BBC The Apprentice: Negotiating — The Good, The Bad and The Frickin’ Ugly! #2019 #Task5

Kayode Damali BSc, MPSA
Nov 4 · 9 min read

So, The Apprentice Series 15 (2019) — Task 5 was the classic 9 item finder task, searching blindly before making it back to base.

Before you ask, no you cannot use a Sat Nav or Google, nor can you freely ask members of the public for directions (otherwise that would be too easy).

But yes, this week’s task was similar to our Task 1 in Malta last year (Series 14 2018), where we had to find the 9 items and similar to Task 5 in Series 9 2013, where they did the 9 item task in Dubai. (*hint hint — tasks repeat themselves, study what works and what doesn’t if you’re ever thinking of going on the Show)

Now you might be wondering, “wait in 2013 they went to Dubai to find the items, in 2018 they went to Malta to find the items, the guys in 2019 got the short straw for having to go to Oxford and Cambridge”

See I would have sympathy for them, but I don’t because they flew to South Africa for their first task, whereas we flew to Malta for ours. In fact, if anything, my sympathy goes towards the guys in Series 12 in 2017. Their first task wasn’t in South Africa, it wasn’t in Malta, their first task was inBrixton! So, I think it’s fair to say that they got the short straw.

But anyway, back to the task itself, finding the 9 items. Now I’ll hold my hands up. I didn’t even know this type of task is called a Scavenger Hunt (even when I did it leading my team as PM). But to be honest, I think calling it a Scavenger Hunt really downplays the skills and abilities required for this task, rather makes out likes it’s a kid’s game when really it isn’t and is so much tougher. This task is all about your ability to negotiate (because you have to spend as least money as possible and can’t buy the items at the displayed value) and it looks at your logistical abilities of navigation etc. (because you have to find the items, to begin with) and this is the angle I’d like to take this blog down.

This week’s summary

So, to quickly summarise the main happenings:

- Jemelin led her team (with even Ryan-Mark voting for her as PM, despite putting himself forwards as PM also).

- To the shock of viewers, no one on their team didn’t know the start and end date of World War 2 (1939–1945). In Marianne’s defence, she’s American and Lord Sugar joked they always arrive late anyway, and it was only Lottie on the other team who knew them.

- The big decision both teams were stuck on was for the purchase of an Alice in Wonderland book preceding World War II, with both teams unsure reserving it for later before one team beating the other to come back and buy it

- A few innuendos were said that caused a funny reaction on Twitter, for example, Ryan-Mark saying to the guy on the boat “you have a lovely pole” in reference to his boating stick

- Unfortunately, their team lost with Jemelin accused of not being decisive enough. She brought back Ryan-Mark and Riyonn back in the boardroom where he was then unfortunately fired (again during the You’re Fired After Show, why are they all getting the crusty hand as a prize??)

To be honest, all in all, I thought this week’s episode was boring and for the first time in years, I caught myself clock-watching wondering when it would be over. Was it maybe because I came back late from a Speed Dating Event and didn’t watch the episode until the early hours of the morning? Either way, I wasn’t the only one that thought that, a few others told me that too.

The Bread and Butter

But anyway, what I really want to talk about is the skills required to succeed in this task, what I noticed people did well and what they could have improved on, in terms of their negotiations and logistics. SO here goes…

The Good

If you do it yourself, get them to knock the price off

Good! Lottie had to climb over the fence and get the eggs from the chickens herself and rightly said that (though not in her exact words) “look I had to do the labour and get the eggs myself, so surely it’s cheaper”

“that’s way over our budget” then silence…!

Good! Tom said this when negotiating the boat stick thingy (sorry can’t remember the name) and then went silent! Good! Let them fill the awkward silence! In a negotiation, when an offer is made either to you or by you, let the other person fill the silence, no matter how long it takes! (to a reasonable extent). Typically, whoever fills the silence feels more awkward thus has less bargaining power! Great salespeople on the phone do this great all the time. Don’t believe me? Pay attention closely next time you have a call with them, and they give you an offer.

Flip a coin!

Sick! This was amazing what Tom did and he even received praise online by Martin Lewis (the money-saving expert for doing it). He said to the seller (who was resistant of doing a cheaper price) “let’s flip a coin, if I win, I buy it for 40 and if you win, I buy it for 50”. Who doesn’t like fun and games, so the seller agreed. Tom ended up losing the coin toss paying 50, but you know what, he actually won! Business can be so stiff and serious, especially when it comes to negotiations. Adding an element of fun like that made everyone smile (most importantly, the person selling his item at a discounted rate). Apart from Lottie, the sub-team leader, who said “business is not about gambling and risks,” to which she was corrected by Lord Sugar who said that business is ALL about risks. I believe she later agreed.

The Bad

Ask for less, then ask for more!

