The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part V
This week on the Sales Apprentice the task was for our two intrepid teams to come up with a brand identity for a new product – Sir Alan’s new breakfast cereal concoction. He wanted them to name it, create a brand, think up an identity and produce an advertisement to pitch it to an agency. The team with the best campaign would be the winner.
Leading Ignite this week was marketing consultant Kimberly and leading Empire was licensing development manager Kate.
From the start of the task the two teams could not have been more different – Empire seemed to run smoothly and harmoniously whilst on Ignite Kimberly, Lorraine and Philip picked up where they left off last week with bickering and arguing appearing more important than the task in hand.
Kate’s team came up with the idea of calling their cereal Treasure Flakes and used a quirky little cartoon, parrot pirate called Captain Squawk. Ben, clearly taking on all the “action” tasks this series, dressed up as the parrot and did his bit for the advert.
Kimberly’s team meanwhile were struggling to have an idea of any credence and eventually settled for an off-the wall campaign using a cartoon character called Pants Man. This was possibly the maddest idea that any apprentice has ever come up with and was the brain child of Philip who steam rolled it through by sheer force of will. Check out this incomprehensible nonsense from Mona who clearly had no more idea what the messages was than I did, “…when you eat our serial you won’t dress up like Pants Man because you’re not pants man and only Pants Man can wear his pants over his clothes”. What?
To top it all, the box of cereal they had designed was puke green and was only illustrated on the front facia, the others being left blank because they “ran out of time”. Kimberly was uninspiring, uninvolved and unworthy of the role of project manager.
She wasn’t supportive either. When Mona was practising her pitch Kimberly was full of criticism and when asked why she didn’t make the pitch herself (as she was so experienced) she said that she did not have the time to prepare that late in the day. Later on, when challenged by Sir Alan on this point, she admitted that she was not “completely comfortable in front of an audience”. On the evidence we saw, I am not sure quite what she would be comfortable doing.
She did however score one of the best lines of the show when she was “apologizing” to Mona for her lack of support which she managed to do without taking any responsibility for her apology and blaming Mona again at the same time, “I’m sorry you’ve misinterpreted my body language.” Fabulous – she has to go.
After the presentations and in the board room Kimberly’s team were relatively supportive of her with the exception of Lorraine who seemed determined to rub Sir Alan up the wrong way by distancing herself from the team and the project and coming across as genuinely awkward. Even Sir Alan, clearly bored with her, had to hold up his hand and say, “Shhh! I’m getting vibes from you.”
Kate’s Empire team had obviously enjoyed working for her and if there was anything to be learnt from tonight’s show it would be about the importance of having the right personality and attitude to be a leader. Kate is beginning to look like a possible contender. Even Captain Squawk acknowledged she was good a project manager and the team really did seem to have worked well as a team.
Not surprisingly, Kate and Empire were safe leaving Kimberly and Ignite to face the music…
“This is total garbage… how you think you can possibly believe you can have an advertising campaign based around pants… this is total rubbish”, yelled Sir Alan.
Kimberly elected to bring back Lorraine and Philip.
In her defence Kimberly claimed, “I am not a creative, I manage creatives.” Hmmm, a definite case of delusions of grandeur. At no stage did she appear to manage anything, she couldn’t even manage a side or back illustration onto the packet, she didn’t manage Philip and she didn’t manage to win.
That said, I’d have cut my losses and let both girls go. Sir Alan had this to say, “Lorraine I’ve listened to you and I’m trying to weigh up in my mind whether you are responsible because you are disruptive… Kimberly you have a marketing background, you should really have walked this thing… Philip, you know, very cock sure people that bulldoze ideas through is not what I am looking for… I have to weigh up who I am going to forgive… Kimberly you remind me of the final scene from the Wizard of Oz you look very impressive but in my mind behind the curtains there is nothing there.”
And Kimberly was gone.
So not many sales training tips tonight but some examples of leadership – from Kimberly how not to do it and from Kate on how to do it. Here are just a few…
- Be approachable and personable so that your team will communicate with you, confide in and support you.
Despite their competitive, cut-throat, egotistical personalities, Kate’s personality and approach really did seem to ignite Empire.- Encourage involvement and participation.
Kate encouraged discussion and equality from the off. She delegated well and got the best out of her team.- Create team spirit.
By involving all and creating one common direction, Kate crafted a team which pulled together, took responsibility and got results.- Take responsibility and make decisions.
Kate got her team moving forwards whilst Kimberly flannelled around and failed to make decisions leaving her floundering team with too much time on their hands to fight petty arguments.
So that’s it for another week. What did you think of tonight’s show? Who do you think is looking good? Who has to go soon?
The Sales Apprentice 2008: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part XI
Love them or hate them, tonight The Apprentice treated us to the “interviews” of Lee, Claire, Lucinda, Helene and Alex. There weren’t any sales training or business lessons to be learned and we didn’t get to see much of the interviews. You can’t learn much about interviewing from The Apprentice either unless you want the spirit if not the weight of UK Employment Law bearing down on you.
Still, let’s be straight here, this is not about interviewing, this is about sensationalist TV and nothing more. If someone with Sir Alan’s experience didn’t know who he wanted to recruit weeks before this and after all of the exercises they have been set, it would be a poor show!
And if you tried to interview salespeople in this manner you wouldn’t find any recruiters to recruit for you let alone applicants for your positions. This “dream team” of interviewers all make me look like sweetness and light but even I once got a stroppy call from a recruitment agency asking me why I gave their candidate a “hard time”!
But in the name of good TV, four (probably normally) upstanding business people made out that interviewing is something like a cross between an interrogation and a no-holds, full contact, ultimate fighting competition. Tonight’s contenders were Paul Kemsley (property developer), Claude Litner (Sir Alan’s former trouble-shooter), Bordan Tkachuk (CEO of IT firm Viglen, owned by Sir Alan) and Karren Brady (MD of Birmingham City Football Club).
So, before we get into any conclusions that could be drawn from tonight’s melee let me share with you what I wrote but did not have time to post earlier this week…
Hmmm…
Many people have been asking what I think about the candidates and who I think Sir Alan should hire. This is not an easy question given their different skill sets and the “vagueness” of the job title in question…
Last year we saw Simon win… enthusiastic, well presented, well-spoken, a true Sir Alan fan and a real team player…
The year before we saw Michelle beat the Badger who would have seemed the logical choice for Sir Alan…
So what is he looking for?
