Page 78 - Lighting Magazine March 2019

TAPPING THE MILLENNIAL MARKET
2019 is reportedly the year that Millennials will overtake the Baby Boomers as the largest population by generation. Here’s what it means for you.
BY MARK OKUN
The generational shi is expected to be subtle as these two groups swap places; the Boomers are estimated to drop to 73 million people, while the Millennials are hanging with 74 million. While the
tipping point may seem like a mere one million, the milestone is solidifying the new and di erent ways we go to the market and sell.
There is a startling di erence that the Millennial crowd brings to the sales process — and it di ers from all generations preceding them. This group is both blazing the sales trail that future generations will follow, and they are dragging their senior gen- erations (Boomers included) with them.
Defining the target
The dates that de ne when generations begin and end can uctuate according to the source of information. However, uniquely, because of their immense size, both Millennials and Boomers have subgroups.
The Boomers are comprised of the “Baby Boomers” (those born between 1946-1954)
and “Generation Jones” (those born between 1955-1965).
The Millennials subgroups are the “Early Mil- lennial” (those born between 1980-1987) and the “Recessionist Millennial” (those born between 1988-1995). The sales and marketing requirements for each of these client types will vary as you seek to serve these four important demographics. The takeaway is that the successful strategies used for the “Early Millennial” will also work – with minor modi cations – with other demographic groups.
OlD SaleS tacticS WOn’t PrODuce reSultS
The goal is to rst a ract Millennial clients, and then help them make a purchase. The one activity to avoid with this group is just trying to sell to them. That might seem like odd counsel coming from a lifelong sales guy, but hear me out. Polished inter- personal skills are still required to obtain the results you want, but you must avoid being salesy. The use of fast-talking, hard pitch sales presentations are obsolete. These manipulative approaches of
74 enLIGHTenment Magazine | March 2019
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