The Apprentice: Neil Clough on Derek-gate and tantrums

IN another task heavily focused on sales, the teams had to select and introduce two new products designed for the rural markets and sell as many as possible.

With Lord Sugar also making it clear that he would be monitoring each candidate’s sales, the pressure was firmly on.
 
This week’s challenge reminded me of the caravan task last year. In tasks like this, selecting your products is critical. You can be the best salesperson in the world, but the phrase ‘selling ice to the Eskimos’ doesn’t really work in reality. The target market is all-important to consider, and as a result, the caravans I selected last year broke a record for the most high-ticket items sales ever made.
 
On top of the target market, there is also the tactical decision of whether to go for the high value, but high-risk items, or stick to the cheaper items in the expectation that they will be able to shift more.

For me, quality beats quantity here every time. Select the right high-ticket item and you are onto a winner. As it turned out, James’s project management took that decision out of his team’s hands – even though he wasn’t even in the room!
 
As a fellow Northerner, it saddens me to say this, but his exit was an inevitability. After escaping the dreaded words on a number of occasions, and having his maturity questioned by Lord Sugar, James was finally shwon the door. Entertaining though he was, his handling of his final task was awful, and left Lord Sugar with no alternative.
 
He also surprised even me – I have never seen a project manager lie to his team before! With all the cameras around I’m not entirely sure how he thought he was going to get away with it!

Not only was it hilarious to watch James call Anthony ‘Derek’ repeatedly in the pitch, I couldn’t stop laughing at him squirming in the boardroom trying to explain why he lied!
 
For all of James’s faults in this task, I did like his emotional speech in the boardroom. It’s a shame he didn’t show this side of his character earlier in the process, otherwise he may well still be here.
 
Despite James’s struggles, Tenacity did not have a smooth ride. Led by Felipe, the team found themselves constantly bickering. Daniel’s temper tantrum over the loss of the hot tubs was hilarious – it was reminiscent of school playgrounds up and down the country!

I do sympathise with him in some respects, as Mark had clearly got into Felipe’s ear to secure the opportunity, but you have to respect the wishes of the project manager and get behind the team.
 
I think this has to be the funniest episode so far, with James’s name confusion and lies merely the tip of the comedy iceberg!

We learned that Daniel likes the words ‘passion’ and ‘brands’ when pitching, and that he can ‘sell loads’ – even though we never saw any evidence of that!

Lord Sugar also came out with a classic line to describe Tenacity’s squabbles – ‘flat cap handbags at dawn’ – genius! Finally, the best line of the show has to come from James, quite simply, ‘I know what I’m doing!’. Based on this task James, I’m not sure you do…
 
Mark selling £30,000 worth of hot tubs is an excellent achievement – his team nearly broke my record from last year! I think Roisin and Solomon also both stood out for selling big ticket items under awkward conditions, and it will be a race to the finish between these three.