"A new generation of executives is reimagining how business is getting done.
Hyperconnected and digitally native, 20- and 30-somethings rarely make sales calls, avoid email and are loath to pick up the phone. They make connections over LinkedIn and follow up via text. When they do meet in person, it is more likely to be over coffee than lunch, and if invited to a party, they are ordering mocktails and nonalcoholic beer.
When out with older clients, "I will order the lightest possible lager and let them have their fancy whiskey," said William King, a 29-year-old co-founder of SuperCopy.ai, an Atlanta AI marketing startup. "I don't want to be drunk when I'm doing business with people."
But the shift in how younger businesspeople choose to entertain and communicate with clients and investors isn't just about personal preferences. For a host of reasons including increased competition, the Covid-19 pandemic, employee turnover and the proliferation of decision makers, the old ways of doing business no longer work as well.
When Lars Hyman, 53, started in advertising in the early 1990s, "those Mad Men guys" were still around and three-martini lunches still existed. "The people in the business then were the people you wanted to be," Hyman said.
Companies have since clamped down on excessive spending and entertaining, said Hyman, now U.S. head of communications design at Initiative, a media agency that is part of ad giant Interpublic Group. The trend accelerated during the pandemic when corporate finance teams realized business didn't suffer when those costs were cut, he said.
The biggest change in work culture is the rise of technology and a generation at home with it, Hyman added. Decisions aren't based on friendships or gut instincts but on quantifiable data. Personal connections still matter, but not like they used to.
"The bar for selling is so much higher that a lot of those party tricks don't really work anymore," said Kyle Norton, 38, chief revenue officer for Owner.com, a startup that sells technology to small restaurants. "You can't just wine and dine and buddy up to somebody and expect to get a result. You need to be able to demonstrate competence as a seller because your selling experience will be indicative of the post-sale support and success experience. And you need to be airtight on demonstrating a business case, the [return on investment]."
Because one-on-one meetings are so inefficient, young marketers eschew them and instead make connections at conferences. There, they join group workouts and pickleball tournaments that serve as networking events.
Social-media platforms, and particularly LinkedIn, have become the default channels for young entrepreneurs to pitch and communicate with potential investors and clients, said Adam Gautsch, who coaches entrepreneurs at Advanced Technology Development Center, a startup incubator in Atlanta.
"They're spending a lot of their time having conversations, both socially on those channels or directly through the DMs of those different tools," Gautsch said. "Everybody kind of accepts that that's part of the day-to-day sales life nowadays."
Technology also has made the sales call less useful for corporate buyers. Meetings used to be a valuable way to gain information about products and services, but now buyers do their own research online, said Jen Allen-Knuth, a Chicago-based sales trainer.
In response, Gen Z sellers need to make meetings more enticing for buyers by doing their own research, and customizing pitches based on what they have learned through social-media channels, Allen-Knuth said. "It's very rare to have an executive that doesn't have a Twitter account or even YouTube."
For some entrepreneurs, digital communication has almost completely replaced face-to-face meetings. King, the SuperCopy.ai co-founder, never gets on a plane to make sales calls or meet investors, preferring to do everything via Zoom.
Venture investors once expected founders to come to face-to-face meetings, King said, but "because of Covid, that boundary's no longer there. I can have calls with 10 VCs across the world on my computer."
The digital-first approach to communications emboldens young entrepreneurs, who have learned everyone is online and reachable, said Kirsten Connell, an early-stage investor at Octopus Ventures, a London-based venture-capital firm.
But when everyone is reachable, everyone worth reaching is deluged with incoming messages. And that may be enough to keep old-fashioned sales techniques from disappearing.
"Your inbox is inundated if you're a buyer," said Marty Hahnfeld, 57, the former chief revenue and marketing officer at Olo, a restaurant software company. "It's so tough to stand out in that environment. So what I've seen is that the companies who are most effective in making the most progress are actually reverting to those older styles of selling."
That means getting on a plane and taking a prospective client out to lunch or dinner at a nice restaurant.
"I guess I'm maybe old school myself," Hahnfeld said. "I think, ultimately, that selling comes down to relationships and trust, and those sorts of venues provide a great opportunity for that."" [1]
1. Young Executives Shun Old Sales Methods --- Boozy schmoozing is out and pickleball is in as a new breed reshapes business. Staley, Oliver. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 Nov 2024: B.4.
