Week 5 and Sir Alan is still looking for a new apprentice but what exactly is he looking for? With Claire in the frame to be a project manager for the second time in 5 shows tonight, this should be interesting.

730am and Sir Alan turned up at the house. Maybe he has, but I cannot remember him doing this before. Interestingly, the vast majority of the wannabees were still in bed. Now I have nothing against people grabbing some extra shut eye but I thought this was “the job interview from hell”?

This week the teams were sent by Sir Alan to Blue Water, Europe’s largest shopping centre to photograph customers and to sell them their photos. To try and shake things up a bit Sir Alan mixed the teams up a little sending Jenny, Sara and Claire to the boy’s team and Raef, Lee and Kevin over to the girl’s team.

Their task this week: to set up photography stands, charm customers into posing for them and then convince them to pay for their pictures. The winner as usual, the team with the most profit.

In the new sales and marketing paradigm individuals, consultants, entrepreneurs and small businesses can play on a level playing field with the big boys. Anyone can embrace the power of the internet, couple this with a powerful sales and marketing strategy and bootstrap their way to success on minimal expenditure. 

In fact, minimal budgets, far from being a barrier to success, can actually focus your mind on what you really need to do to get more sales. Minimal budgets make you ask the question all of the time, "What will get me the best sales results?" Minimal budgets don’t lure you down the the tempting path of spend, spend, spend!

OK! OK! So I borrowed part of the title but so what, it’s a good one and I like it! If you’ve been following my missives on goal setting so far, you’ll know that I have already alluded to the fact that when setting goals you ought to set them big.

So here it is for the record, think big and set big goals!

If you’ve ever read a book on goal setting or personal development you will have read this somewhere or other. If you’ve ever had a boss who told you to set goals he will have said this to you at some point. If you’ve ever listened to a motivational speaker you will have heard this woven into the fabric of their talk…

Many people know that they ought to set goals but they don’t for a variety of reasons. One that comes up frequently is that they don’t know what to set goals about. There are three distinct groups of people that this article will be of use to…

The first are people who are new to goals, goal setting and personal development. If this is you and you are thinking, “What goals should I set?” don’t worry! This is a very common question and a good one to ask. This article will help you to answer it and to get started setting some goals that can you more of what you want in your life.

Whether for business, career, health, finance, social or hobbies, everyone knows and understands the power of goal setting. For years, experts and gurus have carped on about the value of setting goals. For decades, authors and speakers have written books and created programmes about goal setting. Everyone knows that they should set goals to help them to achieve their aims and objectives…

So why is it then that so many people don’t set goals when they know that they should?

Review of The 4-Hour Workweek; Escape 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich. Thus Timothy Ferris titled his new book. And what a book…

There has been a lot of hype about this book. Some of it good, some of it bad. Take two conflicting and contrasting review comments on Amazon…

* 5-Star highly recommended, "A must read"

* 1-Star Shameless Self-promotion, "Please - please - don’t waste your time with this book. Catchy title - but that’s about it."

“This is a job interview from hell. I’ve been in business for 40 years. Your prize is working with me.”

And thus we entered tonight’s third show with 14 wannabee apprentices remaining to fight for the chance to become The Apprentice. This week’s task was to transform two pubs by putting on food service. As usual, the team with the most profits at the end of the day would win.

Sir Alan Sugar changed the routine slightly by picking the team leaders himself. He chose Sara for the girls, a trained barrister and international car trader (whatever that is), and Ian for the boys, a software sales manager.

Hi Gavin

I am going for a new sales role but I haven’t been interviewed for some time. Can you give me any advice or tips that will set me ahead of the rest?

By the way I have been on one of your courses. Thanking you in advance.
 
Thanks for the note. It’s good that you’re putting thought into how you approach your interview and using the resources and contacts that you have to prepare fully. Many salespeople don’t do this, thinking instead that they can “blag it”.

They usually fall flat on their faces!

Tips for sales managers, sales directors & business owners.

Creating high performance sales teams is essential for any business wanting to achieve sales growth. Proactive, positive, consistent new business winning teams and salespeople are the holy grail of any sales organisation.

All of my clients have their own unique ways of motivating, managing and leading their sales teams yet they all have problems from time to time in keeping those teams on target, focused and “up for it!”