Difficult to say on these two radically different choices and I think the answer is that Sir Alan is very flexible in what he is looking for. This makes second guessing him very difficult to do. Sir Alan said last week that he is looking for someone who can slot in. Nick said last night, Sir Alan needs people who can deal with corporates too…
So I waited to post my thoughts until after watching last night’s (Tuesday) “insight” into the remaining 5 candidates. I can’t say it helped much and I didn’t feel that I got a “sight” into very much at all.
So here goes nothing…
Lucinda.
She’s cooky, she’s off beat and she has wacky dress sense. Her berets and colour combinations will always make her stand out! Her management skills seem the most honed and she has an ability to put people into the roles that suit their skills best. She seems to aim to get the best out of the others around her as a team leader and seems effective in this endeavour. She is analytical and intelligent and has (apparently) already done well in her career as the top earner before entering The Apprentice. She has also done very well in the tasks where she has been project manager.
Unfortunately, she gets rather stroppy, seems not to have the ability to deal with Alex and Lee (who I do think were making things very hard for her) and appears to hand the towel in when things aren’t going her way. She is not fitting in a team player although in her defence I suspect she is not used to back-stabbing, Machiavellian teams like the ones she has been presented with in this situation.
She cannot sell… or should I say, she thinks she can’t. I think that if she believed she could, she could but that’s another story. Her belief that she cannot sell and her abdication of any responsibility in this area will “probably” make her unhirable for Sir Alan. I also think she is way too individualistic for him and his companies and it is highly unlikely that he would employ her.
Helene.
I found her obnoxious and aggressive at the start of the series. She did more shouting and stirring than nearly anybody. And then she went quiet and seems to have stayed out of trouble and off the radar ever since.
On the positive side she seems to be level headed and sees things for what they are. She clearly has some success behind her in the past but in what, doing what and with what results we really don’t know. We just keep getting told that she worked for a large corporate…?
On the downside, Helen cannot sell and this probably makes her unemployable by Sir Alan just like Lucinda. She probably brings another “dimension” with her corporate background but if Sir Alan wanted this he could buy it in. I can’t see why he would need it in an apprentice…
Which leads us to the other three…
Claire, Alex and Lee. I do not see them as having more “dimensions” than the other two. I could probably argue the opposite in fact…
However…
My choice of Apprentice would be from one of these three, admittedly mostly because they are the best salespeople left in the competition.
Lee.
Lee is ex recruitment. He is a lively upbeat individual with some obvious communication and motivation skills. On the flip side, he does not always seem in control of his communication skills and seems prone to outbursts and swearing in places and with people where perhaps it is not the best tactic or approach. He is not that academic which shows in his choice of language and approach at times. I am not sure that he has the potential of Alex and Claire.
He’s a likeable guy which is one of his strengths and he can sell… how well of course remains to be seen. He sold the knickers at the wedding show and that was commented upon although I suspect they were a very easy sale as most brides would want to spend something at the show and here was a purchase that they could make with no down side. The wrong wedding dress equals a disaster, the wrong knickers equals… sexy lingerie during the week! Hardly the end of the world!
He sold some supercar rentals too but nothing like as many as Alex. This may have been bad luck or it may have been that Alex is the better salesman.
And whilst his motivation skills seem good his management and leadership skills seem dubious. There is an obvious split between him and Alex and Lucinda and neither he nor Alex seem to have been able to bridge that gap as managers. Clearly, there is a lot we don’t know here but none the less I don’t think he would be in my top 2.
Alex.
I have liked Alex and then I haven’t and then I have and then I haven’t. With many of the other candidates this season, this hot-cold-hot feeling of mine towards them has been due to their characters unfolding in front of us and us seeing different aspects of them but with Alex it is because he blows hot and cold himself.
He is undoubtedly capable of selling and has proved this in several tasks. When the wind is blowing in the right direction, when he gets out of bed the right side and when he’s happy he would be an asset to a team…
But when it’s not going right he seems to be childish and moody. He states his passion and energy but he doesn’t always show it.
There has been a lot said on this series about the huge pressure of the show and how tiring the whole thing is. The contestants and the media have fed us this line from the start of the series…
Really?
I know plenty of people who leave the house every day before 7am and never get home until gone 9pm. They work 6 days a week for 48+ weeks of the year and have done for the last 20 years +.
As far as I am aware our apprentices have not been through sleep deprivation and whenever the phone rings at between 6 and 730am they all seem to be still in bed asleep or just rising…
If they want to be “the tycoons of the future” they are going to need to be able to work at least this much and this hard for years on end not just a few weeks!
Anyway, back to Alex…
I think he could be good but I am not sure if he would consistently produce. I’d also like him to smarten up a bit. Far too much attention on looking cool, not enough on looking the part for me (but then I am old fashioned like that!).
Which leaves…
Claire.
Claire is definitely the one with the mouth. She seems quite young in this group now although Alex is apparently the youngest. She reminds me of the Badger in some ways although with a different skill set…
She is not quite as much of a direct salesperson as Ruth was but she seems more capable of listening and growing. Of all of them Claire has impressed me with the way she has taken on board the feedback about her being opinionated and pile driving people…
Whether this is a permanent change who knows but she certainly seems to have been more reflective and less opinionated. Even if this is just because she has become more savvy in the board room and started to realise when the waves are crashing on someone else’s shore, this is an improvement. Awareness is an important board room, sales and business skill after all.
Claire can sell as she proved last week with the cars and she managed ok when she did.
So who would I hire? You know, I still don’t know. Let’s see how they do in the interviews this week. Last year these were very illuminating. Very illuminating indeed!
Welcome back…
So those were my thoughts and I don’t really think they’ve changed after tonight’s show. As tonight’s show was barely chronological and has no real business or sales tips to get our teeth into I thought I would cover it off like this…
Claire added £8m to the bottom line of her business yet only took home a £27k bonus. She was told that she hadn’t negotiated a good deal there!
Alex was described as a “former landscape gardener who now works in a supermarket”! That’s just rude that is… and Alex looked like he thought so too!
Alex got told that he must have some “thick friends” if he thinks that his skills are exceptional. He didn’t look pleased about that either!
