The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 11, The Interviews
So I guess the biggest question tonight was which, if any, of the interviewers would you want to be interviewed by? Indeed, if their behaviour tonight was representative of their general leadership styles in the workplace which of them would you actually want to work for?
But, real or not, representative of their day-to-day style or not, this was prime time TV and they had to make a spectacle of it. What’s more, of course, the whole premise of interviewing at the end of the hiring process is ludicrous; many of the issues that are discovered at this late stage should have been weeded out at first interview stage… preferably on the phone thus saving you valuable time and money.
Not many sales training tips tonight but plenty of ideas on how and how not to hire yourself a high performance sales team. And not many surprises with the outcome of tonight’s show either…
The four interviewers this year were Claude Litner, Sir Alan’s former “global trouble-shooter”; Karren Brady, the managing director of Birmingham City Football Club; Bordan Tkachuk, the chief executive of the computer and IT firm Viglen, one of Sir Alan’s companies; and Alan Watts, hot-shot city litigator who acted for Sir Alan in his successful proceedings against the Daily Mail for libel.
Their mission, apparently, break through the bragging and the bluster and get to the truth.
Perhaps the interviewing wasn’t as outrageous as last year but, none the less, if you were setting up a business and you had never recruited anyone before and you chose to adopt some of these interviewing approaches for finding the right salespeople for your business you could very quickly land yourself in very hot water indeed. Headed by Claude Litner, this was a master-class in bullying your interviewee by being overly personal, “I wonder if you’re delusional”, I’ve read your CV… it’s fair to say that they’re exceptional, exceptionally bad” , “You’re talking nonsense, you’re talking nonsense aren’t you”, “Don’t be daft”, “You’re little miss perfect aren’t you”, “You seem a little immature”…
But at least this was balanced out by Karen, in particular, who demonstrated some powerful interviewing skills, building rapport, listening to her interviewees and asking strong developmental questions to really find out what the candidates had to say. She wanted to find out what made the candidates tick and from what we saw did a good job of it.
Sales leadership tip: Getting the right salespeople into your business is essential if you want to build high performance sales teams and get great sales results. Yes, it’s important that you challenge individuals under interview but it is also essential that you get them talking and really find out what drives them and makes them tick. Behaving like Sir Alan’s attack dog is no way to recruit great salespeople as it simply backs them into a corner allowing you to see little more than how they behave when someone threatens them.
Here are 5 top tips for recruiting sales superstars by getting the best out of sales interviewees…
- Do your preparation. Develop a standard set of questions.
- Listen and ask developmental questions.
- Ask evidence based questions because anyone can talk theory. You need to understand what they have actually done not what they say they can do.
- Don’t divulge too much about your company at first. Find out what they know.
- Be tough and challenging but not rude. Do not personalize it.
What did we learn about the apprentices from these interviews?
Kate prefers to work with men. James looked like he was going to cry most of the time. Lorraine was not confident about her CV and “accidentally” added an extra year onto her current job to pad it out. Yasmina had exaggerated the turnover and the profit of her current business. Debra was accused of being hated and swearing at work and said that she had never had so much negative feedback in a day.
In the board room…
“James I have taken on board what you said, there is nothing wrong with being friendly… I think you’re a corporate man… that don’t exist in my business, with regret you’re fired.”
And James was gone and we were left with 4 girls…
“Lorraine. You think you’re good at sales yeah?… You can’t keep bleating about that hard upbringing all the time… you had altercations with people… (she said she had learnt from the show)… Lorraine you might have to take that with you now, I have to balance what is suitable for my organization so I am going to have to say to you, you’re fired…”
And there were three…
“Kate. You’re in the final.”
So the last place was between Debra and Yasmina. “If I tell you that there is nothing between you. It is a very, very, seriously tough decision that I have to make… Debra you should be proud of yourself. I’ve made my decision and I wish you the very, very best of luck and I know you’re going to be very successful in the future. Debra you’re fired. You keep in touch.”
So we were left with Kate and Yasmina, the two you could have picked for the final 6 weeks ago. Who do you think will win? Roll on Sunday.
Sales interview tips: If you’re currently interviewing for a new sales role, here are 6 quick tips for interview success…
- Do your research.
- Identify the key skills you think your interviewer will need and think of specific examples where you have demonstrated these skills.
- Take evidence of your results with you.
- Know your figures.
- Prepare some questions.
- Close Close Close.
For more tips on succesful interviewing read this Sales Interview Techniques article now.
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IX
Week 9 and this week the apprentices had to select and sell two baby products per team at the Baby Show in Earls Court. The team who sold the most would win and on the losing team, someone would get the sack. Leading Ben, Debra and Yasmina (Empire) this week was James. Leading Howard and Kate (Ignite) was Lorraine.
I’m really not sure who I wanted to lose this week or who I’d like to sack first. Lorraine is singularly annoying, Debra is contrary and aggressive, Ben is puffed up and ego-tastic, James is Tim-Nice-But-Dim… Howard, Kate and Yasmina seem the best of a bad bunch with Kate perhaps my favourite…
Anyway, back to the plot and our teams had 6 hours to visit suppliers, view potential products and make their selection of the products that they wanted to sell the very next day…
In Holland Park, James and Yasmina loooked at a birthing pool. In an attempt to influence their decision the client informed them that they had recently sold £5,000 worth of stock at a similar event over three days. Useful information but why did they not ask this question themselves and why did they not ask any follow on questions?
Sales training tip: Selling is all about asking questions. Selling is all about understanding. Selling is all about asking the right questions to aid understanding for both you and your client. Even when the client offered useful information why did they not ask more questions about where this other event was, how many attendees there were, why the people bought, what the competitive products were etc. I would have even asked them what they knew about the Baby Show and whether they’d been to that show before…
In South London Debra and Ben looked at a protective head cap for toddlers. As they left Ben was dismissive, “I’d want my kid to get cuts and bruises” he said, implying that children these days get molly-coddled. Debra agreed with him. And so do I…
But this has nothing to do with Debra and nothing to do with Ben and nothing to do with me. This is all to do with parents and future parents and, more specifically, the parents and future parents at the Baby Show. Would they make an impulse purchase to protect their child’s skull? Is this something that they would buy? I wouldn’t but I think they probably would.
Sales training tip: When you make assumptions about your prospects and your market based on your own preconceptions and beliefs you run the risk of getting it wrong. This is why planning, preparation and research are a critical part of the sales process.
Next up, Knightsbridge, and Debra and Ben fell in love with a horse. A wooden, rocking horse to be more precise. “We are known as the best rocking horse makers in the world… they sell to kings and queens everywhere”, boasted the rocking horse maker. I couldn’t visualize many kings and queens gracing Earl’s Court with their presence and I’d heard enough to move on but Ben and Debra were enchanted… “if you only sell one”, dreamed Ben.
Yes Ben, IF.
Kate and Howard meanwhile had realized the potential of selling the protective head cap that Debra and Ben had dismissed by playing on FEAR.
Sales training tip: People buy on emotion and justify with logic. Protecting your child is natural for any parent and, particularly, for first parents. At £15.99 this could be an easy sale… whether you agree with it or not
Decision time…
James asked Debra what she had seen that she liked and she said that as long as they got the rocking horses she didn’t care. “What’s your second choice?” he asked and Debra replied, “I wouldn’t choose any of them. I got to be honest, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t put my kid in a cradle, I wouldn’t put high heels on a 6 month old and I probably wouldn’t pick a head guard that they’d pull off.”
James and his team selected the birthing pool and the rocking horses. On the other team Lorraine, Kate and Howard selected a foldable buggy and the head guard.
