After a bit of a shuffle Laura and Tom were elected as team leaders of the respective teams and the Apprentices leapt into action. It quickly became clear that the teams had opposing strategies with Tom and his team intent on selecting quality stock that they believed they could sell on for a profit and Laura?s team looking to buy in lots and lots of cheap stock that they could ?upcycle? and sell on.
Although one team won I couldn?t really care which strategy was right because whichever it was it was more down to luck than judgement.
Sales training tip 1: Know Your Customers.
Like the estate agency mantra ?Location! Location! Location!? the top sales / business person adopts the mantra ?Customers! Customers! Customers!? Certain critical questions need to be asked. Who are the clientele who will walk into their shop? What do they buy? Where do they buy it from? What do their competitors sell? How are they attracting these customers into the shop? How much are they likely to spend? Etc etc.
None of these questions were asked and they should have been asked first. They should have been asked BEFORE they bought anything as the whole strategy for buying, staging and selling should have been based around this.
But at least any lack of a strategy might be made up for (!) by the confidence of our Apprentices. You would most certainly not use the word ?humility? around any of them. With several team members of both teams dispatched to source products at venues from auctions to shops and from car boot sales to house clearances Laura was telling the camera crew that despite her Samantha Brick tendencies (?Being an attractive business women has its ups and downs??) they had better not underestimate her?
Meanwhile, elsewhere on her team, Jane was explaining how they were going to add ?value? to their products by tarting them up which leads me to the two most misused words on The Apprentice. VALUE and BRAND. These two words are tarted about like they know what they?re talking about. You can?t blame them, not really, because I think many of our business elite and politicians misunderstand these words too. They get bandied around like cheap sunglasses but they are not cheap sunglasses. They require work and commitment. They are not something you can conjure up in a back room with some paint and some sticky back plastic?
Sales training tip 2: Know How You Add Value For Your Customers.
Understand how you add value for your customers. Know what you can do for them that really makes a difference. Really, really understand that the ONLY person who determines what value you add is your customer and that to understand this you need to understand your customer.
As the competition hotted up it became clear that neither team had particular confidence in their understanding of the task, their understanding of their potential customers or their ability to sell their stock. How do I know? Because they were given ?1000 and neither group spent anything like ?1000 choosing instead to hold money in hand that could have been invested in product that they could have made profit on.
Sales training tip 3: Big Hitters Have Confidence.
Big hitters have confidence. Big hitters take risks. Big hitters don?t play the safe card. Big hitters do the research, do their homework and make big plays to win big rewards. There wasn?t much of this going on tonight!!
Over on Laura?s team, Nicolas was airing his opinion to camera about the dodgy upgrading of products. This seemed to consist of putting Union Jacks on chairs. What is this obsession this year with Union Jacks? We haven?t seen a lot of him yet but I am relatively confident that if he doesn?t make it, he could play some kind of older substitute for Harry of One Direction?
Meanwhile, Gabrielle was ordering stock willy-nilly to jazz up the chairs. Her philosophy seemed to be to spend time and money on products in an attempt to make them less saleable. At the end of the task Lord Alan admired her enthusiasm but I know lots of 5 year olds who would enthusiastically paint flags on things but I would not hire them.
Sales leadership tip: You Need To Lead Your Team Not Let Them Run Wild!
Laura lost control of her team. She did not give enough direction, did not control or outline the budgets and she had no handle on how they were ?upcycling? their stock.
Shops ready, the two teams started their sales days...
Tom?s team with his minimalistic shop and Laura?s with their downmarket car boot sale approach. Both teams seemed to be selling but the most notable sales strategy was that of Jane?
Sales training tip 4: Don?t Be A Desperado.
No-one likes a desperate salesperson. No-one likes an aggressive salesperson. No-one wants to be badgered and hectored into a sale. Jane has been too aggressive and too controlling in many tasks and her final sales tally of ?10 (yes, really) today, says it all.
With the day descending into the usual farce of Apprentices running around like headless chickens, whooping, hollering and generally looking like a bunch of nursery kids having a free-for-all in a chocolate factory as they beg people to take products off their hands at a loss, the task was over.
In the Boardroom?
We learnt that Sterling under Laura had made profit of ?783.49 and that Phoenix under Tom had made ?1063.40. I wasn?t too excited or too upset by these figures but I do think that when Lord Alan gives them ?1000 to spend they should be penalized for every ?1 they spend under that. At least then they would not play so safe and would be forced to think it through and really go for it and PLAY BIG!!
Sales training tip 5: Go Big Or Go Home!
What?s the point of playing if you don?t play big? After all of their posturing and self-aggrandizing, what do we get? We get them playing safe and keeping money in their pockets rather than investing it. Disappointing.
Laura elected to bring back Gabrielle and Jane. Gabrielle because she was responsible for the flag painting fiasco and Jane because, well because she just isn?t delivering in this process. In a disappointing shout out all girls failed to make their points clearly and the key point that never got made properly was that Gabrielle spent a fortune (and lots of time) ?upcycling? products that seemed to sell at a loss or not at all.
With this point not made Gabrielle was spared the chop and Laura looked to be on dodgy ground. She even started to try the suicidal interruption when Lord ?Shut Up When I am Speaking? Sugar was pronouncing his verdict but, fortunately for her, Lord Sugar admitted that he had the same reservations about Jane that I did.
Adios Jane, you?re fired.
Related posts:
- The Sales Apprentice 2012: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 3
- The Sales Apprentice 2012: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 2
- The Sales Apprentice 2012: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 1
- The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 6
- The Sales Apprentice 2011: Sales Training & Business Development Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 10
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