The Sales Apprentice 2008: Sales training & business development tips from the hit TV show, part VII
Lights! Camera! Action! We were down to 10 but by the end of the show these 10 were to become 8! What went on in tonight’s Apprentice and what sales training and business development tips, if any, could we learn from it?
At the start of tonight’s programme I was concerned for Sir Alan… Could it be that there is no-one remotely worth hiring in the show at all this year? I’m really not sure and not much occurred to change my mind tonight although there could yet be some dark horses to watch for…
7am. Michael answered the phone to be told that they were going on a two day business trip. “Unbelievable,” he responded. Not really Michael! On telling the rest of the house we could hear several female sounding voices erupt in screams.
Where have they got these people from? If their CVs are to be believed (and they certainly cannot be taken as gospel – see Michael’s Jewish intro later) they are already successful business people so why the juvenile celebrations over a two day trip to Marrakech? You’d think that they had just been told they were flying to the moon and back…
Next morning in Marrakech the teams awoke to their task which was to buy 10 specific items and return to the hotel by 630pm that evening with those. The team who spent the least amount of money would be the winner.
Our teams were to go forth and haggle, negotiate, barter, beg and trade to get themselves and their teams the best possible deals.
This show had promise…
- There should have been plenty of negotiation, selling, persuasion, influence and closing tips. We should have had plenty to learn and apply. Unfortunately, these lessons were, by enlarge, never to appear, being replaced instead by far more basic lessons and…
- I have been to Marrakech as a motivational speaker to speak at a sales conference where the sales teams did a very similar (although rather more stretching) exercise in the Souks. I was looking forward to some tips and ideas that I could share with future clients wanting to do something similar…
Unfortunately, they weren’t to materialise and the teams I went with were significantly more successful and creative in their efforts in the Souks than our Apprentices! - On a more personal note, I personally bought some silver jewellery in the Souks and I was interested to see how their experiences of “negotiating” compared to mine…
Before they started, Sir Alan rejigged the teams sending Jennifer and Michael to Renaissance and Sara to Alpha. I don’t know about you but I have lost the plot with these teams. The players have been substituted so many times I have no idea which team is which! The only permanent thing about the teams seems to be their names and their affiliations to Nick and Margaret.
Lee and Jennifer were made team leaders. I was looking forward to seeing these two in action. Jennifer because I have previously thought her somewhat ineffective and incompetent and Lee because, until last week’s attack on Sara, I thought he was a potential dark horse…
Raef was quick to get into the spirit of things and suggested that they would all be able to negotiate more effectively if they dressed in local garb. Given the pigeon French that we heard on the flight over it is unlikely that this would have fooled anyone. Fortunately, this idea was rejected quickly by the team…
Lee suggested that they should start the project off by getting on the phones and locating the items before they set off. This made total sense. Planning and preparation was going to be key to covering the ground necessary to get the items that they wanted at the best prices.
The Souks really do represent mile after mile of shopping opportunity but as I found, it is really easy to get lost if you don’t keep your eyes on where you are going. This might be fine for me in my touristic ramblings with my Canon camera – but not so good for people on a strict time budget and with a mission to accomplish!
Jennifer was not as wise as Lee and elected instead to push on into the Souks and hope for the best. A poor strategy by anyone’s standards.
Despite her lack of research Jennifer’s team were lucky to stumble upon an orange Santos juicer. Alex and Claire pretended to be a couple and tried to negotiate together. Unfortunately, we did not really see enough of this negotiation and I would have loved to seen more. Suffice to say however that the scenario did not play well and resulted in them agreeing a ridiculously small discount of only £1!
Sales training and negotiating tip: When you are entering into client negotiations with another member of your team present it is critically important that you agree rules and boundaries for how you are going to work together. Claire thought that she was free to speak as and when she wanted. Alex, on the other hand, felt that there were too many cooks spoiling the broth and that only he should speak.
Negotiation tip: Understanding the core games that buyers play, recognising the psychological pressure that these put you under and learning to deal with them will greatly improve the results that you get from your sales negotiations.Introducing your own games can work well (e.g. good cop / bad cop) but if you get caught out game playing you could well severely compromise your negotiation position.
There is a great story told in personal development circles about a factory owner with a broken down machine. He tries everything that he can to fix it but cannot get the machine working again. Eventually, he calls out an expert who takes one look at it and then hits it once with a hammer. The machine is fixed.
The factory owner is delighted until the bill arrives for £1000. He rings up the expert and angrily asks how the bill could be £1000 when it only took 5 minutes to fix. He asks for a break down of the bill.
