Is it possible that the youngest generation in the workplace, Z, is more brazen than earlier generations?
An article in the New York Post by Mary Madigan, from News.com.au, details how shocked an Australian CEO was at Generation Z’s direct, demanding style. Aussie CEO Jane Lu, the founder of the brand ShowPo, said that these young people need to know the “why” behind directives. They also want the details on prospective jobs, even if you don’t have the answers yourself. She shared an example of a job interview in which an applicant asked about details about specific role she was interviewing for. Lu didn’t have the answer to that question. She said the hiring manager would be able to answer that question. The applicant then asked if she could immediately get the hiring manager.
This behavior can be off-putting, but it is in-line with the modern consumer. These young hires could do wonders for increasing the effectiveness of sales and customer outreach.
Provide the “Why”
When you are selling to a person, it’s important to let the potential customer know why they should buy or invest in what you are selling.
Your sales and marketing team needs to know the “why” behind their pitches, and then they must be trained to share that why in powerful ways with those they hope will become customers.
Do your sales training sessions explore the “why” behind your team’s sales pitches?
The why should be something easy to understand, rather than abstract and far-flung. For example: “Did you know this service can save you up to one full hour a day?”
Or: “Over the course of the year, using our product, rather than the one you currently are using, could save you up to $500.”
The why also can involve testimony from others who use the product or service you’re selling. In many cases, a salesperson can try the product or service themselves and then offer first-hand testimony of what it did for them.
Do your sales team members have free or deeply discounted access to your services so they can become proselytizing fans?
The Nitty-Gritty Details Matter
The Generation Z job applicant who insisted the CEO fetch the hiring manager immediately was demanding. Many of your customers are, too. That means your sales team has to know the hard details of all the products you sell, or needs a quick-to-access job aid that will allow them to get the information in seconds, such as through an app on their phone.
When doing sales training role-playing, sales team members should be exposed to a new product they know nothing about and then avoid holding back at all. They should ask every question they can think of that they might want answered if they were to spend money on that product.
Some of the questions, when you have the perspective of the buyer, can be surprisingly hard to answer. For example: “Since this is a new product, how do I know that it actually works? How long did you say it’s been available? Why wouldn’t I wait until next year to decide whether I want it? By then, there will be customer reviews available.”
A product roll-out that was handled well would have already tested out the product widely enough to provide that kind of feedback to the first buyers after the pilot period. Your sales rep then could say with confidence: “Actually, though this is the first time the product is available to everyone, it’s been available to a smaller group of people over the last year. We conducted a trial period, or pilot, of the product. I can show you some of the reviews from those who tried it out already. The experience with it was overwhelmingly positive.”
Wanting More Flexibility
Just as the younger generations are known to want more work-life balance and flexibility, they likely want that same flexibility in the products and services they purchase.
The same Generation Z employee who pushes for more options for how they complete their work and meet their obligations to you could be the perfect person to explain to a skeptical customer how the product or service you offer can adapt to their specific needs.
Of course, if you don’t have products and services that are adaptable, that’s yet another area where a Generation Z employee can help. They can show you how to create a product or service that can be personalized enough to be relevant to people their age.
Are you fully optimizing the unique perspective of your youngest employees?