Pub. 4 2014 Issue 2

11 n selling cars — continued on page 16 or, better yet, make a good living. With that in mind, the most successful car dealerships will be the ones to focus on two things: 1. What Gen Y is like. 2. What Gen Y wants. How do you sell to Gen Y? First, you have to understand what they are like. • They are generally confident, and were taught from a young age that they are unique and that their voice matters. They’re right about mattering. They are already a significant market force. By 2017, they will be outspending the Baby Boomers. • They can be slow to get a driver’s license. It used to be that people got their license sometime during their sixteenth year. Now the average age is 23, and more than 30 percent of those between the ages of 19 and 25 haven’t bothered to get one at all. Instead, they are more likely to walk, bike, or use mass transit. This is already affecting our society. Driving has decreased 23 percent over the last ten years, approximately, while biking has increased 122 percent and walking has increased 37 percent. • They think it’s all about them. Someone in this group is much less interested in your background and qualifications than in what you can do specifically to benefit their life, their interests, and their future. • People have been selling things to Gen Y for their entire lives. As a result, they recognize any sales pitch very early … and they don’t like it. • Other generations are adopting many of their opinions and approaches. Everyone uses the Internet and the social media found there; just about everyone uses the same technology, even if not to the same extent. If you can sell to Gen Y, you can sell to anyone. • They are casual — for example, many of them have tattoos, their footwear is often one step away from being barefoot, and they tend to love T-shirts. Don’t pay attention to superficial choices in their dress and grooming, or you will miss the fact that they wield an unusual amount of financial power. • They love getting things that are either free or don’t cost much. That goes double for free Wi-Fi. • Cell phones and text messages are a major part of their lives. They send hundreds of text messages throughout the day and think nothing of it. • Peers influence them. This can be both positive and negative. If they hear something negative, be prepared to respond. If they love the car you sell them, encourage them to advertise that fact. • Parents influence them. Welcome them if they do, but change your pitch to match. For Gen Y, you talk about how a car will help them. For Baby Boomers, you talk about how a car will help their children. • They are open to maintenance plans and Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP). Their parents either did the work themselves or found a good mechanic. People in Gen Y would rather hand off the complete problem to someone else, and if they run into problems paying for something because of losing a job, they