SMA 2023 – Reseller Criteria

Best New Business Win

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any UK-based firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider. The business win – which can be in any vertical sector in any space, must have taken place between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023 to qualify for entry.

Describe the opportunity and what it involved on your part as the supplier – ie hours on tender, skills etc
How was the business won? Did you have to go the extra mile to win the business? If so please share details.
Why was the business won? – ie track record of delivery (customer case studies), personal approach, vendor accreditations/certifications
What were some of the challenges you faced during the process?
How did your people help to win the business – make it personal.
What was the deal worth to your company and how did winning it help company development?
What has winning meant for team morale?
REQUIREMENT: Please provide a customer testimonial within the entry

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality and humour to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Videos longer than five minutes will not be viewed in full by the judges.

Best Sales Team

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider – that has a standalone sales team. The period the award covers is between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023- so please detail successes of sales teams during that period only to qualify for entry.

Brief background to the structure of the sales team(s), i.e experience and specialist skill sets and also personalities
Make it personal – introduce the team to the judges
How has the sales team managed to grow the business and win new customers in the past year? Please include comparative YoY % sales growth for context.
What fun things (fundraising, teambuilding, customer-facing) has the team got up to in the past year
Certifications/qualifications team has achieved during last year
Explain the value provided to vendor partners
Explain the value provided to customers
What is the team’s biggest achievement of the year?
Examples of innovation within the team which have led to success
REQUIREMENT: Please provide a customer testimonial within the entry. (Vendor testimonials are optional).

Best Marketing Campaign (not event)

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider – that has engaged in proactive marketing activities during the year. The period the award covers is between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023- so please detail an end user marketing campaign that successfully ran during that period only to qualify for entry. It can be a social media campaign or a more traditional campaign but not an event. Images can be used.

What was the campaign (please describe) and when did it run? Was it social media based or another method? (please explain)
Why are you entering this particular campaign? What made it stand out for you? Why are you so proud of it?
Which vendor/vendors was it in conjunction with?
Who was it aimed at? ie SMBs, Enterprises, Public sector (or other specific sectors)
How successful was the campaign? Use facts and figures to back up claims. How many customers have benefitted from the campaign?
Was there anything quirky or unusual about the campaign that really got it noticed? i.e. did it use cutting edge technology, humour, did it go viral?
REQUIREMENT: Please provide at least one customer testimonial within the entry itself

Best Company to Work For – Sub £100m turnover

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider – with a turnover of £100m or below. The company must pride itself on being a great place to work both in terms of results/growth, staff/employee satisfaction/motivation, mental health, DE&I, CSR, environmental credentials, and general company culture. The period the award covers is between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023, so please bear this in mind when talking about particular incentives offered to employees. Images can also be used if you like.

Why is your company such a great place to work?
What do you think makes it stand out from your peers?
How did you keep your teams motivated and engaged?
How has your workplace changed over the past year – what are you doing differently? Will this continue?
How does company culture help generate results?
Has your company used internal social media campaigns to generate a fun working environment? How has this enhanced the staff morale? Give examples
How does your company empower its people to do their jobs better? Give examples.
How are you addressing DE&I (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) in your company? Are there any particular campaigns you are running? Please explain and share any results.
Can you give examples of CSR or environmental activities/initiatives? ie Charity fundraisers/carbon offsetting etc
How do you motivate people and engender loyalty? This can include outlines of bonus/commission schemes, extra leave, holidays, prizes etc
REQUIREMENT: Please provide testimonials from your people/teams within the entry itself

Best Company to Work For – £101m+ turnover

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider – with a turnover of £101m or above. The company must pride itself on being a great place to work both in terms of results/growth, staff/employee satisfaction/motivation, mental health, DE&I, CSR, environmental credentials, and general company culture. The period the award covers is between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023, so please bear this in mind when talking about particular incentives offered to employees. Images can also be used if you like.

Why is your company such a great place to work?
What do you think makes it stand out from your peers?
How do you keep your teams motivated and engaged?
How has your workplace changed over the past year – what are you doing differently as a result of the pandemic? Will this continue?
How does company culture help generate results?
Has your company used internal social media campaigns to generate a fun working environment? How has this enhanced the staff morale? Give examples
How does your company empower its people to do their jobs better? Give examples.
How are you addressing DE&I (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) in your company? Are there any particular campaigns you are running? Please explain and share any results.
Can you give examples of CSR or environmental activities/initiatives? ie Charity events/carbon offsetting etc
How do you motivate your people and engender loyalty? This can include outlines of bonus/commission schemes, extra leave, holidays, prizes etc
REQUIREMENT: Please provide testimonials from your people/teams within the entry itself

Most Innovative Recruitment Scheme/Initiative – New for 2023

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider The scheme/initiative must have been running from, or further developed since January 2022.

The skills gap is a top challenge many channel firms are facing. How is your company working to bring new talent into the industry?
Tell us about your particular scheme/initiative and why you launched it/how long it has been running. For example, have you been working closely with local schools/colleges? Are you recruiting graduates through university schemes? Are you working with armed forces charities or local authorities to give people from different backgrounds a chance to build a new career?
Are you doing anything in particular to encourage a more diverse range of candidates from different backgrounds to your company? Please elaborate.
What have been the biggest challenges in running your scheme/initiative?
Describe any particular success stories – ie, someone who has gone on to become a senior manager within your own company or has been headhunted somewhere and has done really well for themselves.
REQUIREMENT: A testimonial from one of the successful recruits – either one that is still in training, or one that has gone on to success elsewhere in the company.

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to make the entry easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality and humour to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Videos longer than five minutes will not be viewed in full by the judges.

Best Customer Event

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any firm that falls under the Reseller category – whether an integrator, MSP, system builder, VAR or service provider – that has engaged in proactive marketing activities during the year. Since the onset of Covid, this category now covers all types of events, including physical events that have become online events, actual face-to-face events, or brand-new hybrid events launched over the past year. The period the award covers is between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023- so please detail an event that you created for your customers/partners that successfully ran during that period only to qualify for entry. Images can be used.

What was the event (please describe) and when/where/how did it run? How did you encourage customers to sign up/attend? (please explain)
Why are you entering this particular event? What made it stand out for you? Why are you so proud of it?
Which partners (vendor or distie) was it in conjunction with?
Who was it aimed at? ie all customers, SMEs, Enterprises, Public sector (or any other specific sectors)
How successful was the event? How many attendees (physical/virtual or both) did you get? What results did you achieve? Use facts and figures to back up claims.
Was there anything quirky or unusual about the event that really got it noticed?
REQUIREMENT: Please provide customer testimonials within the entry itself

The ‘Over and Above’ Award

This is an award aimed at highlighting the amazing work by an individual, the company as a whole, or a division/team over the past year.

It is a chance to give those individuals or teams some credit for going ‘over and above’ their duties to ensure a customer was served, or a project was completed, or they managed to keep everybody’s spirits up by being an exceptional manager or supportive colleague or even a community-minded individual/team.

Anyone can receive this award, from the company as a whole, to an exceptional sales/marketing/support team; a particular manager or staff member within any team, the CEO or even a company cleaner that went the extra mile. Anyone you feel has definitely gone ‘over and above’ their normal duties to make peoples’ lives easier during difficult times.

Below are some tips for constructing the entry but please make it as personal as you like.

Describe the individual or team that you are entering for this award – why do they deserve special recognition?
What have they done that you feel is ‘over and above’ their usual duties? Please explain.
What kind of a difference has their actions made to either individuals, customers/partners/the company or their local community?
What would winning this award mean to them/the company?

Entries can be up to 1,000 words on why the particular individual or team deserves recognition- but shorter entries will not be penalised – if individuals want to nominate their colleagues, we will accept between 250-500 words as long as the above points are covered. Please do make sure these are personal entries as it is an emotive category. The timeframe this covers is Jan 2022 – Jan 2023.

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