Is there a difference between a Gen Z sales professional and a Baby Boomer? What motivates them? What’s the best way to train, coach, and retain them?
If you’re a sales leader of a multigenerational team, you may be asking these questions.
There are now four generations of working sales professionals in the market: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. It’s crucial for sales leaders to understand the motivations, behaviors, and learning styles of each generation.
- Generation Z: Born 1997-2012 (age 12-27)
- Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (age 28-43)
- Generation X: Born 1965-1980 (age 44-59)
- Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (age 60-78)
Managing these differences can be a challenge, but it also creates a tremendous competitive opportunity to leverage each generation’s strengths. With the right understanding, you can attract, retain, and inspire a high-functioning multigenerational team and achieve better results.
New Research for Sales Leaders
Each of these generations has a distinct attitude toward work—what they prioritize and expect from it. Our Sales Performance Research Center surveyed 155 B2B sales leaders across multiple industries at organizations with revenue greater than $50M to understand the differences and similarities of each generation.
This new data helped us identify trends in sales performance and sales skills related to the generation of each sales team in the survey. In this post, I dive into four of these trends and provide recommendations for sales leaders.
Download Managing a Multigenerational Sales Team: 10 Trends for Sales Leaders to see all 10 findings.
Trend 1: Each generation prospects for new sales opportunities differently.
We asked sales leaders which of six prospecting techniques their teams used most frequently. We found Baby Boomer teams use the second-most effective prospecting approach, while Gen Z teams are more likely to use the two least effective approaches.
- Boomers use events and tradeshows.
- Gen Xers use inbound leads.
- Millennials use promotional offers and discounts.
- Gen Zers use cold outreach and promotional offers and discounts.
Prospecting Techniques by Generation
| Techniques (Most to Least Effective) | Boomer | Gen X | Millennial | Gen Z |
| Targeted Outreach & Referrals | 0% | 31% | 19% | 10% |
| Events & Tradeshows | 50% | 5% | 6% | 20% |
| Inbound Leads | 25% | 49% | 21% | 20% |
| Unsolicited RFPs | 0% | 23% | 16% | 0% |
| Promo Offers & Discounts | 25% | 10% | 28% | 25% |
| Cold Outreach | 0% | 3% | 11% | 25% |
Age may play the biggest role in approach. Boomers—and Gen Xers, who began selling in the ’90s and ’00s—are most comfortable meeting with people in person and are in the habit of attending events and tradeshows.
Millennials began selling during a good economy and didn’t have to work as hard to uncover new opportunities. Now in a tougher economy, they are feeling the lack of prospecting skills and use promotional offers to woo new customers.
Gen Z are early in their careers and most likely to be in front-line business development roles where they’re responsible for cold calling.
The younger generations are hoping to “buy” their way into customer attention by offering discounts—the weakest strategy if you have not built trust or substantiated value. Boomers love the old-school human connection, and Gen X came of age in the beginnings of the inbound revolution of 10-15 years ago.
The challenge for sales leaders is to develop a mix of channels that make all generations comfortable and optimally efficient. If you use just one prospecting approach, you will diminish the effectiveness of some portion of your team.
Sales Leader Tip: Invest in prospecting skill development across multiple channels. Be sure team members are not just relying on habits and can prospect using targeted outreach and referrals.
Trend 2: Gen Z teams struggle most when managing objections and negotiating terms as part of the sales process.
- 76% of Gen Z teams struggle with managing objections and negotiating terms.
- 53% of Millennial teams struggle in the same area.
- 41% of Gen X teams struggle in the same area.
- 0% of Boomer teams struggle in the same area.
Gen Z started their careers handling what we call “high-class objections.” Buyers would often make a purchase even if they were not fully satisfied. Economic growth drove an urgency to buy and there were fewer negative consequences to a less-than-optimal decision. The same is not the case now. Careers are on the line with each major purchase, making buyers much more skeptical.
Gen Z are also beginning their careers, with less experience, during the rise of buying committees and uncertain economic conditions that have slowed the buying process from where it was a few years ago.
