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Business Rule #13:
Believe in Your Product
December 3, 2004
Well, we’re down to the final four. Not the best four, mind you, but the final four nonetheless. But that’s life: the strongest players are all too often sent home, while the weaker players stay in the game. Why you ask? Because the stronger players step up and take chances that the weaker players won’t. The weaker players will always sit back and wait for someone else to take the lead, while the stronger players swing for the fences and sometimes make stupid mistakes.
Here’s yet another task where all of the remaining candidates have completely missed the fundamentals of business. This task was all about believing in your product. Allow me to pass along a piece of wisdom: “You'll never be successful if you sell a product you don't like and don't believe in.” This golden nugget comes straight from Trump himself, and I believe that it sums up this episode of The Apprentice fairly well.
Neither team really seemed to believe in the M-Azing Bar, because if they did they would have sold them much more effectively using actual advertising and marketing strategies. It’s quite evident that Ivana didn’t, because once she found out that the M&M Sisters were outperforming her team by “selling sex,” as she liked to put it, she decided to do them one better and show off her skivvies instead of simply telling people about the product and making them believe how M-Azing the new candy bar really was. She lost sight of the product and became completely focused on the competition.
Yes, Ivana was correct: Jennifer Massey and Sandy Ferreira were selling sex and plenty of it. But what does she do to counter their marketing strategy? She decides to sell MORE sex! That, as you’ve probably figured by now, was not the best strategy in the world. You can never stoop down to the competition’s level in such a case. I personally would have simply raised my average price to $5 per bar and threatened to kick Kevin Allen in his teeth if he dared lower it.
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You can never, ever focus solely on the competition. You must observe them, see what they’re doing right, and improve upon their ideas. Some of the greatest companies in the world were created by simply improving upon an existing idea or product. Think Trump is so original? Check out The Shorenstein Group, a mega-developer in San Francisco. You may never have heard of them, but, rest assured, all of their glamorous buildings sell out incredibly fast. So what does Trump do? He makes his skyscrapers bigger and even more glamorous. He takes an idea and improves upon it. Another example: many of you have probably already gone out and bought a bottle of Trump Ice. When you bought that bottle of Trump Ice, it was because Trump believes in the product enough to make it, bottle it, sell it, and feature it on his hit television show. He believes in the product; people believe in him; and, therefore, the product sells. I don’t think anyone would purchase a bottle of Trump Ice if Trump offered to show you his boxers. Some may attribute it to brand recognition, and that’s all well and true, but what really counts is believing in your product.
Now onto Sandy and Jennifer. First, I just have to say, great legs. Second, the “twins” idea was a nice touch, which, I might add, Ivana’s team lacked. They dressed in bright, attractive colors that contrasted well against their blonde hair. It worked. Their look motivated people to see what they were selling. Was it the wrong kind of attention? Yes. I mean, let’s be honest here, who from this show is going to remember the M-Azing bar for being an amazing bar? Even if you see it in the store today, you’ll think of one thing: Jennifer’s and Sandy’s legs. But, let’s be fair, they did achieve their own more limited objective on the show.
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You can never, ever focus solely on the competition.
