course was that his Mazda 3 was our best option in terms of quality and price. He quickly compared his car to many other competitors and stated the specifications that were highly superior to the other cars in its class. He used a variety of techniques in order to persuade us to buy the car, which I am actually very familiar with because I have been in sales for a few years now. He definitely appealed to logos in that he described why the Mazda was a better choice by identifying its strong points and the weaknesses of his competitors. He told us that the Mazda 3 was the most popular car in America right now and that many have been sold every month. I think that he also appealed to pathos when he offered to let us test drive it because he wanted us to feel the car and be able to experience how it drives. I do believe that he was effective because even though we didn’t end up buying a new car he made us feel important. He also made us get excited about getting a new car by showing us all the cool options that it had. He also showed us how we could afford it through financing or a lease. It has been interesting to analyze a sales pitch when I was the audience.