Lee was shown to have doctored his CV saying that he had spent 2 years in a college when he actually left after 4 months. Not a smart move for a recruiter that one! We learned that he has an “issue” about his lack of formal qualifications.
Lee had a sentence in his CV that had so many mistakes in it that I would have been disappointed had it been written by a 10 year old. Sorry Lee but that is just not “what I’m talking about!”
Alex got told that his CV was boring and to say something interesting. Apparently, he didn’t!
Lucinda got told that she doesn’t listen by an interviewer who definitely wasn’t listening!
Helene apparently managed a team of 500+ salespeople. Why would anyone give that up for this? I just don’t know but then as my mum likes to say, “It takes all sorts!”
And take all sorts it does. Who do you know who would put up with this kind of boorish, oafish, idiotic and childish interviewing? At least Karren brought a modicum of decorum and sense to the otherwise pointless proceedings!
The panel were relatively split in what they thought. There were no amazing surprises from them and I doubt that anything they reported back to Sir Alan will in any way have changed his opinions!
On Alex.
They liked him. They liked the fact that he had been on a commission only role and they found him charming and likeable. Claude was the only dissenter finding him shallow and believing that he would require work.
On Lucinda.
Intelligent, bright and articulate but a big NO for Sir Alan. They thought that she would be a handful.
On Lee.
Paul Kemsley hated the fact that Lee winked at him at the end of the interview. They found him likeable but did not like the fact that he had embellished his CV. Karen thought he did a good job of selling a pen to her. They thought he would work hard.
Claire.
Karen thought Claire was fantastic, a doer, saying that she would employ her if Sir Alan didn’t. (Claire, that might be a better role for you…). Claude was not so sure, doubting whether her retail skills would transfer well. Bordan thought she didn’t listen and questioned if she might be pretending to listen now. Paul said he saw her as the holiday rep that she once was. A tad harsh that one.
Helene.
Claude liked her. Paul saw her as back room staff but said you couldn’t rule her out. Karen liked her. They were all taken with her rise from a troubled upbringing.
In the board room…
Sir Alan asked each of the candidates to give an account of themselves which they did and then Alex stepped in and attacked Lucinda for maybe not wanting the job. This was a shrewd move, effectively casting doubt on Lucinda and showing his passion for the job through his annoyance at her going for a job she may not want.
Upshot…
“Lucinda, you’re a little bit too zany for me. You’re fired!”
So who would be the next two to go?
Apparently, no-one! Sir Alan does not have enough information to make his decision. 11 weeks and 11 tasks and he does not have enough information? And him this amazing business person too! He’s virtually been employing them for 3 months!!! Oh come on!
How can he possibly not know exactly what he is going to do?
Sir Alan decided to take four not two into the final stating that this was because he thought that they all had skills and were “very, very good candidates” and he wanted to see more of them. I don’t believe this anymore than I see them as “very, very good candidates”. I believe that it was fall for TV but in that I think he was right…
It will be more interesting!
Next week’s teams for the final will be Claire and Lee versus Alex and Helene. Apparently the losing team is going to be fired in its entirety and Sir Alan will chose from the winning team. This would imply that Sir Alan really does not “know” who is going to win as it could be out of his control if his “favourite” loses! I find this staggering!
So here’s my thoughts on next week…
I would not, could not hire Lee. If for no other reason than that he’s an ex recruiter and there is no way he could have expected to have got away with that clanger about his education. Whether this will bother Sir Alan who knows!
I don’t think Sir Alan will hire Helene either. She’s too corporate and he has already questioned what she brings to the party. She would be a safe bet but I don’t think he will go with her…
So that should leave it a shoot out between the pretty boy and the motor-mouth, Alex and Claire. They are conveniently split with one on each team so Sir Alan should be able to choose from one of them…
But will he? What do you think?
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 VII
Lights! Camera! Action! We were down to 10 but by the end of the show these 10 were to become 8! What went on in tonight’s Apprentice and what sales training and business development tips, if any, could we learn from it?
At the start of tonight’s programme I was concerned for Sir Alan… Could it be that there is no-one remotely worth hiring in the show at all this year? I’m really not sure and not much occurred to change my mind tonight although there could yet be some dark horses to watch for…
7am. Michael answered the phone to be told that they were going on a two day business trip. “Unbelievable,” he responded. Not really Michael! On telling the rest of the house we could hear several female sounding voices erupt in screams.
Where have they got these people from? If their CVs are to be believed (and they certainly cannot be taken as gospel – see Michael’s Jewish intro later) they are already successful business people so why the juvenile celebrations over a two day trip to Marrakech? You’d think that they had just been told they were flying to the moon and back…
Next morning in Marrakech the teams awoke to their task which was to buy 10 specific items and return to the hotel by 630pm that evening with those. The team who spent the least amount of money would be the winner.
Our teams were to go forth and haggle, negotiate, barter, beg and trade to get themselves and their teams the best possible deals.
This show had promise…
- There should have been plenty of negotiation, selling, persuasion, influence and closing tips. We should have had plenty to learn and apply. Unfortunately, these lessons were, by enlarge, never to appear, being replaced instead by far more basic lessons and…
- I have been to Marrakech as a motivational speaker to speak at a sales conference where the sales teams did a very similar (although rather more stretching) exercise in the Souks. I was looking forward to some tips and ideas that I could share with future clients wanting to do something similar…
Unfortunately, they weren’t to materialise and the teams I went with were significantly more successful and creative in their efforts in the Souks than our Apprentices! - On a more personal note, I personally bought some silver jewellery in the Souks and I was interested to see how their experiences of “negotiating” compared to mine…
Before they started, Sir Alan rejigged the teams sending Jennifer and Michael to Renaissance and Sara to Alpha. I don’t know about you but I have lost the plot with these teams. The players have been substituted so many times I have no idea which team is which! The only permanent thing about the teams seems to be their names and their affiliations to Nick and Margaret.
Lee and Jennifer were made team leaders. I was looking forward to seeing these two in action. Jennifer because I have previously thought her somewhat ineffective and incompetent and Lee because, until last week’s attack on Sara, I thought he was a potential dark horse…
Raef was quick to get into the spirit of things and suggested that they would all be able to negotiate more effectively if they dressed in local garb. Given the pigeon French that we heard on the flight over it is unlikely that this would have fooled anyone. Fortunately, this idea was rejected quickly by the team…
Lee suggested that they should start the project off by getting on the phones and locating the items before they set off. This made total sense. Planning and preparation was going to be key to covering the ground necessary to get the items that they wanted at the best prices.