Now I didn’t see anyone do this, but I wish they did! Let me explain. If you know you want to get 12 eggs, ask for the price for 6 eggs and hear what they say. For argument’s sake, let’s say it’s £1 an egg, so £6 for 6 eggs. Now in business and in life, the more volume you buy, the cheaper you can get it for. Now you’ve heard it’s £6 for 6 eggs (you can act disheartened if you wish to really act it out), what you then say is, what if I bought 12 eggs, could you give me a discount? Now, I’m confident that 9 times out of 10, they will give you a discount. So instead of it being £12 for 12 eggs, they might turnaround and give it to you for a tenner (especially if you use the line of I’ve only got £10 note, even if you do have the additional change) — that’s 2 eggs for free!.

Remember, you always wanted the 12 eggs to begin with, but if you go in there immediately asking for the 12, you leave yourself no room for the upgraded bulk price. I hope this makes sense

Get the eggs last!

It’s not necessarily bad, but Tom said to his team get the eggs first so they would be nice and freshly laid in the morning. Yes, that’s good in real life, but you’re not going to be eating them on the Show! When you sell any food or produce, you know you don’t want to be taking it home with you at the end of the day or even worse you’d have to throw it away. So for the Show because you’re not going to be eating the eggs bought (because it’s just for the task), you should go to get the eggs last because you’d have more bargaining power to get it cheaper — i.e. the eggs no longer being fresh.

Get the one on display!

Teams had to get this dish with the Cambridge sorts of crests around it, great. They went into the shop and saw the two different sized ones and bought the smaller one, again great because it would be cheaper than the bigger one. BUT! If they REALLY wanted to be clever and get it EVEN cheaper, they should have negotiated the one out of the box on display! Why? because the shop possibly can’t sell that one because it’s opened, so you’d be doing them a favour buying it cheaper.

This is EXACTLY what I did with my team in Malta. Instead of buying the Ghonella and the Hasira box-fresh, we went into the store and asked for their ones on display and voila, we got it cheaper! Unless of course they’ve changed the rules this year and told candidates they can’t do that. So, when Marianne was pitching to be PM by thinking outside of the box, that is REALLY thinking outside of the box… literally (as, you know, the items aren’t inside of the box).

The Frickin’ Ugly

“We really need” or “really want”

No no no!!!! This is awful, and I was screaming inside when seeing this. It was mostly the sub-team of Jemelins team that did this (Pamela comes to mind) but in negotiations, this is shocking! Karren Brady even highlighted this on the You’re Fired Show after! Remember this, my, and I quote, golden rule for negotiations (so make sure to quote me when using it) — “the person who wants it more has less bargaining power.” Why? Because if you give off desperation that you want the item, why should the seller discount it for you? They know they don’t have to budge. It was just like when they went into the shop asking for the Mortar Board hat (even I forget it was a Graduation Cap, to be honest — who really calls it that in 2019 anyway… it’s like still calling Halls, Digs). They said they really need/want it, so the women in the shop turned around and said, “I’m the only one selling this in a 5-mile radius, I don’t need to discount it. If you really want it, you’ll buy it.” She did knock the price down for them (by like 25p) whether out of sympathy or for her to look good on the Show, but my golden rule for negotiations remains — “the person who wants it more has less bargaining power”, so make sure you don’t come across as wanting it more than the other person.

“Give me £10”, “No I’ll give you £12”

What!!!! Firstly, shouts out to @dearlifelovekim for reminding me about this but blimey! I’m sure Lottie must have done this in error, but listen very carefully… if a guy is offering you £10 to buy his used (keyword there being USED) spanner sort of tool, don’t then turn around and then say to him, “I’ll give you £12”! In fact, regardless, of whether it’s used or not, you want to negotiate down, not up! Besides, in a negotiation you NEVER (or rarely ever accept the first offer). I’m sure Lottie knows this and it’s just an error she won’t make again..

Other: specifically, with the logistics

It’s hard to tell, but what both teams should have done if they didn’t already is:

Locate the home base first, go furthest achievable item and work back towards base.

I say achievable because sometimes an item could be added in there to throw you off guard. For example, last year I told my team NOT to go to the Island of Gozo to get the salt and we’ll take the fine instead because it was just too far. But the girl’s team did and got the Ferry back late thus got to the home base late thus incurred a penalty, which was worse than not getting the salt in the first place.

But anyway, for this year, it seemed some people had issues reading the maps (to be honest in today’s day and age, who really whips out an A to Z anymore? I remember the first Sat Nav my parents had. It was called “Kayode Damali” and I remember having to read maps on motorway journeys from young. Riyonn said something like he did the Duke of Edinburgh Award, so he briefly taught his team how to find B4 for example. But I do worry for the younger generation as soon map-reading will be a myth (thanks to Google Maps, Waze etc.)

Both teams arrived on time so I’m assuming they did that.

Start with items you know and work backwards from there

You are deliberately given randomly named items to find that you probably never heard of. Task time is very short so you can’t afford wasting precious time figuring out what the items are if you are really struggling. Go with what you know.

So yes, that’s it for Week 5, I hope you enjoyed reading and will see you next week!

Kayode Damali BSc (Hons), MPSA

Click on the links below to follow my socials:

Facebook | Instagram | Linked In | Twitter | Website | YouTube

Kayode Damali BSc, MPSA

Written by

♛ BBC The Apprentice 2018 and Professional Speaker

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade