the first thing you ever learn in sales is to ask open questions, Susan last night wanted to order loads of product as she was confident she would be able to sell it. Walking around approaching people she did not ask a single open question, Would you like to try? (no) Have you tried? (No) simply by changing would and have you tried. to why dont you try would have given her far more openings, and to say everyone was poor came across very badly when in reality it was something as simple as rephrasing the pitch that would have gotten far better results.

I would have to watch the episode again because I do tend to forget the finer details of a task, even if I only watched it just the day before.

Did Susan at no point whatsoever ask any 'inviting question' to the customers that she approached? Certainly if that were the case then she needs to improve her people/selling skills.

I do wonder how she goes about selling her own beauty products. Is she face to face with them in a shop or is it all over the net (which requires no public interaction at all). Maybe she's already mentioned an I've not taken note.

it wasnt just susan, though she seemed worse because she had built herself up as a super saleswoman. Not one of them were using open questions, which considering they are all meant to be super sales people i found astounding. Now I know in real life they all have different type businesses but it seems to me that every task is sales / profit & loss based so by selling the most you are always going to be kept out of the boardroom at least for the first few weeks.

I think its an internet business. It does look impressive and in the video she's doing something similar to the task.

http://www.tropicskincare.com/

Thanks for the link. Yeah, it's just like any other professional website. I half expected to be greeted with Susan's face on the front page when I clicked on it, lol.

What I found interesting, from now having watched yesterday's episode again, is that Helen re-quoted Susan (or what she thought was a requote) saying (in the boardroom)....
Helen "your exact words were, I can say 60 on my own" ..., when what Susan actually said (in response to Zoe's phone call) was...
Susan "thats just how much I sell"... (which I took to meaning about the figures she can normally and easily achieve on this here website..., perhaps?).

I wonder if the main error of thinking by Susan was that she mistook the difference of internet sales (which don't require direct public selling) to public-shopping sales as being the same, which they (usually aren't). You normally sell more via the web than what you do in the shop don't you? (depending on the product of course).

On a website you rely on the written info and pretty graphics to lure you into buying a product (sometimes that you've never tried or bought before) with just a few easy clicks. Whereas in person on the shop floor it's not quite the same, or as easy, which maybe Susan really underestimated. I just wonder if Susan was abit naive in this sense, thinking that her online sales would be replicated in the task because thats what she's naturally used to getting. I'm sure she knew the processes are different (with different outcomes) so wondered if she had forgotten how hard face to face selling is...? (thats if she has ever done it during any point that her business has been up and running).


Yes, she tended to say "can I temp you" quite a bit which, isn't exactly the worst thing to say but then she would really need the person that she was asking that to, to be in the mood for being entyced or tempted into looking at or buying something that they'd never seen before.

Susan bragged about how this task was right up her street, this is what she did, she did not add on the internet.

Going by previous years tasks, anyone who bigs themselves up usually can never live up to their own boast.

Hopefully Susan will have learned a valuable lesson and never over estimate how good she thinks she is.

on a side note Leon's finger trick worked a treat

To be fair to Brum where i was recently - not poor (yah seen the pubs) just dont take what the bronze bull produces at those prices. V simple.

Well in our local shopping centre we have quite a few of those temporary stalls selling cosmetics or beauty tools (hair straighteners) and their sales tactics aren't any better than the ones Susan was showing - in fact they are pretty much the same sort of questions... "Do you have a minute....", "Do you use......?", "Can I tempt you.....?"

And if you do allow them to stop you, they are quite aggressive as they try to sell you whatever they are offering - MUCH more so than the apprentices were shown to be.