Selling to Millennials Represents a Generational Change: Part 1

July 20, 2016 – This posting is Jessica Oaks’ ninth contribution to the 21st Century Tech blog. She is a freelance journalist with a passion for technology news, her themes focus on the role of technology in making our lives easier. Find her many musings at FreshlyTechy.com. Also check her out on Twitter @TechyJessy. Today she is starting a two part series on how generational change is influencing how young people buy and how the world of selling is radically being altered by the impact of technology including social media. Your comments and observations, particularly millennials, are welcomed.

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Millennials are in the midst of becoming the largest, most powerful consumer demographic in history. With buying power in the trillions of dollars, there is no doubt that Millennials are more than capable when it comes to making consumer purchases. But are they willing? Well, look no further than smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, and young people’s dining preferences  as proof that Millennials are happy to spend their hard-earned cash. Yes, their habits may differ than yours, assuming you’re a Baby Boomer or Gen Xer, but suffice to say, Millennials enjoy spending money. And yet, for many businesses, the question remains: how do you sell to them?

The answer is complex and multifaceted. If it could be summed up with three simple steps, there would be no issue! Unfortunately, it is not quite that easy. But here are three tips that might just provide you, if you are in sales and marketing, with a magic formula.

1. Get Their Attention

Millennials don’t like advertising. They recognize ads for what they are, sales pitches for products and services that in most cases, they don’t need. If you are a marketer, this fact creates a dilemma. How do you market to someone who hates marketing?

The short answer is: get their attention!

How do you do that? First, you must be where they are. That means ditching television and other traditional advertising channels altogether. Though Millennials do still sit down in front of a TV (though increasingly to watch Netflix, and other download broadcast services), they spend much of their time doing this through mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Knowing this, you as a marketer should tailor promotional initiatives around these channels, not the old tried and true ones that worked for the previous buying generation.

That means social media, video, blogging, search engine optimized web presence, and other inbound marketing channels. Your marketing website must be mobile-responsive. And you need to incorporate lots of online resources because Millennials are tech-savvy. The key is to make it easy and interesting to find you. Once you’ve done this go to the next step.

2. Engage Them in the Buying Process

Getting a Millennial consumer to buy something is often a hopeless endeavor. But what if the buyer simply doesn’t know they need a product you have built and want to sell them? It’s a matter of education rather than coercion. This is most effectively done by engaging them in a conversation – either literally via social channels, or figuratively through your marketing outreach. Your marketing is no longer about shouting from the rooftops. You are now into relationship building.

Though the prior Generation we deem “X” is more often thought of as being cynical, it is actually Millennials who are the most distrusting of big business. Overcoming this lack of trust goes a long way towards earning Millennial loyalty.

How does a business do this?

• By being philanthropic.
• By supporting and contributing to social causes.
• By being upfront and honest.
• By telling a relatable human story.
• By letting consumers know that you understand their needs and have a solution.

Whatever approach you take, being authentic, Millennials value this above all else, sets you apart.

3. Give Them What They Want

At the end of the day, a business must adapt to the needs and wishes of the next generation if it hopes to have long-term success. Ivory jewelry and whale oil lamps don’t win you fans in 2016. If you want to win over Millennial consumers, you must give them what they want. So companies like T-Mobile with services like Binge On streaming. Millennials love this type of service because it fits with behavioral norms where and Millennials stream music and video to their mobile devices,. The T-Mobile twist is to ensure Millennials can do this without cutting into their mobile data plan which would cost them money. Instead T-Mobile offers them an enormous carrot. Use us and you can stream music and video for free, whether on your mobile network or on Wi-Fi. It is novel, unorthodox and it works?

So What’s Next? How Will Selling and Marketing Differ with Generation Z?

What will Gen Z – the generation that follows Millennials or Gen Y be like? They will be the byproduct of multiple generations that have witnessed a series of technology revolutions. First the computer, then the Internet, then mobile computing and smartphones. Needless to say, it’s anyone’s guess what technologies will define this coming generation’s buying behavior.

Think about this. Millennials were raised on processed foods and yet have embraced organic and farm-to-table produce with unrivaled enthusiasm. They were raised on cable TV, yet increasingly shun it. Gen Y has been raised with multiple cars in every driveway, yet many report they have no interest in owning one. If the children of these Millennials rebel in the same way as they have, does that mean Generation Z could become Baby Boomers Version 2.0? Only time will tell!

In Part 2 of Selling to Millennials and Generational Change we will look at the fate of the “bricks & mortar” world of retail. Does the evidence show that Millennials are abandoning traditional stores like JC Penney, Sears and Nordstrom. Will they just as quickly abandon Big Box retail stores that have become predmoninant in the last two decades? Is Amazon not just today but the future for Millennials and the Gen Z that follows?