Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham» Influence & communication

Can Your Dad Dance?

Gavin Ingham — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:58:36 +0000

Can your Dad dance? Most can’t. I’m sure they could once but they can’t now! Music tastes changed, dancing styles changed, your Dad aged and somewhere down the line he lost touch with his ability to dance. For many Dad’s, the answer to the problem is to do their bad dancing more enthusiastically, more energetically and more desperately…

No matter, I don’t suppose that dancing is all that important in the grand scheme of things.

But business is. And life is too. And in business and in life everything changed over the last few years. The economy changed. The rules changed. Business changed. Sales changed. Life changed.

And if you want to be a success, you need to change too. What once worked, won’t work anymore. What once won customers, now doesn’t. What once helped you achieve your goals, now won’t. And doing the same old stuff, faster, more frantically and more often won’t make the wrong dance look sexy. And it won’t make you successful in business and in life either.

But that’s what much of the ruling elite want you to do. More of the same. Keep borrowing. Keep spending. Push for more of the same customers. Sell more of the same old, same old. Keep on plugging away and it will all come right. But it won’t. Because they’re out of ideas. They’re too stuck in their ways. They’re too focused on maintaing the status quo.

I’m not buying bad advice and platitudes and neither should you. It’s not good for your sales, your sanity or your business. And that’s why I am changing the approach, mixing it up, adding even more value for you and sharing with you strategies to help you to be more successful in 2012 and beyond. There will be more of some things, less of others and a whole new series of blogs, videos, tips and strategies to help you to make the right changes in your life and in your business.

Join the RSS, get on my success newsletter and let’s get cracking.

Do Manners Still Matter?

Gavin Ingham — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:20:29 +0000

This morning I was on my way down to London on the train and I had the “pleasure” of travelling in rush hour into Central Leeds. It’s been a while since I have travelled in rush hour (something I try and avoid when attending motivational talks where possible!) and like many activities it was good for a bit of people watching! The train was already full when it pulled into my home town station with many people standing and commuters crowded into the seats. I struggled onto it with my laptop, kit bag and suit carrier and sought to find a place which didn’t leave me balancing the bags and with nothing to lean or hold onto.

After a couple of minutes, the train pulled out of the station and moved on to the next station and then the next where several people got off to switch trains for Bradford. As they did so one seat was left empty and maybe 30+ people were still standing. A man, aged about 30, whipped past everybody and sat down. He was, I would say, old enough to know better (?!!) but young enough to stand without coming to any harm. I looked around the carriage. Standing up were two women over 60, one man who was even older, one guy with a stick, a slightly pregnant woman and a whole host of other people… at least half female.

Now certainly, I was taught to stand for women, children and older people let alone pregnant women or people needing a stick to help them stand. And even if this is not de rigueur anymore, is it too much to expect a totally fit man not to use his speed, agility and bulk to force his way into a seat?

I think not. And this selfish, “it’s all about me” behaviour is not isolated to travel either! We see it in all walks of life…

Leaving political comment about greedy bankers, thieving rioters, corrupt politicians and people too idle to work out of it… let’s talk about shopping! When shopping, people mill about and get in each other’s way from time to time. Every trip, creates at least one situation where one person or another has to step out of the way to avoid a collision. I am pretty aware of my surroundings and people around me so it is not often me walking sideways, bumping into people or randomly stopping or changing direction!

Yet…

It’s always me saying, “I’m sorry,” even when it is clearly the other person’s fault. I can’t help it, it’s innate, its deep inside me. I just say it! I’ve tried not to but I cannot stop myself no matter how hard I try! (My Mum would be pleased). And yet, few other people murmur anything at all. I reckon less than 1 in 20… not that I’m counting or anything! It’s like, “Who are you? Get out of my way.”

So there I was, standing on the train, wondering whether I was wrong? Wondering whether offering my seat to someone else, holding a door for someone or showing politeness to someone was wrong? By refusing to ignore people, not wanting to slam doors in faces and by being unwilling to grab the last seat and play Angry Birds on my iPhone, does this make me sexist, ageist, out of touch?

Maybe you think it does? Maybe you think it doesn’t? Maybe you think I am wrong? Maybe you think I am right? I’m sure you will tell me but I think manners do matter. I think manners make society. I think manners show respect for others, respect for society and respect for yourself. Manners maketh man. And I am a man not an ape. And as a man, I care about others. I respect others. I am aware of others. I am aware of their existence and I value them. And I think that is important.

