I get several e mails a day from different sales groups containing all sorts of subjects. Some are very good and others… well let’s just say not as good. One of the e mails I get that has consistently had good subject matter is from Dale Carnegie. Today was no different, I received an e mail and the subject was “different generations working on the same team”.
As I read the article I was thinking about this same idea as it relates to sales. Different generations selling to one another. It may be the seasoned rep selling a new buyer or a new rep selling a seasoned buyer. What does it take in either case to make a sale?
Let’s look first at the young rep selling a seasoned buyer. At some point just about every one of us has been in this situation. And by the way, a young rep can be just about any age, it would be relative to the age and experience of the buyer.
In most seller buyer situations there is always one major opposing view. The seller wants to make as much money as they can and the buyer wants to spend as little money as possible. This has nothing to do with age or knowledge, it is the basic jobs of both parties.
So what else is going on, in a new rep to a seasoned buyer the buyer is wondering if the rep knows what he is talking about and can the buyer trust the information. The rep is thinking that the buyer knows in some cases more about the product or at least the application than the rep does and what can the rep say to show the buyer he knows the industry and understands the application.
This “conflict” is usually resolved during the presentation if the rep hits the right points and the buyer asks the right questions.
On the other side of the coin is the seasoned rep with a new buyer. This is usually a harder situation for the rep and is more difficult to work through. In this case the seasoned rep has a lot of what I call “Tribal” knowledge. This is knowledge that has been gained over the years of selling. The buyer on the other hand may have an extensive education but not the hands on experience. If the seasoned rep doesn’t give the buyer credit for his education and position the buyer will cut the presentation off in midstream and no sale will be made.
So the question then becomes what is more important, the tribal knowledge gained over time or the education gained over books? The answer is… Yep you guessed it… BOTH.
During any multi-generational sales presentation each side needs to give the other person the credit they are due. They both need to realize that neither can stand alone. If new reps and new buyers didn’t come up through the system there would be no changes and new ideas. It doesn’t matter what industry, product, or service you are involved in, no new ideas means no progress. On the other hand if it were not for the seasoned reps and buyers the foundation for the entire industry wouldn’t be laid and the opportunities that lie within the industry would have never come about.
If you are the seasoned rep, don’t look at the new buyer as “THE KID”, look at him or her as the future. If you are the seasoned buyer, don’t look at the new rep as “THE KID”, look at him or her as the next step in the evolution of your industry.
I have told this story in many classes, let me tell it here. Several years ago my insurance was with Kaiser Permanente. If you know anything about Kaiser they have their own doctors. My wife and I had the same doctor for many years and then one day we got a notice that he was leaving the Kaiser practice and we needed to select another doctor.
The way Kaiser does this is they send you a catalog with little pictures of each doctor and a short bio. I wasn’t happy with this so I called the administrator for the Kaiser office I went to. I was talking to a gentleman and he was suggesting all the doctors that were with Kaiser for many many years. I cut him off and I said, “I want the newest, youngest, most recent graduate you have on staff”. This shocked the guy I was talking to, he asked me why. I told him, “I want the doctor who knows all the latest and greatest procedures. I wanted a doctor that I would be an important patient. I wanted a doctor that wasn’t locked into old methods but understood them, that didn’t have any bad habits YET, and that would be there for me for years to come”.
My new doctor asked me not to call him, “THE KID”!
Lorin
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