Are we failing to give our young salespeople the right start in sales?
In his excellent interview with Tom Bilyeu, Simon Sinek talks about Millennials (those born after 1984, so I guess that includes Gen Z too) and how they face specific challenges other groups don’t.
Briefly he says they are:
🤔 Tough to manage
🤔 Entitled
🤔 Narcissistic
🤔 Self interested
🤔 Unfocussed
🤔 Lazy
He attributes this to:
Bad parenting
They were told they could have anything they wanted and were rewarded even when underachieving. But then in the real world this doesn’t happen and this hits their self-esteem.
Technology
Engagement with social media is a bit of a drug – each little response gives you a hit of dopamine, which is addictive. So he suggests that, at the time teenagers experience stress and should be turning to their friends, they are turning to social media instead and as a result cannot form deep friendships. This can lead to depression.
Sense of Impatience
You can get everything instantly – next day delivery, binge watching TV programmes, even dating it is all instant, so young people don’t have to learn social coping mechanisms. Job satisfaction is complicated and takes time but they don’t always have the skills embedded within them to cope.
Environment
If you put these young people in corporates that don’t care about them, they can get swallowed up by the huge corporate machine.
_____________
Now, I train a lot of young sales people – it is the demographic that I relate to the most, because I will never forget what it was like to be a young salesperson with a massive target and no sales skills! It was terrifying! A really good strong introduction to sales and selling through a decent sales training course can set them up for life.
But I am not sure I recognise this in the classroom.
✅Most of the young people I teach are enthusiastic, media savvy (but not necessarily addicted), hungry for knowledge and sponge-like in how they absorb things. They do want to make a difference and care about the big things – climate, the planet, a better kinder world.
✅I see a mixture in confidence levels – just like there has always been.
✅I do not see a feeling of entitlement (a lot of them face challenges far greater than their parents – getting on the housing ladder for example) – most of them know they have to work hard to get what they want, but they usually have a game plan.
✅I do see strong friendships.
So what is your view – if you work with young people, particularly in the sales world, what are they really like?
Personally I love these guys. To reference Simon again, they are my ‘Why’ and I would work with them all day every day if I could.
What about you?
How to manage Millennials in a sales team
