Cam Marston

Cam Marston is the leading expert on the impact of generational characteristics and differences on the workplace and the marketplace. As an author, columnist, blogger, and lecturer, he imparts a clear understanding of how generational demographics are changing the landscape of business. Marston and his firm, Generational Insights, have provided research and consultation on generational issues to hundreds of companies and professional groups, ranging from small businesses to multinational corporations, as well as major professional associations, for over 15 years.

Marston's books, articles, columns, and blog describe and analyze the major generations of our time: Matures (born before 1946), Baby Boomers, (born 1946-64), Generation X (born 1965-79), and Millennials (born 1980-2000).  He explains how their generational characteristics and differences affect every aspect of business, including recruiting and retention, management and motivation, and sales and marketing.

His first book, Motivating The "What's In It For Me?" Workforce (2005), explores the characteristics and motivations that each generation brings to the workforce and suggests management tactics applicable to any business setting. His next book, Generational Insights (2010) is a guide to the best practices in managing generational issues. Generational Selling Tactics That Work (2011) is the first book-length study of generational approaches to sales and marketing.

Marston's expertise has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Chicago Tribune, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Money, and Forbes, as well as on Good Morning America and the BBC. He writes a monthly column for Business Alabama and has been a featured columnist in Agent's Sales Journal, PROFIT Magazine, and Mult--Housing News, among others. His blog at generationalinsights.com tracks the latest changes and developments in generational issues and demographics.

As a consultant, Marston has provided generational insight and advice to leadership at the nation's most prominent corporations, including American Express, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Macy's, Warner Brothers, ESPN, Qualcomm, RE/MAX and Eli Lilly. He has also offered presentations and consultations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Army, as well as major professional associations such as the American Bankers Association and the Million Dollar Roundtable.

Marston's presentations are informative, engaging, and often humorous. He offers concrete demographic research that is tailored to his audience. But he enlivens the data with anecdotes, tales from the real business world, attention-grabbing visuals, and quips that make the message memorable. Marston's clients consistently report that his research makes his programs relevant and his presentation style makes them interesting and fun.

Marston's insights and expertise are the product of 15 years of research and consultation across a wide range of industries as well as his own early-career background in corporate sales and research. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University. He is a native and resident of Mobile, Alabama and a proud member of Generation X.

Cam Marston's Blog Entries:

Millennials Learning to Like Traditional Work Environment

• From We to Me and Back Again - Change

  Throughout history, Western societies have shifted focus back and forth from the needs of the group to the needs of the individual. Invariably, this shift follows economic trends. Affluence promotes individual happiness and self-centered desires while downturns bring about the group rally cry. Today's economy indicates a potential shift in both product and service demands from customers, and leadership demands from employees as the pendulum may be swinging from today's me-centric society back to a group mindset. What can your business do to prepare?
  
  In this presentation, Cam Marston brings the audience on a pictorial walk through history to demonstrate how egocentric thinking shifts with the times and to high-light the effects these changes had on businesses at the time. This presentation also looks at what companies did to survive these pendulum swings and how today's businesses can learn from the successes and mistakes of the past. In the program you will learn:
  
  ·How history and economic trends correlate to consumer desires ·Where to look for indications of a change in trends ·How different generations react to these pendulum swings ·What industry leaders have done to weather the changes, both internal and customer-focused ·How to approach a change in consumer desires so that your business can survive ·What you can do to lead your employees through these changes
  

• Attracting and Retaining a New Generation of Employees – Management & Human Resources

  Good talent is hard to find. And even harder to keep. With company loyalty increasingly considered a comedic punch line rather than a standard employee trait, knowing how to identify, attract and retain the very best talent may seem impossible. Generational DNA plays a huge role in the changing workforce dynamic. Understanding it unlocks the secret to selecting the right candidates and encouraging employee loyalty - both essential to business survival. The four generations in the workplace bring to the office their own distinct biases about loyalty, leadership, time, and productivity. Cam has studied these biases and their effects on attracting and retaining good employees. He shares this insight and provides specific examples of how every organization can create an environment that attracts the best talent and fosters, rather than discourages, employee loyalty. Audiences learn to identify the best prospects, create compelling employment offers by age group, meet the long and short term goals of each generation, understand the motivating factors for each employee and become the kind of boss employees want to serve. Every level of leadership plays a key role in attracting and keeping the very best. By discovering how to create the workplace that each generation prefers, your company will reap the rewards in consistent transfer of knowledge, increased productivity and decreased turnover.