The expert responds with the following:
Hitting the machine £5.
Knowing where to hit it £995.
The moral is clear. You can run around in your business like a headless Kosher chicken but if you don’t know where to put your effort you are unlikely to be successful.
Lee, having observed this cardinal rule of business and selling, had spent part of the morning on the phones and planning and was looking good..
Meanwhile Michael was reminding us what an arrogant idiot he is, “I am an extremely arrogant person,” he said not beating around the bush in any way! He then blundered into a deal on a cow hide knocking the dealer down from 2500 dirhams to 825. He was ecstatic about this and later boasted of his prowess to Sir Alan.
Like any good cock fight you really ought to know the size of the cock before you start crowing about your big cock. Across Marrakech in the tanneries Raef had bought their cow skin for a mere 250 dirhams, a price so good even he could not believe it! From what we saw he did not negotiate at all so he may well have been able to get it cheaper still!!!
Back in the Souks Michael was trying to buy 1.5 kilos of Kosher chicken. I have never seen such a fiasco in all of my life. Michael, whose CV apparently started with words something like, “I am a good Jewish boy” did not know what Kosher was. Later in the board room he was to protest that he was only half Jewish. Well, I’m not Jewish Michael and even I know what kosher food is.
(Interestingly, I did not think that Kosher food needed to be blessed and it is implied later on in the programme that they were penalised because it was not blessed correctly. According to this article at Judaism 101 it would appear that the blessing bit is a myth…)
On planet Jennifer meanwhile her team were having difficulty even sticking to the script, buying a white mosque alarm clock rather than a green one and some unbranded Tagine dishes rather than the branded ones that Sir Alan had requested. Surely when they bought them for 100 dirhams rather than the guide price of 800 they might have suspected something???
Nope!
With time ebbing away both teams resorted to desperate measures, Lee’s team scouting the streets for an orange juice machine and Jennifer’s team looking for a green alarm clock…
Chasing one of their last items, tennis racquets, the teams found themselves in the same shop. Jenny (and a non complaining Michael) offered to pay the shopkeeper to tell the other team that the racquets could not be strung that day. This outrageous idea was rejected by the shopkeeper…
Last chance lesson in sales training, business development and life: Attempting to get ahead by underhand means is unacceptable. What’s more it rarely works.
I remember attempting to get into an account once that one of my friends was working with. He had it sewn and stitched it right up and my chances of getting an opportunity were slim until… he personally attacked me in the account. An underhand, untrue and unprofessional slight on me. The prospect, who until this point was barely talking with me told me exactly what had been said, told me that he did not like his attitude and gave me all of the business…
A sales lesson for all indeed. But back to the show…
In the final moments of the task Lee managed to secure an over priced second hand juicer for 120 dirhams. Cue another round of screaming and shouting. “Come on!” yelled Lee… (see my “Why People Think Salespeople are Stupid” article of mid week referring to Charlotte Ross’ piece in The Evening Standard)…
Back at the hotel Nick told Sir Alan that Sara and Lucinda were “a revelation” this week. Margaret said that Jennifer was a bit “scatter gun” in her approach.
The results were in…
Alpha had spent £413.61 and all of the items were present and correct. Renaissance had spent £449.60 but two items had incurred penalties so their final figure was £603.59.
Alpha had won and headed off for a hot air balloon ride at Leeds Castle.
Back in the board room next day Sir Alan was not happy…
“Good evening.” He barked.
“Bonjour,” came back the reply.
“What’s the significance of bonjour?” Barked Sir Alan. Now, now Sir Alan… I think you know!
“Just wanted to say it in French” stated Jenny.
“I see.” Said Sir Alan grumpily.
What a stupid conversation.
Sir Alan then attacked Jennifer for not doing any research. Claire said she thought Jennifer was OK but messed up by getting the wrong colour alarm clock. Sir Alan rightly pointed out that buying a clock was not brain surgery…
Now there’s a scary thought… any of this lot with a scalpel messing around inside your head… Enough to give me nightmares for a month!
Alex meanwhile was attacking Claire for basic negotiation errors. Have you noticed how Alex, at least once per week, manages to preface some statement or other he makes by reminding us that he is in sales?
