The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final
The final of the Apprentice. Cool, professional Kate versus passionate, entrepreneurial Yasmina. Their brief, design and pitch a new brand of chocolate. Sir Alan said they were his best candidates ever and that it was his hardest decision yet. Either could have won. Yasmina did.
So that done (!), I thought I would sum up some of the core sales training lessons from this year’s Sales Apprentice…
On sales motivation and mindset…
- Top sales performers perform, they don’t talk about performing. Sales is not about what you say you’re going to deliver. Sales is all about what you actually do deliver.
- Sales success is all about action. Success in sales does not come to those who watch the game. Success in sales comes to those who pick up the ball and play their hearts out, right the way to the final whistle.
- Maintain your focus because sales superstars are focused. They know what they want. They work out how to get it. And they take action to achieve it.
- Sales success is about taking responsibility – responsibility for yourself, your sales activities and your sales results.
- Sales success is directly related to effort.
On prospecting…
- Know your client, know your client, k-n-o-w your client.
- Set objectives for all sales activities and prospecting calls.
- Get proactive and get your prospecting done. Procrastination and lethargy are the enemy of successful new business winners.
- Get yourself in the right mental state for cold calling. Attitude is your ability to access your skills.
- Know where to expend your energy. Working smarter is the route to success.
- Know your product. Know your product. Know your product.
On selling…
- Under promise and over deliver. Delivering on your promises is essential in any business.
- Develop trust and credibility if you want top class client relationships.
- Always give 100%. Nothing short of 100% if good enough if you want to be a sales superstar.
- When negotiating, sound like you believe in what you’re saying and plan your negotiation tactics and strategies.
- Sell on value and not price.
- Maximize the impact and effectiveness of your sales activities.
- Understand your clients, their markets and their needs. Your sales presentations need to be matched and tailored to suit their wants and needs and not just your own.
- Ask better questions. Listen harder. Seek to fully understand your clients.
- Know that people buy on emotion and justify with logic.
On presenting…
- To make powerful and persuasive sales presentations you need to know your stuff, you need to know what you’re presenting, you need a solid and proven structure.
- Know your audience. Know your audience. Know your audience.
- Do your preparation and planning.
- Have a call to action. People need an incentive and encouragement to buy now.
- Practise. Practise. Practise.
- Give 100% and be yourself.
On sales leadership…
- Watch out for sales terrorists in your business who focus everyone on the negative and undermine your business. In today’s turbulent economy you cannot afford to have negativity like this in your teams.
- Utilize the skills of your team effectively. Different people have different strengths and different weaknesses and using these to best advantage is key.
- Be approachable and personable so that your team will communicate with you, confide in and support you.
- Encourage involvement and participation and create team spirit.
- Take responsibility and make decisions.
- Judge the reality of a situation not just what you believe it to be.
- Learn to delegate. Being a great leader is not about being able to do everything yourself.
- Get the right salespeople into your business to build high performance sales teams and get great sales results.
So that’s it for another year. What did you learn and what are you going to do differently to get the sales results that you want?
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part X
If you spent tonight watching Manchester United play Barcelona in the Champions League then the good news is that you didn’t miss a lot in the way of sales training and business tips on tonight’s Apprentice. What you did miss however was Sir Alan sacking someone that, based upon your emails to me, many of you had thought would make the final. I agreed with Sir Alan’s decision but more of that later…
Tonight’s task was to select products to sell live on a TV shopping channel. The team that sold the most would win. A task like this is all about picking the right products for your target audience and then selling them effectively. How would they fare?
On team Ignite, Howard volunteered to project manage Lorraine and Kate whilst over on team Empire, Yasmina volunteered to project manage James and Debra. Debra also wanted to be project manager and agreed to Yasmina leading the team somewhat ungraciously, “For me, I am happy to be project manager every week,” she stated. Err, yes Debra, but that’s really not what it’s about though is it?
Both teams split in two to select products which the other members of their team would have to sell on TV the next day. All were treated to “sales presentations” on various products which they could choose from. They may have asked but, if they did, we never heard one question or one comment on target markets and audiences…
Sales training tip: Much as knowing what the products do is important, so is knowing who the audience are and what they buy. Me, I would have spent rather more time asking questions. Who are the audience? What do they like? What do they normally buy? How many did this product sell last time? When was it last on the channel? What have they bought that’s similar? How did they sell? How do the prices compare? How price conscious are they? What compels them to buy now? Etc etc.
Choices were made. Kate selected a hideous leather jacket with silver or gold leaves on and a healthy chip pan for Howard and Lorraine to sell. Howard and Lorraine selected a rather bizarre pet craft kit and a mini electronic, air guitar for Kate to sell.
Over on the other team, James and Yasmina selected a leaf grabbing contraption and a polo-neck, scarf type piece of clothing for Debra to sell and she in turn selected a cheap remote control car and a pack of elasticated hairclips for them.
Notably, James, Yasmina and Debra did not have a product priced over £29.99 whilst Kate, Lorraine and Howard had two approaching £150. Would this make winning hard for Yasmina and her team or would their cheap “pile them high, sell them cheap” approach work?
On the TV…
James was cheesy, “If you’re not first with this, you’ll be last with this”, he quipped, “Stop spying and start buying.” Debra meanwhile looked slick but did claim the line of the week, “This is the answer to the scarf,” she stated confidently. What was the question again Debra?
Over on the other team, Howard and Lorraine looked uncomfortable working together. Selling the chip pan they waxed lyrical about the chips but said little about how to buy the product. Kate looked like she was enjoying herself selling the air guitar, perhaps a little too much.
Sales training tip: Every sales message needs a call to action. People need an incentive and encouragement to buy now. They need to know when to call, why they should call now, the number to call, the numbers that are selling, the number of people hanging on the line etc etc.
In the board room…
Empire had sold £1541.88. Ignite £1376.73.
A win for Yasmina and her team. Apparently Debra had been “exceptional” according to the TV channel representatives. Howard and his team had failed to win despite their higher priced products. Neither the leather jacket nor the fryer had sold to the expectation levels of the channel.
During the conversations that followed it became clear that both Howard and Kate blamed Lorraine. Lorraine thought Howard should go due to being over cautious. In private, Nick vociferously stood up for Lorraine to Sir Alan, “She is so often right.”
In their defence…
Howard said that he is a great communicator and works well in teams. Nick told him that he lacked ambition and is not brave. Lorraine said she has natural business acumen. Sir Alan asked why she wanted to work for him then? Kate said she has been a strong team player. Sir Alan said that one of them is “not going to be very happy.”
“Kate. I think you stepped back in my eyes in this last week. You say you’re not a one trick pony… but you might be… Howard you’re a steady Eddie… Lorraine you speak a good game, your age has got nothing to do with it… I’ve noticed a couple of times that you seem to make your mind up afterwards and I ‘aint got time for people like that either… This is a very difficult decision because you three people have come a long way in this process… Howard, you’re fired.”
An interesting decision and one I agreed with. Howard has never really stepped up. We are one week from the final and he is still a figure in the background. Worse, he has twice been present when bad decisions have been made and has seemingly done and said nothing to contradict the bad decisions being made. But he is a nice guy and eminently enmployable…
Howard in the cab, “I’m gutted. Really gutted…. If Sir Alan thinks I am risk adverse then ok I will take on board the feedback.”
So…
Kate, Lorraine, Debra, Yasmina and James remain to face the wrath of the interviewers from hell next week. Who will survive the ridiculous, unrealistic, un-PC, verbal attacks of Sir Alan’s attack dogs? Who do you want to see in the final?
