Jonathan Farrington's Blog

This all began after I listened in to “Edgy Conversations: An Explosion of Opportunity” a TSE Masterclass, brilliantly presented by  Daniel Waldschmidt last week.

We have at least two team members on the TSE team who understand everything there is to know about “generation gaps” and so I immediately turned to my very good friend, Greg Stebbins for clarification on a number of points that were concerning me.

Basically, I needed to understand if my perceptions were unique, or in fact they were shared.

This is a transcript of our email conversation, which took place very late, last Thursday evening.

JF: When I think about the difficulties that Gen x and Gen y have selling to Baby Boomers, I wonder how we, as Baby Boomers, managed to successfully sell to ?- What were they called? What came before us?
 
I am developing my thinking on this. I sold successfully during that time. Was it down to personality, intellect, rapport, commercial bandwidth – what helped us succeed?
 
GS: It was a different world back then. The Traditionalist – pre-boomer – grew up in WWII, had the abundance of the 50s and 60s and then watched their world radically change starting in 1968. Authority was questioned or totally ignored. Most salespeople in the 60s and 70s still reflected the traditionalist mindset, because that was how we were trained. Computers were still giant boxes tended to by High Priests, and many of them were high when they were working. There was nothing personal about them.

So communication was still via letter and then more and more by phone as long distance rates came down. Selling back then wasn’t too radically different from the previous generation.

The people of our generation started to radically change the corporate infrastructure. First mini-computers, then personal computers, then the Internet, email and finally the Web. Gen X and Gen Y have leveraged the technology, but didn’t invent it. So there are some fundamental disconnects when discussing depth of understanding. They know how to do it, but don’t know why it’s done that way.

Today, all of that has changed. Gen X and Gen Y were raised totally different from each other. As boomers we were expected to go out and produce or lose our job or get demoted. Gen X – the slacker generation – just didn’t care about that. They wanted a life and most were willing to sacrifice praying to the alter of gold coins. Gen-Y – the coddled generation – calls their Mum and asks what they should do.

As boomers we have an unconscious expectation that people will go and produce. But when competition is frowned on by Gen Y’s, that fundamental connection between the generations is severed. Many Gen Y’s are having a hard time finding a job. There are two reasons, not many jobs out there and not being prepared for the expectations that their Boomer or Gen X boss has of them. In many cases the coddled generation hasn’t been prepared for a competitive work environment – and in sales there are definite winners and losers. As Boomers, we grew up with and were trained to be competitive. Neither Gen X nor Gen Y have that mind set. Don’t get me wrong, some of them do, and they do quite well in the selling environment.

My favorite Gen Y lament is, “That’s not fair.” as if life were fair. Perhaps they haven’t watched enough Nature television. Watching a pride of lions (all female I might add) take down a zebra should help them understand that life isn’t meant to be fair. The current generation is made up of primarily farmers and worse, hunters seemed to be shunned.

Bottom line, I would say the difficulty stems from “conditioning” which includes beliefs, values and expectations. If you win a trophy for participation, like everyone else, why put forward any more effort to become the next superstar salesperson.

Compensation becomes an expectation, not something that is earned. Once someone is on welfare it’s terribly difficult to get them to change.

As boomers we unconsciously recognize this is going on and it turns our stomach (perhaps a bit strong, but after a few pints, I think we would all agree). And many of us are perverse enough to make it difficult for both Gen X and Gen Y (after all we didn’t have it easy, so why should they?).

JF: You don’t describe why we could communicate with the “Traditionalist” and yet we have more difficulty communicating with Gen X, let alone Gen Y. And why Gen X have so much difficulty communicating with us?
 
I have accepted an earlier assertion of yours that Boomers still have about another fifteen year shelf life?
 
It is a wonderful insight and I thank you.
 
Greg, can you put a timeline on these four generations?
 
GS: We could communicate with the Traditionalists because we weren’t really that different from them, not in the way Gen X and Gen Y are different from us today. We also shared some of the same conditioning and value systems on how we viewed the world. We were freer than the Traditionalist because of the increased standard of living during the 50’s and 60’s. Gen X and especially Gen Y have very different conditioning and value systems. So when they talk about what they want, it often doesn’t make sense to us. 

That 15 year shelf life is likely to increase as the financial world continues to be dicey. In the U.S. people who thought they had retired are now going back to work. The interest payments on the U.S. National debt amounts to about 22 billion dollars per year. Who’s going to pay it, well it looks like the Boomers in the short term and Gen X and Gen Y in the long term.

Generations are based on Birth Years (there is some disagreement about the exact birth years, but these are generally considered accurate):

Traditionalist:1925-1945 These folks are sometimes referred to as the Silent Generation
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Gen X: 1965-1981
Gen Y: 1982-2003

 So, there you have it. I have invested a lot of time in understanding motivation and also “social styles” – in fact anything that impacts on the “Attitude” element of my success formula.

I have also evangalised about the need to always sell to the customer in a way that the customer wants to be sold to. You may remember that the first principle in my “Twelve Golden Principles of Selling” is:

Principle 1: Always Sell to People

This may seem obvious, but it cannot be emphasized enough: You are not selling to an organization or to a conglomerate, but to actual, real people. It is important to remember that all people are different, so you cannot sell the same way to everyone. Second, no two sales are the same, even if they are made to the same company under similar circumstances.

To become a good salesperson, it isn’t enough to know how to sell. You must aim to become a people expert. It may sound shocking, but the best professional salespeople actually like people!

Remember, people buy from people — they always will.

I am not convinced that Gen Y or even Gen X, have taken this on board at all: They appear to be suggesting that everyone, whatever generation, should change habits of a lifetime and adopt a new approach in the way they buy.

I believe we all need to move forward cautiously, and first and foremost, we must listen to what our customers are saying to us.

The reality is that 80% of Economic Buyers, the people with the authority to make decisions, not merely influence them, are still Baby Boomers, and will continue to be for possibly another  twenty to thirty years.

So, Gen X and Gen Y, my generation are working very hard to understand you, will you return the favor?

If you don’t, beware of  potential banana skins…

Dr. Greg Stebbins is an internationally recognized authority on Sales Psychology with an emphasis in individual and organization transformation. He is the President of PeopleSavvy and a master at improving the greatest asset of any business—its people. With more than 30 years of business experience, he applies a wealth of knowledge, street smarts, and high impact ideas to the challenges his clients have. He is also the author of the best selling and widely acclaimed book, PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals.

Today’s News: 

The panel are currently deliberating on the first monthly winner, who will be selected this week. I’ll post the results early next week, together with an interview, so that you can see what it takes to become one of the best sales professionals on the planet.

I know that some people have mistakenly concluded that this is a TSE initiative, because we are lending our total support. In fact it was the brainchild of a very forward thinking senior editor at AllBusiness called Ghislaine Maize. Ghislaine is a wonderful person to work with, and we are all very grateful for her vision.

Finally, finally… to all my friends, colleagues, readers and visitors in the USA – I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow – JF

Trackback URI | Comments RSS