But I also think that manners stem from respect for and caring for others. And these are some of the things that make me a good speaker, a good salesperson, a good friend and good business partner.

If you want to be a good salesperson you need to care about others. If you want to be a good salesperson you need to respect others. Great salespeople respect their clients, their colleagues, their peers and their profession. For sure, you might be able to point at some money-grabbing, non-feeling, dinosaurus-rexus of a salesperson who chases their clients around biting huge chunks out of any they can catch but they are on the way out, they are soon to be extinct. Just like T-Rex.

It’s not all about sales skills. It’s not all about sales ability. It’s not all about sales training. It’s also not all about the company you work for or the product you sell. And it is most definitely not all about the market and the economy. Who you are and how you behave have a profound impact upon your client relationships, your sales conversations, your sales results and your life.

So on your way home tonight, think about it a little before you bump into the person next to you and say nothing, before you dive into the nearest seat without a thought for others, before you walk off leaving the door to swing into someone’s face. Not being aware of who lost out does not make them lose out and suffer any the less. And it does not make you a better person.

Me, I am going to continue to stand up and offer my seat, I am going to continue to hold doors and I am going to continue to say, “Sorry.”

Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:32:02 +0000

I hope that you’re having a good week, speaking to lots of new clients and winning lots of new business. I want to start this blog post by asking you a question, “What do you think about cold calling?” Now by asking that, what I don’t mean is do you like being rung at home when you’re eating your dinner (tea for us Northerners) and someone trying to sell you timeshares? No, what I mean is, “Do you think cold calling works?”

Now I know that this is a very divisive question. It’s divisive for a whole variety of reasons. It’s divisive because everyone has so many opinions, ideas and beliefs about whether cold calling is coming, going, works, doesn’t work, is ethical, is unethical, is powerful, is a waste of time…

And not everyone can be right, can they?

Or can they? As a sales motivational speaker and sales author I get to work with salespeople of all flavours and I have clients from all industries from car sales to insurance sales, from park home sales to engineering sales, from pharmaceutical sales to financial sales and pretty much everything sales inbetween. And on my travels I see people who win lots and lots of new business by picking up the phone and making appointments with key new prospects and many, many people who fail miserably too.

And whilst I agree that cold calling is more relevant for some industries than others and more relevant for some products than others and it is most definitely not right in all situations, I have met salespeople from all walks of industry who use it effectively. I’ve also worked with them and seen the results.

You see, most of the time, it’s not the industry or the product, it’s the salesperson and the sales system that makes the difference.

Melody proved this on The Apprentice (UK) last night when she picked up a mobile in the back of a car in France (!) and set up 6 appointments. But could the others Apprentices repeat her success?

Nope.

What did she have that the others didn’t? How did she approach prospects that got results where others failed?

Why do some people in your office get great results on the phone and others get only mediocre results… or worse?

Sure, we could get into an argument about what a cold call is. We could debate whether your call should be called a cold call at all if you’ve done the right research and weaved it into your call effectively. We could discuss the percentage of your time you should spend on the phone versus utilising other methods of contacting or attracting new clients…

And that would be useful but it would not change the facts. Cold calling works when done right. And you may not want to do it. And you may not want to hear it but that’s the way it is.

Someone once asked me why I blogged and why I used Twitter and why I networked if cold calling was so effective? And that’s the problem here. People want to say something has replaced something else. It’s black and white. It’s either or. But it’s not…

My answer was simple. “I do what works. I do a combination of things designed to consistently bring me in business. I do the ones that work. As long as they work I use them. And when they don’t, I will change what I am doing or stop.”

I have a highly refined new business sales system based on sales mindset, structure and language. The call engages clients by focusing on them not you. If you’re interested, read some more of my blog posts on cold calling and selling in general or watch a video or two. Better still, why not come to one of my No Fear Cold Calling seminars? If you want to eliminate fear of cold calling, get the mindset for success, better engage with your clients, set up more appointments and win more new business then it is a must attend.

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 8

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:28:15 +0000

Week 8 of The Sales Apprentice and it’s time for our two teams to head over La Manche to sell some wacky British products to the unsuspecting French. With only 8 Apprentices left, tonight’s task saw Suzy leading Jim, Helen and Zoe facing off against Tom “leading” Leon, Melody and Natasha.

