His opinion was based on the channel telling him what normally sold well with their presenters.

The two items Kate picked were top sellers on the channel. ie. had they done a good job of presenting then they should have sold well. The sequin cat is not a good seller usually which meant that SAS didn't expect that one to sell well.

Empire won because Debra sold as well as a normal presenter, which wasn't expected, meaning that she beefed up Empire's sales.

bearing in mind that the fryer normally sells well and they didn't do a good pitch. Had they done; they only needed 2/3 to beat the other team. Ignite should have creamed the other team (with better product choices and best seller products), but good product choices didn't sell well and they also had two low value products that were poorly selected. Howard said in an interview today that he spent so long helping Lorraine prepare for presenting that neither Lorraine or him did the research on their products.

I agree that the jackets were bloody awful.

To be fair though... I don't really get what the appeal of watching a shopping channel in the first place is either... so it would be a mistake to project my tastes onto their target audience.

I agree ... there was something a bit odd going on with Kate from the start this week ... it was like she was just in a bad mood all the way through ..

Personally I think the two products she was given were awful, but with a bit more thought she could have come up with a better sales pitch ... why demo only the cat for eg? Wasn't there a dog too? Dog lovers love doggie things ... she could have made out that they are great personalised gifts ... look fab when finished ( she should have finished one ) and so on ... and as for the guitar all she did was strum it in different positions ... she should have pointed out that it was a great gift for a music lover, fun for a party and so on ...

Not sure whether she intentionally stiched the other's up with the jackets ... but they were an odd choice.

The boardroom was odd, it was almost like SA wanted to see her under pressure ... I don't think it was fair that she hasn't contributed enough in past week or played it safe or whatever, I think she's done loads in past weeks, but this week there was just something about her I didn't like ...

But it was one on the top seller's of the programme; meaning it was a good choice :s The selling preparation work is the responsibility of the team presenting it I thought. I actually thought that showed the business side of Kate. She was the only one in both teams who picked top seller products. It was her TV presenting that let her down (well the sequined cat anyway). I didn't think that her presenting of the guitar was that bad. No worse than some of the others and quite funny. The channel staff certainly liked it. The first object was a poor sell though. She didn't do well there.

Didn't SAS say that it was the production selection that was key. ie. he was never going to fire Kate for being the only one to select top selling products.

Sorry, but despite this being what Alan Sugar said, this is cod logic if you actually know how TV selling works. I would lay good money that the 'top selling' fryer is not normally sold on the tea time slot for the simple reason that the target audience is elsewhere. A top seller isn't simply decided on the basis of the product but on the target at the time it sells and to whom. If the team knew the slot they had to sell in then the fryer was a poor choice.
'Fashion' items like the jacket sell if you persuade the buyer that she will look good in the item. Traditionally, that is done by putting it on a model who shows it to advantage. If Kate knew Lorraine had to model this was a bad choice.

Not me... but that ain't saying much.

I didn't think she did a particularly good job presenting them to be honest. A for effort but she looked uncomfortable and that she had no confidence or belief in the products she was selling came through loud and clear (imo) - so she simply wasn't believable. If you get the impression that the salespersoon will secretly think you're an utter plonker if you buy the product they're selling it kind of puts you off.

Didn't think Lorraine & James were any better though.

I think the evident dislike between Lorraine and her came out. I did agree with Kate that Lorraine's comments were not constructive. I would have got offended if you are sitting down trying to sort out things for a task and have someone tell you you are a crap presenter. The "no offense Kate" would have got right up my nose. And then the PM comment. You are on a penultimate task, under pressure and your team mate is telling you how crap you are at presenting, when they were worse than you. I would have been insulted too. Especially if said woman had bought up your relationship a few weeks earlier meaning you knew she was capable of saying anything in the boardroom. I personally thought Lorraine and Kate were as bad as each other yesterday with the snide comments, with poor old Howard inbetween. He couldn't pair up Lorraine and Kate after that. That may have been Lorraine's intention If you know you will be paired up as you are worst; you would want to ensure you get paired with the person who will make you or allow you to look good just in case you end up in the board room.

I don't think Lorraine said or even implied that Kate was crap though, did she?

She simply said that Howard was the best out of all of them. Which... at least on the evidence of the rehearsals... was absolutely true I thought. I didn't get the impression she was trying to get a dig in... I thought Kate was being over-sensitive with her reaction to be honest.

Lorraine had it easier though. she had simpler items that were top sellers. She didn't need to push the product as much as Kate. And how else are you supposed to sell an air guitar? Meant Kate had to play air guitar. She really wasn't given the easiest challenge. But then she should have rose to the challenge and didn't. She definately had the hardest products of all of them to sell though. She has a lot more to talk up in the boardroom than Lorraine though. And James is going to need to put on the "performance" of his life next week with Debra also needing to not crack and insult anyone.