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part III
Week 3, the car, circa 6am and the boys were talking. Ben, he of “to me making money is better than sex”, was pumped up and ready for the third task, “I’m not nervous, whoever is up against me, their arseholes are going to be twitching like rabbits’ noses”.
Sir Alan had called the candidates to the new athletic complex at Lee Valley, the elite Olympic training ground East of London, “Here we are at Lee Valley athletics centre… fitness is big business… people can hardly afford to pay for a membership at those fancy gyms, what I want you to do is create a piece of portable home fitness equipment. And tomorrow you are going to try and sell them to three of Britain’s big retailers…”
So a design, pitch and sell task; the kind of task that many previous teams of apprentices have failed spectacularly at. This could be good. After a team member shuffle up with Kimberly and Kate moving to Empire and Philip and Noorul (“I’m posh”) moving to Ignite they were off – the team with the most orders at the end of the task would win and someone from the losing team would get fired.
Our two teams had two days to design, prototype and sell a completely original piece of fitness kit. On the Ignite team, Debra half stepped up for team leader, as did Lorraine. “I’m a little bit calmer than other people,” said Lorraine. Phillip and Noorul , meanwhile, were favouring Debra. Patronisingly, Lorraine asked Debra, “Are you capable of managing unique personalities?” Some of this lot really ought to read some books on communication skills…
Putting himself forward to lead Empire James said that he had “a reasonable amount of product management experience”. The others seemed happy for him to hang himself out to dry and none of them volunteered or objected. As Empire discussed their initial thoughts for a product, trainee stockbroker Ben suggested that they should go down the “sex sells” route. He began to expand his idea by explaining that it should be “something that you can incorporate into actually having sex that creates resistance whilst you’re doing it.”
I wonder, has James ever had sex and who is this target audience of people were who are so busy (and sad) that they want to double-up and exercise when they are getting lucky? In any case, this suggestion seemed more sex toy than fitness kit…
Perhaps worse, or maybe not, Debra’s team, couldn’t think of any ideas for a piece of fitness kit at all. Debra, who has to have one of the most expressionless faces I have ever seen, wasn’t looking on the positive side of things, “It’s apparent that none of us are creative” she bleated.
Sales training and business tip: Creativity is a state of mind as much as it is a skill. Anyone can learn to be more creative and the starting point is the belief that you can be creative…
On the other team, James and Empire had finally focused on “flab” as their target enemy and “bingo wings” in particular. I’m not sure that you can say “bingo wings”… surely that’s fatist or classist or something? None of the apprenti seemed bothered by minor complications like these and they quickly agreed that this was what they were going to be designing. James put Ben in charge of designing the product and Ben described it as “this is for people who cannot even lift their own body weight”.
Meanwhile, Ignite were listening to estate agent Philip who was plugging the idea of a core cube (or blocks of dense foam that you could stack), rather like a Swedish ball but in a cube shape instead. Debra was pushing her idea of an ankle exerciser for the elderly. “Biddies need foot stools”, she said (what?).
Unable to agree they visited a personal trainer for advice and the personal trainer promptly rained on both of their parades saying that she would not buy either product. As this product had to retail for under £30, Kate, James and Howard decided to do some research on the high street to see what actually does sell best in this market. The surprising answer (which really highlights the sales training principle of always knowing your market) was… a door chin up bar.
With this knowledge under his belt, James was convinced that the best plan was to kiss – keep it simple stupid. With James not present at the designers, Ben had other ideas and, in conjunction with Majid, was keen to change James’ “simple” brief and bump up the design spec and add multiple features.
In the final minutes of the planning time, Debra’s team, through Philip, came up with a solid idea for a “bum ball” to work on core stability. Next morning, both teams got their first chance to see their prototype products. Ignite’s “bum ball”, now renamed as a body rocker, looked sleek and smart and they seemed rightly pleased. Empire’s “home multi tone”, by contrast, looked home made, Heath Robinson-esque and like something I might have created in my middle school woodwork and design classes.
Ben was at it again, “I’ve come up with a bloody great product. I’ve actually shocked myself”. Project leader James grimaced and said, “I like it”. He was clearly lying, which he then pretty much admitted privately to the camera.
Ignite’s Lorraine was practising her sales pitch with the strangest word soupage style…
“The body rocker, it’s innovative, it’s new, it’s original, it’s functional, it’s dynamic, it’s completely blown every other product of its kind out of the market. It’s portable, what I mean by being portable? You can carry it in your handbag, children can use it to enable them to have a stable stability… what do you think so far?”
Thanks for the explanation of portable Lorraine and “stable stability”… suddenly my world has become clear. Debra, who I think could barely muster an emotion even if Lorraine danced the can-can and tossed off her clothing, seemed no more impressed than I was, “Errrm, I didn’t really know what the product was”, she said.
Back in the real world (!), Ben was giving himself some I-love-me-love, “It makes perfect sense that Kate and I are doing the modelling” (cut to him doing press ups ) “I’d say, out of the men, I probably am the best looking. You can tell just by looking at them they’re all out of shape. I’ve at least graced the floors of a gym once or twice.”
Sales training tip: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, selling is about results, not egos. Selling is not about talking the talk, it’s about walking the walk. Selling is not about what you say you can do, it’s about what you actually do. Selling is not about promises, it’s about delivery.
On the way to their first sales pitch, Lorraine was practising her lines and, despite being a “sales woman”, she didn’t seem, able to string two lines together.
Sales training tips for making powerful presentations: To maker a powerful and persuasive sales presentation you need to know your stuff, you need to know what you’re presenting, you need a solid and proven structure BUT you also need to be natural. Practising memorizing your pitch word for word in the manner in which Lorraine did can make your presentation stilted and un-engaging.
Cue Lorraine and her first sales pitch to Power House Fitness, “Let me introduce you to the next iconic design that is a functional, portable, fitness product The Body Rocker…” Noorul leant back six inches on the rocker and then said how much pressure he felt under and how much he could feel the burn. “In terms of target audience there isn’t really anyone who wouldn’t use this product,” continued Lorraine, “I think even Nan who is sitting in the chair all day could use this product in terms of not seizing up…”
Hmmm, I’m kind of not sure, is this for ripping the stomachs of young fit people or is it for octogenarians?
At Totally Fitness, James’ team had botched their first sales pitch, “We target mid to high end so I am unlikely to direct them to this if they have the money to buy a £2000 multi-gym, for example”, stated his prospect. Bang, that’s one door shut.
Sales training tip: Know your client, know your client, k-n-o-w your client.
At John Lewis, Ben was in his element demonstrating the kit and as Kate mentioned the fact that the equipment would exercise your bum, Ben bent over and slapped his bum like a slightly chubby, overly smiley, very cheesy, stripper. The client grimaced.
Lorraine meanwhile, was completing her final sales presentation, still sticking to her “original, dynamic, portable, functional … lip smacking, thirst quenching, ace tasting, motivating, good buzzing, cool talking, high walking, fast living, ever giving, cool fizzing bum body rocker… oh, sorry, that was something else…”
Sales training tip: I know that we never see much of any sales presentation in The Apprentice but what we never see are the compelling reasons why products should be bought. What we never see are any questions or any client engagement. Do our apprenti even consider important questions like what problems their products solve, or how their clients will benefit from using them, or how they compare, improve upon or complement existing products in the market…? Instead, all we get is meaningless words and swaggering promises…
And then Debra closed John Lewis, demonstrating that closing does not have to be sophisticated and that sometimes just asking is all that it takes,
“Can you see it on your shop floor and can you see yourself putting forward an order for that product?”