The Souks really do represent mile after mile of shopping opportunity but as I found, it is really easy to get lost if you don’t keep your eyes on where you are going. This might be fine for me in my touristic ramblings with my Canon camera – but not so good for people on a strict time budget and with a mission to accomplish!
Jennifer was not as wise as Lee and elected instead to push on into the Souks and hope for the best. A poor strategy by anyone’s standards.
Despite her lack of research Jennifer’s team were lucky to stumble upon an orange Santos juicer. Alex and Claire pretended to be a couple and tried to negotiate together. Unfortunately, we did not really see enough of this negotiation and I would have loved to seen more. Suffice to say however that the scenario did not play well and resulted in them agreeing a ridiculously small discount of only £1!
Sales training and negotiating tip: When you are entering into client negotiations with another member of your team present it is critically important that you agree rules and boundaries for how you are going to work together. Claire thought that she was free to speak as and when she wanted. Alex, on the other hand, felt that there were too many cooks spoiling the broth and that only he should speak.
Negotiation tip: Understanding the core games that buyers play, recognising the psychological pressure that these put you under and learning to deal with them will greatly improve the results that you get from your sales negotiations.Introducing your own games can work well (e.g. good cop / bad cop) but if you get caught out game playing you could well severely compromise your negotiation position.
There is a great story told in personal development circles about a factory owner with a broken down machine. He tries everything that he can to fix it but cannot get the machine working again. Eventually, he calls out an expert who takes one look at it and then hits it once with a hammer. The machine is fixed.
The factory owner is delighted until the bill arrives for £1000. He rings up the expert and angrily asks how the bill could be £1000 when it only took 5 minutes to fix. He asks for a break down of the bill.
The expert responds with the following:
Hitting the machine £5.
Knowing where to hit it £995.
The moral is clear. You can run around in your business like a headless Kosher chicken but if you don’t know where to put your effort you are unlikely to be successful.
Lee, having observed this cardinal rule of business and selling, had spent part of the morning on the phones and planning and was looking good..
Meanwhile Michael was reminding us what an arrogant idiot he is, “I am an extremely arrogant person,” he said not beating around the bush in any way! He then blundered into a deal on a cow hide knocking the dealer down from 2500 dirhams to 825. He was ecstatic about this and later boasted of his prowess to Sir Alan.
Like any good cock fight you really ought to know the size of the cock before you start crowing about your big cock. Across Marrakech in the tanneries Raef had bought their cow skin for a mere 250 dirhams, a price so good even he could not believe it! From what we saw he did not negotiate at all so he may well have been able to get it cheaper still!!!
Back in the Souks Michael was trying to buy 1.5 kilos of Kosher chicken. I have never seen such a fiasco in all of my life. Michael, whose CV apparently started with words something like, “I am a good Jewish boy” did not know what Kosher was. Later in the board room he was to protest that he was only half Jewish. Well, I’m not Jewish Michael and even I know what kosher food is.
(Interestingly, I did not think that Kosher food needed to be blessed and it is implied later on in the programme that they were penalised because it was not blessed correctly. According to this article at Judaism 101 it would appear that the blessing bit is a myth…)
On planet Jennifer meanwhile her team were having difficulty even sticking to the script, buying a white mosque alarm clock rather than a green one and some unbranded Tagine dishes rather than the branded ones that Sir Alan had requested. Surely when they bought them for 100 dirhams rather than the guide price of 800 they might have suspected something???
Nope!
With time ebbing away both teams resorted to desperate measures, Lee’s team scouting the streets for an orange juice machine and Jennifer’s team looking for a green alarm clock…
Chasing one of their last items, tennis racquets, the teams found themselves in the same shop. Jenny (and a non complaining Michael) offered to pay the shopkeeper to tell the other team that the racquets could not be strung that day. This outrageous idea was rejected by the shopkeeper…
Last chance lesson in sales training, business development and life: Attempting to get ahead by underhand means is unacceptable. What’s more it rarely works.
I remember attempting to get into an account once that one of my friends was working with. He had it sewn and stitched it right up and my chances of getting an opportunity were slim until… he personally attacked me in the account. An underhand, untrue and unprofessional slight on me. The prospect, who until this point was barely talking with me told me exactly what had been said, told me that he did not like his attitude and gave me all of the business…
A sales lesson for all indeed. But back to the show…
In the final moments of the task Lee managed to secure an over priced second hand juicer for 120 dirhams. Cue another round of screaming and shouting. “Come on!” yelled Lee… (see my “Why People Think Salespeople are Stupid” article of mid week referring to Charlotte Ross’ piece in The Evening Standard)…
Back at the hotel Nick told Sir Alan that Sara and Lucinda were “a revelation” this week. Margaret said that Jennifer was a bit “scatter gun” in her approach.
The results were in…
Alpha had spent £413.61 and all of the items were present and correct. Renaissance had spent £449.60 but two items had incurred penalties so their final figure was £603.59.
Alpha had won and headed off for a hot air balloon ride at Leeds Castle.
Back in the board room next day Sir Alan was not happy…
“Good evening.” He barked.
“Bonjour,” came back the reply.
“What’s the significance of bonjour?” Barked Sir Alan. Now, now Sir Alan… I think you know!
“Just wanted to say it in French” stated Jenny.
“I see.” Said Sir Alan grumpily.
What a stupid conversation.
Sir Alan then attacked Jennifer for not doing any research. Claire said she thought Jennifer was OK but messed up by getting the wrong colour alarm clock. Sir Alan rightly pointed out that buying a clock was not brain surgery…
Now there’s a scary thought… any of this lot with a scalpel messing around inside your head… Enough to give me nightmares for a month!
Alex meanwhile was attacking Claire for basic negotiation errors. Have you noticed how Alex, at least once per week, manages to preface some statement or other he makes by reminding us that he is in sales?