The show…
Lorraine and her team quickly discovered that there was another company selling the same buggy as them and that they were selling it for £35 cheaper than them too. Oh dear.
Sales training tip: Ask better questions. Most salespeople just do not ask enough questions nor do they ask the right questions. In this case, Lorraine failed to ask the question as to whether anyone else would be exhibiting the product at the show.
Kate and Howard, true team players (!), whispered to each other, “I can’t believe she didn’t ask if anyone else was selling it”, whispered Kate, “Do you know what? If we lose, we’ve got a reason, we’ve got an excuse,” replied Howard. Good to know that they have a plan in place… even if it is their excuses if they fail!
Lorraine, meanwhile, was making a hash of demonstrating the buggy. “She’s making a complete horlicks of it”, commented Nick. Lorraine knew that she could not work the buggy last night and yet she had walked in to the show itself still unable to work it. What is that about? Why did she go to bed before she could take that buggy down and put it back up again blind folded, one-handed and wearing boxing gloves?
Sales training tip: Everyday I see salespeople who know that they have not completed something adequately but who pack up their bags and go home at 530pm anyway. Sales success is directly related to effort. Often, I have worked through the night to complete something important. That’s what important means, worth dedicating time and effort to. Clearly, operating the buggy was important and I would not have slept before I had mastered it.
And then a prospective customer showed Howard, Kate and Lorraine how to operate it. “We just don’t look professional when people ask how do you recline it and then they have to show us. It doesn’t look good”, said Howard implying that Lorraine was at fault. You knew you couldn’t operate it too Howard and you went to bed as well. You could have worked it out yourself you know.
That’s two weeks now that he has claimed innocence whilst seemingly being present whilst bad decisions were made. He does remind me a little of the Jasper Carrot sketch, “Never been involved in an accident… seen thousands”.
Over on the other team, Ben was half-heartedly trying to get people to talk with him about the rocking horses, “Can I interest you in our rocking horses?”, “Would you be interested in our rocking horses?” and “Excuse me, could I interest you in our rocking horses?”
Sales training tip: Closed questions of this kind are not the best kind of question to get people talking to you. It is far too easy for a client to say, “No”… and they all did. Planning and preparing your approach for engaging clients is critical. When you work a show or a stand you need to plan and prepare a strategy for enticing, engaging and converting prospects. You need to know what you need to achieve and how best you can achieve it.
In the board room the results were in…
Empire (Ben, Debra, Yasmina and James) had sold £722.
Ignite (Lorraine, Kate and Howard) had sold £1606.89 (or was it £1666.89?).
Debra was quick to cast blame, “In my mind, if you are a family, you will always have a need for a buggy…” What? She is unbelievable and so contrary. She says one thing one minute then reinvents history and says something else the next. Debra, do you not remember saying that you would be gutted if you did not get the horse?
James was criticized for choosing the birthing pool when only 2% of people have home births (or was that birthing pools?). James took this on the chin but said that they had also spent far too much time championing the rocking horse and far too little selling the birthing pool.
Sales training tip: I don’t know enough about this market to comment on their choices and anything I could say would be based on best guess and not research however… James is right about the strategy. Debra and Ben seemed to be looking for the knock-out punch, the big one, the retirement sale. They (rightly) pointed out that if they could sell one rocking horse they would win.
But they didn’t sell any rocking horses and they didn’t win. Too many salespeople rely on one big deal or one important deal to help them to hit their targets but then when it doesn’t come in, which is frequently, they miss target. They whine about how unlucky they were, how close it was and what would have happened if…
Debra continued to say that there were other options and that she had told James that. No Debra, I wrote it down. You said, “I wouldn’t choose any of them”. She continued about the choice of the birthing pool, “They beat us because they picked a product that everybody needed”… Ah, of course yes, because everybody needs a rocking horse Debra!
James elected, not surprisingly, to bring back Debra and Ben…
Ben claimed that he had shown Sir Alan raw business talent. He said, “I’ve shown you that I can be a compete grafter?” Apparently he can “compete at a world class level” and, did I tell you, he had a “scholarship for Sandhurst”?
But Sir Alan wasn’t having any of it, “It’s a very tough decision and it’s not a nice one for me to be perfectly honest but I feel that the light at the end of the tunnel has gone out quite frankly and I think it’s time Ben for you to leave this process. Ben you’re fired.”
Bye-bye Ben.
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VIII
Week 8 and an interesting task rebranding Margate from being “a little tired” to being “a cool place to go”. Not many sales training tips this week but an interesting night and a few good tips.
Leading the two teams this week were Debra and Yasmina. Yasmina declared that she was suggesting herself for this task as it required a “multitude of skills” and that she had them. Nothing if not humble.
The two teams quickly started coming up with ideas for the rebranding. Debra, Mona, Howard and James decided that they would try and tap into the pink pound whilst Lorraine, Yasmina, Ben and Kate settled for the somewhat safe idea of rebranding Margate as a family holiday venue.
Over a two day period our teams had to create the rebranding plan, create a poster and a leaflet and make two sales pitches. One of the would be to branding experts and the other to officials and locals. Both of these groups would score the pitches and the best scoring pitch would win.
Both teams elected to operate with two team members in Margate and two in London. In Margate for Empire were Mona and James and for Ignite, Ben and Lorraine. Whilst Mona and James “subtly” tested the local opinion of chasing the pink pound, Howard and Debra enjoyed casting for their photos. Over on the other team Kate and Yasmina seemed to be gaining equal enjoyment from their casting of a yummy Daddy, Yasmina licking her lips as he bared his chest…
The next day the fog had landed on Margate. It was not perfect weather for appealing photography. Mona and James decided to start off by shooting some shots inside, recreating a night club scene. Nick was not complimentary saying that the models were not getting a lot of direction and that they looked wooden…
Every week we learn from the occasional successes and frequent failures of the apprentices. I am happy to point out what they have done wrong, how egotistical they can be and what they should have done instead but, in this, I disagree with Nick. The apprentices are not photographers or directors. Nor do they pretend to be. How do they know or why should they be expected to know how to direct a photo shoot? Why would they know how to get the best out of a model? Would you? Would Nick? Would knowing how to do this make them any more employable as a leader?
Leadership tip: Being a great leader is not about being able to do everything yourself. Being a great leader is about utilizing the resources you have to get the optimum result. Being a leader is about knowing when a job requires specialist help. Being a leader means understanding how to integrate that specialist help into your business. This was one of those times when specialist help was required and I think it would have been more realistic as a leadership task to have let them lead and manage a specialist in this area.
Later on, James and Mona moved to the beach to continue their photo shoots. “Directing” two guys with ice cream 99s on the beach, Nick continued to look on with disgust as if he had just found a rancid gherkin in his ice cream. Margaret meanwhile looked relaxed and calm, sitting on a seaside bench, eating an ice cream and watching Ben and Lorraine on their shoot.
Back in London, Lorraine and Yasmina clashed over the poster that Yasmina had created. Lorraine really has an ability to rub people up the wrong way fast. But if their arguments were unproductive they were nothing compared to the problems on Debra’s team where just 30 minutes before the print deadline they had not even started the leaflet! Not surprisingly, they could not finish it in time and had to leave it incomplete with gaps on it.
This was not the first time this series that one of the teams had failed to complete a basic task and I was surprised that more was not made of just how incompetent this really was. Remember the plain green cereal box? Tonight’s task was to do a rebrand with a presentation and to back it up with a poster and a leaflet. To not finish the leaflet was inexcusable.
