I know I'm a bit late with this but only just got my membership properly validated.

What did Alex do in the last episode that earned him the sobriquet of ace salesman? I know he sold three days in the Zonda (or Zona, lol) but we never saw what he did to achieve those sales? It strikes me he was just approached by blokes rather than the other way around, according to the edit Lucinda seemed more pushy.

Maybe I'm just being harsh because I dislike te whiney little toad.

Ruth Badger was on GMTV this morning and was not too complimentary about Alex - she said he loads the gun and then moves aside and lets other people fire it. She also thinks he will be found out in the interview stage.

Well one of the days I think was sold during the normal hustle and bustle of the evening (can't recall seeing much footage of it), while the 2-day weekend I think they said was someone he had spoken to earlier in the day who had at the last minute decided to go for it - so there may have been groundwork laid that we didn't see (most of the footage of the day's pitching seemed dedicated to what Lee had been up to).

I don't think the editing really showed what he had done to secure the sales, but at the end of the day he managed to get two people to part with a rather large amount of cash for a day or so in a (albeit very) flash car - so he must have done something right! To be honest I think he and Lee both did pretty well to sell the Zonda day to three people in a pretty short timescale - I imagine this isn't the sort of purchase that most people would make on a whim like that (then again I don't make anywhere close to the sort of money you would need to be able to do it!).

I think the problem is that 180 hours of the task is filmed and we get to see a mere 40 minutes of it so a lot is left out. We can surmise what happens in that time but we can never be sure.

To be fair selling rental at £3000 a go is quite a good sale and won them the task so he did enough to win the task and more

It's well documented on here that I can't stand the slimey toad.

But, credit where it's due he did well in the car task. In the wedding task I couldn't agree that he was a good salesmen as I felt with the price of the dresses he could have sold more, or if he was as good as people were inferring then he should have been switched to the cakes. Regardless of how he did it he must have put the work in to get people to sign up for those cars.

I don't think he did that well, after all he said he loved cars and if you love cars you would know quite a bit about them. It's like asking me to sell video games He had the upper hand because he really was looking forward to working with something he loves. The other candidates didn't know much about cars, especially Michael and Lucinda. He did do well but the credit he received was a bit over the top if you ask me.

He managed to finally sell something in ten weeks' worth of shows...ok...I know he has sold before but he is so lacklustre it's funny.

I REALLY hope that's true

I Didnt like his attitude in the first weeks well make that the first 5 weeks but he didnt deserve to go.

He was Poor in week 4 the week Simon went and he was very defeatist in week 5 the Ice Cream task.

but i think he did well in Week 7 and week 8 despite loosing both tasks and did well in week 9 as PM and Last week with the Cars.

Sir Alan should have sacked Nicholas Brown AND Alex in week 1.

Love him or loathe him - his forte is sales and that is what he did = sell!

True but my point is he seems to get a lot of plaudits for that but in fact he only made 2 or 3 sales in the car task and for all we know thye could have been a testosterone fuleled city type wandering up and saying, "I'd like to hire one" and apporaching Alex rather than Lucinda becuase he's a bloke or because he happened to be stood in the right place. I'm still unconvinced that he has any particular talent.

I remember the days when SAL was looking for his next Apprentice not his next sales man

Who says those days are over?

Fine one to talk.

That's nothing more than your speculation and, with all due respect, totally irrelevant.

Hid in the shadows and pouted like a former member of Take That.

Maybe that's a little harsh... but in my opinion, he's the weakest candidate left.


I don't understand your refernce to Ruth there. She was directly involved in getting results for every task she was in as far as I recall - she didn't just stand around looking sheepish.


...but aren't we all simply speculating on this board?! The vast majority of us anyway!

I don't understand the comment about Ruth either as I always thought Ruth was pretty straight really.

I'll tell you what he did: He made sure if his team lost, either Lee or Lucinda would have to go. From what I make of it this would probably have been the case anyway as Lee was project manager and Lucinda was terrible.

Alex tried (and managed) to persuade Lee that the boys- the two most experienced salespeople by a country mile were off selling the Zonda on the idea that its the most expensive. When Lucinda came and confronted Lee and Alex about being left on her own Alex just left Lee to face her with a '.. Lee is it alright if I just keep on selling here..' before fading away into the crowd and letting those two go at it. If the task was lost, the blame would have been easily placed with Lucinda for selling nothing (and by the way I think she played a bit dumber than she really is trying to sell that car) or Lee for ostensibly organising her being on her own.

I think Lucinda also did a deliberately sh*te job of selling so that if they lost when she was in the boardroom she could just go 'I told you I couldn't sell and you left me on my own etc.'

My 2 cents' worth

I know little (make that nothing) about the motor industry - but I would have thought 2 or 3 sales in one day was quite good going. I can't really argue with any knowledge because I'm working away from home, and haven't seen the episode yet.

But as for the speculation on testosterone assisted success - I've seen an awful lot of "for all we know (insert hypothesis here), on the boards. Seems if some don't like the success or failure of certain candidates conjecture about their performance eases the pain.

you say that you don't know and haven't seem the episode - why not do so before commenting?

I made a specific point of not commenting on the episode - I simply asked why Alex's success should be assumed to be testosterone inspired - a remark which was clearly speculative.

Next time I want to post a general comment I'll make sure I ask you first.