It also did a lot to clarify my thoughts about the candidates and I’m sure by now you must have your favourites too. First task of the night was to pick two products to sell. After some deliberation and some bizarre questions from Suzy (“Do the French like their kids?”) Suzy settled on a portable child’s car booster seat / rucksack and a gadget grip that would hold a mobile device and attach it to your car, desk etc. Over on the other team, Tom also wanted the car seat but, after being pressurized by his team, he went for a pop up greeting card in which you grow cress (better than it sounds) and a bone china teapot shaped light…

And this lack of any backbone or any sense of leadership summed up Tom’s whole contribution as leader. He’s obviously a nice guy, he appears smart, he has been quite astute at times during this series and his hankering for the haversack tonight was spot on but he shouldn’t have let his team walk him down the wrong path.

But they did and primarily because of Melody’s input. Melody decided right from the start that the rucksack seat was a bad idea despite not seeing it. On being asked by Tom to research La Redoute (“part of the world’s 3rd largest home shopping organisation”) where Lord Alan had set them up a meeting she decided to do “market research” in the street instead. This seemed to consist of asking a handful of people and “filtering” their answers to agree with what she wanted to hear… namely that the French had no need for a rucksack / booster chair because they didn’t drive. What?!

And I don’t think this was deliberate. I think she genuinely thought she did ask the questions genuinely and that she did do proper research…

Sales training tip: As individuals we all have our beliefs about what is and what is not true. Once we get beliefs we tend to stick to them and then we only hear what we believe rather than believing what we hear. If you want to be a sales superstar you need to start hearing what your clients say, not what you thought they said or what you had already decided they were going to say. I’ve heard clients say, “Yes, I’ll take it” and yet the salesperson carried on selling because they didn’t hear what the client said because they believed that they weren’t ready to buy yet.

But in other ways, Melody was kicking some ass and showed it by getting on the phone and setting up 6 appointments to attend the next day…

Sales training tip: Cold calling done right works. I really don’t want to get into it (again) in this post but it really does. I’m not saying that it’s harder or easier than it used to be and I am most certainly not saying that it is right for everyone or every situation. Nor am I saying that everyone could or should do it. And nor am I saying that you shouldn’t be doing lots of other things too (like blogging, lol!)…

But at the right time, in the right situation and done in the right way cold calling works. Make it PART OF your route to market and do it right and you’ll thank me. And don’t listen to naysayers. Most never liked cold calling anyway. Many are in markets where it doesn’t apply. Some have other ideas to sell. And plenty couldn’t / can’t do it. And some are just plain wrong.

I have people on every No Fear Cold Calling seminar who set up meetings the very next day. Melody set up 6 in France on a mobile in the back of a car.

Meanwhile Leon sat there like a spare part. “I don’t speak French. I cannot contribute,” he said. Next to him Melody was speaking English to someone… you hear what you believe remember. And Leon believed he could not contribute, ergo he was right.

Sales training tip: Failure is not an option. Drop your head, lose your attitude, give up and you are done for. Getting a knock is fine. Getting a push is fine. Being bowled over is fine… but you have to get up again.

Leon didn’t get up again for the whole show and signed his own death warrant. In the Hall of the Mountain King he will not get a nice word and a sandwich… the best he will be able to hope for is a merciful beheading.

And then the coolest thing of the night happened… Gendarmes on roller blades… whipping down the street. I rewound the Sky box and watched them again… awesome!

But awesome was not a word you would use to describe Natasha’s pitch to La Redoute. It was not engaging. Frankly, it was boring and she clearly had not done her research. And as if “merde” did not do a good enough job of describing things Tom pitched in by suggesting they make a trial order of 10. Picking up that 10 was too few for La Redoute Natasha intervened suggesting a “high” volume of 50. Of course, part of this issue lay with Melody not doing the research she was asked to but then why did Tom and Tash go in without doing anything themselves? OK, so they had asked Melody to do it but would you show yourself up to be a fool and go in unprepared and pointing the finger at someone else or would you have just done it yourself?

Sales training tip: Do your research. I say this every year, several times and it seems darned obvious and everyone knows that they ought to… and yet… And it’s not just on The Apprentice either. I see lack of research, lack of preparation and lack of practise hampering salespeople and businesses every day. How hard would it have been to research La Redoute? There… follow this link and I did it for you!