“If we want this product exclusive to John Lewis, what does that mean for you?” queried the client, playing his dead-pan, I am a serious business person face, for all he was worth for the cameras.
Philip, “You’d have to make us a serious offer on a serious amount of orders because we do have other people interested…”
Client, interrupting Philip, “Order? Have you thoughts about that?”
Debra, “No, we’d have to have a conversation as a group about that”.
Slick. Errr, not…
Sales training tip: Set objectives for all sales meetings. Set primary objectives for all sales meetings. Set fall back objectives for all sales meetings. Set fall back objectives for your fall back objectives. You get the idea.When seeing professional buyers (such as this one) in particular, you know that if you are successful they will want to negotiate so give your negotiation positions some thought and be prepared…
Yasmina, and you have to respect her for stepping in,
“I would like to put this on the table. Ok. We’re offering this product at £14 for a unit. If you can guarantee us 20,000 units tomorrow then we can guarantee you exclusivity”.
The client, coming back like a Roger Federer back hand, “For how long?”
Yasmina, “For 6 months.”
Client. “Too short? 2000 units for 6 months isn’t a particularly great deal…”
And the cameras were cut on this scene… Pity.
In the board room…
Sir Alan asked, “Was James a good team leader?”… Ben said that he wasn’t exactly like Winston Churchill…. James said that he thought that “the end prototype was not up to scratch”… Sir Alan asked if Debra was a good team leader… Mona said she was “ok” but with little enthusiasm… Philip said he was very proud of his idea… Sir Alan asked about Lorraine’s presentation… Debra showed her slippery shoulders saying that she thought that she “tried her best” but that she did not know whether that was good enough or not… . Philip offered his support for Lorraine and said that she did a “good job and it is easy to be critical later on”…
The results were in…
Empire had no orders from Powerhouse.
Ignite had sold 80 units to Powerhouse.
Empire had no orders from Totally Fitness.
Ignite had sold 100 units to Totally Fitness.
Empire had sold 500 units to John Lewis.
Nick, “(John Lewis) asked for exclusivity but Yasmina went in far too high and asked for 2,000 for a 6 month exclusivity deal but they have placed an order for 10,000 units on an exclusive basis.”
Sales training question: Did she? Did she start too high? Did she really? What do you think? Why not share your thoughts below in the comments and I will share mine with you…
Ignite had won and won well. And, for once, a good result. They dreamt up, designed and created a new fitness product in 2 days and sold 10,000 units to John Lewis. Nice.
Ignite went off for a private concert from Katherine Jenkins and Sir Alan was left to quip with the others, “Well, the empire doesn’t strike back does it?” Another one he dreamt up in the bath I’m sure…
Back in the board room…
James elected to bring back Ben and Majid… James said that he was impressed by how “alive” Ben was about the product and that he did not want to micro manage him… Sir Alan said that Maj just hung around on the periphery of the action… Maj disagreed and said that he was not given a big enough job… Nick asked Maj if it was an enduring lack of confidence in his abilities… Sir Alan asked James why Ben was back in the room… James said because he thought Ben could take the concept and turn it into something that looked better than what he had produced… Sir Alan pointed out that no-one else came up with any better ideas… James and Ben argued… Ben shouted “If you’re quite done, I came up with the concept, it was up to you guys to find our what the retailer and the consumer wanted, if you did not convey that then that is up to you”… Sir Alan asked Ben why he thought James had brought him back into the board room and Ben said that he had no idea…
Sir Alan, “James, interestingly enough Margaret felt that you wasn’t too bad in management. She sees a Jekyll and Hyde person… Your two colleagues are pointing the finger at you the logic is that you go. Maj, you seem to be hanging around on the periphery not doing much… I wonder if a leopard will change its spots… And Ben you are young… I think it would be grossly unfair if you were held responsible for the failure of this task… my instincts are that I can’t really have people that are perceived not to contribute and you might not agree with this but Maj, you’re fired…”
“You are so close to going out that door James. You got Margaret to thank for putting that glimmer of doubt in my mind…”
Final sales training tip of the night: You have to step up. You have to take action. You have to do something, anything to take you in the direction of your goals and aspirations. Maybe Maj was standing back deliberately. Maybe he thought it was a good game plan…
Success in sales does not come to those who watch the game. Success in sales comes to those who pick up the ball and play their hearts out, right the way to the final whistle.
So what do you think about tonight’s decision? Who do you think should have gone and why?
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IX
Well! Well! Well! What was that all about? What did you miss if you chose to watch Man U and Chelsea rather than tuning in to Sir Alan and his wannabee business moguls! After tonight’s Apprentice I was left feeling that something must have been left out in the editing, that something must be lost in translation somehow…
Tonight’s show was an odd one with few or no sales training lessons to learn but plenty of mini-lessons in personal development, management and presenting.
Week 9 – Atishu! Atishu! We all fall down.
At the start of tonight’s programme only 7 contestants remained and only 4 tasks separated them from ultimate victory but as one “unlucky” apprentice wannabee was about to find out, sometimes one bad task is all that is required to see you evicted on this show.
After a bit of team restructuring we were left with Alex heading up Lee and Lucinda and Raef heading up Claire, Helene and Michael. Their task was to create an advertising campaign for tissues consisting of the box, a press advertisement and a TV advert. This was snot an easy task!
Once they had created their brands and their ads our teams were to present to one of the UK’s biggest ad agencies and the team with the best presentation would win. You know the rest.
Raef was immediately in his element, “I have done a lot of theatre in the past” he stated, “I love advertisements”… I’m not sure whether these guys are “set up” by the film crew asking them questions to make them look stupid but you couldn’t help but watch this and think, “Are they setting him up for a fall here?”
On Alex’s team they were thinking of branding and started with the name, A Tish U… Atishu!
Back on team Raef they were getting somewhat carried away with the “story” but eventually came up with the name I Love My Tissues… A strange name this one and not one really representative of tissues at all. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think that anyone feels that passionately about their tissues!
Back on Alex’s team, Alex and Lee were not getting on too well with Lucinda. She, in turn, was not impressed by their “story” asking, “Who wants to hear about a normal bog standard family?” She suggested a story about homosexuality which was immediately rejected by Alex.
Seemingly to get rid of her, Alex sent Lucinda out to find a location whilst he and Lee designed the box for the tissues.
With two boys and a girl on the team, this was no doubt a flawed plan from Alex. Surely most tissues are bought by women and it would therefore have been logical to keep Lucinda involved with the branding and design…
Tonight I really did feel that we missed a lot of cuts as what people were saying really seemed out of whack with what we saw at times. Lee and Alex were adamant to camera that Lucinda was being unreasonable but from what we saw (whilst accepting she was a little negative) it looked a lot more 50/50 with them not wanting to work with her because she did not agree with them. I would have liked to have seen more of the “reality” of the situation…
Over on the other team however, we saw Michael and Raef behaving like they were creating a blockbuster movie rather than keeping their focus on the task in hand.
Sales training and business tip: As a motivational speaker I have the privilege to work with many different companies in a multitude of industries and it never ceases to amaze me how so many people can manage to focus their energies and attentions on entirely the wrong things. The key behind this task was to persuade the ad agencies that they had a viable concept not to persuade them that they were the next Spielberg… The second option might have been more “sexy” but it was always going to lead Michael and Raef down a slippery slope…
Next morning the tissue boxes arrived at the house. Lucinda did not like the boys’ efforts calling the box “ugly”. Lee thought it was “quality”. Alex thought it was fine. Lucinda and Alex were about to kick off in a full scale argument when Lee stepped in saying that what they needed was “cohesiveness” and that they needed to “pull together”.
