Dale Carnegie wrote in his 1936 book “How to Make Friends and Influence People”: “Master’s degrees or doctorates are part of the growth of an individual, but in the end, the only way to get to the heart of your users is through words and personality.” And he was not wrong in his assessment, which is still valid when it comes to establishing any relationship between human beings.”
Today, when working conditions and human relations have changed worldwide, we are forced to go to the next level of communication and personality; we think about millennials and how to learn from their essence to achieve the sales goal of our companies.
In essence, a millennial employee born between 1980 and 2000 prioritizes work-life balance when making career decisions. The most crucial factor that influences young people when choosing a job is the development of new skills, followed by career prospects, development opportunities, new challenges, among others, leaving behind the salary factor (Wilton, 2008Wilton, 2008). However, age, gender, and the influence of leaders are other factors that can be considered relevant in the job satisfaction of millennials.
This data has made hiring processes in companies more complex and conscious to avoid staff turnover.
Another interesting fact about this generation is their ability to express ideas based on their experiences and convictions, regardless of their interlocutor’s opinion. Their objective is clarity and no offense, even though sometimes they seem like acts of rebellion and arrogance to previous generations.
And it is precisely this characteristic of this generation, which has led us to rethink how sales are executed in the different commercial ecosystems of companies.
We need haughty rebels who can sell a product to the consumer’s mind rather than to the consumer per se. Luis Bassat says, “even if you have the best idea in history, it will be nothing until we can convince someone to take the risk of investing in something worthwhile.”
In a digital world, the sales executive must have a series of skills that allow them to enter the interlocutor’s mind without seeing them, listen to their needs from a distance, become sensitive to their dilemma, and make their products the right solutions. All done in a virtual space. The listening, communication, and multitasking skills are tested while smiling permanently in front of your computer camera, imagining that the person on the other side is in the same professional and human attitude —a challenge on another level for the millennial employee.
Below, we list some of your sales team’s characteristics to maintain and increase the sales funnel and sales conversion. This list is a precise observation of the groups we have advised and whose companies we leverage on their way to a digital world.
The millennial salesperson
- Consciously works on prospecting for their customer
- Is persistent
- Is positive
- Knows how to communicate their ideas
- Knows their portfolio and exposes it to the client based on his needs
- Is sincere
- Knows how to listen to the client
- Has a high level of integrity and ethics
- Knows the competition
- Does not think about closing a sale, but about opening a long-lasting business relationship.
Look at your team. Treasure your millennials. Move the chips in a way that modernizes that business ecosystem and helps modernize your customers.
Millennials are a generation that will make a mark on the way sales are done. The criteria may be the same, but the personality, clarity, enthusiasm, and personal goal that drives a millennial will make your company accelerate its digital transformation from the profound and essential: People.
“We millennials are a generation that will leave a mark on the way sales are made.”.
If you want to learn more about commercial ecosystems and how we can leverage your demand generation, visit us at www.echezgroup.com
June 2022 Update