In a recent article in Canadian Retailer magazine (March/April 2009) it was mentioned that there is a big gap right now in the retail sector in regards to the age of the customer and how they are being sold to.
For example at a conference for a major US based electronics company a video was shown of a 50 something customer walking in to purchase a home theater and was prepared to spend several thousand dollars. Unfortunately the sales associates condescending attitude during the transaction due to the 50 something admitting he wasn’t much of a tech guy caused the customer to walk away.
A sales associate that assumes that a Zoomer (a modern boomer) who admits their lack of technological savvy will not buy or can be talked into something they don’t understand is totally missing the boat.
Guess what age the average sales associate is in a electronics retail store!
Yes a Gen Y or someone in their twenties. It is easy to sell to your own demographic because you get the ‘lingo’ but to sell to a different demographic requires understanding, respect and a willingness to simplify the techno speak.
I recently walked into Future Shop and watched a Gen Y sell to another Gen Y and it is a thing of beauty. They talk gigabytes, pixels, ram, multi-streaming, digital feed language. The sale is quick and easy.
I then interacted with the same Gen Y (remember I am a Gen X/Zoomer cusper) and he was incredible. I said I was looking for a new MacBook Pro and the first thing he asked me was , “What would you say is your level of technical knowledge?”- excellent question!
I responded with, “Pretty good, I can get around most programs BUT please speak to me in plain language not computer language”. He smiled and said, “I get it- no worries- what do you use your laptop for primarily?” and from there he answered all of my questions and he got the sale.
Regardless of what age you are we must understand the different language of the generations. We stand to lose big sales with the Zoomer market if we are not careful to talk their talk and remember Zoomers are still 25% of the spending market.
The expectations of zoomers are evolving– watch here for a future post on the evolving expectations of Zoomers.