#SalesFails, Bushels, Quants and Rigger Jiggers!

The Apprentice Episode 5 – our FAVOURITE episode – the ‘buy-stuff-you-don’t-even-know-what-it-is-in-a-place-you-have-never-been-to-for-as-cheap-as-you-can’ task! (I believe more erudite people call it the negotiation task…).

This has always been my favourite and I think its Lord Sir Alans as well as it takes him right back to his roots wheeler-dealing and being and all round cheeky chap! I have to be honest though – neither of the teams shone for me – and I would have said the ‘prize’ of getting to row in a tank of water while being shouted at shows that Lord Sir wasn’t particularly impressed either (remember when they used to win meals and alcohol?! Those were the days…). So what brilliant things can we learn from our Apprentices this week?

Have a PLAN

So what was the key difference between the teams? Marianne’s team had a plan, and Jemelin’s team didn’t. What that really meant was that we saw Marianne’s sub team decide to pick up eggs and apples on the way INTO Cambridge – ticking two (admittedly easy) items off the list before their feet even hit the cobblestones, and making calls to establish what they were looking for whilst in the car.

Jemelin’s sub team in contrast seemed to spend most of the task running around waving a map in the air, before ending up in a Library where they asked a librarian some questions and then left. This might have been helpful if the Librarian had known any of the answers…

I get you can’t plan for everything – but at least trying to plan your next step and think about key things you need to be successful (e.g. knowing what the items you are looking for actually are) is always going to get you ahead of the game.

People buy from People they LIKE

One of the fascinating things to notice in this episode was the stark difference in negotiating styles – on the one hand you have Tommy – prepared to do a deal on the flip of a coin, full of smiles and charm and ‘hey – we’re all mates here’ bravado; versus Lottie’s more corporate and professional approach. I can understand this difference given their different backgrounds – but what Lottie seems to have forgotten is that when people LIKE you, they WANT to do you a deal. When its FUN, they WANT to do you a deal. When they feel like they are WINNING, they want to do the deal…. Which is why cheeky Tommy got a better price and everyone left smiling … except Lottie. 

Something she needs to learn is that it’s not enough to be good at what you do, you need to influence and persuade people to buy from you and ‘come with you’ – the fact her bid for leadership fell flat showed that her team mates didn’t want to be part of her ‘gang’ – and no amount of pursing her lips and raising her eyebrows is going to change that.

Don’t Overshare

In more than one of the negotiations we had openings like ‘we definitively need this!’ and ‘that’s it – thank goodness!’. Strangely enough they then found it much harder to negotiate the price! Simple rule – don’t let on how much you want something before your negotiation... 

In fact they did such a poor job that by half way through the show it felt like the shopkeepers were doing a better job of negotiating than the candidates – on trying to half the price of a mortarboard (which they had finally realised was a hat and not something used by bricklayers) the shopkeeper replied ‘I’m the only remaining party shop in Oxford so I happen to know that this hat you’re so desperately after is the only one for miles and miles and miles…’. They got a measly 24p off – and even then, I’m sure it was just for the cameras.

Give that shopkeeper ￡250k and a business with Lord Shuggs right now.

Make a decision

I get it – no one wants to make the wrong decision and end up in the boardroom, but this episode was a masterclass in procrastination and I really don’t know if I can spend another night screaming ‘just BUY IT’ at the television! The amount of time and energy taken up by going backwards and forwards around whether to buy the vintage Alice in Wonderland book was frankly staggering – and a great reminder. What is the cost to us in business of the time we spend procrastination and putting off a decision? Arguing about the best route forward? Trying to circumvent and be ‘clever’? 

In this case, with time of the essence, it nearly lost Mariannes team the task and they were super lucky there was another book available by the time they headed back for it.

So the titles rolled on another episode, and I can’t say I am any closer to a favourite – all I can do is look forward to next weeks ‘rollercoaster’ of an episode!

Who do you think will win?