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The Edge Of The Trend

It wasn't obvious until the second millennial client in 2 years sought us out to build a complex online sales pipeline for their decades-old manufacturing business. But we caught on quickly enough. The front of the wave had hit us and it was time to pop up and surf.

Boomers and Millennials

Baby boomers are now between 60 and 75 years old. They are retiring. Their kids are millennials between 25 and 40 years old. They are taking over the family business.

We all know that one of the most striking differences between boomers and their millennial kids is the digital world. Millennials are digital natives. They want to start and end a complete shopping trip online. Boomers have caught up, but still do not grok the full power of a website to support a manufacturing business and its sales pipeline.

What Can a Millennial Do With the Web?

Our millennial clients who have taken over family manufacturing businesses from their parents come to us knowing what a good website can do. They know that a website can fully educate and inform a customer. A website can help a customer discover and configure a complex manufacturing solution. A website can take an order, push it into a CRM or ERP system, and support the customer with service plans and supplemental parts after the sale.

Millennials know that a website can streamline sales and support. And most importantly, millennials know that their customers are now also millennials. They know that going digital is no longer a choice.

Bridging the Gap

Millennials are taking over manufacturing and distribution businesses from boomer parents who invested poorly in digital, if at all. They thought that a website was either a $10k WordPress digital brochure or a $500k monolithic digital behemoth. At the time boomers tried selling on the web, if they tried at all, it wasn't mature. They couldn't move progressively. They couldn't try experiments with their customers. They couldn't explore.

The millennials taking over know that the web has changed. It has matured and it is ready for the selling of complex, configurable, high-cost, high-stakes products. They understand that the web is now composable.

Millennials understand that the digital sales pipeline can now be built in phases.

Boomer Pressure

Boomer aging is putting pressure on all sectors of the economy. The industrial manufacturing sector is no exception. But if there was ever a case of an opportunity wrapped inside a challenge, this is one.

Manufacturing businesses are going digital, and Solspace is ready.