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Follow on TwitterWell I finally got around to watching the last episode of ITV’s Natural Born Sellers last night. For those (most of you I guess given the low ratings and late night slot) that haven’t been watching, it seems to be another (remember the flop that was Peter Jones’ Tycoon) low budget attempt to create their own version of The Apprentice.
The show stared off with eight of "Britain’s Top Sales People" (yeah right), each week they were given a sales task and one of the two worst performing sellers would be fired. Gavin who every episode was shown saying ‘no more mister nice guy’ was consistently one of the two worst performing sellers on the show. However he kept on trying and his perseverance paid off and he managed to get one big sale in the final to clinch the win, much to the utter surprise of anyone who has been watching the show.
Reading around the web today it seems Gavin has been quite active in responding to blog posts about the show and I’m really please to see he’s split the winnings with Danny, who was clearly the best salesman on the show (and who I wanted to win because he kept talking about how it would help his kids). I do think Gavin didn’t do himself justice however, he came across as a nice, genuine and likeable chap (unlike the pushy arrogant Scott) and I couldn’t help but think that given some sales training Gavin would be excellent. As it happens Sean over at MTD Sales Training has offered Gavin a free course so hopefully Gavin will be taking him up on the offer.
I was impressed that Gavin managed to brand himself on the final show and I can see him being able to create quite a niche around it, so keep an eye out for "Britain most successful, unsuccessful salesman" in the future.
The biggest surprise of the show was that John Cauldwell (founder of Phones4U) was prepared to put his name to what Richard Denny describes very politely as:
old-fashioned sales practice
Denny also notes that:
…the modern day professional seller can only sell what they believe in…
I guess Denny would agree with my earlier post about eating your own dog food. Obviously ITV feels differently as their site for Natural Born Sellers begins with:
They are pushy, they are ambitious and they think they can sell anything to anyone – whatever it takes, and whatever the cost.
So would anyone else like to admit to watching Natural Born Sellers? If so what did you think of it?
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I missed the first episode but watched the rest of the series and although I enjoyed it, I had quite a few problems with the show. Not necessarily the contestants (but that woman was very annoying and embarrassing to watch) but more with the format of the show.
6 episodes was not enough to build up enough of a rapport with the contestants, and the way they were voted off of the show means that it is very possible for a below-average salesman to win, which is exactly what happened. A great underdog story, but it makes a mockery of the rest of the series.
I also wish they’d report more on how much money each contestant made. Just saying who was at the bottom of the sales table each week was a bit of an anti-climax. I also thought that John Cauldwell could have been almost any businessman – his mark on the show was minimal and he wasn’t enough of a character to him iconic. I’m trying not to make too many comparisons with The Apprentice, but Sir Alan is such a quirky guy he just works well in his position on the show.
I hope they make a second series, but it needs to be longer (at least 8 episodes), it needs to find more of an identity and it needs to find a fairer way to kick out the worse performer. Maybe the bottom two with the worse average sales or something?
Yeah, you’re right, it would have been better had it gone on longer and the quirky firing scheme might have been more relevant. I think they were hoping to make it all very tactical but it somehow didn’t come off.
Hopefully if they make a second series they’re replace the firing scheme and just focus on being a business show, not a game show.