BUILDING FOR FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS

Millennials & B2B: Changing to Meet Digital Native Needs

Jared Seitz, Business Development pro at Acro, tells us what he learned when he sat down with a group of young buyers and marketers at a recent manufacturing conference. Learn what the new decision-makers are looking for in B2B business abilities.

This summer, I attended several digital transformation conferences, most of them focusing on B2B manufacturing. Throughout these conferences, I often wore my teacher hat, answering questions about decoupled commerce architecture and how a development accelerator like Gesso addressed the main market drivers pushing B2B companies to adapt and change.

At the Connected Manufacturing Forum in Atlanta, I had lunch with a group of people who were all reasonably close to my age.

“Is this the millennials' table?” I joked, taking the last open chair.

One person smiled. Another shrugged. And two more looked up from their phones.

“So what do y’all do in manufacturing?” the lady who had offered a smile asked everyone.

My teacher hat safely stowed back at the booth, I listened to everyone’s answers while enjoying my first-ever catfish dinner. As it turned out, most people at our table were part of their respective companies' marketing or purchasing departments.

Maybe it was the catfish, or perhaps I was feeling a little bold that day, but halfway through my meal, I decided to shine a light on the handout I had been referencing all morning and the insightful stat it contained:

“Some 73% of millennials are involved in product or service purchase decision-making at their companies, with one-third reporting that they are the sole decision-maker for their department.” - How Digital Natives Are Changing B2B Purchasing, Harvard Business Review.

“What do y’all think about that?” I asked, adopting the same Southern vernacular as the rest of the table.

For the next twenty minutes, every person at our table took a turn sharing what frustrated them with the B2B buying process:

• “I always go straight to the reviews… For me, a genuine review is worth more than an hour of researching a product on my own.” - James, 33, B2B buyer.
• “Helping customers help themselves saves everybody’s time.” - Melissa, 29, B2B marketer.
• “Please don’t make me sit through a sales meeting just to get basic information like ballpark pricing. That’s what websites are for.” - Ashleigh, 29, B2B buyer.
• “My company shouldn’t have to take on the risk of trying your product until we know it works for us... Businesses should put their trust in their product and let customers try before they buy.” - Jon, 35, B2B buyer.
• “B2B businesses don’t need to rebuild the wheel… There are so many things we can learn from B2C businesses concerning creating good customer experiences.” - Me, 36, B2B tech salesperson.

“This has been really great,” I said as things were wrapping up. “May I ask what y’all think about cold outreach?”

“Cold outreach,” said the youngest man at the table. “About as appealing as cold fish.”

“I don’t know, man,” I said. “If it’s catfish, count me in; this stuff is great.”

This quip was the first time I earned a laugh from the group, and I knew it was time to go. I thanked everyone for the spirited discussion and made my way back to our booth, where I caught up with my Director of Sales, Greg Foster.

“You’re not going to believe this!” Greg and I said in unison.

>> If you want to know what happened to Greg during this fateful Atlanta lunch, stay tuned for part 2 of our crossover series. <<

It would be fair to summarize Jared’s impromptu B2B buyer wishlist roundtable in a few words: more self-serve, fewer sales meetings.

“As baby boomers retire and millennials mature into key decision-making positions, a digital-first buying posture will become the norm.”  — Cristina Gomez, Managing Vice President for the Gartner Sales Practice (Gartner.com)

The B2B landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by a changing of the guard. Millennials have a seat at the buyer’s table, and their digital-first emphasis on transparency, data, and flexibility is reshaping how B2B businesses operate. As more purchase power passes to this generation, those who align their products, services, and values with millennial expectations while setting their tech stack up to be future-friendly with a decoupled architecture will not only survive but thrive in this newly redefined B2B world.

By embracing these changes and building digital commerce assets that allow millennials and Gen-Z to research and buy online, B2B stakeholders can optimize their sales channels for success and resiliency in the age of the millennial decision-maker.