Representing team Suzy however Helen’s pitch was a class apart. Starting with an engaging smile she said that she knew their product lines and had bought off their site. The panel smiled and voila the Entente-Cordiale was restored.

A little research and preparation goes a long way. It’s not rocket science.

And neither is selling, something that Melody was doing a good job of in several of the sales appointments that she had set up, selling the somewhat bizarre teapot in reasonable numbers. OK, so she was a bit greedy but then if Lord Alan had wanted them to play as a team he should not have made such a point of them having individual order books. And Melody made a good point when she said that the others had singularly failed to set any meetings up (remember what I said about not everyone having the right skills, attitudes and strategies to set up meetings?)…

But selling or not, Melody was unlikely to finish this task on the winning team so she’d better hope that Lord Alan overlooks her obvious flaws (full of herself, doesn’t listen, does her own thing, ruthless…) in favour of her bullish, self-belief and sales success. Because Tom, Leon and Tash were making a cochon’s ear of this one…

Tom couldn’t manage his way out of a paper bag and was totally out of control of the whole team and spent most of the task looking like he didn’t even know quelle country he was in. Leon showed himself up as out of his depth, beaten and defeatist and Tash did, well, nothing much.

In the Boardroom…

The results were in.

Tom and Logic had made E11,705 sales to retailers they found and 0 to La Redoute.
Suzy and Venture had made E14,699 sales to retailers and E214,000 to La Redoute.

Oh la la! A fabulous result for Suzy based mostly on the cracking pitch from Helen who is looking like a really strong candidate this year (although we are missing a huge piece because we know so little about what Lord Alan is looking for)…

Suzy, Helen, Jim and Zoe headed off to fly planes no doubt glad that they had Helen and not Tom and Jerry (Tom and Leon) on their team…

Back in the Boardroom…

Tom elected to bring back Leon and Melody. Lord Alan looked crestfallen that he wouldn’t get to tear a strip of the sullen looking Natasha and consoled himself with laying into the others. Tom immediately tried to blame Melody and the rest of the team for not supporting him in wanting the rucksack. Part fair I agree as he did want the rucksack but there were 9 other products and had they got the research and the pitch right for La Redoute, who’s to say that they might not have sold more?

Sales training tip: Bad salespeople blame their products. Bad salespeople blame the markets. Bad salespeople blame their clients. Good salespeople, do their research, do their preparation and work out why their clients want and need to buy their products and services and then sell them. And that’s it!

But no-one was blameless here. Melody had forged her own path, ignored instructions and hogged the sales opportunities. Leon had wilted, folded, shrivelled and given up. Tom had ~~lost~~ never had control.

Melody fought her corner. Lord Al kind of liked her chutzpah. She was safe.

Tom decided to lay his credentials on the line… he had invented stuff, patented it sold it. Yes he might have got this wrong tonight but he was bidding for Lord Alan’s attention. And he had it. (We wants it). Even Dragons invest when they see good ideas they can sell. (We needs it). Lord Alan might say he wants something (Must have the precious) but if Tom really does have good ideas worth money then Lord Alan can always structure this thing differently.(No-one is going to steal it from us).

Leon would need to kick some ass now…

But he didn’t. He blushed instead. I could kind of see him wondering if he could hold Lord Alan’s pinky like he had in the B’ham Bullring with all the nice ladies. He thought about it… Probably not.

“Look Leon. You’re a nice geezer but you’re the nice kid who always gets flattened in the East End movies and I’m afraid I ‘aint gonna do no different so you’re fired.”

The Apprentices left. Lord Alan turned to his sidekicks. “She’s a tiger, She’s ruthless. She’lll walk all over anyone. That’s what I like about her.” Nick looked coyly at Karen Brady, “Leon and Tom should be more manly if I can put it that way?” he half asked. She smiled and bared her fangs.

And you know, it’s a shame that this is what gets lauded on TV as good business. Melody has some good traits and some that are running out of control and need taming and they’ll probably only be worse next week.

The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 7

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:09:45 +0000

So, we’ve reached week 7 of The Sales Apprentice and tonight’s task was to create a Freemium (Free Premium Magazine) and then sell as much advertising space as possible. The team selling the most ad space would win the task. Tonight’s team leaders were selected by Lord Alan, Jim leading Venture and Natasha leading Logic, speaking to the teams this week from a balcony way above them and I couldn’t help but think that the ultimate winner of the show might be advised to get used to exactly this sort of “partnership”.

