How the Millennial Bottleneck Can Cost You Business

Posted by Vince Poscente on Thu, Sep 14, 2017 @ 04:31 PM

In the motivational keynote speaker world we often wonder why our quality keynote speaker videos are not getting so-much-as-a first-look. Our well-thought-out speaker submission is not getting through. They "chose a different keynote speaker" or "went a different direction." Does this sound familiar in your business?

What are we missing? It's a recent phenomenon we call the Millennial Bottleneck.

A few factors are at play. In particular, it's human nature to follow the crowd. 70% of buyers seek other's opinions before buying. BUT, get this... the percentage jumps to 82% with Millennials seeking social proof.

Like you, we're not new to our industry, yet a bottleneck that USED to be focused strictly on quality is now turning it's eyeballs to social evidence first. And those "eyeballs" (at the 'gate-keeper' phase), we're finding, are predominantly owned by Millennials.

To get a 30,000 foot view, here is what the our speaker bureau agents' booking sequence generally looks like today:

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What can you do to get more business?

#1: Beef Up Your Social Media Image (especially LinkedIn and whatever appears on the first page when they search you). When you Google your name and company are you looking at the first page from the eyes of a Millennial?

#2: A Killer 1st Impression. Be sure your product or service (in our case, a business keynote) you suggested has equally good social proof. Click here for and example of what we do. 

#3: Send Your Client Social Proof. Give Millennials what they want to get past the bottleneck and into the hands of the committee. (By the way, the committee wants both social proof AND quality motivational keynote speaker suggestions.)

45 sec video eg. Popular with our clients.

Video Banner for Testimonial .jpg
Look through the Millennial lens and reduce the amount of business you lose.

Tags: Sales, Business Leadership