Helping This Generation To Sell

Continuing from my series of articles on my concerns over whether this generation is losing the ability to sell face-to-face, I want to raise more concerns and solutions to issues surrounding this topic.

My three children are my life, they are the oxygen that I breathe and they are perfect in every way but they too seem so fragile. I have previously raised my concerns over whether this generation is losing the ability to sell face-to-face and forge new relationships with relative strangers. I suggested that technology has taken away the need to communicate face to face and this generation has lost the art of small talk, due to lack of practice in their formative years. I also commented that this generation is finding it difficult to deal with rejection as social media has created a nation of actors performing in the comfort of their bedrooms with the only rejection being fewer followers or trolls which can be brushed off. Emotions are being managed through social media, and whilst making thousands of connections can bring some kind of satisfaction the reality is that this form of connection is cold and lifeless. The consequence of which is that Generation Y is finding it more and more difficult to cope with their lives outside of their reality which is being created on social media. I am not alone in this thinking, Simon Sinek has suggested that mobile phones should be banned from the workplace, for many of the reasons I have commented on in previous articles, to foster a culture of more social interaction. He also suggests that Generation Y's expectations of work have been heightened and consequently not reaching these expectations will bring disappointment and a lack of satisfaction. I am sure that my generation has exacerbated this problem by being fortunate to have lived in prosperous times the artefacts of which are wealth and prosperity. This wealth and prosperity is a benchmark for the current generation to achieve, any less will be seen as a failure. My generation had much lower expectations of careers and wealth being born in an economic era twenty years after the second world war, where my parents for example had low incomes and frugal lifestyles. Having laid the blame for the problem with technology I have to fess up and acknowledge that as parents we are part of this problem too.

We micro-manage our children's lives, not because they have asked us to do so, but because we have become conditioned into thinking that we know how to give our children the best opportunities that life can offer. We think we can steer them from harm, and prevent any form of failure in their lives. We want to manage their friendship groups and choose suitable lifelong partners, careers etc etc etc. Oh dear that all sounds so patronizing. Where on earth did that self-righteous parenting come from? I will leave that question to much more accomplished social commentators than myself. So this problem is not entirely their fault. but from a business perspective, it is a problem in my opinion. So what do we do about it?

My wife and I took our son down to London this week to start his first real job as a researcher at the London School of Tropical Medicine. Whilst I was incredibly proud he had managed to secure a job at such a prestigious organization, there was a tinge of sadness that he was leaving us and another chapter of my life had begun. Not having my son in my day-to-day life seems far more difficult to come to terms with than I could ever imagine. As a comparison, I dropped out of university after one year of study when I was nineteen and my parents didn't know I had left until months after the event. My parents loved me I am sure, but they felt very comfortable leaving me alone to make my own decisions in life, and consequently, I became very independent. It would be fair to say that my wife and I more than just transported my son to his new flat in London, we bought him new clothes, and food, and most of all reassured him that we would be there for him no matter what. One hour into our journey back to Sheffield he rang to say he had locked himself in the toilet.......I contemplated making the journey back down to London but fortunately, he found his way out. Stepping in to help seems so natural but I think we need to allow failure to happen and put some kind of perspective around issues that this generation has to deal with.

Working with this generation to deconstruct perspective, and allowing them to feel safe if they fail, are two key elements I believe we need to incorporate into modern management. Deconstructing perspective should enable a person to be able to see a situation for what it is, not necessarily incredibly good but not disastrously bad either. This generation needs to be able to feel that most situations or events are not life-changing bad and also success can come more incrementally and not necessarily be judged over such a short time frame. Viewing success over a short time frame is surely going to create dissatisfaction.

We need to coach and mentor this generation on the art of small talk as I mentioned in my last article. Coaching and mentoring this generation to be able to use this essential social skill along with allowing failure in the workplace, (no negative consequences), and discussing perspective on day-to-day life will go a long way to addressing the issues I have raised. If I were to employ somebody in sales from this generation, I would adopt a less results-orientated control and motivational system than I would have previously, and a far softer approach incorporating key issues that I have raised. I would try to nurture one aspect of this generation which I have seen in my children; they are incredibly determined if given the right support. Harnessing this determination could be the key to unlocking new sales potential within your workforce.