One of AFFLNK's most popular webinars, "How to Engage the Millennial Purchasing Manager," is now available for free at the company's website, http://tinyurl.com/zvxbslu.
 
AFFLINK is a sales and marketing organization. They are also the developers of the ELEVATE™ process, designed to help end-customers create a healthier workplace, increase worker productivity, reduce costs, and satisfy Green and sustainability objectives.
 
The webinar is intended to help today's distributors better understand Millennials, who are now fast filling such positions as facility and purchasing manager.
 
It is based on studies conducted by such respected organizations as the Boston Consulting Group, the University of Alabama Research Group, and ZS Associates and the Chally Group, both business consulting organizations, as well as AFFLINK's own data.
 
"When preparing this webinar, what we discovered is that the Millennials are very different from past generations," says Michael Wilson, vice president of marketing for AFFLINK. "It is these differences that distributors need to understand about Millennials so they can work more effectively with them."
 
According to Wilson, some of the many points discussed in the webinar include the following:
 • 10,000 Millennials turn 21 every day.
 • In less than 10 years, three out of four workers will be Millennials.
 • Millennials are the most educated generation in U.S. history, with 63 percent having college degrees; this also means they likely will be hired into management positions.

"And one of the key themes of the webinar is just how 'online-focused' millennials are," adds Wilson. "For instance, most make purchasing decisions based on online searches and are eight times more likely to become a repeat customer of these online vendors."
 
This is critical information for distributors to understand. It means that many of the traditional and current ways distributors market products, such as cold-calling or providing hard-copy catalogs, are fast becoming things of the past.
 
"The Millennials are likely to be a challenge for some distributors who have been in the business for many years," says Wilson. "The webinar discusses these challenges [with the goal of] helping distributors find ways to address them."