Sales training and business development tip: If everyone in the boat rows in different directions as many of our apprentices seem to do then the boat is not going anywhere! Many companies and teams work really hard but with poeple working at cross purposes much of their potential is lost.
Over on the other team Raef and Michael could hardly contain their joy at meeting their “celebrity” star, Sian Lloyd. They both seemed convinced that she would be a real winner for their campaign. Even Sian herself was not so sure saying that if they Googled her they would know that she was not a mother (they were casting her as one), she was single and she had never worked with children. She also expressed surprise at the concept that they thought that she was “wholesome”.
Ed: But when all you’re interested in is fame, it’s not surprising that they did not consider any of these facts rationally! They were too busy meeting a “star”.
Raef and Michael meanwhile were joking about getting into the movies. This might have sounded like light banter but it masked a much deeper ill, they had lost sight of what it was that they were supposed to be doing…
In the editing suite Raef and Michal struggled to cut down their advertisement from 54 seconds to the required 30. Between the two of them they managed to decide to cut out the one close up of the tissues, a decision that would come back to haunt them.bClaire was not impressed by the finished ad saying that she was disappointed by the quality of it.
Cut to the pitch…
In the audience Sir Alan has placed 3 agency chiefs, a group of consumers and… himself!
Meanwhile Lee was doing some last minute rehearsing. Lucinda and Alex were helping him with his wording. Margaret commented to the camera that she thought that it was too late to be changing the pitch. Lee said that he was still struggling with the order of the pitch. This did not bode well!
Raef’s team presented first. The problem with these “sales presentations” as with the negotiations and the selling situations is that we never see enough of them to really judge what’s going on. Certainly, we seem to be getting even less of this, the good stuff, than we even did last year.
And then Lee came on to make his presentation…
Oh dear!
Lee is not a natural presenter. He seemed glued to his notes, seemed to be struggling to read them, seemed to get lost at one stage (and we only saw a few seconds!), had no flow to his pitch and seemed to use very unnatural language.
Sales presentation tip: Great presenters engage with their audiences not with their notes! Great presenters talk naturally and openly with their audiences. Great presenters base their talks around key benefit points not fact after fact after fact. Great presenters know how to get and keep themselves in a positive mindset.
In the board room…
Raef said that he and Michael had experience in drama!
Michael said that he had his own theatre company at university.
Sir Alan told Lee that his presentation was fumbly, unprofessional and poor.
Nick told Lee that Claire used no notes.
Lee said that he was absolutely gutted.
Alex said that he found Lucinda abrasive and border line upsetting.
Lucinda said that she buys a lot of tissues.
Sir Alan said that the brand name Atishu was excellent.
Sir Alan then played both ads to the two teams. During the playing of Alex’s ad, Raef and his team looked smugly on. You could see it all over their faces… They thought they’d won. They could barely contain their laughter at what they thought was an inferior ad…
And then Sir Alan told them that they had lost. Raef had created an ad for tissues with no tissues in it. Sir Alan said that he did not know what their ad was about and that it would not sell any tissues.
“This is not my opinion. It is the opinion of the experts.” Sir Alan barked, kicking a man when he was down.
Alex looked relieved. His smile appeared to be one of almost unbelieving relief. He clearly could not believe what had just happened.
Michael’s face meanwhile said it all – going, going, gone! “I love my tissues”!. You’d better, you’re going to need them. So finally we will get rid of Michael…
… Or maybe not!
Raef elected to bring back Michael and Claire.
Michael was quick to claim ownership of “everything” that Sir Alan had liked. Raef was, understandably, put out by this saying that Michael was being dishonest. From what we saw I would agree. Stupidly Raef backed himself into a corner by saying that he was totally in charge but then saying that Michael wanted to take the close up of the tissues out not him. A contradiction.
Sir Alan had a half-hearted attempt to rope Claire into the afray accusing her of not wanting to stand up and fight to correct the mistakes that she said shre saw to try and salvage the win for her team. But it not going to wash… no-one seems interested in her here.
Sir Alan to Raef, “You have been lucky to only be in the board room once…” and then, “Raef, you’re fired!”
What?!
So ok, he shot off on a tangent with the task, he got totally carried away with the whole filming thing, he should have know better, he didn’t manage his team particularly well but, seriously, how can you elect to keep Michael and fire Raef? What are Sir Alan’s criteria?
So where does that leave us tonight with our sales training and business development tips…
Presenting well is a key skill.
In every walk of life the ability to present a clear and compelling message and to engage an audience is critical. Whether you are selling face to face, pitching a product or an idea or motivating a sales team you need to be able to present naturally and persuasively.
If this is an area where you do not excel at present, fear not. Anyone can improve their presentation skills with practise and dedication. Here are a couple of tips…
Improving presentation skills, tip 1: Awareness
The first stage of improving your presentation skills is to be more aware of how good, or not, you currently are. Most salespeople take feedback badly. Most salespeople go on the defensive when they are given feedback. This is a shame as without feedback you will struggle to become self aware and without this awareness you will struggle to improve.
Improving presentations skills, tip 2: Practise
Practise is the key to making good presentations. Do not confuse practise with rehearsing 5 minutes before the event! Practise is a constant focus on improving your overall ability to present in any situation.
Anyone can create opportunities to practise their presentation skills whether with clients or with your peers. Many people who would benefit most from this practise are the same ones who avoid it!
If you really cannot find any opportunitites to practise then try your local Toastmasters club where you can practise inside the safety net of a specialist club dedicated to helping you to improve.
Don’t do like many business and salespeople do and put off working on your presentation skills until you have a huge pitch coming up… Even the week before a life changing pitch is too late… start now!
Improving presentation skills, tip 3: Be natural
Great presenters learn how to present naturally. They don’t pretend to be anyone else. They don’t copy others. They show their audience their true genuine selves.
People today are bombarded with sales and selling messages all day long. Some of these messages are amateurish. Some are incredibly slick. You may never be the best presenter in the world but that doesn’t matter… People will connect with presenters who they see as being genuine, presenters who they see as connecting with them.
You don’t have to be the best presenter in the world, you just need to be the natural, genuine, you!
Improving presentation skills, tip 4: Constant improvement
No matter how good you are or how good you think you are, you can always become a netter presenter. Making sure that your mindset is focused on constant improvement will steer you away from falling into bad habits and mis-steaks!
One of my favourite questions to ask myself after making a presentation is, “How could I have improved that presentation?”
(If you want to know more about making powerful and persuasive presentations then check out my Powerful Presenting seminar schedule.)
So there we go, a strange decision tonight and one which leaves me none the wiser as to what Sir Alan is looking for. I’m really interested in knowing your thoughts so let me have your comments below…
Who do you want to win? Who do you rate and why? Who should go next and why? Is there anyone worth hiring??
The Sales Apprentice 2008: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VI
Tonight’s Apprentice was an interesting one although perhaps not from a sales training perspective but more from a business development angle. The task tonight was to create a range of new greetings cards and then make a sales pitch to three of the biggest suppliers in the industry – Clintons, Tesco and Celebrations. The team with the most number of cards ordered after the presentations would be the winner.
Over the last few years, sales pitches, tenders and presentations have more and more become the norm in business. Many small and large businesses and corporations spend huge amounts of time and energy preparing for and delivering sales pitches of this type. Many win large amounts of business by pitching their offerings in this way.
