Full Circle: Working with Our Adult Kids’ Friends

It was bound to happen, a matter of time. It’s simple math. I told myself all the above, and more.

Over the past two weeks, I have worked and met with my Adult kids’ friends in two different cities. With 39 years in Sales, the next generational rotation was bound to come my way. And what a pleasure it was in both scenarios.

First was in San Francisco at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference. En route, I spoke with a friend of 35 years who I attended San Diego State University with. She let me know that her son was working at Salesforce.com in downtown San Francisco, and the next thing I knew, I was on a tour of their gorgeous 61-story building. The top floor is where the attached picture with Ben Cox was taken; he is in Sales in the SMB division at SFDC. What an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, fun young man Ben is-he will go far.

And last week in Houston, while attending a new customer’s Sales Kickoff meeting, Kayla Greibl stepped into the shortened Workshop Manager role as we provided the Executives and Sales Leaders with a half-day overview of their Sales Process. Kayla played volleyball at Brown University with my daughter Hannah, the latter graduates in May. Having seen Kayla play at a high level, and complete a rigorous academic curriculum made it even more enjoyable to work with her in a high-energy session.

Both experiences left me reflecting on something I see more clearly than ever: this generation has extraordinary access to information, but what differentiates them is how they create value in conversations. They don’t default to telling. They listen. They observe. And when they speak, it’s usually grounded in relevance.

Sales processes, tools, and methodologies matter. But they only work when paired with curiosity and respect for the buyer’s perspective. Watching the next generation operate in real business settings reinforced a belief I’ve held for a long time: access opens doors, but value earns trust.

And trust, as it turns out, isn’t generational at all.