THE GENERATION GAP!!!!!!!!! Part II

The incident at the swim school reminds me of my experience a few years ago at a travel agency that inspired me to develop a presentation titled “Selling and Buying is Emotional.”   I wrote about this in an earlier article and have delivered this presentation multiple times with good results.   It is a good wake-up call and reminder. 

As I sat back to review the scenario at the swim school, I must accept (finally) that the sales cycle concept is probably still applicable, but communicating through the cycle is different. Simply, effective communication is different. Expectations and actions from both seller and buyer have changed as well. 

Several provoking questions are constantly rolling in my mind, and I struggle to find answers or don’t like the answers that are popping up.

*Is this what a buyer wants?  Is asking questions taboo now?

*Do buyers really feel they look “stupid” to ask about a product?

*Do buyers today purposely avoid personal interaction and avoid a “pitch”

*Do buyers really prefer just finding information on a website and consider the website a sales pitch?

*Do sellers insist that selling is the responsibility of the website and social media only?

*Do sellers believe that the website can close the deal?

*Is this what sales have become, and will it become more prevalent in the future?

*Is losing the personal human touch in sales and our lives the way forward?

Technology (website, social media, and so much more) has improved efficiency and everything we do today.   We would never go back to doing anything in a manual way as before. Recently, we have all seen cyber attacks that criple businesses and operations (see the examples with airlines and airports). 

With technology having taken over our lives, we need to find ways to use technology to help us in the sales cycle (because the sales cycle works) and find a way to bring back the human element into selling.

Do you have these lingering questions also?

I met a young lad (in his early twenties) at the YMCA recently who is absolutely a gem of a person.  He has a wonderful attitude towards service, full of courtesy, a magical smile,  and a strong desire to serve.   Not sure if he is a model representation of youth today, but I am going to sit down with him and learn his perspectives on this new generation, especially what motivates them in the selling and buying process.  Perhaps even take this further and seek his help in gathering a focus group of his peers to discuss this.  So much for me to learn and try to bridge this generation gap (maybe a chasm)!