And then there were some rapid fire attacks…
Alex said the negotiations were not his fault (very slippery shoulders that one), Sir Alan told Jenny she was older than the others and should know what Kosher was (not sure age has much to do with it), Sir Alan said he could check if Michael was Kosher by pulling his trousers down (not sure that’s a particularly useful technique Sir Alan), Michael said he was only half Jewish (and?), Sir Alan said that he could fire all of them right now (Ed: Go on! Go on! Please!)…
And then…
Alex admitted a mistake buying the wrong pottery, Jenny said Claire was hard to shut up, Claire said she thought she was doing a boyfriend / girlfriend role play, Michael said he did the best deal of the day (cow hide), Michael called Jenny a liar, Margaret accused Jenny of a cheap trick over the racquet strings…
And Sir Alan sent them all out. A shame that he did not sack them all really…
He then called them back in and asked them if they had a clear vision in their minds as to why they should stay?
Jenny was the first to speak. Sir Alan listened and then responded by saying that she was listening to what he had to say and then basing her arguments on that. “Jenny you’re fired”.
Thank goodness. I’ve not rated her since the first time that she opened her mouth. Bye!
But Sir Alan was not finished, “Right who’s next?”
Jennifer was next up admitting that she did not pay attention to detail but that she did her best to rectify her mistakes. Sir Alan pointed out that it was not even her who noticed the mistakes.
Michael then stepped in to say that he had made a horrific mistake with this Kosher business.
Alex, said that he gave it 100%.
Not the best answer but Sir Alan seemed happy and asked him who he would fire. Alex said Claire. Claire then said she would fire Jennifer as there should be some accountability. Jennifer then said that Claire was like the Tasmanian devil and should be fired. Michael said that Claire was “fabulous” as a project manger and Jennifer should be fired.
Claire and Jennifer then started arguing with each other only to be interrupted by Sir Alan, “Here’s my next move. Alex – go back to the house. I’ll see you on the next task. OK. You three go outside. I am going to have a chat with Nick and Margaret and then one of you is going to get fired.”
Back in the board room the games continued but Sir Alan decided to sack Jennifer holding her responsible for the failed task and accusing her of changing like the wind. “Jennifer you’re fired”.
Not a bad decision because she was incompetent although personally I would have probably sacked Michael too.
I do find however that the board room shenanigans are becoming a bit of a farce. It seems the whole thing is designed to promote aggressively Machiavellian tendencies. I dread to think what non-business people must think about the world of business. In the real world, this lot should be judged on results and results alone not their ability to play some TV friendly game in the board room…
Back in the house Raef said that he hoped that they all got fired for lack of integrity… I didn’t like him in the first show or two but he seems to have mellowed a little (or is it just that I was still hopeful for a star then?)…
Whatever, I’m coming around to him… a little…
So what sales training and business development lessons did we learn from tonight’s show? Not the ones that we would have hoped to have learned that’s for sure. Certainly not top negotiation or influence tips nor selling or closing tips…
Planning and preparation is essential.
Yet again the good old sales training and business staple of making sure that you have planned and prepared effectively. Lee’s team spent the first part of the task on the phones planning who they should visit and marking out their time.
This saved them valuable time and energy on the ground and meant that they could focus their activities on getting the results that they wanted.
Most sales and business people do either to little or too much planning and preparation. Knowing when to stop planning and start taking action is as important as knowing how to leverage your planning and preparation efforts to work smarter not harder.
Work as a team.
Lee seemed to have a greater control of his team than Jennifer who seemed to have as little control as she did planning.
Team spirit and shared goals and aspirations are essential if you want to create high performance sales teams.
Be straight and honest.
Salespeople hate being called dishonest, shifty and elusive yet clients did not just make this stuff up one day! Some salespeople are dishonest, shifty and elusive (as people are in all walks of life). You need to make sure that you are not one of them.
Jenny’s dishonest tactic was underhand and unacceptable. I would have sacked Michael for this too. He had neither the strength to stand up and say “No” to her nor the strength to admit he was in on it fully to Sir Alan. He was hoping to surf the wave whichever way it went.
Because of the bad reputation that some salespeople have many clients throw up barriers to the sale and lock salespeople out. You cannot disarm these barriers with fast talk and schmooze. The only way to unlock them is by being straight and honest with your prospects and clients (see my 6 Psychological Keys to Sales Success in my Professional Selling Skills programmes).
I’d be real interested in hearing your thoughts on the 8 remaining Apprentices. It’s midnight and I’m in a hotel in Ireland… I’ll let you know my thoughts later in the week…
The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training & Business Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part V
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”?
Few serious business people I know are still fast asleep in the land of nod at 730am in the morning. Most serious contenders of their age and with their claimed aspirations would be at work or well on the way to work by this time. This lot would struggle to get up, get dressed and make it to the office by 9am! Not quite the behaviour that one would expect from “future business tycoons”. I can’t say I would have been happy at all if I had been Sir Alan…
After wishing them all a good morning Sir Alan rejigged the teams a little moving Kevin over to Renaissance. A good decision. There are far too many cliques and petty rows going on – it’s making the whole thing even more trivial and Big Brotheresque than it actually even is. He then appointed Claire and Lucinda as project managers of the two teams.
This should be an interesting task! These two seem like chalk and cheese. Surely, between the two of them and their sales teams we can be served up some powerful business and sales training lessons…
The task this week was to represent two country farms who do not sell ice-cream to London yet; to develop new flavours of ice-cream and then to sell the ice-cream to the trade. The highest volume of orders would win. A straight business and sales task then…
The teams headed off for the countryside and their two farms where they needed to decide on flavours, organize tastings, make the ice-cream and plan their sales strategies and tactics. Claire split her team taking part of the team on the hunt for ingredients and leaving part of the team to look after the kitchen.
Now I’ve got a problem with this… Who are you going to sell to tomorrow?? By my reckoning and with 6 on each team, they could have had 3 sales teams of 2 the next day who could easily have covered several appointments in central London each…
When’s the right time to get on the telephone making those appointments? Now would have been my answer…
Anyway, meanwhile Lucinda had appointed Lindi as her 2nd in charge. I’m not really sure why. She has displayed little gravitas, seems to have little management experience and is overly-confident of her own sales abilities which seem to consist mostly of smiling and being positive… Certainly a start but not anywhere near enough…
Lucinda seemed to start out well as project manager. Both halves of her team were working well with her kitchen team getting down to producing the ice-cream and her sales team booking people in for both the evening’s tasting and the next day appointments with prospects.
