Searching for the common ground

For the first time in history, four distinct generations — Matures, Boomers, Xers and Millennials — are employed side 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 longevity and success. In fact, it is the most important demand your company can make of its leaders.

Eliminating generational discord is grounded in understanding what makes each tick.

• What are their core values?
• What do they expect of their leaders?
• How do they define success?
• How are they different than you?

In this engaging presentation, Cam Marston answers these questions and more. 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.

Walk away from this experience knowing:

• Common generational characteristics
• Specific leadership needs of each generation
• The new definition of company loyalty
• Fresh guidelines for team building

As you will learn, the only common ground is the intensity with which each generation holds fast to its value systems. Understanding and respecting those generational biases are critical to bringing out the best in every employee.

Tools like e-commerce and social media were supposed to make selling and marketing easier. Instead, they make buying easier and selling harder.

Consumers can easily research products, compare costs and reviews, and even name their own prices. In the 21st Century marketplace, you can’t just give them a reason to buy, you need to give them a reason to buy from you. Since the decision to buy is 85% emotional and 15% rational, you need to connect with your customers and clients. Even more challenging, today’s marketplace is more demographically diverse than ever, with four distinct generations of active consumers. Understanding the generations helps us achieve that crucial connection that gets customers from all demographics closer to the emotional decision to buy from us.

This presentation will introduce you to the Matures, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials, and describe the distinction between the “We” values of the earlier generations and the “Me” values of the later ones. It will also provide you with the hands-on how-to of connecting with and selling to each one regardless of your own generational background.

You will learn how to:

• Identify the customers in front of you and understand their generational perspectives
• Quickly connect and get clients to “lean forward”
• Establish cross-generational sales relationships that make your clients comfortable
• Avoid turning customers off with generational faux pas
• Earn the last look based on your connections
• Adopt the right closing strategy for each generation

Everyone in attendance will have the chance to laugh at their own generation and all of the others, and will see:

• Which generations are open to sales pitches and which ones tune them out
• Which generations like salespeople and which ones don’t trust them
• Which generations can be closed and which ones insist on closing themselves

You will also see some examples of successful marketing and sales strategies that are targeted at specific generations. Attendees should walk away from the talk with a field guide and a to-do list that will equip them to expand their demographic sales horizons and to move prospects from any generation closer to that emotional “yes.”

For decades financial services have focused on demographic groups that are now moving into and past retirement. The Matures (born 1945 and prior) and the Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964) are the generations that the financial services industry grew up with, and their client relationships were defined by traditional business models. Now, new generations who have different economic and cultural experiences are moving into age ranges that make them prime markets for investments, retirement planning, insurance, and other financial services.

The challenge for financial advisors today is to provide financial services and create new advisor-client relationships that match the expectations and experiences of the next generation of investors. New generational attitudes have surfaced in response to the Great Recession and its aftermath and advisors need to understand not only each generation’s characteristics but also each generation’s distinct anxieties and concerns prompted by the downturn.

Some figures that reflect the coming changes:

• The 40 to 59-year-old demographic among potential clients will only grow 1% between 2005 and 2020.
• 29% of wealthy investors are under 50 years of age and they control 37% of potential investment assets, representing $18.6 billion in potential revenue for advisors.
• Investors between 18 and 50 years old will inherit more than $41 trillion in assets by 2052.

Cam Marston understands the attitudes and expectations of the upcoming generations and what they expect from service providers. He has learned how they buy, how they value different types of information, what their definition of “expert” is and how they apply it to financial advisors, and what they want financial advisors to teach them. He understands their preferred methods of communications and what sales tools to use and how to use them effectively.

As an InvestmentNews columnist and the author of The Gen-Savvy Financial Advisor, Cam provides tips, ideas, and examples for how to best court and serve each generation of client. His presentations are full of “take home value” content, even giving his audiences the words to use in specific scenarios.

The next generation of financial services client has arrived. They will not tolerate being treated the same way their parents were treated. Learn what they want in this exciting and impactful presentation.