Knowing how to make a good sales pitch of this kind is a powerful business skill. Knowing when to avoid making these kinds of sales presentations and how to win business other ways is also critical but more of that (maybe!) another day.
Tonight Sir Alan picked both team leaders personally making Michael team leader of Alpha and Kevin team leader of Renaissance. I haven’t rated either of these two as yet but Kevin seems to me to be one of the weakest contestants in the whole show. Would he be able to step up to the task in hand? (And is it only me who thinks that Kevin looks like Matt Lucas with hair?)
As usual both of our team leaders were basking in the glory of the camera… Michael told the camera that he would “do anything to win” and that there was no-one that he would not screw over to achieve this aim. Nice chap then. Kevin meanwhile was bragging about how as a team leader he inspires devotion. Apparently, he had his first house at 20. Impressive huh, so that explains why he thinks he can be the most successful business man the world has seen by the time he is 40.
Or pehaps not…
On Kevin’s team Jenny enthusiastically promoted a theme of environmental cards. Was she having a laugh or what? How can anyone who claims to be green support the creation of something that uses natural resources to be made and petrol to be delivered? Jenny herself later admitted that she doesn’t buy as many cards these days herself because she is so green… she really does put the mentalist into environmentalist…
Perhaps more unbelievably the rest of the team all thought that this was a good idea too… No common (sense) as my mum used to be fond of saying when we were kids.
Over on the other team Michael and his mob had agreed that they wanted to create a National Singles’ Day and a range of cards for singles. Their chosen day? The day before Valentine’s Day.
Thinking about who should make the presentations Kevin volunteered himself for his team. The rest of his team were not so sure. The general consensus seemed to be that either Jenny with her environmental knowledge or Claire with her retail pitching experience would have been better for the job. Kevin however was “150% confident” that he could do it… so that’s not going to come back and kick you up the arse then Kevin…
As my mum also used to say, Kevin, pride comes before a fall… Oh, and by the way Mr Bank Manager, you cannot ever be more than 100% confident…
Meanwhile Lucinda is getting (inexplicably) on Helene’s wick, "We need to discuss the roles between the three of us" she helpfully suggests. "Nobody’s telling me what to do" grumps Helene. Lucinda says she will do anything and she does not mind but Helene rants on that Lucinda is always looking for an argument. Pot, kettle, black Helene. Lucinda in her brightly coloured beret and skirt just looks to me like something off of a greeting card not some arch rival business nemesis…
For the next few minutes of the show the teams got down to shooting pictures and designing the cards. I ate my Chinese (can you believe a hotel stopping all hot food room service at 930pm?) and thought there was little of interest going on until…
Michael wanted to know if National Singles’ Day had an apostrophe or not?! Was it National Singles Day? National Single’s Day? Or National Singles’ Day?
Hey! Hey! Hey! I can see this being argued about for weeks on the internet! It got worse. They rang a national newspaper to ask. I think they even rang the National Library (as you would!) Do they not have internet access? Oh come on! Eventually we found out that they took 4 hours to deliberate this one and in the end still were not positive of their decision!
But back to the point…
First up with a sales presentation was Raef pitching the National Singles’ Day idea. “I believe we have created an industry” he proudly proclaimed but Clintons were not so sure believing that the day before Valentine’s Day was not the best of days! You don’t say! At Tesco, Raef started his pitch by saying that they had just come back from the “market leader”. Now I understand why he said that but when making any kind of sales presentation or pitch you always have to consider the sensibilities of your prospect. Tesco may know that Clintons are the market leaders and this may be undisputed but blurting it out was rather insensitive and could have really upset them for a variety of reasons…
Tesco did not like the date either so in the third and final pitch to Celebrations Michael asked Raef to not specify a date.
Lights, camera, action… And Matt, sorry Kevin was up. This really was car crash TV. The idea was appalling. Kevin was appalling. The presentations were appalling.
Clintons wanted to know who would buy environmental cards. Kevin stuttered an answer only to be told he had missed the point. Clintons wanted to know if the cards would make someone smile? Kevin attacked saying that Clintons not putting their weight behind it was like the US not supporting climate change efforts… Yes, just the same!
You cannot attack a client this way Kevin. You’ve just lost any chance of a sale with Clintons.In the car on the way to the next appointment Kevin said that he was not worried. Alex smiled knowingly to himself. Kevin was toast.
The next two presentations were no better. At one point Kevin tried to sell Tesco the idea of helping the planet. Where’s the WIIFM for them in that Kevin? I think you’ve forgotten what your mission is here!!
In the board room…
Sir Alan wanted to know who would buy cards for singles? Why did they choose February 13th? How would a retailer find shelf space when they were already making room for cards for the 14th?! Would you change that with hindsight he asked Michael. "No" came back the reply. That’s what we like to see from our apprentices… no ability to learn from their mistakes no matter how big!
Sir Alan continued to quiz Michael about the 4 hours they had spent on the apostrophe puzzle. Michael looked annoyed and Sir Alan called him on it. Michael got even more annoyed. He clearly cannot take feedback and seems very immature. I’d lose him soon…
But he was going to get away with it tonight because the results were in and Kevin was in far worse a position… Michael’s team had sold 1500 cards to Tesco, 1500 to Clintons and 19500 to Celebrations. Kevin’s team has sold 6000 cards to Tesco but none to either of the other buyers.
Bring me some jam to spread on Kevin, there’s no way he can escape the reaper here…
After another stint in the board room Kevin elected to bring back Sara and Claire. This was a bizarre choice. Claire was always going to be too formidable for him in the board room. And I’d have brought back Jenny (for what little difference it might have made) not Sara. I admit that we have not seen Sara do much but I am not really sure why the team seem so anti her at this stage in the competition. Perhaps because they see her as an easy target.
OK! OK! So Claire, as a retail buyer, should have seen the stupidity of the idea and could have stepped in and made the pitch when Kevin had realized 2 hours before the pitch that maybe he wasn’t the best person to make it. But then again, she was not the team leader, there were other people in the team and it was very short notice given Kevin had rejected her out of hand the day before saying he was 150% confident.
Sir Alan took a last swipe at their whole concept before making his decision and, unless I was dreaming, or maybe he was joking (although I don’t think so), suggested a better idea as "Sorry your 11 year old beautiful child got shot in the head by a hoodie"! Not one of his best selling ideas methinks! And not much of a market either unless he knows of some upcoming revolution directing its paramilitary forces (hoodies) against 11 year old children… Probably be a larger market for "Sorry you’ve just made a tit of yourself on national TV" cards…
Whatever. Let’s not waste time talking trivia… “Kevin this whole task turned out a fiasco and as team leader I hold you responsible. Kevin you’re fired."
A mercy killing and the right decision.
And the cameras cut to the car. This was going to be a good one. What was Kevin going to say? “It is a massive blow and I feel quite angry that there are people in the house that I feel should not be there and tonight I truly feel that Sara should have been fired…”
Oh, read your "You’re fired" greetings card Kevin.
Yawn.
So let’s cut to the chase…
What sales training and business lessons can we learn from this catalogue of errors tonight…
Make sure that you do your planning and preparation.
When making sales presentations and sales pitches you should always plan and prepare thoroughly. Kevin failed to prepare effectively and it showed. Planning and preparation means thinking about how to best convey your message to maximize your chances of making a sale.
Planning and preparation means getting yourself into the right mental state so that you can communicate effectively with your prospects. Planning and preparation means thinking about how you are going to handle objections before you make your presentation not after you have become confrontational and aggressive with your prospect.
Know your audience! Know your audience! Know your audience!
