The Self-Nominators Phone Shop Idol

There are 24,000 mobile phone sales reps in the UK.

The same materials that are used in aeroplanes,

some of it is used in this phone.

And every year, the industry holds a competition to find the best one.

It's the Oscar for the mobile phone industry.

-CHEERING

-Get in there! Go on!

It's the same as it would be for a journalist to win the Pulitzer,

or for a writer to win the Booker.

It scares me about what my potential is.

From across the country, top sellers from all the major phone retailers

face a gruelling series of challenges...

What are the camera resolutions for the Samsung Galaxy A5?

13 megapixel camera on the back and a five megapixel on the front.

..in front of expert judges.

We are expecting to see people who could sell anything.

So, here we have a flotation device...

-BELL DINGS

-Uh...

-Oh, God.

I've written down one word and it says, "Painful".

They've been given the power of being judges

and I feel that it's really gone to their head.

After six months of intensive tests,

only the very best will win a place in the grand final...

I'd like you to line them up in decreasing battery size.

I'm not going to get my guns out just yet.

..and with it, the chance to change their lives forever.

I'm proud of him and I'm proud of him.

And, um, it seems like, you know, we've done a good job.

I'm emotional cos I'm passionate, not because I'm soft.

It's just so difficult. It's just so tough.

If stress is for you, sell mobile phones.

-ANNOUNCER:

-'And the winner of Shop Idol 2015 is...'

Christ on a raft.

This programme contains strong language.

It's the second round

of Shop Idol, the phone industry's annual search

to find the nation's best sales rep.

These two babies here, they pack the whole punch.

£18 a month. After one year, I can reduce it to £10.

Last week, the big phone companies' top sellers, known as Chosen Ones,

faced the scrutiny of the mystery shopper.

Is it more about the phone or is it more about the bill coming down?

And as the judges reviewed their performance...

Nothing about camera, nothing about processor,

nothing about memory size.

..some of the country's top sales staff bit the dust.

-You just missed out.

-No.

In total, 13 Chosen Ones made it through to the regional heats...

What a belter. Absolute belter.

-..to be held in two weeks' time.

-Happy days!

THEY LAUGH

Now round two gets underway.

Go, go, go, go, go! Yeah!

As the competition's underdogs,

the Self-Nominees who were overlooked by their companies enter the race

to join the Chosen Ones in the regional heats.

Another happy customer.

'I will do everything to be in this competition. Everything.'

Yeah!

To qualify, it's the Self-Nominees who must now face the scrutiny

of the mystery shopper, but half of them will be knocked out.

It's, like, in the back of my mind every day.

I know I'm going to be mystery shopped, but I don't know when.

I'm nervous. Really nervous.

-Thanks for waiting.

-That's all right. No problem.

Every candidate, every action

is being looked at in very minute detail.

£30 free credit. I mean, that is a lot.

There is nowhere to hide. We will find those little details,

the thing that you missed out,

the tariff you didn't talk about, the service that you didn't

up-sell or recommend.

Completely sealed. Waterproof. Dust-proof.

Has a dedicated camera button.

I want somebody who delivers

amazing service,

has all the key behaviours absolutely right

and translates that into really good sales.

Sales reps can deal with up to 50 customers a day

and the stress of not knowing

whether one of them is the mystery shopper

is beginning to affect one of the Self-Nominees.

What's more important at the moment -

the store or the competition?

The competition.

31-year-old Roland, who was born in Hungary,

usually tops the in-store sales charts.

I'm just out-of-control today. I'm definitely having a bad day.

But he's become so distracted by the mystery shopper,

his customer feedback scores have plummeted.

His number one priority is just, you know,

this mystery shopper could come in now any time.

It's taken over his life.

Absolutely taken over his life at the moment.

Doing everything wrong. I'm just going to have a break now.

I can't concentrate.

No, the problem is my fault.

Basically, I didn't have my breakfast

because I was fucking lazy

and I feel like now I don't have any energy.

Well, go and get some breakfast, then.

-You took ages with those customers this morning.

-I know.

-You spent...

-I know. I know.

-11 o'clock and you've served one customer.

-Everything was wrong.

-The system didn't work. The system is bad.

