Are the Days of “What’s In It For Me?” Over?

I know you have run into these people.  The people who lead you on to want to talk doing business with you, but really are only focused on their issues or you doing business with them.  There are lot of them out there and really are not doing justice to their cause by taking the “What’s In It For Me” approach of selling. 

Lots of questions come up once you run into one or a group of these individuals. 

• So how do you deal with the “Me Generation”..or do you?
• Where did they learn to be the way they are?
• Is there any benefit in these people being the way they are?

All good questions and all deal with with human relations.  For many newbies to business knowing how to deal with Human Relations issues becomes a weakness that causes stress.  So, why are there so many people who are only focused on themselves?

In taking a look at the internet I have found several sources that confirm that the “What’s In It For Me” movement has been around for a long time.  The attitude morphed into a more aggressive style in the late 90’s when the lack of high paying top executives jobs sent college graduates with PHD’s back to the drive thru windows of the local burger joints.  Unable to pay off their student loans many felt it was the establishment, the older generation, that failed them so developed a ‘Take Control’ attitude.  So the development of the highly aggressive style sales pitch also started the “It’s all about me’ movement.  An example of this movement can be seen in how Facebook was created.

Plus, there were other factors in place before then that indicate where the problem really started…

Eric Chester, president of Generation Why, a consulting organization that speaks about generational differences was interviewed in BusinessWeek this past February, stated what he sees as where the problem started..

First, they’ve actually been victims of the Baby Boomer work ethic. Because mom and dad are working more hours than ever before, the average kid gets far less face time with their parent than you and I had. And those conversations are rarely about the importance of working hard, keeping your nose to the grindstone, giving your very best to each and every job, etc. Plus, pop culture doesn’t teach them what the key to success is.

Where Are They Now

Over the past five years the narcissist of the internet who have adopted the “Me Only’ attitude have gravitated to Facebook and now proliferate Twitter.  Most of the ‘What’s In it for Me’ attitude is shown with their constant posting of novel remarks and then a link to their product or services.  Most are very unsociable until they find someone that fits their need.

However, many of the ‘Only Me’ crowd do not find the internet unfulfilling their need for immediate results.  Some will use the social and business networks only as a farm for them to harvest sales leads.   Others will start spamming.  The result; bad mouth the internet and anyone who uses it as people who waste their time.

Missing Out

What these individuals, and now groups, of ‘Me and Only Me’ people are missing out on is developing the more profitable longer lasting solid business relationships.  They see repeat business as a statistically slim chance.  They feel having someone they can trust or who would be a ‘Go To Person’ or mentor takes away from the focus on them. 

Is there a solution?

Ignoring them works well, but not a permanent solution since they just take their attitude to the next person they run into. 

Learning more about why they are the way they are will help to develop a solution, but then leads to evaluating the time spent dealing with them.  That is time both you and the ‘singularity’ could spend in learning new business development skills.

Keeping them out of your circle of influence will limit the number of times you will have to deal with them.

The ‘What’s In It For Me’ generation will unfortunately be around until the Baby Boomers start shutting them down with logic.  So, until that happens be prepared to deal with them the best you can.  Let me know how I can help.