I think the story of the gash in the tire is the scariest part of this thread. If the company tries to wiggle out of warranty issues, you know you are in for a long, expensive ride.
As for a technical guy being staffed at the corp headquarters, I don't see that as too much to ask. They obviously sell a fair amount of tractors, that 8% profit over thousands of tractors per year can eek out one guy who's job is to keep up with technical sales info. Most companies have a technical sales dept, especially when their equipment is, surprise!.. technical in nature.
Saying it costs $200K to employ a person like this is exaggerating just a bit. The salary of a tech sales person will likely be in the range of $45-65K (absolute max), plus partial paid benefits, taxes, etc and you're looking at $90-110K max. Estimating (based on the number of "million dollars dealers" they give awards to and ~$20,000 per tractor) 3,000 tractors per year, you are looking at a cost addition of about $30 per tractor, per year for a dedicated technical person available to answer customer questions. After some math, this sales person only needs to add/retain 62 sales per year to make up for his salary. Out of thousands of sales, this doesn't sound like a difficult proposition. The benefit is you have a single, reliable point of contact for all ad-originating technical sales inquiries. Easy to track, good for customer service, easy to expand to more people if sales are positively affected.
Again, plenty of companies, even small ones, offer technical sales. I know, as I've dealt with many, being in IT. I can immediately say, many of the six and seven figure purchase recommendations I've given were based largely on my outcome of technical inquiries. If I couldn't get a question answered, I went with a maker where I could. Even if a product looks perfect on paper, I have no desire to buy question marks. Reading this thread, I know I'm far from alone in that requirement.
