2.7.08 Managing Four Generations to Selling Success

Traditionalists fear change. Generation X doesn't have loyalty. Millennials, Generation Y, don’t have an attention span. The Baby Boomers are just biding their time until they can chuck it all and just go golfing. These are common views when it comes to today's multi generational workforce, but are the generalizations really accurate?

Effective sales managers look past the generalizations and work to develop each salesperson one on one. Sure, the motivation of a sales person pushing 60 may be different than the motivation of a recent college graduate joining your team. What is the same though is the need for the manager to get each salesperson performing at the top of their game.

For ideas about how to motivate the Millennials, watch this 60 Minutes clip here.

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I read something the other day that made me think of you and your Business Efficacy work with Gen Y. They had a small article and online forum about a book called "Then We Came to the End." Specifically, there was a group of young executives in the creative department of an ad agency that could be split into two groups; sharers and non-sharers. One of the non-sharers happened to be the manager of the department who had nothing in his office but a bicycle; no artwork, no photos, nothing. The other end of the spectrum were some of his reports who talked about everything and often too much (love for one another, contempt for ex-spouses, suicide attempts, etc.). The sharers felt their non-sharing boss created an uneasy environment because he was so private.

What was interesting was that the responses from the people that weighed in and commented were not only separated by lines of management and report, but also identified themselves as younger or specifically Gen Y. The consensus was that they wanted a more open, family-oriented place where people shared with each other. Mainly because they spent so much time together, whereas managers wanted to be friendly, but guarded. Interesting debate!

Just thought I'd share...