And then there were some rapid fire attacks…
Alex said the negotiations were not his fault (very slippery shoulders that one), Sir Alan told Jenny she was older than the others and should know what Kosher was (not sure age has much to do with it), Sir Alan said he could check if Michael was Kosher by pulling his trousers down (not sure that’s a particularly useful technique Sir Alan), Michael said he was only half Jewish (and?), Sir Alan said that he could fire all of them right now (Ed: Go on! Go on! Please!)…
And then…
Alex admitted a mistake buying the wrong pottery, Jenny said Claire was hard to shut up, Claire said she thought she was doing a boyfriend / girlfriend role play, Michael said he did the best deal of the day (cow hide), Michael called Jenny a liar, Margaret accused Jenny of a cheap trick over the racquet strings…
And Sir Alan sent them all out. A shame that he did not sack them all really…
He then called them back in and asked them if they had a clear vision in their minds as to why they should stay?
Jenny was the first to speak. Sir Alan listened and then responded by saying that she was listening to what he had to say and then basing her arguments on that. “Jenny you’re fired”.
Thank goodness. I’ve not rated her since the first time that she opened her mouth. Bye!
But Sir Alan was not finished, “Right who’s next?”
Jennifer was next up admitting that she did not pay attention to detail but that she did her best to rectify her mistakes. Sir Alan pointed out that it was not even her who noticed the mistakes.
Michael then stepped in to say that he had made a horrific mistake with this Kosher business.
Alex, said that he gave it 100%.
Not the best answer but Sir Alan seemed happy and asked him who he would fire. Alex said Claire. Claire then said she would fire Jennifer as there should be some accountability. Jennifer then said that Claire was like the Tasmanian devil and should be fired. Michael said that Claire was “fabulous” as a project manger and Jennifer should be fired.
Claire and Jennifer then started arguing with each other only to be interrupted by Sir Alan, “Here’s my next move. Alex - go back to the house. I’ll see you on the next task. OK. You three go outside. I am going to have a chat with Nick and Margaret and then one of you is going to get fired.”
Back in the board room the games continued but Sir Alan decided to sack Jennifer holding her responsible for the failed task and accusing her of changing like the wind. “Jennifer you’re fired”.
Not a bad decision because she was incompetent although personally I would have probably sacked Michael too.
I do find however that the board room shenanigans are becoming a bit of a farce. It seems the whole thing is designed to promote aggressively Machiavellian tendencies. I dread to think what non-business people must think about the world of business. In the real world, this lot should be judged on results and results alone not their ability to play some TV friendly game in the board room…
Back in the house Raef said that he hoped that they all got fired for lack of integrity… I didn’t like him in the first show or two but he seems to have mellowed a little (or is it just that I was still hopeful for a star then?)…
Whatever, I’m coming around to him… a little…
So what sales training and business development lessons did we learn from tonight’s show? Not the ones that we would have hoped to have learned that’s for sure. Certainly not top negotiation or influence tips nor selling or closing tips…
Planning and preparation is essential.
Yet again the good old sales training and business staple of making sure that you have planned and prepared effectively. Lee’s team spent the first part of the task on the phones planning who they should visit and marking out their time.
This saved them valuable time and energy on the ground and meant that they could focus their activities on getting the results that they wanted.
Most sales and business people do either to little or too much planning and preparation. Knowing when to stop planning and start taking action is as important as knowing how to leverage your planning and preparation efforts to work smarter not harder.
Work as a team.
Lee seemed to have a greater control of his team than Jennifer who seemed to have as little control as she did planning.
Team spirit and shared goals and aspirations are essential if you want to create high performance sales teams.
Be straight and honest.
Salespeople hate being called dishonest, shifty and elusive yet clients did not just make this stuff up one day! Some salespeople are dishonest, shifty and elusive (as people are in all walks of life). You need to make sure that you are not one of them.
Jenny’s dishonest tactic was underhand and unacceptable. I would have sacked Michael for this too. He had neither the strength to stand up and say “No” to her nor the strength to admit he was in on it fully to Sir Alan. He was hoping to surf the wave whichever way it went.
Because of the bad reputation that some salespeople have many clients throw up barriers to the sale and lock salespeople out. You cannot disarm these barriers with fast talk and schmooze. The only way to unlock them is by being straight and honest with your prospects and clients (see my 6 Psychological Keys to Sales Success in my Professional Selling Skills programmes).
I’d be real interested in hearing your thoughts on the 8 remaining Apprentices. It’s midnight and I’m in a hotel in Ireland… I’ll let you know my thoughts later in the week…
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“I dread to think what non-business people must think about the world of business”
After the antics last night and the non stop bickering throughout this series I can’t imagine it’s very positive.
Of the remaining 8 none of them stand out as people I’d pay £100K.
Jenny and Jennifer gone - at last! These two have been winding me up for weeks with their bitchy and manipulative comments.
