Boardroom regrets of Apprentice loser

Pushy car trader Sara Dhada - the latest contestant to be fired from BBC One's The Apprentice - has put her eviction down to "boardroom suicide".

Dhada says she kept her "honesty and integrity"

She says she failed to defend herself against accusations that she had "bludgeoned" customers with her sales technique while trying to shift expensive wedding cakes for the latest task.

Dhada's Renaissance team, led by Helene Speight, lost out to Alpha who made the most profit in this week's task to sell wedding dresses and accessories at a wedding fair at Birmingham's NEC.

"I did not perform very well in the boardroom," the 25-year-old from Leicester told Newsbeat.

"I committed boardroom suicide - I didn't sell myself to Sir Alan.

"I was just so exhausted at that point, my stress levels were extremely high, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted."

Alpha won the task after selling three designer dresses with profits of more than £5,000 while Renaissance, who opted to sell mid-range dresses, made £2,000 after selling five garments.

Aggressive tactics

Although Renaissance team leader Speight was criticised for the dress choice, Dhada - together with team-mate Michael Sophocles - bore the brunt of the blame because of their hard sell approach to selling wedding cakes.

The apprentice is now down to its final seven contestants

Viewers watched on Wednesday night as Dhada forcefully told a future bride: "If you don't push yourself and you say 'shall I, shall I not' and then you look around and you don't find the same cake anywhere else, you kick yourself."

Sophocles, meanwhile, was shown aggressively waving his arm in the face of a prospective customer.

Dhada told Newsbeat: "When we only had an hour or half an hour left, I thought I've been going for the softly, softly approach, bringing people in, 'how are you' and it wasn't working."

Despite their efforts, the pair failed to sell any cakes.

Before firing her, Sir Alan told Dhada: "There are some times where you have to be very subtle in the manner in which you're going about selling something.

"You have to be interested in the people, first of all. Not just 'bang, bang, bang, buy my cake, buy my cake'."

'Hardworking individual'

But while Dhada says she did not give a good account of herself in the boardroom, she says she would draw the line at the "cringeworthy begging" which seemed to spare Sophocles from also being fired.

I'm glad that the audience is very intelligent, they can see through things and they can see through Sir Alan's decisions Sara Dhada

In Wednesday's show, Sophocles told Sir Alan: "I don't want to sound like I'm begging but if you give me another opportunity to be a project manager again and show what I'm capable of... I've got so much more to give than just being a salesman.

"I really, really do. I won't let you down."

Dhada - who says smoothie Raef Bjayou is her favourite of the remaining seven contestants - insists she is glad she did not resort to similar tactics.

"I'm glad that the audience is very intelligent, they can see through things and they can see through Sir Alan's decisions," she says.

"I came across as a hardworking individual and I'm just glad I kept my honesty and integrity because that's the background that I come from."