With only a few hours to complete this task the teams quickly got down to discussing the potential markets. Natasha and team decided to plump for a lad’s magazine with a business element to it. This was partly their idea and partly down to a focus group of rugby players saying that they wanted a more intelligent magazine without the nudity. The magazine quickly became called “Covered”.

Over on Jim’s team they decided to go for the over-60’s market and set off, stereotypes at the ready, to talk to a focus group. I guess when you’re 20 something 60 does seem incredibly old but the whole concept of active retirement seemed to have passed the whole of team Venture by. They just couldn’t seem to get their heads around the fact that people of 60 weren’t about to die and thought their concept that people of that age weren’t was a new idea!!

These two decisions about the magazines and the implementation of them would prove to be the critical piece in today’s show. No amount of selling or negotiating can sell the wrong idea. No amount of influence and persuasion can persuade professional buyers who know their markets to buy a dud. No amount of word foreplay or slippery, shouldered, sales talk (Jim!) can polish a turd.

Sales training tip: Know your client. Know your client. Know your client. I was amazed that all of the chat in selecting the magazines was about the concept. It should have been all about the readers and the advertisers…

Who would read this magazine? Why would they read it? What would they be interested in? What product placement would fit in this magazine? Who would want to advertise in it and why? How did this demographic fit in with the clients of the three buyers they were imminently to meet? If they did ask these questions, we never heard them.

Over on team Natasha things were not running smoothly. All of the team seemed to be behind the concept of business without the nudity however Natasha seemed obsessed with boobs, stating at one point that, “Porn sells.” True, but not your concept, Natasha. Photographing girls in their lingerie under Tom’s (?) suit jacket and glasses and touting a potential title, “How do you blow your load?” (translated as, “How do you spend your cash?”) the implementation was more Stringfellow than Jobs and the cover wouldn’t have looked out of place next to Nuts magazine…

And you know, it may well have been that the magazine needed the smut but the fault here was with the lack of clarity of purpose of the team…

Sales leadership tip: If you want to be a great leader and you want to inspire and lead your staff you need a clarity of vision. That doesn’t mean that you know what you’re doing! It means that you AND your team know what you’re doing and that you’re all pulling in the same direction.

On Natasha’s team, this most definitely was not the case with Natasha and her team having very different visions of what they were trying to achieve…

But the problems on Natasha’s team were far overshadowed by those on Jim’s team where they could not even get their title or concept right. This was in the main part because the team clearly thought that 60 was really old and that any 60 year old owning a mobile phone that did more than make a call was seriously hip, hop and happening. The titles they suggested for the magazine were not only unimaginative, they were also laughable. And that’s exactly what the focus group did!

Desperately seeking a new title Zoe suggested “Coffin Dodgers.” A silver-handled affair made of teak narrowly missed Nick’s head as he spat out another wasp he’d been chewing. “Everyone thinks you die at 60,” volunteered Zoe suggesting that the concept of people over 60 having a life was something new. Do these Apprentices not have grandparents? Who the heck thinks that anyone dies at 60?

Deciding to go down the route that once you have eliminated any sensible alternatives you need to pick the first daft thing that comes into your head, Venture decided to call their magazine “Hip Replacement.”

What?

Yep! You heard it right… “Hip Replacement.” Seriously! Task lost. End of.

From this point on, I could see little hope for Jim and team. This title made “Coffin Dodgers” look inspired. Jim, who I am rapidly deciding needs to get fired (more later…), set about roping the team into this decision, something he is very good at. On the face of it, he makes it look like he is getting their agreement and input, but in reality he is purely covering his ass! The only member of the team to not agree was Suzy but, even after being told to stand up for herself in the boardroom last week, she said that she would go along with it. She needs to be careful. Having the right idea and not sticking up for it could well prove to be far more fateful in Lord Alan’s eyes than cocking it up but having the cahones to stand up for your ideas…

Ideas completed, articles sourced and magazine printed, the teams put their heads together to craft their sales pitches. Jim beseeched his team to volunteer to make the pitch and threw his hands up when no-one volunteered. He really does have the slipperiest shoulders. If he was a pirate his parrot would need crampons and pick axes…

Sales Pitch 1:

Picture this… Leon standing next to a huge picture of a semi-naked girl with the title “Covered” and saying that their magazine was a lad’s magazine with business and without the pictures of naked girls! Hmmm…

Next up, Jim pitched “Hip Replacement”. The buyers looked bemused and asked about favourable rates. Jim said that it was full rates or no ratesl. The buyers looked even more bemused but not half as bemused as the rest of Jim’s team.