On the other team things were not going so well. Claire had struggled to find the ingredients and they had still not booked any appointments or organized the evening tasting session.
On Lucinda’s sales team, and under the guidance of Lindi, over-confidence was spilling over. Raef was on the phone describing himself as the CEO of Renaissance Ice-cream, Jennifer had successfully booked a sales appointment with a chain of independent cinemas and Raef was going on about how one hit can boost your confidence. If that’s the case Raef why did you all stop at 6 appointments? Surely you would have been better using this confidence to make more calls! 6 is not enough. Make more!
Sales training and business success tip: Fear of picking up the phone and approaching prospects destroys the careers of many salespeople and the businesses of many small business owners. A large proportion of new businesses fail mainly because their owners are seemingly incapable of getting on with this simple activity.
One of the best ways to get over call reluctance is to force yourself to keep cold calling and prospecting until you get some results and until it starts to feel second nature. The best way to defeat your fears and boost your sales and your business is to face your fears and do it anyway!
Unfortunately, Raef must have missed the sales training lesson that teaches how consistency is key. They were on a roll, they should have kept going… But they didn’t and Lindi, Raef and Jen were still boasting… “It’s going to be a walk in the park,” (Lindi) as they knocked off cold calling for appointments.
Back at the house Lucinda thanked her team for working well. I’m quite impressed, she’s not had a bad day and for the first time this series we have seen signs that our wannabees might actually be able to work together. But then the cracks started to show as Lucinda suggested that Lindi, because of her sales experience, should work with Lee and Helene the next day. Raef, Lindi and Jen just stared at Lucinda. They were clearly not happy.
You see right there is the problem. These characters only work together when they want to. As soon as anything upsets them they take their bat and ball home. Sir Alan will later tell Lucinda that mixing up the teams was a good idea and that she should have enforced it. Easy to say Sir Alan, not so easy to do with this lot. This was a management Catch 22 scenario…
This was a case of which is the lesser of two evils? Should Lucinda have left the teams as Lindi and friends clearly wanted them to be and hoped that they worked well together and got a result? Or should she have enforced the changes to maximize her team’s sales skills at risk of upsetting them so badly that they would have deliberately sabotaged her? Difficult call…
I know what I would have done in the real world but in this strange twilight world with egos and one-up-manship floating on the air like a bad smell…
Day 2 and Claire’s team had only 2 appointments set up compared to the 6 confirmed sales appointments on the other team. Alex told the camera that he thought that 2 appointments from 3 salespeople in a whole day was pathetic. I agree!
In the field our teams started to make some sales and Lucinda discovered that 3 of the 6 appointments that had been set up by her team were with shops who made their own ice-cream. She rang Lindi to discuss this… Lindi was dismissive and said that all clients say that and refused to take responsibility for the poor quality of leads that Lucinda had been given.
Meanwhile, Alex, on the other team, had approached an independent cinema in Clapham. The manager seemed to like the ice-cream but said that there were 18 cinemas in the chain and the he would have to speak with them and set up another appointment later on that day. Alex was pleased with his progress and hopeful of a big deal.
Cut to Lindi, Raef and Jen who were pitching another cinema in the same chain only they have both the cinema manager and the head buyer present! We watched as they won the order and as Alex got a call from the manager at the Clapham cinema cancelling the meeting. He was gutted and blamed the manager for pretending he was the “big cheese”. From what I saw, he didn’t but whatever the case there is a powerful business and sales training lesson here…
Speaking to the right sales prospects who can make sales decisions (or not) can make or break you. Understanding decision making processes is critical. Knowing who can and who cannot buy will help you to make more sales and grow your business. There are no excuses, you either know it or you don’t. Any gaps in your knowledge of your client in this area represent huge holes in your sales potential and your ability to accurately sales forecast.
Claire’s team were struggling. It looked like Lucinda’s lot were going to romp home with this one. Alex was mourning his team’s situation, “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.”
On the way back to the board room Raef and Jen were moaning about Lucinda. Lindi said that she was more of a manager than her… Lindi, you need to read Andy Smith’s comment of last week about self-awareness…
In the board room…
Renaissance were complimentary about Claire and her team leading skills. Alpha were positive about Lucinda except for Jen. Lindi got taken down a peg or two for booking appointments with people who make their own ice-cream. Lucinda said that her sales team had not wanted to be split up. Jen denied this saying she had been happy to move. Both Lindi and Jen got lampooned by Sir Alan for offering unauthorized exclusivity deals to clients.
And the results were out…
Lucinda’s Alpha 1273.64, Claire’s Renaissance 1455.45.
Probably a lucky result for Claire. Her failure to plan the sales approach could have cost her dearly. Conversely, Lucinda’s hands off manner and (personally stated) lack of sales knowledge had meant that she did not question her sales team’s activity nor assess the quality of their appointments.
Sales training and business tip: All sales leads and sales appointments are not created equally. Activity is important but it needs to be the right kind of activity. Any fool can get busy. As a successful sales professional or business owner you need to get busy working on the right stuff.
As Claire’s team headed off by helicopter to play golf and archery, Lucinda and her team were left to ponder what could have been.
Back in the board room Sir Alan was not happy about the poor appointments or the granting of exclusivity. Lucinda elected to bring back Lindi and Jen to the board room… the only two choices really.
Now just the three of them, Lucinda said that she did not want to upset the teams by moving people. Sir Alan said that she should have. In the real world he’s absolutely right but in this strangely surreal world I’m not so sure, but I do know that this lot should know when to shut up…
Lindi and Jen were at each other’s throats. Lucinda stayed pretty quiet as they shouted at each other right across her. I have often thought many of the apprentices incur Sir Alan’s wrath by attracting too much attention to themselves in the board room by behaving this way. Lucinda, quiet because either she thinks like me here or because she had nothing to say, was under the radar. Would Sir Alan see this as wise or weak?
Sir Alan on Lucinda, “Do I need risk managers?” On Jen, “The exclusivity thing is unforgiveable.” On Lindi, “Lindi, you were second in charge for the most important part, selling, and it is sales you lost this on and this brings me to the conclusion that Lindi, you’re fired.”
The right decision in my opinion.
In the car the humility of Simon last week was no more. Lindi, “Sir Alan did not see enough of me. I am in shock that he did not see how special I am.”