Sales Leader Tip: Your team members, depending on their generational profile, may have vastly different levels of confidence in their negotiation skills or ability to sell value and to handle objections. Don’t go off the average skill level when assessing your team. Look closely at each individual and provide targeted coaching in areas where they are weak.
Get Your Copy: Managing a Multigenerational Sales Team: 10 Trends for Sales Leaders
Trend 3: Most teams are not using the most effective questioning strategies during discovery.
Boomer, Gen X, and Millennial teams use product-based questions most, while Gen Z teams use needs and buying process questions most.
- 50% of Boomer teams use product-based questions most.
- 38% of Gen X teams use product-based questions most.
- 41% of Millennial teams use product-based questions most.
- 35% of Gen Z teams use needs and buying process questions most.
“Needs & Wants” is the most effective questioning strategy. “Needs & Buying Process” is the second most effective. “Product-Based Questions” is the third most effective.
Questioning Techniques by Generation
| Techniques (Most to Least Effective) | Boomer | Gen X | Millennial | Gen Z |
| Needs & Wants | 25% | 15% | 19% | 25% |
| Needs & Buying Process | 25% | 31% | 22% | 35% |
| Product-Based Questions | 50% | 39% | 41% | 20% |
| Intro Questions & Product Pitch | 0% | 15% | 18% | 20% |
Sales Leader Tip: Sales professionals must seek to understand customer needs and wants before proposing solutions. Focus on developing discovery and questioning skills that go deeper to uncover the facts and emotions driving the prospect’s decision.
Trend 4: Most teams are not using the most effective value selling approach—connecting value to ROI—regardless of generation.
A value-based selling approach—the ability to articulate and demonstrate the value of your product or service above the cost to acquire—is critical. When you only sell on price, you put downward pressure on margins. Profitability and long-term growth are challenged and there is little of value to differentiate you from competitors.
Value Selling Techniques by Generation
| Techniques (Most to Least Effective) | Boomer | Gen X | Millennial | Gen Z |
| Connect Value to ROI | 0% | 3% | 23% | 25% |
| Connect Value to Needs & Wants | 75% | 51% | 44% | 40% |
| Discuss All Value Components | 25% | 44% | 26% | 15% |
| Focus on Price | 0% | 3% | 7% | 20% |
“Connect Value to Needs & Wants” (the second most effective approach) is the most common for all generations:
- 75% of Boomer teams
- 51% of Gen X teams
- 44% of Millennial teams
- 40% of Gen Z teams
“Connect Value to ROI” (the most effective approach) is used by Gen Z more than by other generations.
- 25% of Gen Z teams
- 23% of Millennial teams
- 3% of Gen X teams
- 0% of Boomer teams
Sales Leader Tip: Train your team how to connect the value of your products and services to a high return on investment for your customer.
Recommendations for Sales Leaders
Sales success for multigenerational teams depends on your ability to understand the differing skillsets, priorities, drivers, communication styles, and needs of each generation while also promoting collaboration, mutual respect, and open-mindedness across the team.
- Promote an open culture of feedback and two-way communication.
- Acknowledge diverse working styles and preferences.
- Lead with empathy, emotional intelligence, and inclusivity.
- Facilitate cross-generational mentoring and knowledge sharing. This doesn’t just mean from older generations to younger generations. For example, younger generations may have something to teach older generations about positioning ROI.
Download Managing a Multigenerational Sales Team: 10 Trends for Sales Leaders to see specific recommendations for each generation.
Managing a Successful Multigenerational Sales Teams
As Baby Boomers retire in greater numbers, sales leaders must develop the next generation of sales professionals and sales leaders. Developing insights into each age, while recognizing individual differences, will help you motivate and reward sales professionals from Boomers to Gen Z, and deliver better results for your organization.
Report Download
Managing a Multigenerational Sales Team
There are now four generations of working sales professionals in the market. Each generation has its own attitudes, perspectives, and priorities when it comes to work. It’s crucial for sales leaders to understand the motivations, behaviors, and learning styles of each generation.
In our new research report we share findings on how to attract, retain, and inspire a high-functioning multigenerational team.