The first sales presentation was to two agency chiefs and a tourism expert…
Kate went first with their family theme “See Margate through childrens’ eyes”. As with all of the sales presentations on the Apprentice we did not really see enough to comment on her presentation skills but what we did see was somewhat fact based and not very sexy at all. Rather too much steak and not much sizzle.
As usual, the professionals had to show their “expertise”, “If you saw your poster without the logo would you be confident that you would recognize it?” one asked. Frankly, I could apply that question to virtually any holiday poster I have seen anywhere and I wondered if they would have taken on the same project from cold in the same time period.
Howard made the presentation for Debra’s team and the idea seemed to go down well but the experts were quick to ask about why the leaflet had gaps on it. Debra, who had obviously been thinking up an excuse over night as to why there were gaps, said that the spaces were for local advertisers. It was fairly obvious that they did not believe her but she continued to dig a hole for herself and her team. Later on, Margaret said that the branding company did not like being lied to and said that you need a relationship of trust between a branding company and their client and that it had been blown out of the window.
Sales training tip: Trust is also critical if you want to be a top salesperson. Trust is essential if you want to close sales. Trust is crucial if you want top class client relationships. Trust is mandatory if you want your clients to open up and speak to you about their real needs, wants, fear and desires. Salespeople are often seen as untrustworthy, untruthful and dishonest. Sometimes this is fair, sometimes it isn’t. To deal with this perception you need to develop deep trust between you and you clients and the only way you can do this is by being honest, open and trustworthy, all of the time.
Back in the boardroom…
We discovered that Empire had scored 4/10 from the officials and residents and 4/10 from the branding experts. Ignite had scored 7/10 from both groups respectively.
Debra, Mona, James and Howard were left to fight it out whilst the others got to race Lotus Exiges around a race track. James hit the nail on the head for me, “We lost because our execution was poor.”
Debra elected to bring back Mona and James…
This was a difficult one because they could all go. Surely none of these three could win this thing. James seems all Tim-nice-but-dim to me, Mona just doesn’t have it and Debra could wind up any team fast…
On tonight’s performance alone, I would have sacked Debra. Sir Alan said that Howard seemed to do nothing wrong tonight and Debra blamed the quality of the photos and creativity on Mona and James in Margate but what exactly were she and Howard doing for two days? Why was the leaflet not nearly completed and just awaiting photos? Why was the poster not laid out and awaiting photos? And how on earth did she think she could lay out a leaflet in 30 minutes anyway?
Debra also has very slippery shoulders, casting around to lay blame on anyone but herself in a very aggressive manner, “I wish I was you and James. I wish I had gone off to Margate, done absolutely nothing, ate fish and chips, taken a couple of pictures that weren’t actually relevant to what we were trying to do…”
Sales training tip: Sales success is about taking responsibility. Sales success is about knowing what you’re good at and improving what you’re not so good at. Many average salespeople do not admit any faults or failings and blame their clients, their colleagues, the market or anything except themselves for their failures. Unless you take responsibility, total responsibility for your sales performance you will limit yourself from becoming an absolute top sales performer.
But, as Sir Alan said, he is looking at performance over the whole series now and despite doubts over James and Debra, Mona had to go. “It looks like to me that you might be right at the end of the pier in this process… Mona, with regret, you’re fired.”
“Thanks you for the opportunity,” she said politely. And we were down to seven.
Quote of the week goes to Yasmina on Lorraine, “There is a difference between managing people that have strong personalities and managing crazy people.”
Who is your favourite? Who would you like to win and why?
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VII
Week 7 and 8 apprentices remained to compete in this week’s task of choosing two products from a selection of 12 and then selling them to dealers in Manchester and Liverpool over a two day period. The winning team, as usual, would be the team which made the most sales. Sir Alan was quick to say that tonight’s task was all about sales and that everybody had to sell and that no-one would escape.
So, at last, a sales task to get our teeth into and one which they would be held personally accountable for. What sales training lessons would we learn tonight? Who would step up as a sales superstar? Who would fall on their face as a sales loser?
Team leaders were quickly elected as Lorraine for Ignite and Mona for Empire and after a roll call of the ingenious, the interesting and the downright odd our teams selected the products that they wished to sell. Lorraine’s team plumped for a cat playhouse and an expandable bag for carrying shopping on a bike. Mona and Empire were attracted to a lover’s dog lead that allows two people to walk a dog at the same time and a sleeping bag with arms and legs.
These were interesting choices particularly from Mona’s team because Sir Alan had pre-organized two meetings for them with two big retailers and neither of these products seemed like a good fit for their product ranges so they effectively dismissed two potentially huge clients before even starting out.
Sales training tip: I can’t believe I am offering this advice as it seems so obvious but, then again, salespeople, as we saw, often manage to stray far away from the obvious. When selling you need to make sure that you 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. With hot meetings set up with real possibilities of selling and with only one day to set up other meetings Mona’s team really should have thought about this more…
Next day in Liverpool city centre at a large hardware store Yasmina and Lorraine pitched their bike bag and their cardboard cat toy. When asked by the client how many he would have to order Lorraine said 5-6000 units. The client said that this was too many. In the board room Sir Alan was equally dismissive saying that no store could sell this amount.
Sales training tip: To be a sales superstar you need to ask better questions. To be a sales superstar you need to listen harder. To be a sales superstar you need to really understand your clients. A good strategy, rather than guessing, is to ask your client better questions such as, “How many would you typically order?” or “What size of order were you thinking about?” This also makes solid sales negotiation strategy too.
Later on, at the same hardware store, we saw the Achille’s Heel of apprenti, past and present, rear its ugly head yet again – lack of planning and preparation. Howard and Debra were presenting the sleeping bag to a buyer and when asked how much a normal sleeping bag costs they didn’t know. Howard responded with “good question” and Debra (clearly a student of the bodge it, blag it and wing it sales academy) responded with the fact that it “varies from bottom to top”.
Really Debra? You don’t say!
Sales training tip: Know your product. Know where your product sits compared to the competition. Know the relative strengths and weaknesses of your product in relation to the competition.
At the second company, Howard and Debra faired little better with Howard unaware of what departments the store had or what products they carried either…
Sales training tip: Know your prospects. To demonstrate professional respect for your prospects you should know everything about them that your prospect could reasonably have expected you to know.
Next day on team Lorraine, Lorraine was challenging Ben, Kate and Philip, over the phone, as to why they had not made any sales yet. Ben’s response was classic sales whiner, “We’ve tried booking as many as we possibly could. Basically we’ve only made one.” There was no mention of Sandhurst. Lorraine, all credit to her, wasn’t prepared to accept this and challenged him again, “How many calls did you make?” Ben, Kate and Philip weren’t sure but the answer was 10, 15, 20… they didn’t know. And it was not clear whether that was each or together but either way it was not enough.
I’d go a step further. It not only wasn’t enough, it was pathetic. And I’d like to have seen the phone bill to see how many calls they actually did make. There’s a 100k job here, you’re on TV and it’s one day only and you say you want it? Get your head up, pick the handset up and get on with it. Every time we saw you lot in that car that phone should have been glued to your ear…
I don’t rate Ben or Philip so their behaviour didn’t surprise me one bit but Kate let herself down giggling with them in the car and seemingly not caring whether she had made any sales or not. Lorraine probably hit the nail on the head when talking to Yasmina saying that she did not know what was distracting them “but I hope it’s not Kate’s beauty”. It probably was. And it seemed that Philip’s “beauty” was distracting Kate too…
Sales training tip: 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. They don’t, when not managed, giggle and carry on like a bunch of ill-behaved teenagers on a day trip to Scarborough for the first time.
