Millennials and Sales — is there a future?

The other day, caught a story from Business Insider that talked about millennials and how they are killing casual dining.

It was interesting, but, not eye-opening, as there have been stories every year about millennials and their eating habits for over a decade now. From they don’t eat healthy to that’s all they eat is healthy. Reminds me of every decade before, that people change over time — because the same things were said about GenX, GenY, etc. etc. As the group ages, so do their habits.

But that’s not why I’m writing this, to discuss the eating habits of the younger generation.

No, what hit me was how are millennials going to do at selling?

We know they’re self-absorbed, they love technology, they’re introverts, they would rather talk through texting then face-to-face — and that’s it — their social skills or lack thereof!

Sales professionals have to have, to succeed, incredible social skills. From introducing themselves to introducing a product to standing up in front of a group of individuals to entertaining a prospect at lunch or dinner. All of these require a sales person to be socially acceptable and aware of their surroundings.

Here’s an example that I encounter quite often and why I felt the need to write about this.

I am sitting in a college cafeteria, having just given a talk on how to succeed in business or form a start-up or whatever, and four or five students come up and introduce themselves.

They ask if I can give them advice on forming the next “Facebook” — you know, that dream that every kid has: “Why finish college when I can drop out and make a million bucks by forming my own company!”

I always open with this question — “In 10 words or less, what does your product/service do?”

And as predicted, 50% of the time they have something down that makes sense, and the others don’t — it takes anywhere from 11 to 11 thousand words for them to tell me.

After we get past that (30 seconds or 3 hours later), I then ask — “Why do you think someone needs this?” It is slightly different then what the product does. Believe me, it trips up these young entrepreneurs quite often.

Me: “What does your service do?”

Them: “We will provide a website for users to communicate with each other.”

Me: “Why do I need this?”

Them (and this is where the kicker is, because they answer in one of two ways): “Don’t you want to communicate with others over the web?” Which, if I answer “No”, they hit a hurdle before they even get started. Versus, this type of answer: “We have studied the market and think that there are millions if not 10’s of millions of people who want to communicate and share their lives on-line”.

And so on and so forth. You get the idea — you know how to sell better than I —and this is as far as most of the millennials get before something totally amazing and irritating starts to happen. They are trying to hold a conversation with you, me, whomever, and then what happens?

Yep, you guessed it. They all start looking at their phones. Either checking to see who’s texted them, what’s been posted on their favorite social app, and so forth.

Think about it. I bet you have been out with someone who is always checking their phones, right? It’s okay if you are checking your phone too, but…step back now, what if you were trying to have a meaningful discussion with them.

What if you were being sold to by that individual and they are giving their phone as much attention as they are giving you?

You see, I am excited for the future and also a bit scared. I’m excited because a product like Illumineto Spark allows a millennial sales person to not have to interact face-to-face with anyone, but, I’m scared because they will be hard-pressed to close the deal if they can’t pick up the phone or meet face-to-face with their buyer (and if they do, do it without constantly checking their phone ever 30 seconds).

You see, if you looked at the article above or Googled anything about millennials and eating out, all you would see is story after story about how they “cant’ be bothered” or “it’s too time consuming” or “they only want delivery”.

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post about how, no matter WHO we are, we will always be selling. From trying to get a spouse to convincing our children (or parents) what’s best for them. We always have to sell.

But how will millennials do it? Where the prospect won’t be coming to them and if they do, they usually aren’t in a good mood. That they will have to get up, go find them, and convince them to purchase the product, face-to-face!

So, now you see the crux of my post here — will millennials be able to sell? Or will there be a huge shortfall of sales professionals in the near future? (Right? We keep reading every day about how the sales person will be disappearing soon because of technology, but what if it’s really because millennials are too scared to shake hands or look a prospect in the eye (instead of at their phone)?)

No, I don’t fear for the future of humanity — it always corrects itself. But, in this case, it may take a generation before that happens.

Oh, and please don’t get me wrong — there are always a few “alpha’s” that will rise to the top and make a killing in sales — just, in this case, there won’t be much competition in the sales field.