Finalists in the 8th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals, were announced today.

A diverse group of organizations and individuals around the world are among those recognized in the customer service awards, contact center awards, and sales awards categories.  Organizations with Finalists in multiple categories include AllClear ID, Bluegreen Vacations, Cars.com, Delta Air Lines, DHL Express, EMKAY, FedEx TechConnect, Canada's FreshBooks, John Hancock, Lennox Industries, LiveAnswer, Marriott Vacation Club, Marsh U.S. Consumer, Parlant Technology, PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants, Property Insight, Richardson, Salesforce, SoftPro, SurePayroll, Inc., Turkey's Turk Economy Bank, ValueSelling Associates, VIZIO, Inc., Turkey's Vodafone, and Wyndham Vacation Ownership. For a full list of Finalists by category, visit www.StevieAwards.com/Sales. 

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced during a gala banquet on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Tickets are now on sale.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition, an increase of 36% over 2013.  Finalists were determined by the average scores of 129 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges.  Entries were considered in 43 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; 43 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers. 

More than 100 members of seven specialized judging committees will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to take place January 27 - February 5.  

Beginning today, the general public will be able to cast their votes for their favorite providers of good customer service in the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service Department.  Voting is open at http://www.stevieawards.com/Service.peopleschoice. Winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service in multiple industries will be determined in mid-February and honored at the awards gala in Las Vegas on February 21.

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in five programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  A sixth program, the German Stevie Awards, will debut later this year.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Sponsors and supporters of the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include the BusinessTalkRadio Network, Competence Call Center, and ValueSelling Associates.

The following seven executives have been appointed to head the final judging committees that will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in the 2014 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  (All the category groups can be viewed in more detail here.) The winners will be announced at the awards gala on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Becky Johns, Vice President of MarketBridge in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, is Chair of the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Achievement and Sales Individual categories.

Becky Johns works with clients to improve marketing and sales productivity by developing and executing integrated data-driven marketing and sales strategies. At MarketBridge, a global provider of digital marketing, sales enablement, and customer analytics solutions, her experience centers primarily on building brand loyalty through customer acquisition, engagement and retention programs and developing online and social media communities. Becky recently led her MarketBridge teams to win back-to-back Gold Stevie Awards for Sales Training Program of the Year in the 2012 and 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service Awards, as well as a Silver Stevie for Brand Experience of the Year in The 2013 American Business Award.

George Orr, Vice President of Client Services at kCura in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is Chair of the Customer Service & Contact Center Achievement Final Judging Committee.

George Orr is vice president of client services at kCura, a developer of web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.  A member of the kCura team since 2007, George’s department is responsible for much of the company’s client-facing activity. Over the past few years, George has helped the team’s processes evolve from “brute-force problem-solving” to a set of polished procedures that ensures a positive customer experience every time. Prior to taking the reins of kCura’s client services department, George worked as the messaging systems manager for Rotary International, a Chicago-based non-profit organization specializing in humanitarian funding programs.

George is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to being a Relativity Certified Administrator, George also has extensive Microsoft and infrastructure training and is certified in both arenas.

 

Mike Ortegon, Director of Global Sales Operations at HomeAway.com in Austin, Texas, USA, Chairs the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Team and Sales Department categories.

Mike Ortegon joined HomeAway in March 2012. As the Director of Global Sales Operations, he is responsible for supporting sales leaders across the globe to help them make well-informed business decisions and to run effective and efficient teams while aligning to corporate strategy.  Throughout his career, Mike has been in management, operational, sales, and marketing roles in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. 

 

Sanjeev Garg, Global Head of Customer Care, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit at TATA Motors in Mumbai, India, is Chair of our Customer Service & Contact Center Individual Final Judging Committee.

Sanjeev Garg has been the Global Head of Customer Care for the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors since December 2011. His customer care group is spread across four continents and supports more than 3 million Tata Motors vehicles through 2,300-plus service touch points and over 33,000 retail networks of spare parts. In 1996, Sanjeev joined General Motors Ltd and was instrumental in launching new initiatives for the customer satisfaction index and new Competitive Intelligence processes. His work at GM encompassed global geographies including South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Under his leadership, GM was ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction in the Middle East, ahead of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

The Chair of our Customer Service Department Final Judging Committee is Kelly Thomas, Assistant Vice President, Client Relations at OppenheimerFunds, Inc., in Englewood, Colorado, USA.