And then, good on her, Mona stepped up and showed some solid negotiation skills. In a camping shop, a prospect said that he was interested in the sleeping bags. “I’d try a few” he said so Mona responded that she had a minimum order of 24 and quoted a price. When the client asked for a discount she asked him if he could order more. Even when he tried to finalize the deal she held firm and extracted a final concession on price.
Like it.
There is a bit of an unofficial second competition going on, not to be The Apprentice but to be the author of the best quote. If Lorraine didn’t have it in the bag already tonight with “I hope it’s not Kate’s beauty” here are a few other contenders (possibly paraphrased in places!)…
From a pet shop owner on the cat playbox, “It’s a cardboard box at the end of the day and I’m just not that bothered!” Lorraine on the North, “The wages are a little lower here.” Nick on Phil, Ben and Kate selling nothing, “Frankly them coming back to board room without sales is like popping in that cat plane and going off to fight the Battle of Britain.”
In the board room…
Mona and Empire made £4501.
Lorraine and Ignite made £1302.
A hammering for Lorraine’s team and all the more telling because Mona’s team, due to their poor choice of products, had sold nothing to the two “banker” clients.
You didn’t sell, you didn’t sell and you didn’t sell barked Sir Alan jabbing his finger at Kate, Philip and Ben. Philip, who has been gobby and opinionated since day 1, was yet again blind to his failings saying that he was bewildered as to why he had not sold anything but that he, Kate and Ben were the best salespeople anyway.
Can anyone be bewildered as to why they did not perform and know that they are amazing at the same time? Is that possible?
Kate meanwhile was digging her own hole, “You can’t sell if people aren’t there” she whined. Margaret was quick to jump on her head telling her that getting appointments is part of selling. Well done Margaret, that’s why my No Fear Cold Calling programmes are so popular and so powerful for your sales and business results too!
Then Sir Alan kicked away their crutches and their excuses saying that he had got some of his people to make some calls, that they rang 6 stores and that they got in. Hee hee!
Lorraine, who I still don’t rate, but who was looking better under fire, said that she and Yasmina were “banging out calls” but that she did not sense any urgency from the other team members…
Philip and Kate meanwhile were coming under more pressure from both Sir Alan and Nick – Kate for not realizing that a client’s lack of interest is her poor selling techniques and Philip for saying he was a better salesperson than Lorraine when he sold nothing.
Lorraine elected to bring back Philip and Kate. They attacked her and she defended herself by saying that they were in a “relationship” with each other. They said that had nothing to do with it. She still has to go soon but at the start of the show I’d have buried Lorraine in this company but you know what…
Go Lorraine! Go Lorraine! See you Philip!
“Kate you have performed well in the past weeks. Philip you’re certainly a fiery person and I’m thinking… about the hundreds of other people I employ and thinking of their reaction to you and it ‘aint good the picture I have in my head… Lorraine the underlying concern I have is that you alienate people… Lorraine I am still not clear about you but Philip I think I am clear in my mind that your bravado and attitude ‘aint going to fit in my organization so Philip you’re fired…”
Outside the board room Kate turned to Lorraine, “I feel absolutely insulted that you could suggest that anything that goes on in my personal life can affect my business performance.”
But it did and Kate looked slightly less bullet-proof than she had. In the cab Philip was muttering, “I’m a much better candidate than she (Lorraine) is.”
But she’s still in it Philip and that’s what counts.
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part VI
So, here we are at week 6 and this week was all about selling… or was it? The task, to sell two identical lots of 10 new and used items for the best possible prices. The team who made the most profit would win.
Sales training and business tip: Profit is not the same as sales revenues. When consulting, I often come across salespeople, sales managers and companies fixated on sales. “Sell! Sell! Sell!” they shout and run out there selling anything that they can at any price. In 2009 many companies have slashed prices to make sales. It may seem obvious but there is little point selling if you don’t make profit!
Leading the sales for Ignite tonight was opinionated Geordie estate agent, Philip and leading Empire, tubby, wannabe army officer, Ben. Ben sprang into action straight away doing what he seems to perform the best at, boasting about himself, “I am a natural born leader… Sandhurst clearly saw that in me and that’s why I got an army scholarship.” But you didn’t go Ben! Get over it already. He didn’t get over it and he continued to lecture about leading people under “heavy gunfire” and managing when there were “people getting injured.” Ben mate, Margaret says you never were in the army, what do you know about leading men under fire?
Sales training tip: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, sales is not about your CV, sales is not about your background and sales is not about talking a good game. Sales is about getting results, consistent results. I don’t care what you say you’re going to do. I care only about what you actually do. And so do your clients. Salespeople who over promise and under deliver ought to go and do something else less results oriented instead.
As our teams began to sift through the weird and wonderful items that Sir Alan has selected for them it was immediately obvious that some of these items were relatively valuable and others were merely red herrings. A life size skeleton, jellied eels, a mountain bike, some vintage shoes, some books, an Indian rug and several others – it quickly became clear that they were not going to apply any kind of logical methodology to this task but were instead going to base their day’s activities on opinion and guesswork.
There is an old personal development story about a man who is asked to mend a piece of equipment in a factory which no-one else can mend. The factory owner is desperate as he cannot produce any goods with his machinery out of action. When the expert arrives he looks all around the machine and eventually pulls out a hammer and hammers in one nail. The factory owner is delighted and thanks him. When the invoice arrives the factory owner is shocked to see that he has been invoiced for $1000 and complains saying that the expert only hammered in one nail. He asks for a break down of the invoice. The expert responds with the following…
Hammering in the nail $5.
Knowing which nail to hammer $995.
Sales training and business tip: Sometimes knowing where to expend your energy is as important as expending energy. Yes, this task required activity. Yes, this task required selling skills. Yes, this task required negotiation skills. But more than that, this task required planning and preparation.
Our teams needed to know which products were the valuable ones, who would want to buy them and where they would best locate those prospects. Time spent understanding this would have increased the value when they came to hammer in their nail. Smart selling is all about maximizing the impact and effectiveness of your sales activities.
Ben split his team into two taking 7 products for his half of the team and leaving the other half of the team only 3 between them. Hmmm. Meanwhile, Philip was continuing his spat with Lorraine by studiously ignoring her comments that she thought that the Indian rug could be valuable. It was.
Sales training and sales leadership tip: As a salesperson or a sales leader it is essential that we judge the reality of a situation not just what we believe. It is really easy to believe that your prospect cannot afford to pay or that you will have to discount to win the deal for example.
People have a habit of seeing what they believe rather than believing what they see. Philip clearly believes that Lorraine is “erratic”. She may well be but because of this, even when she did come out with valuable comments, he dismissed them believing them to be nonsense. As a sales leader you need to get the best out of your sales team and this means utilizing all of their skills. This can be impossible to do if you have such negative beliefs about people that you fail to see even when they can add value to your sales efforts.
That said, Philip was about to prove two other sales truism namely that activity produces results and that you have to ask to get. Undertaking what has to be one of the silliest activities I have ever seen on the Apprentice – walking into a pub (albeit near a hospital) and asking if anyone wanted to buy a skeleton – Philip actually stumbled across someone who had always wanted one and sold it for £160. As I always say to sales teams, you need to work smarter AND harder. This was harder without the smarter and on this occasion it paid off…
Noorul meanwhile was on the phone trying to sell their skeleton. After finding a prospect they drove to him only to be told, “I’m a student, would you be interested in giving a good price?” With nowhere else to go and having driven all the way there, Noorul’s negotiation stance was weak and the best he could come up with was, “What’s the best price?“ to which the prospect said, “£50 really.” Noorul looked gutted and, as tumbleweed blew through Noorul’s negotiation, Ben stepped in to the breach saying that £50 was a bit low and he asked for £60. Nice step in Ben but come on… you should have gone higher than that.The skeleton was sold for £60 to one happy “student” but they’d just been had!
