HR Magazine

For a dumbed-down version of ‘The Apprentice’, ITV1’s brazen copy, Natural Born Sellers – the show that pits salespeople against each other for a winner-takes-all prize – didn’t ‘arf get me thinking. For once it was not because this over-cocky, egotistical rabble quite literally represented the worst of the car salesman stereotypes (although I was actually left disgusted by the orgasmic pleasure one contestant derived from lying to a customer about the bargain they thought they’d just been offered). It was more because I was left confused about how HR folk would go about assessing their redeemable features. The cause of my mental tussle, was that they all displayed highly dubious tactics – over-pressuring customers, harrying them, treating them like, well idiots whose only purpose in life was to line their pockets – yet all these people did actually sell (and earn more commission than the normal staff these contestants replaced). So, I found myself thinking, are these really the best, the people HR should beat a path to their door, or are they actually the very worst? I still cannot make my mind up. Take Scott, the 25-year old cub portrayed as an unmanageable, too-big-for-his-boots, self deluded wannabe. He actually came second in the task selling furniture in an Ideal Homes store. The problem is that for all the money he clawed in, customers did not like him, and to an HR director he is everything bad about Generation X. He turned up late, back-chatted to his manager, was arrogant, refused to listen to feedback, was terse with customers and threw a tantrum when his manager tried to counsel him. I suspect he may well have got the sales, but what brand image did he leave with those poor bullied customers? Which should the HR director make more happy – the sales director, whose only joy is how many beds were sold that day, or the MD, who I bet would rather have a sustainable business, and would have turned white if he’d overheard what one heavy-handed reprobate ordered one customer to do – ‘get on that bed, and stay there until I come back’.