Traditional marketing has always stopped marketing to the 50 and over crowd because for the past 40 years marketing budgets have been focused on the 18 to 49 crowd.

This has changed and marketers are waking up to the demographic tidal wave of baby boomers. 1 in 4 Americans are baby boomers. The current recession has prompted all businesses to re-think their marketing.

Zoomers (boomers who refuse to age) spend far too much money to be ignored. They spend about $400 billion more per year on goods and services than any other generation.

According to US Census data, over the next 10 years, the 18 to 49 age segment is projected to grow by only 1 percent to about 137 million. Meanwhile, the 50-plus age segment will grow to 21 percent to 116 million.

Inside the mind of the Zoomer consumer:

Mindset- Zoomers have reached a level of development where they are driven more by internal motivators rather than external motivators. This is the shift from success to significance.

Social- The modern day Zoomer is no longer living the linear predictable life of their parents- some are empty nesters, some still have their adult kids at home, some have their parents living with them etc. We cannot market to them as ‘all the same’.

Vitality- Zoomers are looking for ‘quality of life experiences’- they are driven but not for the same reasons as when they were younger. Their drive now is towards something of deeper meaning and greater contribution.

You can gain the Zoomers attention with the following:

1. Aim for the internal- Zoomers are less driven by material things and leaning towards life-enriching experiences. Show them how your product or service provides fulfillment and realization.

2. Don’t sell fear- Zoomers respond more to positive concepts and marketing that is targeted to their intelligence and achievements. If you try to sell a Zoomer by saying they will fail without you or your product they will look elsewhere.

3. Market to life-cycle versus age- Regardless of age every person is in a different life cycle- tighten your focus to the life cycle of the Zoomers. For example grandparents, divorcees, empty nesters, those with adult kids at home etc.

Things are changing so rapidly now and as we have seen in the past year all of the rules have changed. Traditional heavy sales methods just don’t work as the savvy Zoomer is looking for positive, life affirming and respectful products and services.

We all know that social media is fast overtaking traditional methods of getting connected and informing masses of people.

A few years ago I was telling my clients and audiences that posting job openings on Facebook would be the next big thing and guess what?

It has happened. Check out this innovative page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140213070625&ref=mf

The name of the group is Job Concierge the don’t have a web page BUT they do have a twitter page that guides you to their facebook page. This is not your traditional way of posting jobs.

I have a friend who recently left corporate and just started her own business as a high end executive assistant. At first she thought she needed a website- but she is such a great networker that by face to face meetings she has more clients now than she knows what to do with. She still hasn’t decided whether she will do a website or not- I suggest she simply do a Twitter page and a Facebook group just like Job Concierge.

I have researched a fair bit on attracting talent and to attract Gen Y the method is definitely through social media. Companies need to tell a story about themselves and then engage Gen Y in conversations through their forums.

So anyone looking for a job? Get a Twitter account and be active on Facebook.

I am ticked off!

When did sales go from a skill based profession to an easy way of beating the system to make a buck?

In the Province today there is a full page story on a mortgage development officer who made millions in commissions- not by selling but by what I call ’skimming’. My definition of skimming is when you find a loop hole to get business that isn’t necessary ethical.

PS: For a great new book on selling pick up my good friend Colleen Francis book “Honesty Sells” and subscribe to Colleen’s newsletter that provides practical sales tips: 

 http://www.engageselling.com

Years ago I worked in banking (in the ’80’s) and I was given the first area mortgage sales manager role ever created for the large bank. At that time you really ’sold’ you could not accept internal clients and your commissions were based on ‘new’ business in other words clients that would not have come to your bank without your sales approach.

The story in the Province alleges that the mortgage broker was working in tandem with the branch manager and the deal was the branch manager would send ALL mortgage enquiries to the mortgage broker. So, basically the bank paid millions of dollars over the years for their own customers!

In the past few years we have had ‘boom’ times and lot of people who thought they could sell were really just great order takers. They hadn’t exercised their sales muscle at all and in fact became quite flabby with inactivity.

We are experiencing the result of that right now where many sales professionals I have been talking to have acknowledged that they had ‘forgotten’ the basics of selling and this current economic reality has given them a swift kick in the A**.

So my request is will the REAL sales pro’s please stand up?