Meanwhile, Philip was hawking the “valuable” rug door to door frustrating Margaret into saying, “I’m speechless… that rug was the most expensive item they had and they have completely ignored its value all day apart from Lorraine.”
Over on team Ben, Debra and Ben were struggling to sell their ambitious 7 items and Ben rang Yasmina and co for help. Yasmina was quick to say that they ought to stick to their plan and that they had things to sell too.
In the board room…
Sir Alan confirmed that this task had nothing to do with selling and everything to do with valuation. The “devil is in the detail” he quipped.
Unfortunately, this was the downfall of tonight’s task as with neither group grasping this concept and both treating it as a purely sales task – sell as much as possible as fast as possible – the resulting results were really more about luck than skill…
Philip and Ignite had oversold some items by £96 and undersold two for a net loss of £34.
Ben and Empire had been somewhat less lucky making a profit of £78 and a loss of £242 giving a net loss of £169.
Not really representative of much but a win for Philip who remains safe despite ignoring his team and focusing on the wrong things so it was over to Ben who elected to bring back Noorul and James. Sorry, Noorul and Debra, or was it James? No, definitely Debra…
Noorul had to go.
He has been hopeless since his first words on the show (“I talk posh and I look posh”), has contributed little of value and was floored by the simplest of client objections today. Ben is too full of himself and too TV friendly to go at this stage much as the arrogant, pumped up, self-aggrandizing twerp needs a kick up the pants…
Suffice to say that there was much shouting in the board room. This mostly involved Debra and Ben although Noorul, perhaps sensing that he was the small fish in a pond full of pike, did give a spirited, yet pointless, defence of himself. This was all more kindergarten than professional business.
Ben tried to sell his somewhat dubious case, “Grafter,” not really mate. “Sales,” err yeah righto. “Good team leader,” are we on the same planet? “I can win this competition,” do you really think so?
But annoying as he may be and mouthy as Debra might appear there was only one ailing fish here, “Noorul, I don’t know what you’ve been doing here, I think you’ve escaped the radar… You’re fired.” And then to Debra, “If you ever open your mouth like that again don’t even bother to come back in this board room.”
So an interesting week with many sales and business lessons but also a week in which I was left feeling that if only we could have sacked 6 (or more!) tonight we could have cut to the chase and let the few real contenders to fight it out. So, here are the remaining 9, fill in the comments form below and share your opinions about what you would do with them!
James.
Ben.
Kate.
Debra.
Lorraine.
Philip.
Howard.
Mona.
Yasmina.
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 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IV
Tonight’s task on the sales apprentice was to produce two original and natural body care products and then sell them to the public. The team leaders were selected personally by Sir Alan and were Noorul and Paula… let the battle of the ex public sector employees commence.
Paula’s Empire team quickly decided that they were going to produce a shower gel and a soap using seaweed as their natural ingredient. Given the importance of profit margins in this task, this was a smart move and made it a shame that the later mess-ups elsewhere on costing totally wiped this advantage out. Paula was quick to recognize her blind spot in the area of finance and appointed Ben and Yasmina in charge of costs and finances.
Sales training & leadership tip: As a business or sales team leader it is important that you utilize the skills of your team effectively. Different people have different strengths and different weaknesses and using these to your best advantage makes sense. It’s not often on the Apprentice (or in life) that people are honest about their own weaknesses but being honest with yourself is a sure route to self-improvement (For more on sales leadership see my book Motivate People).
Over on the other team, Noorul “I talk posh” and his team looked particularly uninspired, an air which they managed to carry with them right up until the final stages of the task. This team didn’t seem to gel at all tonight. Usually on the Apprentice this seems to be because there are too many queen bees fighting over the hive and not enough workers but tonight it did genuinely seem that none of them wanted to lead… particularly not Noorul. Eventually, and half-heartedly, Ignite decided that their products were going to be a bubble bath and a soap, both using honey as their natural ingredient.
As the two teams spread their energies between bee bothering, beach combing and mad-professor-like-tasks in the laboratory, Ben was hanging back from getting too involved, “At the end of the day, I’m a bloke and they’re girls… they know all about soaps and smelly things” he mused. And whilst Ben had his eye off the ball, Yasmina and Paula made a defining mistake, confusing Cedarwood and Sandalwood (the former costing about £20 per kilo and the latter over £1200). This monumental cock-up was to overshadow the rest of the task.
With their products created, both teams set about designing their “brand identities”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but brand is not the same as designing a label and some fancy stationery. Brand is about identity, about values, about how a company is perceived by its consumers; it is not just a case of designing some fancy packaging. For sure, packaging is A part of your brand but when you’re selling on the streets for just one day you are not designing a brand anyway, you’re designing something eye-catching, or pretty, or striking that will help you to sell more… today.
And then Debra noticed the Sandalwood on the “recipe” and asked Paula why they were using an ingredient that costed £1259.90 per kilo? Paula responded that they were only using about a half a gramme; Yasmina, meanwhile, was pouring in 450 grammes.
Sales training thought: Know your costs. This blog is about sales and sales training. This blog is about building profitable businesses. This blog is about creating, motivating and leading market leading sales teams. This blog is about increasing sales and increasing turnover. It’s not about accountancy or advanced arithmetic but the facts remain that if your cost of sale is too high it matters not how good a salesperson you are or how great a sales team you can muster and Paula’s team were living testimony to this.
On the streets…
The next day saw our sales teams head out onto the streets to sell their wares. They had 8 hours to sell as much as they could. The team making the most profit (sales less costs, obviously) would win.
Empire secured pitches in Portobello Market, Notting Hill and in Bond Street tube station. From what little we saw they seemed to be having a good sales day.
Notable high points included…
- Robust pricing. After their slip up with the costs the day before, Empire had decided to sell at twice the price they had previously intended and did so with belief.
- Know your customers and your location. Well to do customers (in Notting Hill for example) are prepared to pay for premium products.
- Sell on value and not price. By outlining the quality ingredients (Ben telling customers that Sandalwood is over £1000 per litre), talking up the freshness (we made it ourselves yesterday) and using scarcity as a sales tactic (we only have limited supply), Empire were able to keep on selling at higher prices.
- Smart selling. At the end of the day when stock was running low they upped their prices rather than lowering them, stressing the scarcity of the product and the prestige behind owning it.
Noorul’s Ignite team meanwhile were selling in Carnaby Street and Camden Lock. Enthusiasm and rapport building were helping them all to sell a decent amount of product. All that is except for Noorul who, frankly, can’t lead, can’t manage and, it appears, can’t sell for toffee either.
In the board room…
Ignite had raked in £900.85, spent £406.88 and made a profit of £493.97.
Empire raked in £1073.20, spent £1141.24 and made a loss of -£68.04.
Ouch!
This result was a shame for Empire who would have won by over £100 if they had not confused Cedarwood and Sandalwood but a lucky escape for Noorul who surely would have landed on his arse on the pavement outside Sir Alan’s offices had Ignite lost.
Sir Alan was quick to say this was all about costs but I disagree because no-one was in any doubt at the importance of costs. The failure here was a failure of common sense and a lack of focus. Cedarwood is not Sandalwood and that’s that.
The narrowness and sheer luck of their escape was totally lost on Ignite… Noorul, “We absolutely destroyed the other team” and Howard, “This is not Noorul’s win, this is our win.” Err, no chaps, this was Empire’s loss not your win.
