Lord Sugar firing ‘was making of Prime’

BEING fired by Alan Sugar in the 2013 final of the Apprentice was the best thing that happened to Neil Clough, managing director of fledgling sales recruitment and training company, Prime.

The 35-year-old got his marching orders from Lord Sugar after pitching an idea to launch an online estate agency – a business even Clough now admits he knew too little about.

“I was fired in the final because my business plan was flawed,” said the former Warrington Town semi-professional footballer. “I wrote a plan on an industry I didn’t know enough about.

“Lord Sugar said ‘stick to what you know best’. That piece of advice inspired me to do this. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

Manchester-based Prime, which also has shareholders training director Nicole Prinston and the founder of PR company MC2 Mike Perls on board, has just completed its first year of trading and turnover is £250,000 with an operating profit of £106,000.

And Clough is intending to double his headcount which totals seven and is also plotting to open up in London.

“I’m aiming to double turnover within the next couple of years,” said Clough.

“I didn’t set up Prime to become a millionaire. I wanted to create a culture. To do that, you need to change the perception of sales because there is a stigma attached to this area of activity.

“What we do is take young people who are budding sales people and train them before they get the role.

“We make them successful in their careers and give them the ongoing training throughout their first year. This strategy has taken us from 0 to 45 clients.”

Prime method includes finding suitable candidates and putting them in a role and training.

“Being different has put us on the map,” explained Clough. “In our first year we placed 60 candidates. Not all were graduates. We gave them ongoing training. Only 17% of those candidates are no longer in that role. In sales that’s a remarkable figure.

“Every candidate is telephone interviewed, we give them training on preparation of interview. I really believe we’re training not only the sales stars of the future, but the entrepreneurs of the future

“Many clients have come to us through referral because they have heard of us by word of mouth.”