Sales Awards Blog

Preliminary judging opened this week for the the 2011 (5th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's premier honors for customer service and sales professionals.  There are more than 40 sales awards categories in the competition, and more than 30 customer service awards categories.

Once of the great things about preliminary judging of the Stevie Awards is that anyone can apply to participate.  Interested?  Apply online today.  If your application is accepted you'll be able to judge online, at your convenience, anytime through January 7.

There are two big reasons why you should spend a few hours participating as a preliminary judge:

1. Judging is a great badge of honor to put on your resume or CV.  Active judges are always acknowledged on the awards web site (here's the list of the 2010 judges) and in the awards dinner program.
2. You'll get to read and evaluate a lot of great success stories in your field, whether it's customer service or sales, and there's no better way to measure the pulse of achievement in your professionals, especially when those stories of success are coming from industry leaders.  Last year's winners, for example, included Macy's, FedEx, AT&T, SAS Institute, DHL Express, Royal Caribbean International, and more.

And here's a bonus third reason why you should participate: the two preliminary judges who score the most entries will receive two free tickets to the 5th annual awards banquet, slated for Monday, February 21 at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.

One of the big changes/additions to the Stevie Awards this year is in our 5th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  In the past this program honored only the achievements of sales, customer service, and call center professionals: individuals, teams, and entire departments.

For the 2011 awards (entries are being accepted now through the end of 2010), we've added a slew of new product awards categories in the SASCS.  We now have new product of the year categories as follows (the numbers are our internal categories codes):

90. Collaboration Solution – New
91. Collaboration Solution– New Version
92. Contact Center Solution – New
93. Contact Center Solution – New Version
94. IVR or Web Service Solution – New
95. IVR or Web Service Solution – New Version
96. Marketing Solution – New
97. Marketing Solution – New Version
98. Relationship Management Solution – New
99. Relationship Management Solution – New Version
100. Workforce Management Solution – New
101. Workforce Management Solution – New Version

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I'm getting very excited about our next edition - the 5th - of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's premier program of sales awards, customer service awards, and call center awards. 

We had the early-bird deadline a few weeks back and entries submitted through that deadline were up about 25% from last year.  We have another deadline on November 12, and then we'll continue to accept late entries through the end of the year.  (The late penalty is just $35 per entry.)  If you don't have your entry kit yet, get it here.

I wrote the other week about all the new categories we have in the competition this year - check them out on the awards' web site.

Finalists will be announced in mid-January, and the program will culminate with an awards presentation and banquet at the lovely Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday, February 21.  Some people have asked why we would schedule the event on a holiday (it will be President's Day in the U.S.A.), and we did that so that attendees can make a long weekend of it in the sun and surf of Miami Beach, without having to miss full day in the office!

Today I'd like to welcome ValueSelling Associates back as a sponsor of the 2011 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  ValueSelling president Julie Thomas is a long-time support of the Stevie Awards, and we're delighted to have them back.  

From their web site: "ValueSelling Associates is the creator of the ValueSelling Framework, the sales methodology practiced by sales executives at FORTUNE 1000 companies around the globe. Through customized classroom instruction, e-learning, train-the-trainer and consulting, ValueSelling will arm your sales force with strategies, skills, tools and processes to:

• Increase revenue
• Access and dialogue with executive decision-makers
• Increase forecast accuracy
• Eliminate discounting
• Increase deal size"

We have several sponsorship slots still available.  To learn more, get our 2011 sponsorship guide.