Comments on: The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IV

By: Issue #19 Green shoots? at Social Entrepreneurship Today

Issue #19 Green shoots? at Social Entrepreneurship Today — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:51:41 +0000

[...] Portnik presents The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, part IV posted at Gavin [...]

By: Stuart McLean

Stuart McLean — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:04:41 +0000

Sir Alan got it spot on again!

Paula got sacked because having clearly delegated costing responsibility to Ben and Yasmina she overrode them and did it herself.

Delegation is about giving other people responsibility and setting their expectations about what is required and what resources they can draw on. Once Paula started doing the costing herself she took the responsibility back and paid the cost. She did not even ask anyone to check her calculations!

She then went on to be far too nice to Yasmina – her mate – and tried to blame Ben – who, apart from being arrogant, didn’t do much wrong on the task.

Also, having realised her mistake (or rather having it pointed out by Nick) she simply doubled her prices. Why did she not calculate the unit cost and then double or treble it. They at least would have stood a chance then as they actually sold all their stock!

As for Noorul – I’m suprised Sir Alan didn’t just sack him anyway!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:34:55 +0000

I agree with Rachel, the show made too much of the confusion between Cedarwood and Sandelwood. They knew the correct cost per Kg of Sandelwood and simply misread the recipe and thought that only 3g was required and not 450g. However, how Yasmina didn't realise that the beaker of oil she poured into the recipe weighed much more then 3g was staggering.

Personally I thought Paula deserved to go more for her bad taste in shoes then her performance in the task. After all even Nasa make mistakes in calculations using imperial measurements instead of metric so it just goes to show even Rocket scientists can make simple mistakes if they use the wrong numbers.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:34:54 +0000

I don't see why Ben should have been fired for Yasmina and Paula's mistake. As I saw it, they made the mistake not by mixing up the oils but by misinterpreting the recipe and thinking they only wanted 3 grams and then by failing to double check their costings with Ben. He thought they were choosing the oils, which they were and I suspect he thought that they would go over costings before adding an entire beaker full. Indeed, when Deborah pointed out the cost later they still seemed under the impression that they had only used 3 grams when it was clear they hadn't.

If Paula had blamed Yasmina for the mistake, perhaps the result would have been different.

By: Gavin Ingham

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:15:07 +0000

Phil

I too loved Nick's torpedo… brilliant. Yasmina's face was a picture. And of course, you are totally right about interrupting busy people in the tube.

Ben has a major ego issue and I would have sacked him for that reason but, like The Guardian, I agree that they kept the people who might make the best TV and both Yasmina and Ben have plenty more mileage yet.

As for working on a team with them… not without a stab vest.