The ones who have the skill, talent, tenacity and creativity to go out there and find the business.  Time to put on the exercise gear and flex those muscles!

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.

Happy Earth Day!

My family and I have been recycling for over ten years and this makes us feel good. However we have begun to ask ourselves what other small actions could we be taking to be kinder to our planet.

Some of the small actions is that we use recycled cloth bags for all of our shopping. We recycle any of the plastic bags we do have and we have been choosing filtered water over bottled water. 

It occurred to me that the small actions we are taking as a collective will obviously yield big gains down the road. This concept also applies to our businesses and our leadership.

Small actions that we take as a leader can lead us to gains we may have not even planned to receive. For example one of my employees was having a very tough day- I however was feeling great. I really wasn’t in the mood to ‘deal’ with someone who was in a funky mood. It then struck me fairly quickly that a small action to help my employee feel fantastic was really following up on the concept of ‘increase for all’.

Needless to say I quickly shared by good mood energy and went on to invest more energy and time than ever before in helping her to feel fantastic. The next day I was the one having a tough day and it was my beloved employee who returned the good energy favor and then some!

You have heard that saying ‘you have to give to get’ and I know it often can feel counter intuitive when we are in a negative space but it really is true.

We want a greener earth- we have to give to get.

We want a happy team- we have to give to get.

We want to have more clients- we have to give to get.

Small actions- big and bigger gains.

Evolution means that we as a living organisms are continuing to grow, change and adapt. In the current economic times fear is rampant and is causing ‘contraction’ versus ‘expansion’- think about the past and recognize how much you have evolved but also how everything has evolved.

In my own personal past I recognize that what is happening now is a ‘full circle’ opportunity. I started my business in 1994 when many people told me it was the worst possible time to do so.

Ignorance is bliss because my passion and belief for what I was doing overrode any naysayers in my path. In fact the first business that I started which was a service business went on to generate 6 figures in the first year and we sold it for mid six figures in 1999.

The full circle realization came for me when in 1994 I hired a business coach (this was before ‘coaches’ were a common thing) and even though I had to borrow $7000.00 off of my line of credit I took the leap because I knew I needed someone who could guide me to self-employed success.

Fast forward to 2009 and I have been blessed with much business success as an entrepreneur, professional speaker, author and consultant. So what am I doing that is full circle? I am investing in new types of coaching and even though others might be restraining their spending I am investing in the future of what I believe is possible for myself and for all of my clients.

I have hired coaches over the years and have always benefited from the outside perspective, harsh truths and the advice. This time though I am committing to a bigger investment once again as I hold fast to the vibrant future.

Already my coaching/consulting clients have noticed a shift as my approach and value offering increases for them. The more I learn, grow and challenge myself the more I can share with my clients, friends and family and in the end “increase for all” will win the day!

Want to watch something inspiring- check this out!

You Wont See This on Unitedvideo:1904098

This past two weeks I have been travelling, I was in Las Vegas for a five day course and then was off to Springfield Illinois and then on to Libertyville Illinois. 

Interestingly Las Vegas was its old regular self- bustling and busy with lots of tourists lined up to watch the Bellagio water display with music.  The deals that are available to go to Vegas right now are amazing- couple that with spring break and you have a boom town. 

In Springfield the mood was of gratitude since the main industry is government and there were no lay offs in the last year but there is a hiring freeze.

In Libertyville I met with a few clients and one particular client named Holly seemed to me to have the right attitude along with the right strategy to ‘work’ the current economic climate. She is practicing the ‘ripple effect. Similar to the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell the ripple effect is based on the premise that actions taken today will cause an effect felt in the near future.

Although many of Holly’s clients have been laid off or are going through a restructure they are all finding work in new industries or even making the long overdue decision to go out on their own. So the action Holly is taking today is to stay in touch with all of her contacts even when they move on to new endeavors. Her focus is on keeping the relationship intact and providing value whether they can use her services right now or not.

So fast forward to the fall of 2009 and early 2010 and I predict that Holly will be bustling with more business than ever before- why? Because she has been throwing the stones in the pond by following all of her relationships to their new locations and within a six month period you can bet they will be calling Holly for her services.

This current economy requires that we do not look for instant gratification rather we look at gathering the pebbles, throwing them in the pond and with gratitude enjoy the ripple effect.