The candidates were sent to The London Pet Show to sell cat, dog, and rabbit products to attendees.
Advertisement
Back in the boardroom, the figures come in and feedback is given by Claude and Karren – who will be in Lord Sugar’s firing line?
After criticizing Ruth for her lack of sales, Lord Sugar said: ‘Seems to me you couldn’t sell a bone to Battersea Dogs Home at the moment, from what I’ve heard’.
Connexus brought in over £1,000 less than Team Versatile and Ruth, 47, along with project manager Scott Saunders and Selina Waterman-Smith, found themselves back in the boardroom.
She failed to sell anything in this week’s pet-tastic challenge, but she said she wanted to tell Lord Sugar he’d made the wrong decision.
“Because maybe less Ruth would have been the best thing so Ruth, you’re fired”.
Team Connexus sold £1,221.20 from accessories, and £1,807.20 from the high end cat towers, making a grand total of £3,028.40.
After slogging their guts out to flog a combination of animal balloons, animal T-shirts, and luxury pet beds, you’d think Versatile’s prize would have centred on being pampered.
“He’s not very happy with you, I’ve got to tell you – not very happy with you”, Lord Sugar told her. “And Karren, she was wondering why you have this kind of demeanour also”.
Despite her chatty and enthusiastic attempts to persuade customers, Whiteley “had a bad day at the office” and was not able to close any sales – compared to three for Saunders and one for Waterman-Smith.
When back in the boardroom, Team Connexus started to unravel, with Lord Sugar pulling Ruth up for putting on her CV that her job is “telephone and sales training” however wasn’t able to sell anything.
In the task post-mortem, Claude said that he thought Ruth spent far too much time talking to people who simply weren’t interested in buying a cat tower (we can’t imagine who that would be).
Ruth still managed to leave with her head held high: “I did my absolute damnedest, and I would rather fall on my sword trying 110%, than have given up halfway through the day”.
One person said: “I can’t believe Lord Sugar didn’t fire Selina!”
It wasn’t just her suits that raised eyebrows. “So, Ruth, you’re fired”.
But he opted to give her a lifeline.
Advertisement
“I’m really gutted”, said mum-of-one Ruth.
