It’s clear that this year’s Dealerscope 40 Under 40 inductees have learned much from their past and present mentors. Now it’s time to learn from them.

As retail’s traditional customer base ages, it’s more important than ever for dealers and manufacturers to reach a younger buying public and establish new relationships to ensure the future health of their businesses. Who better to help reach that base than young employees, those who live the lifestyles, respond to the advertising and buy the products of a key target audience.

Our group of 40 Under 40 young industry stars offers some strategies, tips and insights worth listening to. Of course we can’t fit all of what they told us on these pages, so make sure to visit Dealerscope.com for more outtakes. Better yet, just ask some of your young employees for their advice. You might be surprised at what you’ll learn.

“The 20- or 30-year veteran doesn’t necessarily have the same eye a younger employee has,” said Dan Schwab, co-president of D&H Distributing. “Entertainment and communication is where young consumers spend their disposable income; new products have to address that change and demand. Young employees understand what their generation wants, they’re better at taking the pulse.”

Those new avenues of communication and entertainment, along with a younger generation’s attitude toward them, is something retailers should leverage, said Matt Faul, a partner at SolidSignal, a Novi, Mich.-based e-tailer of HDTV solutions. “It seems like my generation—people in their 20s and 30s—are incredibly willing to share things about themselves, especially through social networking sites,” he said. “That’s a great path for marketing.”

As a young buyer at DataVision, a specialty retailer and custom installer in New York City, Lorenzo Traina notes how important it is to step out of the back room and onto the show floor. “You have to get out to observe the market trends,” he said. “That’s how you find out what’s going on.”

Barry Coles, vice president of Elite Screens, said that type of observation is particularly important when trying to develop new sales strategies. “The old ways of marketing and advertising are not as effective as they once were, so you need new methods and strategies to differentiate your company,” he said. “Some things that always worked still do, but some don’t.”

Probably more than just some, considering how quickly things in the CE industry change, our inductees pointed out. “There are many who underestimate the speed of adoption of new technologies by the consumer and the importance of user experience in relation to product features and capabilities,” said Rob Geller, vice president of Peerless Industries. “The fast-paced, highly demanding lifestyle of today’s consumer leaves little room for low-quality, complex and difficult to understand solutions.”

No matter what age we are, we all tend to get trapped under the heavy load of the day-to-day workload. But one thing the younger set helps us remember is that consumer electronics is still a hell of a lot of fun. “I think that some of [the older generation] have lost sight of the fact that we work with some amazingly cool toys. Yes, the bottom line is always paramount, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the wow factor of the items we see every day,” said Leslie Reinhardt, senior buyer, DBL Distributing. “You should never allow yourself to get jaded and only look at the numbers. It’s okay to see a new GPS and say, ‘Wow, sorry, be right back, but I need to go play with this RIGHT NOW!’ If you can get excited about something, it’s easier to get your customers excited.”

Despite the generation gaps that occur in each corner of every market, Bruce Tripido, associate vice president of marketing, entertainment products, at Sharp, said many of his older colleagues do “get it,” which is comforting since, if all goes well, the entire industry, from executives down to the customer, will continue to get older and younger by the day.

“I also think that the dynamics over the years have changed to make the CE industry more of a young person’s game … many of the key decision-makers in large corporate entities are younger than ever and are holding positions of great responsibility,” he said. “We can all learn from one another, regardless of age.”

Bryan West

Vice President, North America Consumer Channels

APC

Age: 36

Education: B.S. in Engineering, West Virginia University

Greatest Achievement: A 14-year industry veteran, West started as a technical customer service rep at APC, and when promoted to sales, grew his region by 89 percent.  West also initiated APC’s Corporate VAR Channel Sales Program.  Since 2001, West has led his team to turn sales around to double-digit growth while improving profits.   He has played an integral role in both generating visibility and increasing share of voice for APC’s retail solutions, and in strengthening APC’s position for its home, home office and A/V products in consumer channels.

Advice: “Work very hard to spend a lot of time meeting and understanding your customers.  Those individuals with a true data-driven ‘customer understanding’ seem to be able to get the most respect and resources with-in the corporate headquarters’ walls.  This leads to business success, which in turn leads to personal advancement opportunities.”