Back in the boardroom, Paula decided to face the music with Ben and Yasmina – choosing them as she had delegated costing to them and therefore she felt that they were most responsible for the catastrophic blunder. Paula quickly passed the buck to Yasmina and Ben saying that she had tasked them with the costings. This, however pathetic it sounded, was true.
Ben said he had nothing to do with the mistake itself which was partly correct although that in itself was an admittance that he had totally failed to do what he had been asked to do. Had he looked over the pricing as asked he would have either spotted the error or blundered in the same way as both Yasmina and Paula. Yasmina admitted to her mistake but said that she should not be judged on just one mistake but on how she then dealt with it.
After some debate and plenty of arrogant shouting from Ben, who clearly thinks he is the best thing since slice bread (“We were better candidates that you are… I did outstandingly on sales… I also got a scholarship to Sandhurst… The girls even said I was brilliant at selling…”) Sir Alan sacked Paula believing her to be ultimately responsible for the fatal mistake. As project manager, clearly she was responsible, but by this rational why not just sack the losing project manager every week?
But it was obvious why Sir Alan sacked Paula – both Yasmina and Ben make good TV and have big personalities. Yasmina shows sparks of potential and Sir Alan himself said he would like to see her in a project management role again. And, arrogant and annoying as he may be, Sir Alan is unlikely to let Ben go without testing him further to see if he is all mouth or all trousers. Personally, I think he’s too arrogant and too full of himself but time will tell.
So that’s it for another week.
What was your favourite sales tip and who would you have sacked tonight?
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 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part II
So, we entered the second show with 14 apprentices left fighting it out for the “top job”.
730am – Sir Alan entered the apartment, “I hope you’re all enjoying this luxury penthouse I’ve got for you” he barked. “Your task today is all about supplying a service to people who work in the City… the task is that you are going to be setting up a catering service… first of all a lunchtime service … (and then) an evening service for these high fliers.”
As always the team who made the most money would win and one of the losers would be fired.
On the Boy’s Empire team, young Rocky Andrews, who runs 15 sandwich outlets puts himself up for the team leader’s role. Meanwhile, on the girl’s Ignite team, Yasmina Siadatan, restauranteur, promoted herself as the top choice. Yasmina to the camera, “I think my employees might describe me as rude they might describe as brash, they might describe me as little blunt…”
Why do these apprentices say these things? Do they really think these are good qualities in a boss, leader or manager?
The girls quickly decided on a Mediterranean theme and the boys on one of the Olympics for the sandwiches and Greek for the evening do. Our apprentices had one day to plan and prepare and prospect for some lunchtime clients, the evening clients being selected for them by Sir Alan. The girls were quick to start to promote their theme as were the boys with their range of chicken tikka and peanut butter sandwiches to name but two… what?
Back at the penthouse Rocky and the boys were discussing wearing costumes… sometimes you just despair don’t you? Yasmina, meanwhile, was working out what ingredients they would need and was then planning to shop for the cheapest, lowest budget produce she could get her greedy little mits on.
Sales training tip: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but you have to know your market and provide what they want. Any muppet knows you do not serve cheap and tasteless “value” tuna to professional peeps at professional dos, nor do you wear togas for city drinks after work.
Not surprisingly the girls won contracts for their pleasant sounding lunchtime menu of Mediterranean flat breads – it’s just a shame that the experience that they were going to deliver is actually going to be more shell suit than dinner jacket. Equally unsurprisingly, the boy’s odd sandwich fillings failed to entice any customers at all. Who did they think was going to order peanut butter sandwiches anyway?
Sales negotiations…
Each of the teams had a meeting organized with the company that they would be providing with canapé style refreshments in the evening.
First up, the girls at a top City accountancy firm. Yasmina had created the menu and Kate was going to be selling their offerings to the firm. now, excuse me for asking the obvious question but why would you, as a team leader, send someone who had no idea what they were talking about into making a critical sales presentation? Surely, this was one of the fundamentally most important tasks?
When Kate got asked about one dish she responded, “I’m guessing that it’s grilled in some way, I’m not the chef”. And then when asked, “Can you do blinis?” she responded, “I’ve heard of blinis.”
Oh dear.
The boys, on the other hand, fared even worse with possibly the worst sales negotiation I have ever seen on the Apprentice and one from which there are many sales training tips to be had…
It started with the boys’ totally absurd notion of asking for £65 per head for canapés based on one phone call made by Howard to an event’s company.
Sales training tip: One call does not equal market research!
Leading the negotiation Philip had little belief in a positive outcome at the start of the negotiation and it showed. “£65 per head. I don’t know how that sounds to you?” queried Philip sounding totally dubious about the price himself.
Sales training tip: Putting aside the fact that this was an absurdly ridiculous figure, when negotiating you need to sound like you believe in what you’re saying, otherwise you’re doomed!
Philip clearly had no faith whatsoever in what he was selling. Not surprisingly, the client was dismissive telling him that it was not acceptable and that the figure was more like what it would cost for a sit down 3 course dinner.
“Let’s get realistic, if we were talking £35 per head?” asked Philip sounding every bit as unsure as he had at £65.
Sales training tip: Wow! A virtual 50% reduction in cost, just like that. What message does that send to the client? What does it suggest about your original figure? About your integrity? About how much further you might be prepared to slide? And where are any concessions or variables? When you negotiate it should not just be about price and money. As Philip was negotiating he should have been talking about the different menus and options available for the different prices not just dropping the price on the one offering… over and over and over…
The only response this got was a shake of the head from the man and a short, “Not in the least”. This client had not even “engaged” in this negotiation at this stage whilst Philip was making all of the running and all of the reductions. This put Philip on the back foot and won the client this from Philip…
Philip, “No? Not even close? If we went down to something like £17.50 a head and looking at that sort of figures I think it’s incredibly realistic.”
Sales training tip So Philip tells us what he really thought it was worth in the first place. And reduces by another 50% now making his initial offering preposterous and, had this been a real negotiation, he would have shown his company as nothing short of crooks…
And he has still left room for negotiation with the words “that sort of figure”.
“I’m still unimpressed” said the client with still closed body language. Note how the client now engages verbally slightly more as he seeks to extract even more discounts out of Philip…
“I think we’re going to find it very difficult to stack up at anything lower than around 15 pounds a head” responded Philip obligingly.
“That sounds feasible, I think, we can justify that” agreed the client and the deal was done.
Sales training tip: I’d be very careful if estate agent Philip was negotiating the “best” deal for me on my house and had I been this client the words “around 15 pounds” would have drawn me to go for a final concession from the desperate Philip, perhaps something like, “Then if we can make it £13.50 and you can throw in a drink for each head, we’ve got a deal”. Philip was getting a pummelling.
In the kitchen Yasmina was psyching up her troops as they started to open the cheapest cans of tuna I had ever seen. Why oh why did she think this was the way to go? I am confused, so I wandered off to check out her website and I quote you off her website for her restaurant…
… It makes culinary sense that the shorter the produce journey from source to plate, the fresher and tastier the meal will be. Hence the idea of a British restaurant. If all the ingredients are coming from within the boundaries of the UK, the impact we are having on the natural environment is minimised. Eating seasonally, ordering daily, and being creative with fresh vegetables and fruit all lead to healthy customers and an amazing menu….
And…
… If you are limited for time the fresh food can still be cooked to perfection without compromising on quality…
Which makes her decisions all the stranger. And her “real world” restaurant looks and sounds nice… maybe one of my readers has been and can share their thoughts…
In the boys’ kitchen, Rocky was ambitiously planning to knock up 500 sandwiches and sell them on the streets. Had he not got a sandwich shop background I could have excused him this but to me it just felt like “finger in the air” stuff and he should have know better. We never did find out how many sandwiches they did actually sell but given their final sales figures the answer would have to be, nothing like 500!
