Millennial Training: “You’re Not the Boss of Me”

I have been blessed to begin mentoring three very talented, intelligent, driven, millennials. 23, 24, and 26 years old, entering the world of B2B sales for the first time. All will be successful (I believe), and they have taught me so much more than I’ve taught them.

You’re Not the Boss of Me!

You're not the boss of me" was a battle cry I heard, in different forms, from each of these three gifted millennials I recently began mentoring. Let me back up and frame the reason I know how that sounds. I have an 11-year-old and a nearly 18-year-old. I know what a challenge sounds like, I promise.

What I came to discover is unlike generations before, millennials have a definite opinion that they are not willing to, or able to based on their conviction, immediately modify. In other words, don't tell me I wrong until I can tell you why I'm right, or I was going to do that until you told me to.

Let me explain what happened and how I have retrained myself. As a sales trainer and experience sales executive, I had constructed a lot territory business plans that contain percentages of time spent in each activity, i.e. preparation, calls, follow-up, admin, training, execution and implementation and so on...” I’ve been doing this a long time, right?” “I know what works!” Maybe so, but “you’re not the boss of me” is the ruling mantra here, and it won’t allow that information to be readily accepted because components of it conflict with pre-established beliefs.

“I Can’t or Won’t Do It that Way”

The comment heard were, “I can’t do that.” “I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking a question like that.”, “I can try that, but that’s not how I would do it.” “I don’t think that’s right," and my favorite, "Is that really what you want me to do?". So, back to the drawing board and a bit of retooling on my approach and the way to present the content.

I broke down the components of a basic territory/business development plan into four big buckets with some general guidelines asking how they, my trainee's, thought it should be done. My group didn’t or hadn’t thought of their behavior as a process. The answers were all over the board and there were obvious amounts of trepidation in giving a concrete answer with the apparent fear they might be held to some judgement of right and wrong. This was their plan and there was no right or wrong if it created the results “they expected”. This exercise is a great self-discovery tool, as it relates to sales (and sales training) and I included a few suggestions to help them along, if they (the trainee’s ) get stuck. The final process also clearly defined (by individual result) how they preferred to be managed based on their maturity levels (Situational Leadership).

R.A.C.E.

Research:

How would you find clients/customers/suspects to call on to be most time and results efficient? (From experience, I highly expect they feel you should provide these to them).

• Data.Com
• Existing Clients
• Trade Lists
• People they know
• College Acquaintances

Actions:

How will you reach your customers?

• Cold Calls:Highly resistant to “Bothering People” (surprising, right? I've had tenured reps give me the same explanation/excuse/complaint)
• Email:Please give an example of the content, along with anticipated result
• Social Media Selling:Blogs, newsletter, broadcast Again example of what you think works
• Snail Mail (dependent on your product and or market.Samples and successes
• Drive by/Drop-ins, Chamber Meetings, Trade-showsTell me about the results (or your perception of results and any leave behinds.

Close:

At what point should you “Ask for the order”? (This concept was a bit puzzling to two of the three trainees. The idea that products sell themselves and that that buyer's, once given information don’t just buy was foreign).

• How do you get customer commitment?Sales techniques and closing conversation, content explanation and possible descriptions, if possible.

Execute

How do you engage your organizations process by which orders are processed, and you are paid (how are you compensated). Also, your customer has expectations.

• Have you come to a consensus with them as to what is being delivered?When?
• By whom?
• How is installation, implementation, QC accomplished? Will there be a meeting to review the overall success?Is there a continuing communication plan?
• What is next in the sales continuum on their agenda and can will you be the one to fulfill it?

Self Discovery Is The Key

Self-discovery is the real motivator of the new generation. It’s about creating information that can fit into an existing belief system, or expected process. If they (millennials) build the plan, you can then help mold it. If you build the plan, it will be resisted. All of these actions are measured, and the final questions that hopefully lead to that Ah-ha moment are:

• What do you do to sell?
• How do you sell?
• Do you think there is a better way?
• How can I help?
• Would you consider changing?
• Can I share a bit of a story or a perception I have?
• Can I share what has worked for me?

As in sales itself, pleasant persistence is key, slow and steady. Repetition and vulnerability in sales and sales training (especially with millennials) are essential and covered more in depth in another blog, but with millennials, managing them to change their behaviors isn’t an option. Leading and leadership is everything. It is an amazing group as a whole, these millennials. They are more educated than any other generation in history, with more wealth, more entitled and readier to give, on their terms. Our job is to enable the behaviors that are desirable and promote the work ethic that creates results.

Founder of SalesLinakage.com and Sales LinkageConsulting.com, Trainer, Facilitator, Public Speaker, Coach and Mentor, Robert Can Be Reached at (562) 547-9048 or [email protected]