Just when we have been able to fully understand Millennials and their unique habits and behaviors, along come the Gen Zs. The Gen Z presents a whole new set of challenges from both a sales and hiring standpoint.
At this year’s Running Event in Austin, TX, Neil Schwartz, president of SBRnet, focused on hiring and selling to the Gen-Z and how much different they are than the Millennials that came before them or the Gen X that came before that.
“While each generation is shaped by a shared set of experiences, the Gen Z had to deal with a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence in the Pandemic of 2020” says Schwartz. “These experiences shape not only how employees look at the state of work but how they also consumer various products and services. The Gen-Z do not have a growing relationship with the sport of Running and how retailers and brands deal with that will be keys to growth and maintaining market share.
Schwartz points out that most Gen Zs have never written a check, most have never mailed a letter, most have never learned how to write in script. Now to be totally fair, the Gen Zs have come through the pandemic with a whole new set of issues and challenges and behaviors.
To help understand them, Schwartz’s session took a deep dive into the Gen Z consumer and looked at the unique behaviors that are making them a challenge of both selling to and also hiring them. The session also looked deeply into Gen Z runners and compared them to Millennials and also Gen X.
“The Gen Z are rejecting much that has come before them and want to be dealt with on their own terms,” Schwartz adds. “These experiences shape not only how employees look at the state of work but how they also consumer various products and services. The Gen-Z do not have a growing relationship with the sport of running and how retailers and brands deal with that will be keys to growth and maintaining market share.”
Here is a link to the presentation together with his narrative and comments:
