It seems like every episode the contestants struggle to turn on their salesmanship skills. Last week they flogged everything on the cheap, yesterday they couldn't sell at all, the first episode they had no idea what a margin was!? Anyway, this article seems to sum up what we're all thinking:
http://www.smarta.com/content/Blog.aspx?id=1365
http://www.smarta.com/content/Blog.aspx?id=1365
Originally Posted by Smarta article about the apprentice last night:
“Smarta's tame entrepreneur, Bulldog founder Simon Duffy, gives us his thoughts on last night's episode.
Last night was another example of where The Apprentice begins to unravel – it frustrated me the way it was set up, and it frustrated me that the contestants never seem to think through how they’re being assessed.
For me, the task was in three phases: product identification, pitching to the first two retailers, and then whatever else they could do with the products they’d selected.
The task was assessed on sales, but it was revenue rather than profit, which I think is quite a big distinction. If you’re able to sell something with no regard for your own margin, then you can discount it – you can basically give it away.
The strategic way to approach it would have been to think, right, we’ve got a low-end hardware store and a high-end homeware store, let’s select items that will hit those two retailers. Of course, that’s not how they did it: they all thought they were Deborah Meaden in Dragons’ Den and had a good laugh about it, then left it up to sales on the final day, which was basically leaving it up to chance.
Monna was the one who stood out for me yesterday. She became a bit of a sales star. She managed to sell 45 of those sleeping bags to a camping store for £48, which racked up about £2,000 worth of sales. She just managed to pull it out of the bag on that second day – it was a great example of how to do it.
At the other end of the spectrum was Lorraine, who was hopeless. She’s definitely going to fall down at some point because she just hasn’t made friends. The one thing I would say in her favour is that she managed to sell something to the two pre-arranged retailers which suggested some sort of strategic thought had gone into the task.
I don’t think Lorraine will get past the next couple of episodes. She’s made a dangerous enemy in Kate. Kate’s been getting on with everybody whereas Lorraine’s been getting on with nobody.”
“Smarta's tame entrepreneur, Bulldog founder Simon Duffy, gives us his thoughts on last night's episode.
Last night was another example of where The Apprentice begins to unravel – it frustrated me the way it was set up, and it frustrated me that the contestants never seem to think through how they’re being assessed.
For me, the task was in three phases: product identification, pitching to the first two retailers, and then whatever else they could do with the products they’d selected.
The task was assessed on sales, but it was revenue rather than profit, which I think is quite a big distinction. If you’re able to sell something with no regard for your own margin, then you can discount it – you can basically give it away.
The strategic way to approach it would have been to think, right, we’ve got a low-end hardware store and a high-end homeware store, let’s select items that will hit those two retailers. Of course, that’s not how they did it: they all thought they were Deborah Meaden in Dragons’ Den and had a good laugh about it, then left it up to sales on the final day, which was basically leaving it up to chance.
Monna was the one who stood out for me yesterday. She became a bit of a sales star. She managed to sell 45 of those sleeping bags to a camping store for £48, which racked up about £2,000 worth of sales. She just managed to pull it out of the bag on that second day – it was a great example of how to do it.
At the other end of the spectrum was Lorraine, who was hopeless. She’s definitely going to fall down at some point because she just hasn’t made friends. The one thing I would say in her favour is that she managed to sell something to the two pre-arranged retailers which suggested some sort of strategic thought had gone into the task.
I don’t think Lorraine will get past the next couple of episodes. She’s made a dangerous enemy in Kate. Kate’s been getting on with everybody whereas Lorraine’s been getting on with nobody.”
