Is it just me or was it unfair to attack the team for this??

Okay- so it worked out not so great for them, but surely they had every right to offer it if they thought it was going to get them most sales??

They designed the Ice Cream and the manufacturer handed over sales and marketing to THEM...that was the task!

Can't believe Sir Alan said he would've discounted the 'exclusivity' sales had he known about them...that would have been unfair IMO.

Basically I reckon Sralan was looking for an excuse to make them look bad, because -let's face it- they WERE the better team.

I thought this was a bit unfair of him too, that should have been highlighted up front if they weren't allowed to do it, as it is often offered/requested with new accounts & products. And I'm sure if Claire's team had got to the cinema chain head office first and been asked for it, they too would have agreed.

OK for him to say it was ill-advised in a particular situation, or that they should have agreed it as a group before even offering it, but surely they should have been told if it was totally banned?

They did seem to have somme odd concepts of the definition of Exclusivity to me though!

He was excessively kind to Lucinda, I thought. Other weeks, it would have been "you're PM, the buck stops here, you're fired!", but he seemed hell bent on firing one of the sales team. I think he had just decided it was Lindi's week to go and came up with any old excuse.

You are SO right...this is what I was getting at! If they'd have won I swear he would've said it showed initiative.

He just makes it up as he goes along, looking for something to have a go at, to make good television.

Level of impressedness... 1%

You certainly can't win with him...he moves the goalposts all the time.

And yea- as someone else said it can only be a rule break if it was written in a set of rules

Didn't they have to refuse other business because of the exclusitivity - but I agree it hasn't raised its head in other series.

It's like he had a go at the girls for asking for tips in the laundary task - which wasn't a bad idea.

Considering the winning of the task is about raising the most money in one/two days, I don't see how they can have future business potential into the equation.

And I agree that Lucinda never looked like being fired - she makes better TV with her stormy relationship with the other girls.

Yes- that annoyed me a bit too. I mean it was cheap and trashy but if it got them a win they wouldn't have any case to answer as they'd be safe.
I don't see why (so long as it's related directly to the task in hand) the contestants can't use their initiative in this way.

I think it was because they offered exclusivity without consulting the farm - who it would affect in the long run, and without consulting Lucinda, who had sold to another chain which broke the exclusivity clause of the other place, which she didn't even know existed.


Basically they were agreeing to stuff they didn't have the authority to offer.

That's how I saw it - and 'the best sales person in Europe,' should have known the implications of offering exclusivity without authority.

Right...that would be grounds for a rule break I guess but didn't think this had actually happened. I thought Lindy guaranteed a pub chain that no other pub chain would be given the ide cream, and Lucinda sold to independent pubs...did I get that wrong?

As for the farm- I don't think they matter...yes it's a bit rude and inconsiderate to not consult them, but don't see how they broke a rule- they were in charge of selling- the farm handed over sales to them- they can bludy well provide to whoever the sellers sell to, otherwise don't agree to do the show or put a condition in the rules about 'exclusivity'.

But this is what Im saying- surely they did have authority?? They were in charge of sales and marketing, it obviously wasn't made clear to the girls how far their 'authority' extended...unless stated beforehand I don't see why they should have been made to consult the farm on sales decisions.

I wouldn't mind but they were selling their OWN flavours,...these weren't flavours that the farm had developed / already had on the market.

SAS is making it up as he goes along

I agree that the rules should have been clarified at the start - but exclusivity is a very restrictive condition.

imo if in doubt don't - but then I'm not in Sales.

Yea I know what u mean...but sometimes gambles pay off...like everyone says it's just SAS changing the rules as and when, u never know if he's gonna love it or hate it...he probably doesnt even know himself.

She did say no other pub chain but Lucinda said they'd sold to a Mexican pub that was part of a chain, while not being aware that Lindi had agreed an exlusivity deal with another chain.

It is a big deal for the farm as they are now tied into a contract which will restrict the exposure of their product, and money making potential as they can't sell their ice-cream to other cinemas.

Any decent salesperson - especially "The best in Europe" - should know that you can't go around agreeing things like this, as you don't have the authority.

It shows that she was more concerned with her individual sales performance than the long term profit for the company.

IMO Jenny should have gone as she would have been fired on the spot if she'd agreed something like this in the real world. Lindi saw what Jenny did, and being naive, employed the same tactic.

The difference here was that these were real businesses they were helping set up and they tied them into exclusivity to win the task and absolutely no consideration for these businesses long term. That exclusivity could effectively have sent those new businesses belly up because the deals were far too small.

It was just a bloody stupid idea. They didn't make enough money from that buyer to justify not selling to anyone else. They were silly to give exclusivity for such a small price, and it was Jennifer's fault.

You can't just blame Lucinda with that "you're PM, the buck stops here, you're fired!" thing. If that logic was the case, the Project Manager would be fired ever week for not having complete control of the team. They can try, but unless they have support from their team (i.e. don't do stupid things like give exclusivity for the whole of London for a couple of hundred quid), the Project Manager can only do so much.

Actually, he's not. In real life the actions of the sales team would land them in a legal pickle. They were mere agents for the farm so to legally limit the farm's market in the absence of specific authority to do so is illegal as well as bad business practice. Not to tell the other 'side' of the team what was going on, so exposing them into entering conflicting contractual relationships, is even worse! From the 'best salesperson in Europe' unbelieveable.

What's this 'best sales person in Europe' business anyway? She's got the worst sales technique I've ever come across and after failing time and time again her only conclusion was to ask for tips. Never known anything like it.

They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. The biggest factor here is that they have about 36 hours to sell as much as possible. Considering the time restraints, you’re going to snap every deal you can get. If they’d have said, “no we can’t give you exclusivity”, they wouldn’t have sold the product.

Fair enough that you’re limiting sales elsewhere but they didn’t have the time to pitch every outlet in London. I think they did the right thing.

Sorry maybe I misunderstood- I thought the exclusivity deal applied only to those [i]flavours[i]...in which case the farm could still run the rest of their business as normal...those flavours were developed by the team and therefore they were more than just agents for the farm.

I could be wrong though- can someone clarify- did the exclusivity agreement apply to just those flavours?

Not sure what rules are written down beforehand, but the underlying point here is that this is not a 'game' where they all shake hands afterwards, but instead these are real customers spending their own money with real contracts and legalities involved.

What the sales team did wrong was to forget about selling in a professional manner
and agree to anything they can to get the sale.

Suffered a lot of these in my past when as PM or BA for an IT consultancy I've ended up having to sort out the mess left by loose cannon salesmen promising "vapourware" and penalising clauses, just to get the sale and their lovely commision..

On the other hand it does highlight an underlying fault of the programme (there's another thread on this) in that if a team turns down an order because it would be too penalising for the business, would they have got any credit for it?

I believe one of the restaurants Lucinda sold to was part of a chain, not a pub admittedly, but still. Plus if the pub then goes and says they're the only place in London to serve the ice cream, and then found out that actually a range of random restaurants were selling it then that could cause issues.

Plus like Sir Alan said, if Jennifer agrees to exclusivity for one pub chain, then she's effectively stopping the farm selling their products to any other pub chain after The Apprentice people have cleared off.

They should have maybe made a rule about it, but maybe they weren't expecting anyone to even go there?

I too think he wanted to get rid of Lindi at any excuse. Let's face it: her technique is to suck up to the PM in order not to get into the boardroom, so this was probably going to be one of the very few times that she'd be in there.