-The system is working.

I've done about four upgrades in the time you've just done two.

Because I scanned the wrong IMEI number.

-Whose fault is that? It's yours.

-Mine, yes.

Sort it out. Fuck off and get some lunch or breakfast

and sort yourself out.

I'm not in control of my body. I'm feeling messed up.

-HE SIGHS

-Just lost it with him.

He's taken forever with customers

and he's been a bit highly strung this morning.

Certainly hasn't had his breakfast. He's been a bit of a diva.

-HE SIGHS

-I need to control

this energy that I've got. I need to control it.

It's like you've got an atom bomb and you don't want to, you know...

..let it explode. You want to control it.

That's why you put the clock on it and it's counting back.

Sometimes, I don't have the clock.

I'm just exploding without any counter, you know,

and it's not good.

In Lewisham, it's business as usual

as yet another new handset hits the high street.

The S6 Edge.

So, this is a black one.

Black Sapphire.

It's got an optical processor,

which means it's got eight brains inside.

The first thing is it's not even black. It's blue.

What do they call the white one here?

It's just white, basically,

but they're going to call it...White Pearl.

Manager Jason is championing Self-Nominees Kiet and Ayyub

in the competition.

It is the equivalent of winning an Oscar.

It's the Oscar for the mobile phone industry.

From where their background is and where they've come from,

I just hope my guys do themselves proud.

The lads have been friends for ten years

and joined the store via a charity for out-of-work youngsters.

I was searching for jobs,

like, left, right and centre.

It sounds stupid, but I was considering

selling drugs and stuff, but I'm glad that I didn't.

Didn't go down that path.

Like I said, he is my best mate.

We used to go to college and school together.

We like to do things together, in a way,

so there's not much competition.

As their mentor, Jason's keen to make sure

Kiet and Ayyub are prepared for any scenario

when the mystery shopper arrives.

The mystery shoppers will have a camera on them, yeah?

-It could be...

-Oh, wow.

-Yeah. You'll be filmed.

It'll probably be in a tie or something like that

and you won't know when they're coming to do it.

All right, so, what we've got here is, um...

What we've got here is...

-THEY LAUGH

-Hello, sir. How can I help?

-I'm not happy.

-You're not happy?

-No.

-Take a seat.

All right, sir, how can I help today?

-I'm with EE.

-OK.

I just keep seeing my bills and they keep going up.

-I've got my bills here.

-OK, let me just have a look.

What I would say with that is

-you've done the right thing by sitting me down.

-Yeah.

But what about getting to know me?

I was getting to it, but I was waiting for your reply.

-Hello, sir. How are you today?

-I'm not happy. I'm not happy at all.

Let me help you. Can I take your name?

-It's Mr Appleblossom.

-Yes, sir. Take a seat here, Mr Appleblossom.

I'll be glad to help you.

-I don't trust you mobile phone sales people.

-Oh, no?

While Kiet and Ayyub are best friends,

some contestants share a rather less cosy relationship.

If you were to actually flip over the S6 Edge,

it actually has its own lighting system.

Mark and Gemma work together in the Poole branch of EE,

but they are bitter rivals in the competition.

-HE YAWNS

-That was brilliant and everything,

but let me tell you this, OK?

So, the Sony's got a 20.7 megapixel camera, OK?

It's got a high-definition, TRILUMINOS Live LED display, OK?

With X-Reality on it.

31-year-old Mark Davis has done a number of different jobs

after his dream of being a footballer didn't work out.

It scares me about what my potential is.

You know, I try and be that go-to guy,

as we talked about earlier. Brand Davis, you know?

But brand Davis' rival Gemma is no ordinary competitor.

APPLAUSE Last year, she beat thousands

of sales associates to make the top three of Shop Idol.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime,

-maybe twice-in-a-lifetime...

-SHE LAUGHS

It was the biggest night of her life.

That's my award for Shop Idol that I got presented on the night

and that was the actual ticket.

That's the actual menu. So, we did have the meal on there.

So, that was the coffee and caramel...

The caramel meringue, vanilla cream, blackberry and coffee ice cream.

Oh, my God.

-It was a little bit orgasmic.

