Ruth Badger: planning new business.

Ruth Badger is pretty chuffed to be on the receiving end of a virtual sack of fan mail following the first airing of her new Tuesday-night series on Sky One. What’s more, the initial reviews of Badger or Bust have been good.

Fan mail

‘We’ve had 36 “pick of the days” for the first show and a hell of a lot of email traffic for what must be classed as fan mail I suppose,’ she enthuses. ‘It’s going very well and, to be fair, I haven’t read one bad review.’

She sees the audience for the programme as wide-ranging, because it’s not just about business; it’s entertaining and it’s a bit of a laugh as well as having an informative and serious side. ‘It’s got a very wide audience,’ she claims, a view which is also borne out by the ratings. ‘As far as Sky goes it’s doing very well.’

Means to an end

Despite the success, the 29-year-old from Wolverhampton remains grounded about her new television career, claiming that first and foremost she is a businessperson. Refreshingly, in these ‘I want to be famous for the sake of it’ times, she remains unsure yet whether to do another series because she’s also hard at work planning and running her new business. For the Badger, her new-found celebrity status is a convenient means of publicising her enterprise rather than an end in itself.

The Badger: 'not Wonder Woman'.

Underperforming sales teams

For the past few weeks, The Badger (a nickname she inherited from her time on The Apprentice) has been seen getting to grips with a selection of Britain’s failing sales teams. The format – which includes a good sprinkling of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in the recipe along with elements of The Apprentice – sees her helping to turn round the fortunes of businesses ranging from a double-glazing company to a caravan sales lot.

The common theme across the series is an underperforming sales function. Transforming and motivating sales teams is the Badger’s forte and she sees it as her chance to shine. ‘This is the real test for me; I claim to be able to increase sales in any business’ she tells ModernSelling.com.

Variety of problems

The production team has tried to pick a variety of organisations with different cultures, ranged around the country. For one show, Badger heads for Bradford to transform an all-male double-glazing team, while another sees her facing up to an all-female company in South London. In general, she deals with B2C (business to consumer) focused companies but elements of B2B (business to business) do creep in.

And is she successful? Not always, is the answer. Badger is upfront about the fact that she can’t save all the companies. The episodes feature real-life scenarios. ‘I’m not Wonder Woman. I haven’t got a team of consultants working with me.’

Asked whether the show might be a bit formulaic, Badger is quick to defend the format and says she treats each situation as she finds it. Her emphasis is firmly on performance management because that’s where the improvements are demonstrable.

No set formula to business

Drawing on her experience from her time as a sales manager in the financial services industry, she says: ‘I learnt that there’s no set formula to business; it’s all about getting the people right, the people performing and that’s when you get the money.’

Like many sales people, Badger left full-time education with plenty of enthusiasm but few formal qualifications; at 16, with just 3 GCSEs to her name, she joined a civil service youth training scheme. Her first big break was landing a job working as a processor for a local financial services company.

There she quickly excelled, was promoted four times in 18 months, and awarded with four company performance awards including GE Capital’s National Employee of the Year accolade, along with an all-expenses cruise around Europe. She then doubled her earning potential by working for a national company based in Bury, selling loans and mortgages face-to-face in the home environment.

Driving turnover

Transferring to head office as head of sales and operations, accountable for all revenue generation, Badger played a fundamental role in driving turnover from £3.1 million to £13.1 million in two years. She also played a major role in the stock market flotation of the business in 2004.

Ruth Badger: proved herself on The Apprentice.

Then the opportunity arose to apply for The Apprentice… Week after week, Badger proved she was the second series’ top performer: she excelled at the assignments set by boss Sir Alan Sugar – especially the sales tasks, outselling the top executives in the car trade and the letting agents. She also demonstrated she had the necessary people and interpersonal skills, as well as the hunger for a sale.

Equally, she slotted in with the rhetoric that the viewing audience has come to expect of participants in the show. At the time of her appearance on The Apprentice, she was quoted as saying: ‘Every pound I have, I’ve worked for; I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. And there are people in the show who have never done a day’s work in their life and if they cross me they’ll pay the price.’

Runner-up

Despite the fighting talk, the Badger ended the series as runner-up. However, like several of the contestants, she seems to have fared better than eventual winner, Michelle Dewberry. Last July, the Sun revealed Dewberry’s fling with fellow contestant Syed Ahmed; subsequently, she ceased working for Sir Alan and formed her own consultancy business.

Following her experience on The Apprentice, Badger too set up her own consultancy – Ruth Badger Consultancy – training staff and helping major international companies boost their profits.

Asked whether she was glad she didn’t win the second series of The Apprentice, Badger jumps right back: ‘No, I’m never glad that I don’t win anything. I’m competitive. I’m a salesperson, so absolutely not. ‘Hats off to Michelle; she won The Apprentice and Sir Alan knew exactly what he needed – somebody he could shape and somebody he could mould. I don’t know whether he thinks I’m too old or too bloody stubborn.’

Ruth Badger: busy year.

Public imagination

So, can selling and sales management really have caught the imagination of the great British public? Perhaps so; it certainly needed the enthusiasm of someone like the Badger to ignite the spark. But she’s also canny enough to know that business is where she belongs longer term. On the question of whether she’s a salesperson or TV personality, she’s unequivocal. ‘You aren’t going to see me on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.’

Her own business is already doing ‘in real life’ what she does on TV, offering consultancy in business performance, company launch, sales training, company MOT, recruitment and company rescue. No doubt the series is an excellent shop window for her; equally it gives those of us in business an insight into how her consultancy might perform should we ever be in the position of needing her help.

Straight-talker

At the end of the day, the Badger is a straight-talker and she claims the ability to sell anything. ‘I tell the truth. Unfortunately, with me, what you see is what you get,’ she has been quoted as saying. And then: ‘I can sell anything. I love selling.’

At the same time, she realises success is all about both leadership and team work. ‘There are two things that scare me – people who can sell more than me and people who think they can sell and they can’t.’

Much of this attitude is reflected in the current series. ‘Let me tell you one thing for sure: the most important thing to me is business. These are real situations – real people – that are actually happening.’

Badger or Bust, 10pm Sky One.

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