I’m going to give you a quick peek behind the curtain of sales training. Here’s what (smart) sales trainers do: They attempt to predict buyer behavior patterns, and then create techniques designed to work with those buyer behavior patterns in order to move the buyer toward a positive buying decision. They then teach salespeople how to use these techniques.
But – what if buyer behavior patterns change? This is the problem facing many people in the sales profession right now. I’ve been saying it for a while, and it bears repeating. Today’s buyers are getting younger, they’re more empowered and informed, and they have different wants and needs from salespeople than the buyers of years past had. That’s changing the foundational assumptions upon which many sales techniques are built – which makes those techniques obsolete. I heard a story a few days ago that positively blew up one of the oldest and most foundational assumptions of sales, and we’ll unpack it here and talk about what it means.
I was talking to a production manager for a manufacturing company. He sees salespeople all the time, of course, and he was telling me about one particular visit that he’d had. He’s 37 years old, which becomes very germane to the story. A salesman came in for his first visit with the production manager. As he did, the salesman took a quick look around the office. As we’ll see, he was doing a quick scan for pictures, mounted fish on the wall, trophies, or anything else that would give an indication of the buyer’s personal interests.
In other words, he was revving up to do some old, hackneyed, fish on the wall selling.
He introduced yourself and spotted a picture of the buyer’s 13 year old son on his desk, about to run track.
The salesman said, “Is that your son?” Again, common. You’ve either seen it done or done it yourself. This was his opening rapport-building gambit.
The buyer said, “Uh, we just met. Don’t you think it’s a little creepy to ask about my kids?”
The salesman’s jaw dropped and he didn’t know what to say. After some stammering, he picked up his jaw and said, “Well, I had a son who ran track, too, and I was just asking because I’ve been there.”
The buyer said, “I didn’t have you in here to talk about my kids. Get to business.”
I should point something out here. The buyer wasn’t playing games and he wasn’t trying to be rude. He’s a good dude and a friendly sort. BUT – he’s also not going to divulge a bunch of personal information when he first meets someone. And he’s particularly not going to tell you all about his kids and family upon first meeting. He had 30 minutes reserved on his schedule to talk about what the salesman had to sell – which was, in fact, something he very much needed to buy. But the salesman’s old rapport-building technique actually did the opposite, and put up the buyer’s defenses.
Why did this happen?
Well, one of the most foundational assumptions of selling – one I hear constantly to this day – is:
“People buy from people they like.” Because of this foundational assumption, salespeople the world over have accepted the duty of being liked by the buyer first before being eligible to talk business. Hence, rapport-building techniques have centered on personal likeability, rather than business needs.
I’m not sure that’s as true now as it used to be. Different generations have different expectations of how their time is to be used by salespeople, and they also have different personal boundaries. Past generations (in many cases) were more protective of their business needs and information, and much more open with their personal information. What past generations thought of as a good opening conversation, younger generations think of as phony (because it usually is) and even creepy. Say what you will about the tech immersion of Millennials and Gen-Z’s, they tend to have a good BS detector when it comes to their business dealings.
The Millennial and Gen-Z generations tend to be much more private about their personal lives in a business setting, and much more open to getting right down to business. In fact, they demand that you get to business quickly. The biggest change we see in younger buyers is that, as opposed to forming relationships with salespeople based first on personal connections and then moving to business needs, they form relationships based on your ability to solve their business problems first, and then they are more open to discussion of personal lives and forming a personal bond.
In addition, Millennials and Z’s tend to be more protective of their time and want salespeople to be efficient and productive with it. I think there are a couple of reasons behind this. First, work/life balance is more important to these generations, and their mindset is that the more work they can get done in the allotted work time, the more they can focus on enjoying their personal time.
The second is what I call the “Amazon effect.” These generations are used to being able to buy things quickly and efficiently. Amazon doesn’t ask if you fish, or what sports your kids play, or how you liked the game last Sunday. It just gives you the info you need to buy and tells you the price. That’s efficient, and this mindset translates into their sales interactions.
What this means to us is that, with Millennial and Z buyers, it can often be much more important to be seen as valuable than it is to be overly likeable. Being a person of business value is your gateway to them liking you – which is a complete flipping of the script from the past. This doesn’t mean that you should be a jerk and make your buyer dislike you, but it’s more likely to get the first order if they feel neutral to you on a personal basis and value you on a business basis these days.
So, your task is easy, right? Walk in, look at the buyer, figure out what his or her age is, and base your selling style accordingly.
Not so fast.
An interesting phenomenon I’ve seen is that some older buyers – Gen-X (who already had some of the business-first traits of the generations that followed) – and even Boomers are learning from their younger counterparts. They too want to be more efficient with their time, and some of them are moving toward a business-first paradigm. Now it’s getting harder, isn’t it? That’s why sales is a job for those who are smart and mentally agile.
Here’s my advice. First of all, it’s hard to go wrong with a business-first approach these days. My opening question to buyers has always been, “So, tell me, how did you come to be in this job?” This allows them to tell their story. You build rapport just by listening, and because it’s a business-first question, it doesn’t cross any bad boundaries. Within their answer, they’ll tell you if they like to talk about personal issues or to stick to business.
Second, the key is to remain mentally agile. As I said, a business-first approach is the safest, but in those instances where a buyer wants to build a personal bond first, they’ll pump the brakes a bit, and then you can switch to a personal-first approach. With that said, I do think that the personal-first approach is becoming obsolescent, and may be obsolete in another 10 years or so.
And that’s okay. One thing to remember – time efficiency for the buyer is also time efficiency for you. You may find that you’re able to make more sales calls and have more quality interactions than before. And that’s a win, isn’t it?