-SHE LAUGHS

-APPLAUSE

-Getting as far as I did

meant the world to me.

It was such a confidence boost.

Everyone was very supportive of me.

It's almost being a bit of the centre of attention,

which I wasn't used to, so it was good. I loved it.

But will Gemma or Mark make the podium this year?

The mystery shopper is on the move.

-Hi there. You all right?

-Yeah. How can I help?

-I'm looking for a phone for my daughter.

-OK.

Probably the M2's going to be a nice one.

-Eight megapixel camera as well.

-OK.

So, you still get some really good photos.

-Still got a front-facing camera as well.

-OK.

So, it's quite a big screen as well, isn't it?

It's a lovely screen size.

-Her meet and greet is perfect.

-Yeah.

-Product knowledge is impeccable.

-Yeah.

-She's great.

You go into a supermarket, you can take a photo of a bottle of wine

and it will then search the internet for that label.

It will tell you where the wine's from,

-how the grapes are pressed.

-Really?

-It'll tell you everything about it.

-Right.

You buy from people you like,

so that means really good facial expressions,

that means using humour, that means instantly,

"I liked him and I'm happy to buy from him."

Thanks for your help.

Mark and Gemma have impressed, but across the country,

some of the other Self-Nominees are failing to measure up.

-Right.

-MAN LAUGHS

Have you got any, like, particular hobbies or anything like that?

That's just really bad body language.

You can't start playing with your ear or your neck or...

It's just not good.

-MAN:

-I'm looking for a phone for my dad.

-OK.

-Um, I thought I'd come and get a bit of advice.

-OK.

Um, what do you want the phone to be able to do?

-I think he'd enjoy a smartphone.

-OK.

There was no passion. There was no personalisation.

There was no selling. It was just...very bizarre.

But there is one candidate

whose mystery shop has caught the judges' eye.

With a lot of cameras, you find that the brightness

-would then dim what's inside the room.

-MAN:

-Yes.

But the camera's very well-balanced, so you can see everything without...

26-year-old Claire works for Carphone Warehouse in York.

She's no stranger to winning.

Before getting into mobile phones, she was a champion line dancer.

This was from when I won the world championship

for choreography.

I did used to have my own dance school,

but it just doesn't pay enough to live off.

I enjoy dancing, but the kind of life I want to have -

I want to get married, I want to have a house,

I want to eventually have children and things like that -

and that's... You can't do that and dance around the world.

It's just one or the other.

Claire swapped sequins for SIMs and has been working

as a sales associate for the last six months.

Customers do sometimes come in and sort of look past me

and go to the geeky guys at the back,

but when they then come over to me and say,

"Do you know the answer?" and then I give them the answer,

they realise that if they'd just come to me first,

I'd have known from the start, so...

Despite the misconceptions,

she's become the store's number one sales associate.

-How can we help you, sir?

-Sort my phone out. To get it sorted.

Oh, right. Is it not working?

As well as a good track record with customers,

she also knows her tech.

-I'm really interested in the Oculus Rift...

-What's that?

..which is virtual reality.

-It's all magic.

-I know it is!

-It's easy for young ones.

-THEY LAUGH

How have you found Vodafone?

-MAN:

-I can't really fault it, to be honest. It's been fine.

-Yeah?

Emergency services use Vodafone, so you're doing well.

Take that as a good sign.

She talked about the emergency services.

What she was doing there was talking about the reliability

of the network and the confidence behind the network

-without actually saying those things.

-Yes.

"It's got to be good cos the emergency services use them."

-She said it all.

-Perfect.

While the Self-Nominees are still attempting

to get into next week's regional heats,

the phone companies' Chosen Ones, who are already through,

have got a head start preparing.

I'm thinking of a phone. It's one of these phones here.

And you've got 20 questions to find out what it is.

In Burnley, Three Mobile's Chosen One Baz is being put through his paces.

-Is it waterproof?

-It is.

Xperia Z3 or Z2.

-Boom! Two questions.

-Smashed it.

It's got a four megapixel rear camera,

but it's UltraPixels, Super AMOLED screen.

Fonehouse's chosen candidate Andy

has taken on his workmate and best friend since school, Danny,

as his personal trainer...

-Can you train blind?

-I'm going to fucking hit you.

..coaching him in all aspects of mobile phones.

Xperia Z3 Compact.

It's got a 20.7 megapixel camera, two-day battery,

STAMINA Mode, records video.

'Train really well in the gym, you know what I mean?

'Like, really, really hard, you know.'

Relax, son. Just relax.

He's a good guy, you know.

He's just a good mate, do you know what I mean?

He's a really good mate.

Back in store, there's a chance for Andy

to check out one of his main rivals in the next round.

-So, this is the competition, eh?

-Aye, aye.

-Let's watch Nick Fosh's video.

-Let's see what Nick Fosh can do.

-ON COMPUTER:

-'15 is an option.

-Right.

-15 gigabytes.

'That's a huge amount of data.'

-Is it?

-Yeah. Most networks offer, like, one gig with their plans.

-Yeah.

-So, four gigabytes is a massive amount of data.

-ANDY:

-This guy came across really well.

Aye, he got, like, 100% or something, didn't he?

This guy's the business.

But, I mean, 100%. You can't argue with Nick Fosh.

No, 100%. That's...

That's nearly perfect, isn't it, really? 100%.

You may find

we've actually got a better deal for you

where we can offer you more for the same sort of price.

Nick Fosh from Swindon has been dubbed Mr Perfect

after recording the highest mystery shop score last week.

Very, very happy. Very humbled, I think.

A lot of people, like you said, are calling me Mr Perfect.

I don't think I'm perfect, personally, but, yeah,

in the grand scheme of things, to score 100% is a big deal.

-Thanks very much for your help.

-Perfect.

-Hope all goes well.

I appreciate that. Well, fingers crossed.

-IRISH ACCENT:

-You look like a Shop Idol.

You sing like a Shop Idol. You are a Shop Idol.

You've got the star quality.

-That was what's-his-face?

-Louis.

-Louis.

As well as Mr Perfect,

Andy's got some competition from a fellow Chosen One

within his own company.

I'd love to have an empire one day,

whether it be properties, a few businesses

or maybe it's one successful business.

There's a million and one things going on inside of my head.

What I will push for, though, is my own desk.

While Andy works for one of Fonehouse's busiest stores,

Callum works for one of its quietest

on Worle High Street in Weston-super-Mare.

Worle's population is, majoritally, an elderly population.

The typical customer would be between the ages of...60 and 80.

Let's get you a Friday, shall we?

We asked somebody if they knew what Skype was.

They thought it was something to do with skiing.

-The great thing is, we can save you even more money. Yay!

-Yeah.

It's going to be a real tough challenge

for Callum to win Shop Idol.

In there, there's going to be some tough competition

that will be polished.

They'll be, you know, at the top of their game.

All right, Callum?

With so few customers,

Dave wants to keep Callum sharp for the regional heats.

What we're going to do is just a bit of a role-play with you.

Okey dokey. I'll show you a few phones,

see what you think, discuss your options,

-if that sounds good to you.

-OK.

Do I feel like the underdog?

Let's just say you've got a family car Volvo.

Um...

'It just looks like a Volvo.'

-I'm a bit pushed for time, mate, so...

-Okey dokey. No worries.

'And then when it takes off'

and does, you know, 100 down a dual carriageway

and absolutely leaves your car behind, you think,

"Oh, shit. I think we underestimated this one here."

That'll be two seconds.

I'm just going to grab a phone out of the cupboard a second.

Meanwhile, with the regional heats fast approaching,

for the Self-Nominees,

the mystery shop is entering the final phase

and Roland still hasn't received a visit.

You're just being a little bit too overenthusiastic

to this mystery shop coming in, so you could just calm it down

and just make sure that, actually, it's business as usual.

Getting through to the next round would mean everything to Roland.

Daddy's little hero.

Especially as he's decided to raise his baby son Noel in Britain

rather than his native Hungary.

Everything that I do, it makes a difference, of course,

for him and for my family.

Hello.

Having him here, you know,

that allows us to have him a better future.

In a bid to learn how to control his emotions,

Roland's arranged a meeting with a local speech and drama coach.

I'm very energetic and I like this energy, but sometimes,

I can't control it and it comes across like, "I'm a lightning bolt.

"I'm a lightning bolt and I'm ready to fire.

"I'm ready to, like, rocket."

No. No, Roland. No. You're not like a little dog with a tail.

You know, like...

You know? No. Flapping the tail. No.

I need to control my energy.

-Hello. My name is Roland.

-Hello, Roland!

-Hello.

-I'm very pleased to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

Mary Hardy-Green has been a professional drama teacher

for almost 20 years.

We're going to try and get you to relax.

-Oh, that's great. Looking forward to it.

-All right?

And we'll see how far we get.

-So, I'm going to count in to six.

-OK.

-So, I'm going to go...

Good. Hold it for a minute.

So, I'm just going to say a simple line.

Somewhere over the rainbow.

Somewhere over the rainbow.

Lift our cheeks and it's just a straight projection of,

"Mars bars!"

Go on.

-Mars bars!

-Right. Come on.

You can make a little bit more noise than me.

-BOTH:

-Mars bars!

-That's it. And again.

-BOTH:

-Mars bars!

Ba, be, bi, bo, bu.

That's it. Relax into it.

Ma, me, mi, mo, mu.

-Now, I want you to have a look at the colours of the rainbow.

-OK.

And I want you to visualise them.

-Red.

-Yes.

-Orange.

-Mm-hm.

Yellow.

'I feel that it was absolutely useful.

'She taught me lots of information that I didn't really know.'

-Blue.

-Yes.

'So, now, thanks for Mary,'

I've got some skills

how to improve the way I'm talking to customers.

Allows. Able. Able.

It's not just Roland who's anxious about the mystery shopper.

I'm getting nervous, scared.

I don't know what's happened, if I have been mystery shopped.

I don't know.

At her store in the East Midlands,

24-year-old Hayley suspects she may have just received a visit.

He was tall with glasses

with a black trench coat and a newspaper.

For Hayley, who has a one-year-old son,

making the regional heats is vital.

She is competitive and she always wants to do well.

She's very determined on what she wants to achieve,

where she wants to be

and she wants to show everyone how great she is.

I would love to get to the finals.

This isn't just a, "Let's get through."

I want to take it the whole hog. I'm going. I'm going for it.

During the competition's ten years,

hundreds of mystery shops have gone undetected.

We think Kiet's being mystery shopped.

Until now.

What makes you think you're being mystery shopped?

It's the way he approached me.

They still have the ultra power saving,

so you can still reserve the battery, which is...

Kiet is very confident with what he knows,

what his knowledge is like.

Has he you looked after you OK, sir?

Yeah, it's a beautiful phone. Like how it's built. Aluminium base.

I thought the manager knew

because I thought he looks towards the camera.

Take care. Nice to meet you.

But then it's also more reason not to get involved

because, by stepping in,

-Kiet isn't going to get the scores that he needs.

-No.

Because he can't do the mystery shop for him.

That's bending the rules slightly,

but you do what you need to do to win, don't you? High five!

While Kiet believes he's delivered the goods,

his best pal Ayyub is off to the worst possible start...

-MAN:

-Yeah, I have been.

..by trying to send

the mystery shopper

to the back of the queue.

Yeah, for a meet and greet,

probably not a very good score at all,

if any points at all, because that's just so dismissive.

It's got something called a Super AMOLED screen.

-OK. I've heard of that.

-Which means it's got 97% of...

The colours are much more clearer and the darker colours are deeper.

His product knowledge was good.

-Yeah, he pulled it back...

-Yeah.

-..from that awful start.

He knew about Samsung and the HTC, which is good.

-And he knew the tariffs.

-Yeah, he did.

-MAN:

-Thanks ever so much.

-No problem.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thanks.

-Nice talking to you.

-Take care. Bye-bye.

At Fonehouse Sunderland, there's been a development.

I'm sorry, mate. It's just the way it is, eh?

Danny's handed in his notice after landing a new job in a factory.

The decision means he will no longer be able to help Andy

prepare for the competition.

I'll have my thoughts about it,

which are going to just look like a biased point of view

because it's going to look like I'm trying to keep you.

In your mind, you're making the right decision.

I've just got to...

I've got to accept it. I just feel that...

