Entrepreneur Simon Duffy, co-founder of men's natural grooming line Bulldog, casts his expert eye over the follies of the wannabes
I was a bit underwhelmed with this week’s task – it was so similar to the week before. It was just about identifying the right products then selling them in a competitive way.
So the teams should have been really up to speed about how to structure the task. They should know how to pick right products for their audience, and should have made sure they had some that would turn quickly and some of higher value.
I thought the leaf-grabber was a smart product. I suspect lots of pensioners were watching and this product might appeal to them. I agree with Sugar that the chip pan was the best choice - but it was presented in the worst way.
Compared with the previous week, the art of selling was more influential in this task. That’s where Howard’s team fell down.
Howard was pretty unlucky. It probably comes back to not putting Lorraine by herself. Putting himself with her was in the best interests of his team, but if he’d been more focused on winning the Apprentice it might have been a better strategy to work with Kate.
I think Kate was stitching Lorraine up a bit in choosing the the leather jacket which she knew Lorraine would have to model on TV.
But then Lorraine should have been selling the guitar, she was great at it, whereas Kate was just embarrassing. The wrong people were selling the wrong products.
It all comes down to sales pitch. Howard and Lorraine had a great product and they didn’t sell, whereas Deborah had an awful product and sold loads.
This was really Deborah’s week. She came into her own selling that poncho, which was the worst product. Debroah doesn’t listen, but she can sell.