Serving their first clients their lunchtime sandwiches the girls were immediately running into quality issues such as not enough sandwiches per person, lack of filling, and a hair on one sandwich. “I’m not sure that it would get through the Pret test” said one customer. Surely, one of the girls would step up and demand an up in the quality before the evening? Err, no!
I just cannot talk about what then went on for both teams because it was just preposterous. I find it hard to believe that none of them on either team had not been on a semi-decent work evening do and that they just didn’t stand up and yell out, Harry Enfield Righteous Brothers style, “Oi, no! I’m not prepared to accept this shoddy performance!”
After a thoroughly appalling performance both teams were ready to go into the board room and we had the pleasure of Yasmina to camera, “Having met and worked with all of the other girls I firmly believe that I am better than all of them and as the weeks go on I think Sir Alan will start to realise that as well.” Rocky meanwhile was surfing his own ego too, “If I get past today then I think there is a good chance that me and Philip could be here to the end, fighting it out.”
Well, there’s certainly A chance Rocky…
The results…
Ignite and Yasmina spent £354.77, took £1006.20 and made profits of £651.43. This included reduction on their evening event from £750 to £500 for poor quality.
Empire and Rocky spent a whopping £821.37, took £661 and made a loss of £160+. This included a reduction on their evening event from £750 to £375 due to being overly tacky, inappropriate food and poor service.
That’s two weeks on the trot that these apprenti have run into difficulties because of their inability to deliver on their promises.
“A loss. Unbelievable” muttered Sir Alan. And then to the ladies, “Very, very, well done, even with a few complaints” and then again, “Very well done. A 200% margin nearly.”
Hmmmm….
I disagree. From what we saw the girls were a shambles too and Yasmina’s decisions about food quality were totally unacceptable. Business is not about maximum charge and minimum quality. Their food was a disgrace from what we saw… poor quality, poor ingredients, low on quantity, badly presented and unoriginal. Admittedly, compared to the boys, their performance was amazing but compared to any real world standard it was not good enough.
Tips for selling in a recession: One of my most popular keynote speeches for sales conferences at the moment is Selling in a Recession. How to survive, thrive and grow in difficult markets is essential and of key importance in any market, especially the markets of today. Cutting costs and fleecing your customer is not the answer; adding value and going the extra mile is. For someone who runs a restaurant, Yasmina did not even put any thought into presentation or variety – things that would be critical for a high class client. In the real world, she would not get repeat business for the performance that Ignite turned in.
Many non-business people watching The Apprentice carry the impression that business is all about making profits at the expense of the customer. This performance and Sir Alan’s subsequent comments will have done nothing to allay their fears. Had the girls lost, Yasmina should have gone but the facts remain that she won, she made four figure profits and she hammered the boys to boot, so in Sir Alan’s mind she did well…
If she can keep out of trouble for a few programmes now she may go far…
I feel a little sorry for Rocky because he was so clearly out of his depth. I have no doubt he is good at what he does and I cannot understand what, at 21, if he is running 15 sandwich shops and employing 350 people, he is doing here. What was he going to do if he won? Sack them all? Why couldn’t he accept and build on the real world successes that he has already had? For some the grass is always greener… But he won’t win and he won’t be here because he knows what he knows but he didn’t even have the flexibility to use that knowledge in a task he should have been able to smash for six.
Rocky decided to return to the board room with Howard and James. Howard seemed surprised at the choice but really there was no choice as this failure was primarily Rocky’s and there was no-one else to blame. Rocky should have known how to ace this task, he should have known how to pull profit. He didn’t. He had to go.
Sir Alan, “Rocky you’re on the ropes… James you look a bit hurt… Do you think your mouth got you into trouble?”
To Rocky, “Who should get fired?”
“James.”
“Howard who should get fired?”
“Rocky.”
“James who should get fired?”
“Both of them.”
Way to make friends and influence people James!
Sir Alan, “I think I’ve heard enough… Rocky you stood up and said you would take this job on and I would have thought that this was the right bloke to do this job …. Howard I think that because you run 10 pubs you could have grasped the nettle, you could have helped him out… You James… your resume is the thing that is confusing me… you can be a total plonker… I’ve concluded that Rocky you’re 21 years old but one cannot ignore a series of what I call immature mistakes… at Middlesborough you were taken off the pitch in a stretcher… this time, you’re off the pitch in a black cab. You’re fired.”
So that’s it for another week, what did you learn, recoil from or enjoy this week?
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part I
“For me, making money is better than sex!”
And so the first of the “brightest and the best” from all over the UK opened the 2009 UK Apprentice. No wonder our economy is in such a state…
Second up, some open necked girl (Anita – see later), with her nose stuck in the air, walking through the tube, “I am outstanding. It’s a given.” Oh dear, why I am watching this compulsive car crash TV again? Will we get any outstanding business talent this year or is it another year where the best we have to look forward to are ego maniac statements, reverse pterodactyl impressions and momentous business cock ups?
Phillip in Geordie accent, “You don’t have to make friends on the way up when you’re not coming back down.” Sound like famous last words to me.
Chosen from thousands of applicants, these are the 16 that some researcher with not a clue about real business at the BBC has chosen, more than likely for our viewing pleasure rather than their business acumen. But surely the contestants know that? Maybe not, listening to them…
Cliche after cliché rolls from their mouths (e.g. “In business you play to win”) and then the biggest cliché of the lot, Sir Alan, is back on our screens, “You didn’t sell, you didn’t sell and you didn’t sell” he barks, pointing his finger at some poor loser in some future episode. “First prize you get to work for me, second prize don’t exist”, he continues.
Will there be sales training and business lessons to be learned this year? Will we get sales training tips and strategies from the show? Probably not from the Apprentices themselves, that’s for sure! But from our analysis, I am sure we will.
Sitting outside the board room for the first time, the Apprentices are silent, perhaps for the last time in twelve weeks. Cue Sir Alan…
“Good morning ladies and gentleman. Welcome to my board room.” Sir Alan introduces himself to the group and tells them that one of the boys group has already “bottled it” and has not shown up for the programme. That’s the kind of decision that I am sure many of these Apprenti might look back on in years to come and wish that they’d made!
“I know the words to Candle in the Wind; don’t make me Elton John” quips Sir Alan. “I’m as hard to play as a Stradivarius and you lot are as easy to play as bongo drums.” More David Brent than big business man this year then. I reckon Sir Alan has been spending his winter nights between last year and this thinking these sayings up. “Trust me, you’re going to be under extreme pressure” he says.
And then, the first task…
“I started my business from nothing… I always dirtied my hands… This first task is all about clean… You go out there and you clean things… The team that comes back here with the highest profit wins.” As usual, first task is split up girls versus boys with silver fox Nick stalking (?) the girls and Margaret, the boys. “Don’t underestimate these two, they’re dead sharp” says Sir Alan, pushing his puppet master buttons for them to both nod in agreement. Sharp in this company maybe…
On the way to the first task, the boys introduce themselves to each other in the car. Some cocky teacher says, in his smooth Rochdale accent, that he loves the sound of his own voice. I just hope that our government didn’t see fit to let this clown take leave with permission to go back when he’s failed…
“I look the part, I talk posh and I look posh” he continues… Err right, deluded as well then. It’s shaping up to be even more X-Factor this year. But I do know a school for him, Waterloo Road anyone?
