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Email ThisThinking back to my experience working on the sales floor of a consumer electronics retailer, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the effects of marketing and advertising. As a Marketing student, this was extremely exciting. Being exposed to consumer behavior this close made me feel a bit like Jane Goodall, but with much much smarter gorillas who happened to have money.
This experience also confirmed that yes, Gen Y presents an interesting challenge to the marketing and sales teams of the future. There was a distinct difference in the way my transactions with Gen Y-ers went, as opposed to Gen X and Baby Boomers.
Selling to Boomers vs Gen Y
Here’s how a typical interaction with a Boomer would go, let’s say, for a printer.
Me:: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. How can I help?”
Boomer: “Hi. I need a printer.”
Me: “Alright, that’s something I can help you with. Let’s take a look at the printer aisle.”
Boomer: “You know what, I don’t know anything about printers. Just recommend me something.”
Me: “Sure, but first, let’s find out what you need from the printer. Do you have a printer now?”
This interaction would continue for a while as I probed for information to make an appropriate recommendation. It would take a lot of energy — I’d constantly be asking questions, gathering feedback and leading the interaction. If at any point there is an impasse between similar printers, I would inevitably get this question:
Boomer: “So which one would you buy?”
Depending on the day — sometimes we had certain goals, wanted to move particular units, or whether I just wanted to test my abilities — I would recommend different things. 99.9% of the printers we had could do everything the customer was looking for, so it didn’t really matter which one I recommended. However, a big part of how much they spent that day was dependent on me.
Let’s compare this to a typical experience with a Gen Y customer.
Me: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. Is there anything I can help you with?”
Gen Yer: “Hey there. Do you have the Canon Pixma 3000?”
Me: “Let’s check the printer aisle.”
Gen Yer: “Alright. And how much are your USB cables?”
Millennials had already done their homework, making their transactions much faster. In many cases, I couldn’t even engage the Gen Y customers, since they typically just walked in, grabbed the product they were after, then walked out before I could do my spiel.
Gen Y Customers: Smart but Unprofitable
As a salesperson, Boomer customers were great for the department. Since they often relinquished control of the interaction, I could persuade them to purchase my recommendations, as long as they were within a reasonable price. It was much easier to sell them high-margin accessories and services.
Gen Y-ers were also great customers, because they took very little time to serve and I didn’t have to spend half the conversation explaining what a gigabyte was. Generally, they knew their stuff and sometimes corrected me if I had my product info mixed up. They’ve looked at reviews online and know everything they need and what to buy, so it was hard to sell them accessories and services.
Google and Gen Y
Boomers can’t be faulted for their lack of preparedness. They don’t have what I call the “Google Reflex“. Gen Y instinctively looks something up online to get informed, where Boomers, in my experience, are much more comfortable hearing it from a “certified” person. This made them much more susceptible to upsells (which, by the way, aren’t always bad…just expensive) and pitches for accessories (which could be bought elsewhere for cheaper).
During a sale, it’s all about who has the information. Whoever has the information has the control. Whoever has the control wins the transaction.
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Smart but unprofitable…I can well believe that.
At some stores, I walk in with printouts of the items I want at the lowest online prices. More than once I’ve started to ask if the store will play ball if I do the entire business through them, but they have pre-empted me.
“I’ve been looking on the Intern…”
“You want to do a deal?” they ask.
“Yes. What can you do for me?”
One time, I managed to get $1200 off my purchases at a store just because I’d done my homework. Even better, they had further beat the best online store prices by about $100 (not even including shipping charges), because I was buying everything from the one place.
So that’s 10-15 minutes homework equating to ease of purchase, instant take-home of the goods, no shipping charges, and $100 off the cheapest Internet prices I could find.
That day was a happy day. For me at least.
My boomer parents (and in-laws) do more research for products than I ever do. Granted they get their information from Consumer Reports magazine rather than the internet (well, NOW they use the internet version of Consumer Reports) but still, I don’t think it is as generational as you might think. My primary research method is Amazon.com reviews which has saved me some grief but aren’t fool proof.
I also think that while I might be on equal (or even greater) footing when it comes to buying a piece of electronics, boomers are much better at the larger traditional purchases (houses, cars, etc…). I brought my parents with me to buy my first car just because I had never been through the process. I could have probably done it myself but I would have paid more for some false sense of independence.