Fear of public speaking, heights, and … the phone. A research study released last year found that for Gen Z, 49% said talking on the phone makes them feel anxious. (A lot of articles citing the study have said 90% are anxious about talking on the phone, but that doesn’t seem to be the actual findings of the research.) 60% said they dread making or accepting a phone call — even if it’s necessary. 

Gen Z’s preferred ways of keeping in touch? In-person/face-to-face (32%), texting (26%), or social media (16%). 

I have teenage kids.

They don’t have a “phone.” They have a device, and there is an application on that device that allows them to make phone calls. It’s rarely used (and never with their peers).

Using a phone is becoming foreign to Gen Z. And in the near future it will be a challenge for selling and salespeople.

A lot of us came up on smile-and-dial in the 90s and 2000s. But in the near future? People won’t want to make or receive calls.

Is your organization ahead of this? You need to be.

Meet Gen Z Where They Are (With What They Want)

I see three ways companies and sales organizations will need to adapt a future (and present) of fewer answered calls:

Gen Z spends a ton of time on social

Social selling is going to continue to grow in its efficacy, but hardly anyone is doing it well. It has to be a mix of value-add content, entertainment content, influencer and executive content, and it must be tied together with product-related threads.

Gen Z consumes small chunks of content: 

Marketing will play a much bigger role in the top-of-funnel (it’s already a big role), and it better start driving content that plays to this audience. Long form stuff like case studies/white papers and 45 minute webinars? NO. 

Gen Z looks for recommendations

Influencer and community growth will be massive. You may not see it now, but this will easily translate into B2B marketing.

Once you have active engagement, you drive to a video call (which is different than a phone call).

It’s Not Just Gen Z Who’s Changing …

I haven’t answered my phone from an unknown number in over seven years.

It isn’t that folks won’t get on the phone to talk with sales people. They will. Even I will. I do it almost every week for something or another. It’s just that we will ONLY do it on our timelines.

Nearly all the purchases we’ve made at RepVue were initiated by us. Nobody pushed us into the buyer journey, we took the first few steps (sometimes most of the steps), but then always engaged a sales professional in the journey.

Here are 8 considerations from a CEO whose company has purchased over 50 software tools in the past 4+ years. (This is just my personal experience. Someone else’s may be different.)

1. I don’t answer the phone, and neither do a lot of other people.
   
2. I don’t listen to voicemails, so there are no call backs. Also true of a lot of people. (One person at RepVue didn’t set up a voicemail box specifically to prevent callers from even leaving a voicemail.)
   
3. I read every email that comes in. And even if I’m not interested, if the email is relevant and personalized, I might respond letting you know we’re not interested. Sometimes with a “‘reach back out in X months.” I have a high bar for email quality. But I do read emails.
   
4. If the email isn’t great but still hits on a problem or pain that we’re actively considering, I will probably forward it along internally.
   
5. If a company has reached out in the recent past and I responded, I probably won’t respond the second time if nothing has changed, regardless of the quality of the message. (Unless it’s beyond the “reach back out in X months” time.)
   
6. If we’re in a position to evaluate a product, my first step would be to forward this to the manager internally who owns this part of the business.
   
7. The CEO is rarely the decision maker.
   
8. Awareness matters: Like I said above, nearly all the purchases we have made were initiated by us. We took the first few steps. (Or at least, that’s our perception. Were we influenced by a well-timed, relevant social post? Quite possibly…)

How is Your Sales Org Adapting?

I expect the means and media for accomplishing top-of-funnel awareness are going to be one of the largest shifts in buyer/seller interactions over the next 5 years. And the distance customers make it down the funnel before contacting a seller — on the phone or otherwise — is only going to get deeper.

Interestingly, seller sentiment on inbound lead flow at the organizational level has the worst scores of everything we track. The very best sales organizations are really good at driving top-of-funnel awareness and you won’t have to grind outbound for every opportunity. 

How is your org adapting? Or is it time to start looking for a new org that is?