Meanwhile, the girls are bigging themselves up…
“I am a Commercial Development & Strategy Manager but I’m actually a trained lawyer” nods one girl (Anita again), imperiously. And there, my friends, is the problem with our economy…
Their first job is to come up with a team name and the American is the first to start talking about marketing and brand names. When will these muppets realize that this is all about selling. They are not building a lasting brand. They will be doing things for one day. No-one cares what the name of the company is that cleans their car or their shoes if they are never going to see them again. Ideas above their station as my mother used to say whenever my sister or I got above ourselves. Who cares what your stupid teams are called?
Despite thinking it important they showed the originality of a very uncreative person without a creative bone in their body…
Strike and Carpe Diem suggested the boys… original then. Empire suggested another, jingoistically. The others agreed and that’s was their name. Ignite, decided the girls. Oh dear.
Howard Ebison is the boy’s manager. “What is our objective?” he asks. Err, make money I think Howard. Meanwhile the girls are struggling to elect a leader but eventually pick Mona.
Sales training thoughts: This is a straight forward sales task and they have one day only. The key to it is to define your market fast, locate it fast and get working fast. It does not get more simple than this…
But as usual both teams get bogged down in talking about what they’re going to do and making a hash of ordering supplies. The problem with the Apprenti is that they all like talking about how good they are but none of them actually want to do very much…
15 ego maniacs + 1 task = MAYHEM
Half of the boys arrive at a mini-cab office to pitch to clean some cars that are going to the auction house. The boys offer £17 per unit and the manager says he is already paying £17.50 so they are not doing him any great favours but they can have the job if they will do it for £15. “Will you do £16?” asks one of the boys and the client agrees then quickly sneaking in a last minute concession, “We will only pay for the cars that we’re happy with…”
It’s now 1130am and the girls arrive at a limousine company in West London. Yasmina, a finance director, heads up to lead the negotiations. £300 she offers confidently for cleaning 3 stretch Hummers only to be informed that the prospect is currently paying only £60 for all three. “We’re here right now, we’re ready to go, we want to tie the deal and get on with this” says one of the girls adding that they’re not desperate. Au contraire, I think you are; you’ve driven out there, you have nothing else planned and if this client does not say “Yeah” you have wasted so much time.
Meanwhile, the other girls are looking at classic cars in North London and have agreed to clean the cars for £10 per car. Eventually the girls at the other venue agree a price of £40 per Hummer and Mona says, “It’s done by women not stinky men”… (Ed: !”£$&^£*&!) “I didn’t want him to think we were desperate” she said. Bit late when you’re all standing there with the sponges in your hands Mona.
130pm and Howard and the boys with him are polishing shoes at St. Pancras station. The other boys are having their cleaning work on the cars torn apart. Howard decides to join the car cleaning team and finish the cars together. Geordie Phillip, who has done nothing but moan about Howard, “Sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth… I’d love to see Howard clean a car”. He’s never met this bloke before and he had done nothing but snipe. He continues that Howard is looking for a fall guy. This chap is a moaner.
Sales training tip: Watch out for sales terrorists in your business who focus everyone on the negative things and undermine your business. In today’s turbulent economy you cannot afford to have negativity like this in your teams.
“Never before have so few cars been washed by so many people in so much time” says Margaret, coming out with a line that sums up the whole of this first episode for me.
Meanwhile, both of the girls’ teams have gone proactive, flagging down cars and knocking on doors. “Imagine if we had done this all day, we would have made a killing” says one. Err, yes. You would. This task was about getting going fast and neither team managed to do that.
In the boardroom they all look dead beat. Sir Alan said, “I’m sorry. You lot look exhausted. If you cannot show more energy than this after one day’s honest work you’re unemployable. You’re all sacked.”
Now that would have been TV. But back with what actually happened…
The girls’ team, Ignite made £357 and spent £196. Profit £160.55
The boys’ team, Empire made £347 and spent £107.39. Profit just over £239.
The boys won with a pathetic per head profit of £34 per head.
Sales training thought… If I gave you a sponge and a bucket and 8 hours how much money do you think you could make cleaning cars? If you stood on a busy road junction in London and cleaned windscreens every time the lights changed and you made only £1 every 6 minutes you would make £80. This figure is, as it has been on the Apprentice many times before, is frankly pathetic. I know boy scouts who do better than this. It was a simple task and with all of their “leadership wanabe” they managed to make it very, very complicated…
Back in the board room Sir Alan concluded that the girls failed because they spent too much money. He asked who was responsible for the business plan? One of the girls said that no-one was made responsible for any particular tasks. Mona said that they wasted too much time as if, as team leader, she was not ultimately responsible. But then, if you look at the examples set in politics and big business these days, when exactly does anyone take responsibility for their errors? So how do we expect these media savvy Apprenti to behave any differently?
Mona decided to bring back Debra and Anita for no particular reason other than no-one really knew what had gone on. The girls argued. Sir Alan listened for 30 minutes and concluded that he had no idea either!
“Mona, you’ve shown me a bit of spirit, you’ve not shown me any business acumen. Anita you was on the back of that van, you was seeing the money flow out. Debra, at the end of the day you are seriously responsible for a lot things that went wrong on this task. My gut instinct is telling me something Anita. You put yourself forward as one of Britain’s best business prospects. You showed no initiative as far as I’m concerned in spotting that you were going for a disaster and on that basis, Anita, you’re fired.”
So much for grandiose titles then. Sales success is about results not titles.
Anita in the cab, “I’m bitterly disappointed but I accept that it was not a stellar performance.”
… Humility?…
“I just think that Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers”
…probably not then…
“Let see if in 10 years time he doesn’t sit and think “Hmm maybe I made the wrong decision””
…Ah, that’s better!
But, seriously Anita, surely even you can’t think that he will ever give you another thought?
So another first show and another set of Apprenti. Who will the stars be? Who will make the biggest business mistakes? Who will we learn the most from – whether from what they do well or what they do badly? What sales training tips will we pick up?
My top 5 sales training and business tips from tonight’s show…
1. Know what you sell.
They all spent far too long making everything too complicated when this was a simple task of cleaning something and pocketing the readies. It was always going to be a time based task in which they wanted as many people working on as profitable tasks as possible for as long a time as possible. As inexperienced cleaners, I would have avoided car showrooms as they are too high end and require too much of a quality clean and would have targeted the public who would not have been as discerning. For sure, they may have been able to make more per car the way they did it but they could not guarantee the numbers or the delivery quality,
2. Know the best route to market.
Time = money in this task and they needed to locate clients faster and spend more time cleaning. Period. Sometimes you just have to get your head down and get on with it. I have watched those windscreen cleaners rub a dirty cloth across car windows in West London and make £3/4 on EVERY light change. It may not be a long term business venture but this task was all about maximizing cash in and minimizing cash out.
3. Under promise over deliver.
Both teams failed to deliver satisfactorily and did not clean some of the cars sufficiently well. In the girls’ team, this cost them 10 cars which the client would then not agree for them to clean and this ultimately lost them the competition. In the boys’ team, they lost time and money. Delivering on your promises is essential in any business. This lot talked a good game but then did not knuckle down and do the job well. Sales superstars always give 100%.
4. Watch your costs.
Many business people spend too much on the wrong things at the wrong time. In today’s economy, sales are vital but we also need to manage unnecessary costs. Over spending on stock lost the girls this round.
5. Watch your mouth.
Anita mouthed off and got shot down. Top sales performers perform, they don’t talk about performing. Sales is not about what you say you’re going to do, it’s about what you actually deliver on. Sales is about results.
It will be a few weeks until we really get to grips with these new Apprenti but why not post your thoughts, comments and opinions below?
More sales training videos and articles due later this week. In the meantime, sell with passion.
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