The Apprentice: Neil Clough on episode 3
IN his weekly blog, ex-Apprentice finalist Neil Clough reviews the week’s task and how the contestants handled it.
The opening weeks’ tasks tend to be sales-based, and this year is no different. After a general sales task, and a design and selling challenge, Wednesday saw the teams look to maximise margins. Lord Sugar made his brief perfectly clear – it was all about quality sales at high margins, not quantity at low margins.
Having worked in sales for over 15 years, I have learned that the quality of sales is often just as important as selling in bulk.
Being able to sell out is great, but it ultimately means nothing if you’re doing it for the wrong price. As Lord Sugar said in the boardroom, any salesperson can sell a product at half its value – it’s the pricing strategy that must also be strong. You must have confidence in your product and demonstrate this in your pitch, as your belief affects your behaviour, which ultimately affects the end result. If you don’t believe in the price then why should your potential customers?
It was good to see the teams mixed up, as the boys’ team seemed completely dysfunctional and self-destructive, failing miserably on both of the previous two tasks. With Stephen, Felipe and Daniel moving over to Team Tenacity, we were finally able to see the way the teams genuinely interact.
It is always interesting to look at team dynamics, seeing who gets on and who doesn’t.
The relationship between Sarah and Katie was stretched this week, starting in the very first brainstorm. Sarah’s (rather strange) dream of making a food-smelling candle was rather abruptly ended by project manager Katie, leading to an “if looks could kill” glare, which has quickly become her trademark!
Once again, Sarah was the beneficiary of being on the winning team, as her shocking sales record meant that she would have been the one packing her bags had Katie’s team lost. She states she’s a team player, but I’m not so sure!
I have never seen anyone resign in the boardroom, but Lindsay very nearly did. I think Lord Sugar could see she was on the verge of quitting, meaning that he had to get in there quickly!
Even without that, she was gone anyway – she simply hadn’t done enough. Though I respect her honesty to stick to what she does in her day job, I’m not so sure that the thousands of others that missed out on the opportunity to appear on the show would feel the same!
As for Nurun, she was the typical team player, but didn’t get involved and didn’t stand out. Lord Sugar wants someone who will take risks and make decisions, and Nurun was far too happy to simply be pulled along by the rest of the team. It was simply time to get rid of the deadwood, and that’s what Lord Sugar did.
Katie stood out for me this week – she listened to the brief and led her team of victory by selling at high margins. Even though they were left with a large amount of stock, the pricing strategy remained right throughout and ultimately won the task.
My favourite moment of the week, though, was James mistaking the boardroom for a group exercise class at the gym – what was he doing? Lord Sugar certainly was not amused!