We haven't even discussed this ourselves, you know.

It's the first time we've spoken about it and it's on camera.

-It's not...

-Can't write it.

-It's just one of them, isn't it?

It's just...I've had a couple of days...

It's not going to come between us as friends.

No, no. Definitely not.

-He loves cuddles, Daniel.

-I love cuddles.

I love cuddles with Daniel as well, like.

Deep down, he's really upset,

but I know he's not going to let it come between us as friends.

But, as they say, you've just got to do what feels right.

To be honest, it is tough, like, hitting the targets and that.

Like, it's just constant chase.

And, you know, obviously, Andy's class.

He's that good at it, even when there's not many people coming,

he still seems to get sales. He's just mint.

It's just the life of sales, really.

And that's pretty much it, like. Aye.

For the Self-Nominees,

there's one last mystery shop the judges have yet to scrutinise.

How can I help you today?

-WOMAN:

-I'm looking for a smartphone for my dad.

A smartphone for your dad?

-I thought I'd speak to you about it.

-OK.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

So far, Roland has kept his emotions in check.

Are you looking to call in the family or is it business usage?

No, not business. Family and friends.

Can I just say, that is an amazing smile?

Roland does a really good job,

considering, clearly, it's not his native language.

And he is taking the customer through,

at a reasonably good pace,

his way of explaining the different products.

He's covering all the bases.

-He's thorough.

-Oh, yes.

-He covered everything.

But the interaction has just passed the 60-minute mark.

So, basically, if you want to write something,

the phone will give you an option. Like, how do you say...

-It's a long mystery shop, though, for any customer.

-God, yeah.

For an hour and ten without buying anything.

-I'd be exhausted by the end of it.

-I would be.

-OK.

-Thanks for your help.

-All the best. Bye-bye.

Thank you. You too. Bye.

As soon as the judges have reached a conclusion,

their results are posted on the Shop Idol website.

I'll have a sneaky peek.

There are just over 20 places up for grabs in the regional heats.

For the rest, their Shop Idol dreams will be over.

I'm nervous and I don't know what to do right now

cos we've got two minutes and there's nothing we can do.

Shall we? Shall we open?

-All right, shall we do this, then?

-Let's do it.

It's there. It's there.

-SHE GASPS

-No way!

-100%!

-SHE SCREAMS

Thank God for that.

Amazingly, both Gemma and Mark have gone through with a perfect 100%.

SHE LAUGHS Claire dances her way

into the heats with 98%.

And there's more good news in Lewisham.

Argh!

Kiet sailed through with 89%.

And despite his bungled meet and greet...

-HE LAUGHS

-Look at that.

..Ayyub went through a week later on a wild card.

Yes!

-Get in there! Go on!

-HE LAUGHS

But for every candidate hearing good news...

Oh, no!

..there's another for whom it's the end of the road.

Everyone, she didn't get through.

And for Roland...

I am through. 96%!

Yeah! I can't believe that. Can't believe that.

96 and I'm through, man. I can't believe that.

With the Self-Nominees joining the Chosen Ones...

Amazing.

..the line-up is now complete.

36 sales reps will contest the regional heats

and from now on, they are all equals.

So, aye, this is it. Finishing up my last shift.

Aye, going to get myself away.

Happy times.

Also sad times.

Do you want me to clock you out then, mate, aye?

-Right.

-Bring it in, mate.

-Thanks for trying it out.

-Take care.

-See you.

-Ooh!

-Ta-ra.

-Weird.

-HE CHUCKLES

That's that.

Right, that's it. Daniel's gone.

Aye, a new chapter.

Let's get out of here.

-Next time...

-I'm nervous.

..candidates face the judges at the first regional heat...

-What is the maximum distance Bluetooth can operate over?

-Pass.

..and face off against one another.

-Who's higher on the sales list?

-Me.

-Me.

Inside there, the gloves come off.

Who's got what it takes to win a place in the final?

I'm passionate and I want it.

I want fucking fire in your belly.

It's all or nothing. Go hard or go home.

# Do what I want cause I can and if I don't because I wanna

# Be ignored by the stiff and the bored because I'm gonna

# Hate to say I told you so All right!

# Come on! #