Before any sales pitch or presentation you need to fully understand your audience and what is important to them. Think about why they are in the presentation and what they want to get out of it.
Many salespeople think primarily in terms of how they can make the sale not how their clients gain from working with them. Find out everything you can about your audience… their likes, their dislikes, their values and their traditions. Be careful of the language you use and how you put your message across.
Connecting with your audience is key.
Don’t try and change the world.
Selling is simple. You do not need to complicate it. You do not need to reinvent the wheel. You do not need to change the world.
Kevin’s team, like many businesses, became fixated on their own ideals and their own aspirations. They failed to think about how they would sell their products and whether they could sell their ideas. Their pitch was preachy and not focused on their prospects needs at all. Wakening the world up to environmental issues is a great ambition but it is not easy to sell in this format!
Their objective, as many businesses, was simple – sell greetings cards. They should have kept it simple and done just that rather than forgetting their mission and their objectives electing instead to try and change the world.
So that’s it for another week and I’m still undecided on who I am favouring at the moment but I know who I want to go! I’d be really interested in hearing who you think the contenders are, who you think should be gone and what you thought about tonight’s show…
Perfect Presentations Article At Training Zone
By Dawn Smith.
Whether giving presentations is the thing you dread most, or just another day at the office, it’s a skill that can always be improved. Dawn Smith gathers some tips and advice from public speaking gurus on how to overcome stage-fright, engage the audience and make your presentations shine.
The New York Times famously reported in 1984 that speaking in public was most people’s biggest fear, ranking higher than death.
For a trainer, presenting to delegates is likely to be daily bread. However, even those experienced at talking to groups can choke when faced with an unfamiliar scenario. “Most people are capable of presenting one-to-one, or even one-to-ten, but various things can conspire to make them nervous,” says Gavin Ingham, a speaker and author who also teaches “Powerful Presenting” courses. The fear-inducing factor may be how important the event is, how many people will be there, who else will be listening, whether it’s being recorded, or even (gulp) televised.
Whatever sets the nerves jangling, getting over them is the key to successful presentations, says Gavin. “70 – 80% of giving a good presentation is down to mindset,” he says. “Get that right, and you can make the most of the communication skills you already have.”
Power of the mindset
The reason state of mind is so important is fairly obvious – a nervous presenter is likely to flunk the delivery, and that’s going to be fatal for the message. “Poor delivery = poor retention + little action,” says Elizabeth Clark, founder of presentation skills training company Rapport Unlimited. She believes presenters should work on the entertainment value of their sessions. “Imagine your presentation is a TV programme,” she says. “Would you want to watch it?”
Knowing that your nerves are getting in the way of a powerful performance can pile up the pressure even higher, so how do you break the vicious circle?
Of course, practicing the real thing is the best way to boost confidence and improve performance: our gurus are agreed on that. “There is no substitute for flying hours,” says Khalid Aziz, chairman of executive training company The Aziz Corporation, and author of Presenting to Win. But until the hours have been built up, anxiety busting-tactics could be called for.
Visualise success: Stephen Palmer and Cary Cooper, in their book How to Deal with Stress, point out that “prior to stressful events people tend to have negative images or pictures in the mind’s eye about how they are going to cope – or, to be more accurate, not going to cope.” This imagery can be replaced with something more positive. The trick is to think about the aspects of the situation you’re most worried about, decide on ways to deal with them (for example, how you’re going to handle difficult questions) and then “slowly picture yourself coping with each anticipated difficulty as it arises”. Then keep practicing that positive imagery prior to the event.
Rehearse the scary bits: Practice walking up and standing in the space that you’ll present from, until you feel easy about it, says Gavin Ingham. In his training courses, he asks people to stand in front of an imaginary audience, and then stand in front of a real group of people – but without saying anything. “A lot of people are not comfortable with that,” he says. “It’s important to hold them there until they are comfortable – because that’s the worst thing that can happen: getting up there and not having any words.”
Breathe: Slowing your breathing combats the physical symptoms of nerves. There’s a deep breathing exercise for warming up before presentations on The Aziz Corporation’s website.
Making the message stick
Nerves are not the only barrier to a powerful delivery. Even confident presenters can fluff the message if they ignore some key realities about presentations – and human nature.
Know your objective: Decide from the start what you want the audience to do after hearing you, says Andy Bounds, who coaches and trains on presentation skills. Prepare your talk around this objective, leaving out every point that doesn’t help towards your goal, and keep it in mind during the event. (He explains a strategy for doing this in his book, The Jelly Effect)
Give the audience what they need: All our gurus agreed that you need to know where the audience are coming from. “You need to do a 180 and look at the subject – and perhaps also yourself – from their point of view,” says Khalid Aziz. “If it doesn’t pass the audience’s ‘so what’ test, the chances are it won’t be a successful presentation,” he says.
“Imagine you’re sitting in the audience yourself,” advises Peter Roper, co-author of networking and public speaking guide, And Death Came Third! . “What would make you think that sitting still for this presentation had been really worth it?”
Andy Bounds adds that it’s especially important to keep the message audience-focused at the start. “If you’re talking about Excel, don’t mention Excel in the first few minutes,” he says. “Say ‘I’ll show you how to save time’. Then, when you’ve got their attention, you can talk about Excel as much as you like.”
Andy Bradbury, author of Successful Presentation Skills, says a common mistake of presenters is to get carried away and “forget to ensure that the audience is still with them.” So keep the audience’s needs in mind throughout the event.
Be yourself… and sell that to the audience: “Be naturally yourself, whether it’s a one-to-one presentation or one-to-10,000,” says Peter Roper. “People will ‘buy’ you first and only listen to your message if you’ve sold yourself well.” Selling yourself means building a rapport with the audience, he says, and one of the easiest ways to do it is to ask a relevant and thought-provoking question at the start.
Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce: “The audience is only going to remember 10% 24 hours later, so make sure they remember the right 10% and what they’re supposed to act on,” says Elizabeth Clark. People have the best retention of what’s said at the beginning and end of a presentation, says Andy Bounds. They also remember things that are repeated and any outstanding points: so make sure you say each of your key points in each of the four different ways.
Use visuals… but avoid death by PowerPoint: People remember more of what they hear and see, compared to what they only hear, says Andy Bradbury, so do whatever you can to graphically illustrate your talk. But don’t fill your visuals with words. “Have images without words, or just very brief points.”
One of the worst mistakes presenters make is putting everything into their PowerPoint slides or course packs, comments Andy Bounds. “If people are reading what you are saying, they will want one of you to shut up. So write some words but not all of them. Leave answers to questions blank, so they’re waiting for you to tell them. Think of you and your PowerPoint slides as the Two Ronnies. You shouldn’t both be saying the same thing at the same time.”
Keep it short: “People have a limited attention span, so don’t go on too long,” says Andy Bradbury. That means doing some planning in advance. “The more experienced you are at presenting the more tempting it is to think that you can just wing it,” he says. “But if you don’t plan, it’s easy to put too much in.” Peter Roper makes the point that over-running is plain bad manners – and the audience will take a dim view of it. “For every second you go past the allotted time, you are fast disappearing in the interest of the audience,” he says.
Don’t worry…: “Presenters worry and focus so much on remembering the content, that the delivery suffers,” says Elizabeth Clark. “The other problem with focusing on the content of your presentation is that your body language suffers and becomes unnatural or poor, thus making your message less believable. The audience isn’t checking your presentation against a script, you won’t be hounded out for not getting it word perfect, so concentrate on the delivery, not the precise words.”