• Selling Across the Generations – Sales & Customer Loyalty

  The first rule of selling is steadfast: know your customer. With four distinct generations playing active roles in the buying decisions of companies worldwide, that tenet is increasingly difficult to fulfill. It is no longer enough to be personable and knowledgeable about your product. To succeed in today's business climate, you need to approach each buyer with an informed generational perspective - recognizing the underlying biases, values and expectations that pave the way to "yes." Cam looks inside each generation's core values to identify what forms their buying decisions and gives audiences the understanding required to develop a solid sales process, based on known generational biases and business preferences. Attendees will learn to identify subtle shifts that indicate upcoming leadership changes, create a fast and genuine connection with new customers, sell to their customers' expectations, build trust between the generations, highlight appropriate product selling points for each customer, and avoid common communication pitfalls. Cam uses examples to show how some companies today are effectively engaging generational marketing techniques to appeal to the unique decision making traits of each generation and prepare their sales teams for success in today's marketplace.

• Four Generations in the Workplace – Leadership & Teamwork

  For the first time in history, four distinct generations are employed sided by side in the workplace. With differing values and seemingly incompatible views on leadership, these generations have stirred up unprecedented conflict in the business world. Effective management of this generational divide is vital to every organization's longevity and success. What are each generation's core values? What do they expect of their leaders and how do they define success? In this engaging program, Cam Marston answers these questions and much more. Audiences will learn how each generation developed its core values, how that manifests in the workplace today, and why they can all not only operate alongside each other, but do so with extraordinary success. This program provides the generational insight, concrete examples and specific approaches to help frustrated managers build the individual connections needed to boost employee performance and retention. Attendees will walk away knowing the common generational characteristics, specific leadership needs of each generation, the new definition of company loyalty, and fresh guidelines for team building.

• People today really seem to be looking for personal take away from attending meetings and conferences... and you certainly gave them their moneys worth. It was a great way for us to add value to the program without having to create more workshops or general sessions. As you know we had many people on the waiting list and even had a few clients trying to 'pull rank' to attend your session. The lucky attendees really enjoyed it!
  Relocation Resources International
• Much has changed over the years, which your presentation brought to the forefront, and provided information that was very eye-opening. You definitely got our team to 'think outside the box' when it comes to looking at the workplace in today's fast changing environment.
  Wells Fargo
• Your presentation was exactly what I was hoping for: informative, humorous and memorable. You made a great impression on all attendees and they are still talking about it. The breakout session was also outstanding - you could probably tell by the standing room only crowd.
  Southwest Association of Colleges & Employers
• Cam, thank you again for taking the time to tailor your presentation to our audience. I think you've earned a spot as one of ERC's favorite speakers. It was a pleasure working with you.
  Employee Relocation Council
• YOU ARE A VOLT SUPERSTAR!! Both your seminar and motivational session were runaway hits of Volt Services Group's Star Performers Showcase. The standing ovation you received for your dynamic performance was well-deserved.
  Volt Services Group
• You were fabulous! Our group loved it! I am so pleased with the presentation. Your knowledge, insight, humor and energy kept everyone's attention. The content was very relevant to the group. By relaying your personal life experiences, it made you 'real' to the attendees and not just a professional speaker.
  KFC

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  April 2011

  Generational Selling Tactics That Work

  Today, as buying becomes far easier than selling, customers are gaining the upper hand. Yet many salespeople maintain an egocentric frame of mind: the reasons you like your product and service are the same reasons your buyers will like them, right? And what you want in a sales person is the same thing they'll want, right? Wrong! If your customers hail from another generation, they might as well com. The rapid changes in the past century have resulted in four generations that have grown up under vastly different circumstances. If you want to connect, develop rapport, and make sales with every age group, you have to understand what impact these diverse experiences have on how they view your business. Generational Selling Tactics that Work offers simple, easy-to-execute ideas for how best to work with and sell to each of the four generations in today's marketplace: Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. Generational Selling Tactics that Work delivers nitty-gritty knowledge on each cohort's characteristics and quick and dirty tips for how to apply this insight to increase revenues. It doesn't matter what age you are, so long as you understand how your customer's age affects the bottom line.

  
  
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  May 2007

  Motivating The What's In It For Me Workforce: Manage Across the Generational Divide and Increase Profits

  All generations are not alike. While Baby Boomers base their vision of professional success on climbing hierarchical corporate ladders, Gen-X and New Millennial workers view success quite differently. In Motivating the "What's In It For Me?" Workforce, Cam Marston reveals how to diffuse the conflict between managers with one set of expectations and employees with another. He shows managers how to deal with differing generational expectations, bridging the gap between managers raised in one tradition and workers raised in another.