Sales training tip: Negotiation is an important part of selling. Most salespeople make poor negotiators. They give away too much, too easily and fail to create win win solutions. Many salespeople need to stand their ground more. But there are times when you need to negotiate, times when you need to strike a deal, times when the buyer needs to know that you have done something for them, times when the particular client, etiquette and/or custom dictate that you negotiate. This was one of them and Jim failing to do so was arrogant (stupid).

Sales Pitch 2:

With a budget of £1 billion client spend Natasha couldn’t stop herself interrupting Leon and the whole pitch lacked professionalism and coherence.

Sales training tip: Don’t undermine your team. When making sales presentations work together, work with each other, support each other. Behaving in front of your prospects in a way that suggests that you do not trust your colleagues to say the right thing (e.g. interrupting them mid flow) will do little for your client’s confidence in you.

Jim’s team did little to shine in their presentation either and it was on to…

Sales Pitch 3:

With team Jim failing to shine (again) it was all down to what team Natasha could do with “Covered” and Natasha having lost faith in Leon decided to step up herself to make the sales presentation… and this proved to be a double-edged sword…

On the one hand, her presentation was awful, yeah? I mean it was really not good, yeah? And not slick at all, yeah? And if she said yeah again yeah, I would have turned the TV off. And it was also crass, “Let’s face it. A lot of guys like to get a bit of dollar in their pocket, yeah, to impress the ladies.”

I have many great clients in recruitment and know many impressive individuals in recruitment and I was not impressed…

BUT…

Her pitch was closer to the ACTUAL magazine they had produced. Not the one they had said they were going to produce, nor the one that the rest of the team wanted to produce BUT THE ONE that she did actually produce. More of a magazine for LADS who want to THINK they like business rather than people who actually are in business. More X-Factor wannabe than proven business mogul.

In the Boardroom…

“Tell me who you think the potential advertisers are?” Asked Lord Alan. FINALLY! Someone asking the right question!

The results were in…

Pitch 1: Logic £9k, Venture £12k.
Pitch 2: Logic £7.5k, Venture £16,850.
So, two wins but still anybody’s game… until…
Pitch 3: Logic £0, Venture £60k for the whole magazine.

Slam dunk and team Natasha headed off to poke each other with sticks (fencing) yeah and to celebrate their business prowess… yeah!

Back in the Boardroom…

Jim was quick to blame Zoe for one of the main mistakes, the name of the magazine. He admitted that they all agreed it but insisted that it was her idea. I wanted to reach down the TV and tell Teflon Jim that this was really rather similar to him being blamed for coming up with a name in a previous task and that he had said that it was only brainstorming and that it was down to the team leader who approved it. But I’ll have to settle for writing it here…

Jim might be good at building rapport, doing cheeky deals and using language to deflect potential objections but he needs to step up and take responsibility.

He elected to bring back Suzy and Glenn…. Suzy because she’s only 21 and Glenn because he’s an engineer. Jim criticized both Suzy and Glenn but had his sights fixed firmly on Suzy. Glenn wavered in his support of Jim until Jim caught him broadside in a slight of Suzy, “You’re just marginally worse than Glenn,” he said and then got it both barrels from Suzy and Glenn.

But Lord Alan had had enough, “Jim, you’ve got slippery shoulders but despite what I said about you the other week son I can’t sack you yet ‘cause there are other idiots to sack first. Suzy, you’re young and all that but I hate engineers ‘cause they ‘aint business peeps so Glenn son you is sacked.”

If you’re an engineer and you’ve done well in business send your complaints to Lord Sugar… and if you’re thinking about applying for The Apprentice, think again… Lord Alan has already made his mind up, “I’ve never yet met an engineer who can turn his head to business.”

Line of the week from Lord Alan to Glenn, “I was wondering if you’re one of those people who think that “Only Fools & Horses” was a business documentary?”