Be happy: Khalid Aziz advises thinking of something happy before stepping up to the lectern. “Virtually all communication is selling,” he comments. “People tend to buy from happy people, not miserable ones.”
Dealing with questions
One of the aspects of public speaking that strikes fear into many hearts is the prospect of difficult questions. Andy Bradbury suggests honestly admitting if you don’t know the answer, then saying that you will find out by a certain time in the future.
A different strategy suggested by several experts is to turn the question around and ask if anyone in the audience knows the answer – which also has the advantage of involving them. (Though Andy Bradbury cautions that if you don’t know the answer yourself, then you’ve no way of knowing if the answer you get from the audience is correct!)
Gavin Ingham comments that when people ask him “what do I do with…?” questions, he replies “what would you do without them?” He points out: “The worst thing is standing there for 20 minutes talking and nobody saying anything. Questions are a good thing! Great presenters get the audience involved straight away. Nervous presenters just talk for 20 minutes – and that’s harder.”
And remember: the audience is on your side
“People actually want you to do a good presentation,” says Gavin Ingham. “They might expect it to be bad because they’ve seen so many bad ones, but they want it to be good. If you engage with them right at the start, and give them a few good things to hold onto, they will be with you all the way.”
Article Copyright Dawn Smith at www.trainingzone.co.uk.
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part X
Week 10 of our Sales Apprentice and what a week! I was pretty much incensed for the whole hour. This was a sales training lesson in how not to sell and for once I would question SAS’s firing decision although I think it was fairly obvious why he did it…
After a quick shuffle of the teams SAS set this week’s task, “You are going to be selling live on TV. The team that sells the most will win.” He told them to be careful about the products that they chose and then told the camera that if these products were too expensive they might not sell any and if they were too cheap they might have to sell 10,000 to beat the other team.
Our intrepid Sales Apprentices headed for Ideal World in Peterborough. Both teams were to select a range of products to sell live on TV. With the teams down to 3 each they had to do one solo slot and one duo slot per team. This week the teams were being headed up by Kristina and Simon. Kristina backed up by Lohit and Katie, Simon supported by Tre and Naomi.
As the camera panned across Ideal World we heard one of the “professional” presenters, “Would you recommend these to your friends Doreen?” “Yes”, came back the forced reply. How much more powerful would it have been to ask, “Why would you recommend these to your friends Doreen?” and have heard a compelling customer reason for purchase.
Yet again this week Katie is going to escape the chop and yet again she is on her soap box, “I would never buy anything off the TV nor would I associate with anyone who did buy anything off the TV.” She then went on to say that she is naming her target audience Mavis, a big breasted woman with no friends who rings up because Lohit looks like a nice boy. She calls herself a brand manager but all she has done so far is rubbish her competitors, the products she sells and her potential customers. If she was representing your brand, would you be confident of what she was saying behind your back?
Sales training tip: If you want to stay in your market for more than 5 minutes you need to be congruent. This means doing what you say you will do, acting in alignment with how you present yourself to your clients and being true to yourself. Anything less will effect your relationships, your reputation and your long-term sales potential.
After some brief sales training sessions it became clear that our sales teams have neither a clue about presenting nor any idea about what might sell. The teams must pick from the channel’s stock of over 50,000 items. Now I do watch TV selling channels occasionally. Not because I love them but because I think it is interesting to watch people selling this way…. Predominant on these channels are jewellery, fitness equipment, cleaning products, collectibles and craft type products. This suggests to me that these things might sell well.
Simon however was going for (in his own words) a risky strategy. He decided to present alone and was allocating a lightweight wheelchair for Tre and Naomi to sell. However you look atthis choice, it was a niche market and a big risk. He also selected a hair removal product for them to sell. Tre and Naomi picked a light weight trampoline and some Decoupage. This is something to do with craft work and if you want to know more I will email my Mum to find out what exactly.
Tre and Naomi are not happy with the wheelchair. Tre asks, “Don’t you think it’s a very, very niche product?” Simon answers, “No.”
Ahem!
Simon in turn does not like the trampoline, a much better choice in my opinion.
Over on the other team Kristina has decided to present solo leaving Katie and Lohit to present together. She has picked for them some slimming pants and a foot spa. They have picked a steam cleaner and a chocolate fountain for her.
Tre tells Simon again that he does not agree with the choice of a wheel chair. Simon says that it’s his choice and he will “carry the can” if they lose the task. Brave talk but is it bravado?
After learning more about their products it becomes patently clear that the teams are not going to be ready in time but the show goes on anyway…
Up first was Kristina with the chocolate fountain. Remember, she has been my favourite but this week she made it very hard for me to keep routing for her. Peppering every uncomfortable sentence with an uprising, “Ok” she sounded unconfident, unhappy and unprepared. This was not her natural home.
Sales training tip: If you pepper your sentences with surplus wordage (e.g. Ok, basically, honestly, frankly, at the end of the day…) you need to work hard to cut it out. It can make you sound unprepared, unsure and very junior.
But if that was bad, her sales pitch of the steam cleaner was worse. I’m amazed that Ideal World did not pull the plug. Embarrassing. SAS, who was watching, was pulling his hair out. “Didn’t you practise?” he squawked at the TV. Unfair. Clearly they did their practise. You did not give them time to learn how to do the job effectively.
Sales training tip: Learning how to sell properly is critical to your success. Walking into sales situations without the right techniques and skills will not be pretty! It does not matter how long it takes to get you well trained, what is important is that you are. It was obvious that our Sales Apprentices never were and never were going to be prepared fully for this task. None the less, I would have liked Kristina to have done better.
Next on were Katie and Lohit. Katie seemed quite natural and relatively at ease when presenting. She can present it would seem. Shame she is such a two-faced charmer. Poor old Mavis would never realise that Katie actually despised her.
Following Katie are Naomi and Tre pitching the hair removal kit and the wheelchair. Simon, who is behind the mike, and supposedly guiding them, freezes. He has nothing to say. Nothing! When the wheelchair arrives on the screen SAS exclaims, “What brain dead chose that?” and continues, “It is the worst item.”
Next up is Simon. He clearly has no idea what the Decoupage foam pads are. He fairs little better with the trampoline. Oh my goodness me. Between them the teams have lost the channel tens of thousands of pounds.
I hope SAS repaid it.
Up until now I was thinking Kristina. Now, I’m not even sure about her. Perhaps he won’t take anyone on at all? Our two teams sold 1/10 of what Ideal World would usually expect to sell in an hour. Ouch! SAS is not impressed. Simon’s team have brought home £921.79 and Kristina’s £1339.10.
Surely Simon has to go. He picked the wrong products. He said he would take the can if they lost. He froze in the control room and he couldn’t sell the products at all….
But SAS has different ideas. He says this is all about picking products and does a 180 saying that Simon’s picks sold and Naomi and Tre’s didn’t. The fatal errors seem to lie with these two he declared. Simon renages on his “carry the can” speech and sees some hope. SAS is on a roll, “Simon chose better products.”
What?
SAS may I remind you please of your initial comment on Simon’s wheelchair, “What brain dead chose that?” and then, “It’s the worst.”
First off I disagree. The trampoline was a good choice. It should and could have sold but Simon failed to sell it. This sort of stuff sells like hotcakes on the TV, it’s just a case of getting the right hook. The wheelchair sold (a couple) because Katie and Tre got behind it. Sure, this task was about picking the right products but it was also about selling and it was selling, or lack of it, that made the difference here. But SAS is not playing straight now, he clearly saw no place for Naomi in his business and he clearly likes Simon.
Naomi with regret, you’re fired.
