Last week I was able to attend a VERY interesting presentation put on by Jeremy Conaway from Recon Intelligence at our board office. He shared some of the major factors and differences between the Baby Boomers, the Gen-X’ers (that’s me! Yayy!) and the Gen-Y’ers.

WOW!!! I had no idea! I often talk about how every successful business person needs to be on top of trends and market changes and go with the times, but this presentation made me stop and realize that in many ways, I’M behind the times!

It’s not about ME or what I want, it’s about the CUSTOMER and what THEY want! ( I know that, I teach it, but I realized that I was guilty of it: I am not a “texter” but more and more of my clients are, and I actually caught myself telling a client “I don’t text, just call me or email me!” ((luckily a long-time friend as well, so he cut me some slack)) HOLY COW! How can I be so blind?

I guess it’s time to get with the times and start TXT-ing. (If you’ve had any problems reading any of this, go to www.NetLingo.com)

Here’s some statistics he shared with the group (yayy! Stats!)

Baby Boomers, currently aged 44-65, there are 81 million of them, and most have lost their entire nest-egg recently

Gen X, currently aged 32-44, there are 47 million of them

Gen Y, currently aged 18-32, there are 79 million of them. Yes, 79 million.

What do we know? A lot, they are the most researched group in recent history. They are the most powerful group right now. They pretty much single-handedly just elected a president. They are also “Green”.

The X & Y are collectively called the “Net Generation” and they will basically control our market from here on out. They want certain things from you and your company in a transaction:

1. Simplicity. Have Realtors made the process complicated to justify their fees?

2. Innovation. The opposite of innovation? GEEZER!

3. Speed. (guess they’ve never tried to do a short sale!)

4. Relationships. Self, Family/Friends, colleagues and neighbors, citizens/markets

5. Entertainment. Make the process FUN and enjoyable!

6. Collaboration. Old way: we’re all against each other. New way: how can we work together and help everyone more?

7. Transparency. If we have ALL the facts we can make a better decision

8. Integrity. Old way: “OK, you got me this time, but I’ll get you back next time”

9. Scrutiny. No secrets anymore… they have the ability to research EVERYTHING

10. Customization. Old way: this is how we do it. Period. New way: let’s see what we can do to make it fit for you better

11. Freedom. 1/3 of the Gen Y will remain renters because they have more Freedom.

12. Community Service. Tell them what you do for your community to make it a better place. And they want you to DO something, not write a check!

If you want to be competitive in this emerging market, it is critical that you look at these 12 items and see how you can integrate them into your business right away.

Jeremy pointed out that so many agents are just trying to stay afloat right now that they’re not paying attention to the major market shift and when the market returns to “normal” we will all be left wondering what happened to “normal” because we will never be able to go back to the “old ways” of transacting business.

Hope some of these items opened your eyes to what the new market wants and expects from us, I know I’m making some changes already (TXT!)

CUL8R

Andy

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