Everyone is racing to jump on the inside sales bandwagon and quickly ramping up their new hires. Thanks to Matt Bertuzzi from The Bridge Group, Inc., who brilliantly illustrates where the inside sales industry growth is happening in his Inside Sales Hiring Market Snapshot Infographic. If you review this chart, you can see where the talent pool is percolating.
The majority of these new hires are Generation Y — otherwise known as Millennials, born between 1980 and 1995. Right now, they make up 25% of the US workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you’re not one yourself, get to know them now!
I’ve been training and coaching Millennials for years, and I’ve found many positives about them:
- They’re optimistic.
- They’re team players.
- They can multi-task efficiently.
- They are tech savvy — after all, they are the Internet Generation.
But they are not perfect:
- They tend to be high maintenance.
- They have short attention spans.
- They spend too much time on Facebook.
- They DON’T LIKE THE PHONE!
Really? I could have sworn the phone was an essential and primary tool used in inside sales. Here’s why so many Millennials are phone-shy:
- They are impatient. When connect rates drop, they quickly tire of getting voice mails.
- They are socially wired. They’d rather reach out to people and learn about their lives rather than leave impersonal messages.
- They don’t understand rejection. They’re tough enough to weather rejections, but not wise enough to learn the meaning behind customers’ objections.
- Dialing is so yesterday. They are so technically proficient that dialing a number is out. They prefer lots of bling — automated dialers, gmail chatting, Skype, video . . . and the more color the better.
I agree with PeopleMatter’s take on this in their white paper Getting the Best out of Generation Y: “They can be positive, multitasking team players or a bunch of unmotivated egoists who spend all day texting one another. But don’t just dismiss them, they’re here to stay: “Just as the Baby Boomers have molded the American workforce since the 1960′s, Generation Y should reshape the working world in the first half of the 21st century. ”
So, when you’re hiring a Millennial, be aware of the pros and cons, and work with them where they are. Get creative! The future is here.
1 Comment
I’ve been doing a lot of research for a master’s thesis on technology literacy and technology literacy education.
And contrary to “popular wisdom,” Gen-Y/Millennials aren’t nearly as “tech savvy” as many of us are led to believe, and their desire for technology-based social “connectedness” has had a negative impact on other relevant business and social skills. (Look up Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation on Amazon as a starting point, but there’s lots more out there in academic circles to support this.)
All that time spent on Facebook and text messaging teaches them surface-level application interaction skills, but it frequently doesn’t translate into broader, applicable uses. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but assuming Gen-Y “tech savviness” can be a pitfall.
The point, however, isn’t to bag on Gen-Y (I’m solidly in Gen-X myself), but to think about what this means for sales managers hiring the emerging Gen-Y workforce.
1. Gen-Y’s are good at manipulating the “levers” of software and technology, but they’re not as good at looking at the “gears” (i.e., analytics, functionality across systems, etc.) As a sales manager, this means you’ve got to be doubly committed to providing constant, relevant feedback. Technology provides tons of metrics, but Gen-Y needs to hear and see them in context of what they do.
2. As you mentioned, they’ve pretty much come to expect that if it can be automated, it should be (even if the actual value of doing so is negligible). At InsideSales.com, we’re obviously big proponents of automating the sales process as much as possible, but Gen-Yers often don’t critically evaluate the side effects of the technologies they use, and they come to businesses with that mindset. I’m not saying it happens everywhere, but I think the Gen-Y mindset of “techno-utopia” can affect sales organizations negatively if technology purchases aren’t carefully considered. If your worldview tells you that a technology solution is automatically and inherently better than a non-technology solution, it’s going to have an impact on how businesses run.
Anyway, just some food for thought. =)