It Isn’t Seniors Who Need To Get With The Times – It’s You!

The market has been moving in the digital presence for some time, so it’s funny how so many companies and individual salespeople are now trying to catch up.

It’s also ironic how salespeople think seniors aren’t good with technology or don’t use technology and this way of thinking is the reason they haven’t embraced virtual selling.

The myth in sales is that the senor market hasn’t grown comfortable with digital technology and communications.

Now the reason this is so funny is because in the early days of computing, something akin to modern email developed naturally. In the early 1980s, networked personal computers on LANs became important.

Server-based systems similar to the earlier mainframe systems were developed. Hotmail debuted in 1996 and is considered the first major email provider.

The 1990s was the decade when it all started!

And make no mistake, it was a big decade for email. In fact, in 1998 it was reported that for the first time more electronic mails were sent than regular (snail) mail.

In terms of revenue, Amazon is the biggest internet-based company in the world.

When it started out selling books online in 1994, Jeff Bezos had an idea that the best way to succeed online was to grow big and grow fast.

Today, the company sells everything from books to groceries to shipping container houses.

This means those very people we call “seniors” are the same people who ushered in the computer age, bought the desktop computers that grew the industry, bought laptops and Palm Pilots, and bought iPhones and iPads for their kids. And the common view is these people are not good with technology.

They have been using the technology salespeople “think” they don’t understand and use for more than 30 years!

Prove It!

Well, let’s turn to the numbers and see what the facts are.

Pew Research illustrates the digital migration of today’s senior citizens. The research demonstrates how this demographic’s internet usage has risen at an increasing rate since 2000.

Beginning in the early 2010s, daily internet usage among those 65 and older rose faster than among younger demographics.

From 2018 to 2019 alone, the percentage of seniors using the internet on a daily basis jumped from 66% to 73%.

Data from eMarketer and others further illustrates the digital habits of seniors around their use of the internet and social media.

• 4 million adults aged 55 and older actively communicate via social networking services.
• One in three baby boomers use social media.
• One in five Twitter users are over 50.

Moreover, seniors make up the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook. As of 2019, 46% of adults aged 65 and older use Facebook, with a large portion of those users logging in daily.

With the tech-savvy middle-age population aging into the next phase of their lives, this trend is expected to increase.

Is there anything else we can learn about this market?

Where else do we see their presence?

An estimated 38% of adults aged 65 and up say they use YouTube on either a computer or their phone. And right behind YouTube, we find 15% of this demographic engaging on Pinterest.

Follow that with LinkedIn and Instagram with 11% and 8% usage respectively and clearly the idea that seniors don’t use technology is a myth.

Kern Health reports that more 84% of Medicare beneficiaries are active on Facebook, sharing opinions and information daily.

It isn’t seniors who need to get with the times, it’s you!

Any salesperson who expects to grow their book of business in the coming years must include digital marketing and virtual selling to seniors as part of their strategy.

It’s a learning curve you need to round – today!

Lloyd Lofton is the founder of Power Behind the Sales. He is the author of The Saleshero’s Guide To Handling Objections, voted 1 of the 11 Best New Presentation Books To Read in 2020 by BookAuthority. Lloyd may be contacted at [email protected].

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Lloyd Lofton is the founder of Power Behind the Sales. He is the author of The Saleshero’s Guide To Handling Objections, voted 1 of the 11 Best New Presentation Books To Read in 2020 by BookAuthority. Lloyd may be contacted at [email protected].