Kelly Thomas began working with OppenheimerFunds 29 years ago and currently is assistant vice president of Client Relations at its Denver Campus.   Her leadership philosophy is to act with integrity and pursue excellence.  She believes a leader should be able to take risks, to challenge the status quo, to inspire others, and to create a healthy work environment that will encourage and foster team collaboration. In addition to her leadership role within OppenheimerFunds, Kelly serves as the president of the City of Centennial Chapter for the National Association of Professional Women. 

Ben Herkenhoff, Customer Interaction Center Manager at Outsell, LLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Chairs our Customer Service & Contact Center Team Final Judging Committee.

Ben Herkenhoff has been the manager of the Customer Interaction Center at Outsell for the past two years.  Outsell LLC is a digital marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that is transforming the way brands engage with consumers. Its Digital Engagement Platform offers clients the ability to consistently engage with consumers across distributed sales networks from the national to local level. Ben’s team at Outsell won the Stevie® Award for Contact Center of the Year in the 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Ben tells us he is “excited to get started” on the final judging, and has worked hard to put together a great committee.

The Chair of our Final Judging Committee for the New Product & Service and Solution Provider categories is Ansa Sekharan, Senior Vice President, Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation in Redwood City, California, USA

Ansa Sekharan is senior vice president of Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation, an independent provider of data integration software and data masking technology. He is responsible for establishing Informatica as a trusted partner for customers worldwide by ensuring their success with Informatica's products.  Ansa has a very busy schedule, dividing his time between Redwood City, California and Bangalore, India, as well as other global Informatica locations.

 

We have published the full-text of the Gold Stevie® Award-winning nominations in the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and what a treasure-trove of inspiration, drama, and information they are!

SEE THE LIST OF STEVIE WINNERS HERE

The results of the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business - the world's top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, and the organizations they run - were announced in November in New York. The awards feature categories to recognize the achievements of individual executives, business owners, and employees; for-profit and non-profit organizations; and new products and services, marketing and public relations campaigns, and media created by or for women.

It's been our tradition to publish the full-text of Gold Stevie Award-winning entries (after the winners have the opportunity to redact any confidential information from them). Gold-winning entries are among the popular features on our web sites. They're vastly educational and entertaining, and they're great examples of entries that judges have scored highly, so they're models for future entries.

Here are some of the Gold Stevie-winning entries you'll find online now.

Frieda Caplan, founder or Frieda's, Inc. Frieda received a Lifetime Achievement Stevie, and one of the biggest cheers of the night, for her humble and inspiring acceptance speech.
Redicka Subrammanian, CEO of Interakt Digital Communications Redicka started her business at a table in a coffee shop in Singapore, and now is a Gold Stevie Award winner for Entrepreneur of the Year - Business Services.
Elizabeth Xu, Group VP-Engineering with Acxiom Corporation Big Data is a big topic these days, and Elizabeth was recognized for her achievements with a leader in big data.
Final Salute, Inc. Final Salute's mission is to provide homeless female U.S. veterans with affordable housing. They were recognized with two Gold Stevies in 2013, this one for Event of the Year for their Ms Veteran America Competition.
She Takes on the World Inc. Natalie McNeil's She Takes on the World has won won several Gold Stevies over the years for her web site that focuses on business and personal development for women entrepreneurs.

Read all of the Gold Stevie Award-winning entries in the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business today!

Entries for the 2014 edition of the awards will open in May. Join the mailing list so that the entry kit is emailed to you as soon as it's available.

Submit your entries today at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales

Tuesday, January 14 is the final entry deadline for the 2014 (8th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. These are the world's top honors for contact center, customer service, business development, and sales professionals. All organizations and individuals worldwide are eligible to submit entries.

Review the entry kit now - you'll find it online, here. The entry kit contains all of the information you'll need to be able to prepare and submit entries to the 2014 awards.

There's a lot that's new and different for the awards this year, including our new Grand Stevie Award trophy.

Finalists will be announced on January 22.  All Finalists will ultimately be named Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Award winners.  The winners will be announced during a gala banquet at the Bellagio in Las Vegas on Friday, February 21.  (Attendance isn't required to win.)

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature categories to recognize achievement in every aspect of the worklife of sales, business development, contact center, and customer service professionals:

• Individual Sales Performers
• Sales Teams and Departments
• Sales Achievements
• Individual Customer Service and Contact Center Performers
• Customer Service/Contact Center Achievements
• Customer Service Departments
• Solution Providers to Sales and Customer Service Professionals
• New Products and Services used by sales and customer service professionals

Don't hesitate to contact us with your questions about how to participate in the 2014 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

P.S.  Need a few extra days to enter?  Contact us.

We've just published a 5-minute video about how to enter the U.S.A.’s top business awards program, The American Business Awards.

WATCH IT NOW

Our brief video covers all of the information you'll need to be able to prepare and submit entries to the ABAs.

All individuals and organizations within the U.S.A. -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small -- may submit nominations to the ABAs. The American Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Our business award categories include: annual report awards, app awards, company/organization awards, customer service awards, human resources awards, information technology awards, management awards, marketing awards, new product awards, public relations awards, support awards, and website awards, among others. See all corporate awards categories.

The entry deadline for the 12th edition of The American Business Awards is March 26. Late entries will be accepted through April 23 with payments of a late fee.  Nominations should cite achievements since January 1 2013. There is no eligibility timeframe for web site and app entries - it does not matter when they were first published.

Get your entry kit for the ABAs – it contains everything you’ll need to know about how to prepare and submit entries.

Questions about how to select categories or submit entries?  Contact us at help@stevieawards.com, +1 703-547-8389.

 

The Stevie Awards, the world's premier business awards programs, have just published a brochure about our 2014 sponsorship opportunities.

READ THE BROCHURE HERE

The brochure outlines the opportunities associated with our six awards programs in 2014, including two new programs - the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the forthcoming German Stevie Awards.

Among the benefits that are available through Stevie Awards sponsorships are:

• The ability to submit an unlimited number of entries to the sponsored program without having to pay entry fees. This benefit can be extended to sponsors’ clients as well

• The right to name and confer one or more honorary Stevie Awards upon your customers

• A full-page ad in the official program of the event

• Up to 100,000 banner ad impressions on the sponsored program’s web site and in the weekly Stevie Awards Update e-newsletter

• Tickets for the sponsored awards banquet

• At least 10 minutes of stage time to present awards at the sponsored event

• Logo identification in all photographs and video clips of the sponsored event

• Hospitality and display privileges, before, during, and/or after the sponsored event

• Editorial coverage, in the form of an interview or profile, in the Stevie Awards blog and e-newsletter

We welcome the opportunity to customize sponsorship benefits to suit your needs.  Contact Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher for details.

We've published the Gold Stevie Award-winning entries in The 2013 (10th Annual) International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition.

READ THEM HERE

Now you can read the full-text of the entries that nearly 300 judges around the world deemed to be the best in their categories.  They are a treasure trove of case studies about how organizations of all types around the world are innovating, growing, or operating at peak performance.  (If you plan to enter the IBAs in 2014 - entries open in late January, join the mailing list for the entry kit - they are great examples of entries that the judges scored highly.)

Here are some examples of the great stories of achievement you'll find among the 2013 IBA Gold Stevie Award winners:

• Finland's Rovio Entertainment, the people who addicted you to Angry Birds, the winners for Company of the Year in Media & Entertainment
  
  
• The impressive and innovative management team of Best Doctors, Inc., winners of a Gold Stevie for Management Team of the Year
  
  
• Globe Telecom of the Philippine's highly effective marketing campaign, a Gold Stevie winner in the marketing awards categories
  
  
• A groundbreaking technology by Spain's Jofemar, incorporated into their Gold Stevie-winning new product awards nomination
  
  
• The impressive entry in the HR awards categories by India's Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, a Gold Stevie winner for Human Resources Department of the Year
  
  
• The sparkling website of Korea's Hyundai Motor Company, Gold Stevie winner in the website awards categories.

What will you learn from reading Stevie Award winning entries?

1. You'll develop a sense of the types of entries that judges score highly

2. That Stevie Award-winning entries are compelling and well-written

3. That they aren't always about world-shaking or industry-changing innovations

4. If you win a Stevie Award you'll be in very prestigious company!

Join the mailing list now for The 2014 International Business Awards and you'll receive the entry kit by email as soon as it's issued in January.

What were we thinking??!  With the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, we forgot to announce that the video clips of the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business presentations are available! 

Watch the videos here.

The 10th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business were presented in New York on Friday, November 8.   More than 400 women and their guests from around the world gathered to recognize the achievements of amazing women entrepreneurs, executives, and employees who won this year's Grand, Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards.  See the complete list of winners here.

What will you learn by watching these videos?  You'll learn that

1. Some women are able to tell their whole life stories in under 30 seconds

2. Women give much better speeches than men do

3. Winning a Stevie Award can be a transformative experience for many people

Next year's Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open for entries in May.  Join the mailing list so that you receive the entry kit as soon as it's available.  The program features executive awards categories, entrepreneur awards categories, marketing awards categories, PR awards categories, website awards categories, new product awards categories, and more.  All women and women-run or -owned organizations worldwide are eligible to be nominated.

Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher visited Seoul, South Korea the week of December 2 (see related stories in the December 5 issue of Stevie Awards Update).  He was the interview subject on the daily half-hour program "After 10" on English-language Arirang TV on Thursday, December 5. 

Watch the program here.

Gallagher spoke about the Stevie Awards in general, about the new Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, and about the global competitiveness and reputation of Korean companies.

Lisa Tener of Saunderstown, Rhode Island, USA, a book-writing coach, won the Gold Stevie® Award for Marketer of the Year in the marketing awards categories of The 2012 American Business Awards, the top business awards program in America. (Entries for The 2014 American Business Awards are now being accepted. Learn more here.)  We asked Lisa to contribute this article about how writing and publishing a book builds your business or your credentials.

In the past eight years, I have served many clients, nearly all of them business owners. In that time, I’ve seen where business owners can go awry in their journeys to become successful authors. I’ve also seen where they go right; and I have guided them to write books that helped them market their services and grow their businesses—and themselves­­—significantly.

Here‘s what writing the right book can do for you and/or your business:

1. Bring in New Clients. You can use your book to target the audience(s) you want to reach in order to grow your business. For example, many of my clients use their books as an opportunity to shift to a more affluent or successful customer base.
   
   
2. Attract High End Sales. What do I see most of all when my clients write the right book? The book sells on the Internet and then–voilà!—a high-end sale follows. One of my authors later shared with me that many people who purchased her book on the Internet for $35 read it immediately and promptly signed up for her $3,500 business-based seminar.
   
   
3. Expert-ise Yourself. You may be an expert in your field, but if no one “out there” in the world of media knows it—and I’m talking blogs, newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV shows—what difference does it make business-wise? Guess what? Write the right book and you will have the “hook” to get big-time media results. CNN. ABC. NBC. My clients do it all. The same happened to me when I published the right book.
   
   
4. Raise your Excitement Level.  Write the right book and exciting opportunities follow.  I’ve seen it all: partnerships; high-paying speaking engagements; travel to destinations such as Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Bermuda to lead retreats.  What’s your dream?
   
   
5. Socialize with Celebrities. When I wrote the right book, I met authors, speakers, TV anchors, radio hosts, and many other influential individuals. I found their company stimulating and inspiring. Many are in my life as I write this. You can do the same if you haven’t already.
   
   
6. Increase Your Influence—online and off. If you want to influence larger numbers of people—especially if you have a message, be it a business one or a personal one—the right book is the best tool to achieve this.  Kathy LeMay, the founder and head of Raising Change, is a great example. An author-client of mine, LeMay used her book, The Generosity Plan, to make an impact on large numbers of people. After publishing The Generosity Plan, she trained high-powered financial planners at some of the biggest banks in the country on the often subtle and secretive art of discussing philanthropic investments with equally high-powered clients.
   
   
7. Double or Triple Your Income. I see new doors open for my clients all the time—attracting high-paying speaking engagements, new consulting gigs, research grants, and other lucrative opportunities. Write the right book and you can grow your income substantially.
   
   
8. Leave Your Day Job. One client, Pat Hastings, retired from her day job just nine months after publishing her first book, Simply a Woman of Faith. What more can I say?
   
   
9. Have Bigger Tax Write-offs. Ask any author and you’ll find out that there is a tax write- off around every writing corner.  These often include travel, research expenses, classes.  One writer I know—the author of a fashion-related book—was actually told by a tax specialist to be sure to write off her hair-styling appointments because that is when she has in-depth conversations about style trends. (The category is “research.”)
   
   
10. Remember The Ego Factor.  Yes, write the right book and you’ll feel wonderful about yourself! It’s quite the accomplishment. It’s no wonder that The New York Times reported that writing a book is on 80% of people’s “bucket lists.” My advice to you: Don’t wait. Do it now!

About Lisa Tener
Lisa Tener specializes in helping experts and enlightened entrepreneurs write and publish a compelling and marketable nonfiction book—taking them step-by-step through her unique process. She teaches on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s CME publishing course and blogs on book writing and publishing for the Huffington Post.

You’ve seen Lisa Tener’s book writing clients on the Today Show, Oprah, CBS Early Show, Good Morning America, Fox News, CNN and in national publications. Her clients have signed 5- and 6-figure publishing deals with Random House, Simon & Schuster, Charles Scribner’s Sons, HarperCollins, New World Library, Yale University Press, and many other publishing houses. Lisa Tener has appeared on ABC World News and PBS, and her work has appeared in Glamour, USA Weekend, The Boston Globe, and the Providence Journal, among others. She blogs for the Huffington Post and at How To Write a Book.  Learn more at www.lisatener.com.