I’m thinking Raef looks like the best option to win - Alex seems a popular choice but, although he is often in the thick of whatever arguments are going on, what does he actually do?
Or Lucinda could come through - quiet and calm - just not sure if she has enough substance yet - we’ll have to wait and see!
A great many sales people, feeling continually thwarted by uncooperative buyers, long to have that power themselves, and often try to become buyers. Professional buyers themselves, on the other side of the desk, often view the “easy life” of the sales person, and think it must be a breeze. There are of course many shared experiences which can be very useful, if you do make the switch.
In this task, the “award winning” sales people were asked to do just that, and of course Claire, the professional buyer, could show just how it should be done.
As a salesman, in his very first training session, you are taught to recognise buying signals, those little tell-tale signs that your prospective client is keen to do business. Signs like “how much does it cost”, and “I really want that one” are easy to spot, and give the salesman the upper hand in the negotiation of price. When a group of excited foreigners start whooping and cheering that you actually have an item in stock, this is a sign that you need to be charging as much as is humanly possible. This is known in the trade as “Seeing them coming”.
At no stage did I see anyone finding 2 sources for a product and using that to negotiate the best price. At no stage did I see anyone hum and haw over any product, debating either with themselves, or an imaginary girlfriend about whether they really need to buy it, especially at that price.
Whatever happened to humour based negotiation, which always works well in a haggling society, where everyone knows the game, and it is eased by a bit of playful push and pull.
Ever since I saw Michael getting royally done over for the fish at that lawyer’s office, I knew that this was a complete pansy, who had nothing to be arrogant about.
Switching from sales to buying requires that you understand what the salesperson is doing in a negotiation, and can use the insight that you should have to get a fantastic deal.
I have personally often walked away from a bad sales person, and not bought the product I really wanted, at the price I was happy with, because I didn’t like their technique, and didn’t think they had earned the sale. Conversely, I’m a sucker for a good sales person, who takes me professionally through the process, and have often bought something I didn’t need as a result.
At no point in this task did I see any of that kind of insight, and once again am dumbfounded by these so-called contenders.
I love this program one of the few things I will actually dedicate time to sit down and watch outside of Rugby. But what on earth has happened to this series! ……….. As you often mention Gavin it appears to be full of self obsessed egos - perhaps someone has muddled up the candiates for the next big brother - Im rapidly losing my hair and love of the program. I thought for a breif moment last night the good old BBC were going to pull us all back around and allow Alan to fire the 3 of them!
Such a shame he didnt but my money is on Micheal going out next week. A far safer bet than having to back a winner!
im not sure there is one in there (ahh maybe no one will be picked and my love of the program will return ever the optimist)i find myself pulling towards Raef or Lucinda (how sad is that)
At least anyone who takes a pride in their proffesion of sales can hold their head high if this is the standard!
An excellent commentary once again Gavin. Many thanks.
What is it with people (and not just in The Apprentice) justifying their staying in a competition with the words: “I really, really want this, more than anything.”?
Is this supposed to be winning argument? Do they expect SAS to say: “Oh, well in that case you can stay.”?
Much better to explain how they can learn and grow with his guidance like Claire did, demonstrating that she can change.
SAS seems to like plain speaking, honest dealing, keeping it simple, common sense and someone he can mould (like Simon from the last series).
If I were in the boardroom I would play up these qualities.
Tom.
Short story on negotiation.
A fellow with a damaged transit van went to a scrap yard to ask how much a replacement driver’s door would cost.
“£200″ said the scrap yard owner.
“But the scrap yard across the road only charges £100″
“Do they have any in stock?” replied the Scrappy
“No”
“Well when we don’t have any in stock, our price is £100 too”
This year’s Apprentice is driving me mad - what a shame they have turned a business reality show into Big Brother meets Celebrity Jungle - a pack of screaming under-performing ‘personalities’ - picked more for show and fireworks than even approaching “Britain’s Best & Brightest Entrepreneurs”.
It WAS a good show, losing it by the week, bring back Donald Trump - at least his candidates were good.
In response to “sales People are stupid…’ article and last nights sacking of Jen - if she really were one of the top sales people in Europe (God where do they get these idiots!!!) then she would be earning a 7 figure salary, with 7 figure bonuses, not scrabbling about after a £100k secretarial job!
Top end Law and accountancy graduates are earning £100k in their first year at Goldman- Sachs these days. Sales People ARE successful, very high earners, it’s a PROFESSION to be proud of, to become better at & to earn BIG money at. If your not already earning far more than £100k then go along to GAVIN INGHAM seminars and learn how!