---
title: "Data Nugget: How Millennials Want to Do Business"
id: "28676"
type: "post"
slug: "data-nugget-how-millennials-want-to-do-business"
published_at: "2015-06-01T08:20:17+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-11-09T17:51:33+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/06/01/data-nugget-how-millennials-want-to-do-business/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/06/01/data-nugget-how-millennials-want-to-do-business.md"
excerpt: "In a survey of executives, millennials showed clear preferences for researching and engaging with vendors that differed from current practices."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Marketing / Communications"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "Business"
  - "Customer Engagement"
  - "Marketing"
  - "millennials"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
  - "C-Level"
  - "Executive Team"
  - "For-Profit CEO / President / Owner / Partner"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
  - "Industry Professionals"
---

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 » Data Nugget: How Millennials Want to Do Business

In a survey of executives responsible for business-to-business purchasing decisions, millennials showed clear preferences for researching and engaging with vendors that differed from their organizations’ current practices. Association membership recruiters and industry suppliers, take note.

Millennials: How does your organization engage with vendors during the sales cycle currently, and how would you prefer to engage with vendors?

### Face-to-face meetings

**Current:** 69 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 24 percent

### Email

**Current:** 37 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 69 percent

### Phone

**Current:** 22 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 62%

### Social Media

**Current:** 21 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 19 percent

### Live/video chat

**Current:** 20 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 21 percent

### Text message and other IM

**Current:** 18 percent  
 **Would Prefer:** 24 percent

***Source:** “[To Buy or Not to Buy? How Millennials Are Reshaping B2B Marketing (opens in a new tab)](http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?htmlfid=GBE03658USEN&appname=skmwww)
,” IBM Institute for Business Value, 2015*

(pojoslaw/ThinkStock)

[ASAE Staff](https://associationsnow.com/author/asae-staff/)

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Tags: [#Business](https://associationsnow.com/tag/business/)
 [#Customer Engagement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/customer-engagement/)
 [#Marketing](https://associationsnow.com/tag/marketing/)
 [#millennials](https://associationsnow.com/tag/millennials/)

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