In a recent issue of Office Furniture & Design I came across an article about how the different Generations of customers have different hot buttons and prefer different information.

The Four Different Generations
The article goes on to divide us up into Matures, Boomers, Xers, and Millenial’s.    The main premise is that the wise salesperson knows the traits of the group they are speaking to and that they tailor their message to each group.

Matures
With this group it is important to understand their needs and stating your solution.  Avoid razzle-dazzle approaches.  They want reliability and service delivery and follow through is paramount to retaining them as clients.

Boomers
Honesty, honesty and more honesty.  This group is looking to you to find out what is truly needed.  They want to trust you to be the expert and give them integrity that they can rely on.  Once you have gained their trust the two of you become a "team" to arrive at the best solution.

Xers
This group does some research on their own so they may already have some knowledge of what you are trying to sell them.  That is why it is important that you know your stuff backwards and forwards, otherwise you may come off as less knowledgeable than what your customer just found out on the internet.  Expect this group to demand extras…extra knowledge, extra work.  The good news for all this extra effort is that once you have established yourself,  they will praise you to all their friends.

Millennial’s
This is the newest group.  Whatever you can do to make Millennial’s feel special will be a winning strategy.  Money is not nearly as important to this group as values and balance.  They need to know that your company has a committment to some facet of the betterment of mankind or the universe.  Here is the group that responds best to Green Sales.  And, as do the generation before them , the Xers, they depend on peer knowledge and recommendations.  This means they will be terrific for referrals.

Now I get it
By understanding the individual needs of each group, the savvy salesperson can best maximize their Sales Efforts.   And, while it helps to have some idea as to group traits,  when all else fails,  just come right out and…..ask.  Now go out there and get ‘em, Tiger.