I agree. Lorraine definitely had easier items to sell.

As for the air guitar... by actually giving the impression that you thought the product was good I guess rather than give the impression that you're taking the piss and are presenting it under duress. Even if you are.

I think she genuinely tried... maybe even did her best... but that wasn't very good.

I do think she could have prepared her verbal pitch better though. She was concentrating more on the demonstration angle than in emphasising the good points and uses of the products verbally. Particularly with the air guitar... and what she did say wasn't particularly specific... just general comments of "isn't this cool"... there wasn't really a sales pitch as such, just...enthusiasm... and very evidently faked enthusiasm at that.

But we can also say that it is much easier to convince someone to try something for £16 than to get them buy it for £140.

Yes the items Kate chose were good but I think she and SAS missed the following points:

- Howard and Lorraine are not professionals. An expensive product requires a more persuasive pitch. they had to learn the products inside out in a space of 5-6 hours and battle their fears in front of the camera.

- The jacket and the fryer were not right for Lorraine and Howard to sell. Howard was the better presenter but Lorraine was the one who should have convinced the potential buyer. Lorraine looked very tired and for 140 pounds Lorraine wasn't the best model for the jacket. She was just able to improve her presentation and therefore, she wasn't able to learn more about the fryer.

- Kate was the one who directed them. She didn't give them anything useful to say and should have made them move on and mention the price and the website. It is her job to make sure that they mention all the relevant points.

People always take series 1 as an example of how the candidates can sell well. But the rules were different. One team member had to choose all the products and learn them inside out. The other team member was responsible for presenting them and had a long day to practice and improve on their presentation.

I think 5-6 hours is plenty of time to come up with a good pitch, especially when there are two people working on it. All they had to do was come up with a 5 or 6 bullet points to highlight the product e.g only needs one spoon of oil, perfect for when the kids come in hungry, easy to wash, chips cook in x minutes etc ... but instead they just ate chips and rattled on about what foods you can eat chips with!!! Their nerves would have been less had they had a list of points up their sleeve. Same with the jacket.

kate didn't do a bad job of directing them. She took the training on board and asked constructive questions to give them ideas. Lorraines directing on the other hand was less helpful!

The dinasour was over £200.

If you are a professional presenter, then learning the products is not that difficult. But Lorraine needed to learn two products and improve her delivery of the pitch as well. Howard said in his interviews this morning that a lot of time was spent on helping Lorraine to overcome her fears leaving very little time to learn the products.

Agree completely - there was no real sale pitch, she just got a bit over enthusiastic with using it and I guess supposed that people would want to buy it on the amount of fun they could clearly have with it. Obviously not!

The chip pan should have been a good seller - if they had rammed home the pros and the price and the number instead of focussing on "mmm what lovely chips". There was clearly no direction from Kate on this, either.

God only knows what they were thinking with the cat cushion...

Knew the poncho would sell well, as I think I've seen it on tv before.

I think they mean it was £239.

If the jacket is such a top seller - how many have you seen out on the streets?

Fair enough, but I still think 5-6 hours is plenty of time to familiarise yourself with a couple of products.

I think Howard is prob trying to justify his actions. If Lorraine was really so nervous then as PM he should have taken the decision to make sure he knew everything about the products himself and to lead both demonstrations, that way the products would have been learn't and the pressure off Lorraine so she could have relaxed a bit and been a bit more productive. If Howard wasted the time trying to calm her down instead of being constructive then maybe he did deserve to be fired ..... just my thoughts!

He actually said the two products were the 'best sellers in their categories'. Which is pretty meaningless unless you know what their category is. Best seller in all garments, ladies garments. leather jackets. spring/summer jackets. occasionwear? Could in fact be a complete turkey if the category is marginal enough!

Have you been to many Halloween parties?

I think the coats must be from the 'overpriced complete and utter tat' catagory.

I took it as that so can see why Kate did. Yeah, I thought she was a little oversensitive but I thought both Kate and Lorraine both came across b*tchy and their obvious dislike of each other came out more openingly.

I agree. I thought she did a poor job. but also thought Howard and Lorraine did too. Thye deserved to lose as a team and it's a shame. They had the better products; they should have won at the end of the day.

Howard also admitted in his interviews that they spent so long together working on Lorraine's presentation skills that they didn't prepare. They've admitted they were wrong there.

Wasn't the jacket their best seller overall though?

there are some pretty horrendous fashion choices wandering around London every day Their target market is not fashion conscious, business people at the end of the day. Fat fryer was the best choice though. That should have sold really well.