I’m bored of talking about ego and self-awareness so I won’t…
So what are the main sales training and business tips that we learn tonight that can help us to make more sales and be more successful?
Lead generation is critical
In this task, lead generation was critical. With only one selling day but time to pre-book sales appointments a large part of the resources on both teams should have been allocated to setting up enough quality appointments. On the sales day itself both teams had neither enough leads nor the quality of leads. This was not a hard “sell” and setting up appointments should have been easy. The teams should have been booked solid on appointments with no reduction in the qualification and quality of those appointments.
Not every sales lead or sales appointment is created equally. Just because you can secure a meeting does not mean that it is worth you investing your valuable time and effort in it. Many sales and business people think that because a client will agree to see that you ought to and have to go.
They are wrong.
Sales is a two way process and you have choice about who you deal with as your client does.
Deal with decision makers
Far too many salespeople and business owners waste far too much time and effort and lose far too many sales because they do not speak to decision makers. Finding, targeting and building relationships with decision makers and understanding decision making processes is fundamental to your sales future.
I am always amazed by how little salespeople, business owners and directors know about the sales processes and decision making steps in companies that they are pouring huge amounts of time, effort and resources into. In tonight’s episode we saw one team’s efforts totally derailed in one big sale because they had failed to uncover the decision making process or speak to the key decision maker.
Say “No” sometimes
After hearing about the debacle of the “exclusivity” deals that both Lindi and Jen had agreed to Sir Alan said that he would not have allowed their deals if he had known before. These deals were agreed because both Jen and Lindi were prepared to do the deal at any cost.
Some people call this selling. I don’t. If you cannot make a win-win sale then why bother?
Exactly.
There are many things that can make deals win-win but none of them were present here. In both cases these two should have stood their ground and walked away if necessary.
As a salesperson and a business owner or entrepreneur you need to know who your target clients are and what you need to achieve in a sale. Only by being congruent with what you are trying to achieve and who your clients are can you create any real value in what you do long term.
Why not let me know if you think Sir Alan made the right decision tonight? Or share your opinions by commenting below?
The Sales Apprentice 2008: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IV
[widget:ad_unit-157502571] 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.
Finally! A task involving selling! Surely there must be both some sales training tips and some business strategies to be learnt tonight? Perhaps we will even see one or two of our apprentices step up and demonstrate their sales expertise? Or would putting their money where their mouth is be just expecting too much from them?
On both teams tonight there were volunteers for the role of project manager. Simon volunteered for Renaissance and Helene for Alpha. Simon’s offer was not met with enthusiasm with both Claire and Alex questioning his decision.
Meanwhile on the other team, Helene was shooting her mouth off, “I am business woman with a lot of balls and front. What pisses me off in business is incompetence.” What is it about this lot and their arrogance? As Andy Smith commented on my blog last week, they seem to have no self-awareness whatsoever! Why do they think that success in business and sales requires this gobby, self importance? It really doesn’t!
Could it be that mild-mannered Kevin, the bank manager, is at it too? “I am really good at sales,” he boasted.
As a sales motivational speaker and sales training expert one of the things that I have noticed about top salespeople is that they are not boastful. The thing about being good at selling is that you really don’t need to tell anyone. If you are, they will have to sit up and take notice when the sales results come rolling in! Top sales professionals let their sales results speak for themselves.
Conversely, if you’re not good at selling, you’re going to be found out… fast. As I always say when running sales training seminars; sales success is all about activity and results not about mouth and trousers. It matters not what you say, rather what you do. It matters not what you say you’re going to sell, what matters is what you do sell. I nearly sold that PC system is no better than I lost the deal!
It seems to me that this series every single apprentice thinks that they are sales superstar… At least, that’s what they seem to be lining up to tell us anyway. Can’t say that I’ve seen much sign of it myself so far!
Simon asked Alex to be his right hand man but Alex backed off and accused him of delegating responsibility for the task to him. Simon wasn’t but he had the sense to give the job to Claire instead. Unfortunately, this was later to prove not to be the best management decision ever… but more of that later!
When choosing themes the two teams had very different ideas of what to do. Alpha decided to hire a David Beckham look-a-like and Renaissance economised and aimed to deliver a glamorous shoot on a low budget. Claire, meanwhile, was already starting on the first of a series of undermining assaults on Simon comparing him to her toddlers loudly in front of the rest of the team.
To the camera Simon, quite rightly, acknowledged that his team had little faith in his business ability.
Aside: Simon seems to be one of the few on the show who seem to have any self-awareness at all but can that save him?
Apparently, Blue Water attracts 180,000 customers a day. The teams only needed to convert a very small number of these prospects into paying customers to do very well. Very well indeed! This seems like a target rich environment to me! But as usual our heroes have their own seemingly unique ways of screwing it up…
So let’s you and I chat for a moment…
Let’s suppose that you have a team of half a dozen salespeople and you are sited in the busiest shopping centre in Europe. 180,000 people pass through the doors every day. They have their credit cards and their cash burning a hole in their pockets and they are out shopping. How much money would you want to make in a day? How many sales would you want to make? How much do you think you could sell?
I don’t know about you but I am thinking… a lot!
To bring this into perspective, our winning team will finish this task having made only 145 pounds profit. 145 pounds! If they had had to pay for their own pitch both teams would have lost substantial sums of money. As a business exercise, the execution of both teams was truly pitiful.
These individuals seem to be incapable of working together and it’s killing them. They spend more time knifing each other in the back, massaging their over-inflated egos and trying to get one over on each other than they do on the task in hand!
But back to the show…
It seems that Alex got out of bed the wrong side today. He was not happy! He clearly had a problem with Simon and was seemingly incapable of hiding it. It radiated off him in his body language, his tone and what he said. He, of course, denied all of this saying that he was a top salesperson and that he wouldn’t be one if he was negative.
Hmmmm! Add him to the list of people who have said they are sales superstars then!
Sales training and business tip: As a salesperson you need to be emotionally aware. You need to know how your emotions affect your actions. You need to be aware of how your interactions affect both your communications and your relationships with others.
Alex was either lying about the fact that he did not have a problem with Simon and could not hide that fact or he was unaware of the communications he was emitting. Either way, something he should be working on…
Helene’s David Beckham look-a-like was pulling in the customers. This lead generation strategy worked well all day however Alpha suffered meltdown in the processing arena and had to stop taking photos because they could not process them for a huge portion of the day. This was mainly due to the fact that Helene had put Lucinda in charge of the technical side of things despite the fact that Lucinda had told her that she was hopeless in this area.