She was never going to win but she can rightly feel robbed and Simon should consider himself an eight lifed cat! He could well take those lives right to the end of this competition – still with Kristina despite her poor performance today. My money’s still on Kristina – just!
So what’s our sales training lesson of the day?
Simple. You can sell anything but you need to learn how to sell it properly. You might get lucky in the short term but in the long run you need to employ the right strategies, the right techniques and the right processes. You need to build your sales skills through learning, practise and refinement.
You’re in your career for a lifetime so you don’t have to be great over night. In fact, it’s often better to struggle a little… at first. Salespeople who struggle a little have to commit themselves to learning and practise and this gives them effective, repeatable sales skills which they can use day in and day out, in good times and in challenging ones. Sometimes those who find it all comes to them a little to easily struggle when times are rough because they don’t have the necessary skills.
I recently got a call from a client who had been in a buoyant market. Their sales were easily come by and their sales staff complacent and overpaid. As in every industry times were changing and they were getting left behind by new players entering their market with enthusiastic, hungry and well trained salespeople. They needed sales training. Don’t wait until you’re in the mire, build your own sales development plan and take some time out of your busy schedule to ensure that you keep your sales skills sharp so that you can maintain your competitive edge.
The Sales Apprentice: Sales training tips from the hit TV show, Part II
I know what the problem with The Apprentice is! I do! There are too many people keeping their heads down in the opening rounds. There were 15 people “competing” last night and I still don’t know most of them. How many can you put a name to? I can name about 6 I think… Rory, Tre, Jadine, Kate, Ifti and Ghazal. Anyway, I think we always knew that Tre and Jadine would be “back for more” tonight but our star newcomer to the affray, and that’s the only word I can think of to describe the (nearly all) boy’s team, was Rory… of whom more later…
Last night’s task was to design a product for doggie lovers everywhere. The teams then had to pitch their ideas to 3 retailers. The team making the most money would be the winner and thus escape the acerbic end of Sir Alan’s tongue (“I don’t care where you come from… all I want is someone who is drop, dead shrewd”).
So with these words of wisdom from Sir Alan and this task in mind our pumped up, self-aggrandizing, ego maniacs got to work. Well sort of…
They still have plenty to learn:
- Know your clients. Sir Alan threw them 3 guaranteed sales presentations – 1 with Pets at Home (180 shops), 1 with Harrods and one with another store, Pets in the City. Clearly, the “daddy of all sales presentations” was Pets at Home with 180 stores because they were capable of “buying big” but no-one on the boy’s team seemed to spot this. Whether the girl’s team worked this one out or whether they just “got lucky” we were left guessing about.
- Research your clients. We saw the boy’s team go to a “focus” group for dog owners to find out what they thought and we saw them research products on the internet but we never saw them even discuss the companies they were actually presenting too. Oops! Sales training 101 – do your planning and preparation!
- Knowledge is useless if you can’t use it. Egos abounded but none of the individuals with Product Design degrees seemed to actually know anything about product design. Knowledge is useless guys if you don’t use it! Same is true of professional selling! I don’t care how much knowledge or experience you might have; if you can’t make it count when you have to make that sale, then it’s worthless. To make your knowledge count you need to be constantly learning and practising.
Welcome David, I’ve been missing The Office!
And then David Brent showed up. Tonight there can be only one clear winner. And what a winner! Rory demonstrated himself to be positively the worst manager and motivator I have ever seen. He made working at Wernham Hogg seem tame by comparison. Here are 7 rules for running a successful team as interpreted by Rory…
Rule 1: Motivate your sales team and set the ground rules…
On taking over the team Rory informed them that he would “send out” anyone who did not listen to him. He said that he wouldn’t have “it” with people talking over each other. He continued that those on the creative team (everyone bar him it seemed) would take their jackets off. He then told the camera that he was keeping his on! Priceless. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
Rule 2: Respect is earned not imposed…
Ground rules settled Rory proceeded to sit back in his chair and let his team do all of the creative work in coming up with some designs. This despite the fact that he apparently has a Product Design degree too!
Ahhh well, maybe he had a heavy night that night and missed that seminar. I wouldn’t have minded but he didn’t seem to have allotted himself any kind of task whatsoever!
Rule 3: Get the whole team involved…
Rory informed the team that this was a team effort and that no-one should criticise any of the ideas submitted. He then proceeded to reject every idea whilst barely looking at the board, told the camera that the ideas from his team were very weak and pronounced his own hair-brained idea (NYPD style, “gun harness”, shoulder strap to hold a pooper scooper) the winner.
Note to sales managers everywhere: Getting your team involved does not mean paying lip service to their ideas whilst having no intention of ever taking them on board! At least when people used to work in C19 cotton mills they never thought the boss actually cared what they thought!
Rule 4: Take on board feedback…
With the words, “… there will be no more ideas coming forward” Rory set out his stall and promptly dispatched 4 of his team 20 miles outside London to go to a “doggie disco” (ed. Anyone out there living in East Horsham please explain this to me!) to find out what the public thought. On the way there the team had an idea for a hair-proof doggie blanket.
Tre popped onto the web to say that there were squillions of Google hits on doggie blankets but Rory shushed him up like a naughty toddler and said that the team could pitch it alongside his idea, confident that his 1980’s, mobile phone strap for bouncers would win the day (anyone remember Gareth having one of those in The Office?).
It didn’t. The focus group hated the Rambo strap and loved the doggie blanket.
Rule 5: Respect everyone in the team…
The "Horsham 4" rang Rory to give him the feedback but Rory rejected it. Why would you waste their whole day if you never had any intention of listening? Deaf to anything he didn’t want to hear Rory, egged on by some equally ridiculous, apprentice (Paul?) actually put the phone down on the focus group. Nice! So you are prepared to waste the time of four people all day to prove you’re right and when you’re wrong you abuse them.
Rule 6: Get the most out of individuals…
Now I’m not saying that Rory didn’t have his work cut out. Tre seems a handful in a team. Ifti did precisely nothing all day (and then admitted as much to Sir Alan in the boardroom who blew him out of the competition). We saw little of any of the others bar Jadine and the focus group was pointless but you know what…
Life’s like that. Sales teams are like that. Some people are easy to manage, others are more difficult but the job of a sales manager is to get the best out of everybody. Tre seems angry, he seems to be a little disruptive but he does speak some sense. He made valid points both last week and this week even if he did not package them in the most appealing manner. He hit the nail on the head this week when describing his team, “… a complete and utter shambles”. He clearly doesn’t like being treated like a child. We saw that last week with Jadine. As a manager you need to get over your own ego, appeal to the strengths of the individuals on your team and manage them in the way most suitable for them…
So not surprisingly, the boy’s lost. They made two small sales for £565 profit but the girls nailed the chain store and made £5,000 profit. Interestingly, even before they knew these results, when asked what they thought of Katie’s leadership the girls waxed lyrically. Asked the same question the boys were rather less generous and got ready to sink the good ship Rory.
If your team don’t think they’re a good team then guess what? They’re probably not!
Rule 7: Take responsibility…
Sitting in the cab on the way home Rory reflected… “I will be back”. I’m sure you will Rory but will it be to make the same mistakes?
Until next week.
Gavin
p.s. I’m not sure whether it was the editing but there seemed to be a lot of people being “carried” this week. Were they? I’m not sure. Why not have a look around your sales floor and see how many people you’re carrying? You never know – might be quite a few!!
p.p.s. To progress from the rank of Sales Apprentice to the status of Sales Superstar you need to take action. Decide what areas you can improve on and what actions you need to take to do that do it now!
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