Dearth of a Salesman

What distinguishes a good salesperson from one who is ... well... not as effective?

Good product knowledge would be an important trait. Take my experience today as an example, while shopping for an MP3 player at a large electrical goods outlet (which I won't name for fear of being sued, or blacklisted in the shop... :) No one from the 'Music players' section was around, so a salesman from the camera section walked over. Being technologically-challenged, I pointed to my player of choice (a Creative MuVo Micro N200), and asked if I could use the voice recording function concurrently with the line-in encoding function (i.e. voice-over). The salesman gave me a strange look, and the following actual conversation ensued:
Myself : "So how do I do the voice recording?"
Salesman: "You record your voice when you talk."
Myself: "So do I have to talk into something, like a mike or speaker?"
Salesman: "No, you talk, it will record"
Myself: "Can I record a song with it?"
Salesman: "No, but can record your voice"
Myself: "So you press a button to start recording, is it?"
Salesman: "No, the button for playing. You talk, it will record your voice."
Myself: "So it's automatic?"
Salesman: "No, you need to record."
Myself (baffled): "So how do you record?"
Salesman: "You talk, then it will record."
I thanked the salesman and walked out of the shop, leaving (both him and myself) with a perplexed look. I didn't buy the player anyway, they only had it in an obiang bright-orange skin.

But the thing is, that wasn't a very effective exchange, was it? He'd probably have had more expertise if I were enquiring about a digital camera. Hopefully I wouldn't get an answer like: "You look, then it will take your picture."

To me, the most effective (and dangerous) salespeople are the ones who can (without blinking) answer anyone's questions, and convince you that you cannot live without their product.
They can convince you that X-brand elbow pads are made of the toughest material that nothing short of a diamond can slice through, and are so light that you can rollerblade faster with them. And therefore, if you indeed rollerblade faster, it would be even more important that you keep yourself protected from injury. Then, they'll introduce X-brand knee pads, which would protect your knees from being shredded to ribbons when you fall (but conveniently leave out the fact that they wouldn't prevent your bones from shattering from the impact). You'd then feel the urgent and overwhelming need to buy these two X-brand products, otherwise you will fall and scrape your knees, get them infected and gangrenous, have to amputate them, and lie in the hospital, wishing you'd listened to the salesperson and bought X-brand's gear instead of Y-brand's.
They can also convince you to buy their 8-piece dinner set, which costs over $200 (BUT was discounted from $500), is the latest and most popular design, microwavable, and scratch-proof. Yes, you NEED to buy it, or you will forever have an empty void in your soul that nothing else but that dinner set can fill. Even though you already own 4 other complete sets in white, black, blue and green.
They can also convince you to use Brand A's beauty products, which can smoothen your skin/remove wrinkles/make you slimmer/contain antioxidants/reverse aging/prevent cancer/make you immortal, and which have been tested and endorsed by famous celebrities (whose faces can also be seen endorsing Brand B, C and D's beauty products - now which is the one that really works?). You won't want to grow old wrinkled, black, and lifeless like a prune, and look back with regret to the day that you refused to buy Brand A's cream, will you? So buy Brand A's cream now, before you regret later (and before you change your mind, so that the salesgirl won't lose her commission on this sale...)

Had the outlet's salesman persuaded me to buy the MP3 player back then, I may have had to settle for one in a bright orange skin. Well, I guess I can buy the blue-skin version from Creative's main showroom, where they may overwhelm and probably convince me to buy a bagful of other products and accessories which I won't/rarely use anyway.

At least I'll get my player in the colour I wanted.