Helene, another one oblivious to her outward persona, ignored Lucinda in setting her this task, shouted at her when she said she was struggling, and did not restructure her resources to solve the problem even when she knew about it.
Her business strategy instead? Shout at Lucinda and carry on with the failing strategy hoping that it might magically start working… Not surprisingly, it didn’t!
Back in the Renaissance camp, Claire was trying to ride rough-shod over Simon. I know it’s all in the filming but we have seen little sign of Simon’s alleged “emotional” or “aggressive” side but we do see both Claire and Alex making Simon’s life a misery. As I said on a text to a friend, in their current mood these two are unmanageable. They won’t support him, they won’t help him and they won’t work for him. And worse still, they are moaning to others about him and poisoning them too.
I’d like to say that this exercise was all about sales but it wasn’t. It probably should have been but today’s task was all about team work. Correction! Today’s task was all about lack of team work. Today’s task was all about how one or two people can effectively destroy the success of a whole sales team and rob your business of sales and profits.
In the board room Helene blamed Lucinda. Nick stepped in and said that Helene was “wishy-washy”. It’s true… Helene appeared indecisive as a team leader and made bad decisions when she did. She seemed unwilling to correct her mistakes regarding resources and appeared aggressive and overbearing when dealing with Lucinda. She could well have been leaving tonight except for the fact that…
Team Renaissance under Simon were worse! They actually lost 73.81 pounds!
Swanning of for some fun on a yacht Helene seemed pleased with her superior management skills… Her wake up call cannot be long coming…
Talking to the camera Alex said, “It will be a massive error to take me back into the board room because I will destroy him (Simon) if he takes me into the board room.” Oh come on! Who speaks like this? Where do they learn to speak like this? Is this what we get when our children are reared without the benefit of Watch with Mother?!
Back in the board room Simon said that he got a less than enthusiastic approval when he put himself up as project manager. You’re not joking Simon! Both Sir Alan and Margaret told Claire that she had little respect for her team leader. You don’t say…
Simon, not surprisingly, decided to bring back Claire and Alex.
Back in the board room the heat was on. Interestingly though Alex, when asked who should be fired by Sir Alan, said Claire. Claire meanwhile was firing all cylinders at Simon. Maybe this was a tactical move by Alex? Did he realise that Claire was committed to attacking Simon and that she could not now turn her sights on him? Was he quick enough to realise that had he broadsided Simon, Simon could have taken him on whereas by attacking Claire he left those two slugging it away together and him out of the loop?
After some discussion, Sir Alan, in his now familiar manner, said that he had heard enough. This is the tried and tested formula and the message to the contestants is to shut up as Sir Alan has made a decision. Claire however had other thoughts and interrupted him to defend herself again. Sir Alan, maybe amazed at her front, was quiet for a moment before saying that he wanted her out of his sight!
So Claire left…
But not the programme, just the board room and a date and an outing as a project leader in next week’s show!
An interesting twist so now only Alex and Simon remained. “I am sorry my friend I think you are out of your depth here. With regret you’re fired,” and Simon was gone.
A strange choice in some ways and not one that I would have made. We have never really seen the emotional or the aggressive side of Simon that the others complained of. He has worked hard and applied himself. Sir Alan had pondered as to whether he was a doer not a leader and… and that’s a fair question which we will now never be sble to answer…
But in reality he had shown no less leadership than any of the others because few of them have showed any leadership skills as of yet. And most of them show no signs of being able to get the task done either so he was way ahead of them there! What’s more, Simon does seem to have some self awareness…
Not for Simon the self-denial, blame and ego so associated with apprentice losers but a dignified and somewhat anti-climatic departure, “Thank you Sir Alan. Thank you for a wonderful opportunity.” And then in the cab, “I gave it my best shot. I give it everything I had…. At the end of the day I failed. I will go up and pick myself up”
I’d have kept him… for the moment anyway.
So we continue on our strange journey… business, drama, humour, pantomime… whatever this journey is, searching for our next apprentice. To date, no-one has caught my eye. No-one has shown any real leadership skills. No-one has stepped up and showed any real sales skills or presence. It’s an open game…
So let’s help ourselves…
What sales training and business lessons did we learn tonight and how can we use these to help us to improve our sales and our businesses?
Get the right people in the right job!
Successful leadership, management and business is all about getting the right people in the right jobs at the right time. There’s little point employing talent if you don’t leverage it. I am flabbergasted that Lucinda apparently knows virtually nothing about computers but she did declare that to Helene. Forcing her to do this role either out of stupidity, pig-headedness or spite was ludicrous.
Frequently, I work with companies who are trying to hammer round pegs into square holes. Even if you could, why bother? They won’t fit as well as a square one and they will never sit happily there!
Working out what your team are good at and capitalising on those talents is one of the signs of a great leader. If you want to make more sales, this skill is critical.
Working as a team is one of the keys to business and sales success.
For sure, you can climb to the top of success mountain by yourself but what are you going to do when you get there? Team work is the quickest, most effective and most sustainable way to grow your business.
In The Apprentice tonight what we saw were (allegedly) intelligent people destroying their sales and business results and potential because of their inability to work together. Helping your teams to support, appreciate and respect each other will deliver exceptional sales and business results.
Many sales teams do not work together and miss opportunities to help each other through referrals, advice, support and motivation. Shared goals, values and systems create a powerful forward momentum. Working to achieve this is essential.
Systemise for success.
As a salesperson or a business owner you need systems. Not complicated, hard to follow systems but simple, easy and repeatable ones.
In tonight’s show we saw both teams lose valuable sales due to not having a systemised approach to their sales activities. Leaving your sales efforts to the whims and moods of individual members of your sales team is wrong and could well lead to the collapse of your sales results.
Successful companies have successful systems. Successful companies have sales and marketing systems. Successful sales teams have proven sales systems. Great salespeople have their own proven systems. People work better when they are working to a system. People feel more confident when they are working to a proven system. People need systems.
Don’t leave your sales results, your business growth and your personal success to chance. Create systems for yourself, your sales team and your overall sales activities… Let me know what you thought of last night’s episode by commenting below…
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