Episode 9

Selling To Trade

This week we were asked to select a country and sell three of their products to retail stores. I was in Eclipse and we lost this week.

I was glad to be working with Jadine. Since Week 1, we have been really close and I really felt for Jadine as she was clearly missing her daughter. She is one of my closest friends in the house and I will really miss her.

Jadine and I did an amazing job this week. I made the most sales and together we brought in over 3X the revenue that Tre and Simon brought in. We knew we were going to be late, but decided that the late fine was worth it considering the size of the order as well as the fine for not selling all three products.

Simon harped on about his list of leads. The list was absolute rubbish. He spent 2+ hrs on the internet researching potential leads. 90% of his 'amazing' list consisted of garden centres, which was totally irrelevant! More importantly, if he believed so much in his list, why did he give us the entire list? Why didn’t he keep the list for himself and call them himself during the day? He knew he was in trouble and he was paddling hard.

We weren’t able to make many appointments as by the time we had selected the country and started making calls, it was 5pm. So I managed to make 1 appointment in 30 minutes, which is not actually that bad, given that I had to calm Jadine down and keep Tre informed. Remember though, that Katie's team didn’t have any appointments either but still won. So in my opinion, their win was due to selecting more saleable products, sales effort as well as a good dose of luck.

Tre may have won 7 times, but he didn’t single-handedly win the tasks. In fact, in some tasks, such as the advertising one, we won in spite of Tre.

Tre did not have any reason for bringing me into the boardroom. He and Simon are close friends and Tre wanted to protect Simon. Also, he agreed with Jadine that if we lost he would try to get her fired so that she could go home to her daughter. Tre knew that if he brought Simon in, there was a greater chance of Simon being fired. So I believe he brought me in as he felt that this would give Jadine a greater chance of being fired.

I was very frustrated during this boardroom. Generally, I enjoy going into the boardroom as I enjoy standing up for myself and I don’t have to worry about anyone else but me. However this boardroom was very frustrating. In the past SAS accused me of being too quiet. In this boardroom he accused me of talking too much!

I have focussed on delivery in each task. I just get on with the work and don’t get involved in the backstabbing or politics. I don’t play up to the camera. I've been getting things done.

During the past 9 weeks, I've demonstrated sales, leadership, negotiation, purchasing, planning and creativity. I managed to achieve all of this while remaining energetic, enthusiastic and maintaining a positive relationship with every candidate - no one has said a bad thing about me. But despite all of this, SAS still can’t see where I can fit into his organisation.

Week 9 is WAY too late to not be convinced of the value that I can add. I'm not sure what is causing this - I always thought I would tick all the boxes for the ideal Apprentice. SAS has always said he wants someone who will work for him and not get distracted by media opportunities. Tick. He wants someone with a broad portfolio of skills. Tick. He wants someone hard working and 'drop dead shrewd'. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I think that what I'm missing or at least haven’t been able to demonstrate is being 'ruthless'. I think that people can deliver and get along with people - they aren’t mutually exclusive. I don’t have to be evil to be 'ruthless'. This is not a long term approach for success in business.

Ok enough with the rant! Time to take the learning on board and do better next time! Bring on Week 10!

Lohit Kalburgi

Lohit Kalburgi