Imagine the scenario. Your business has had an amazing year, you found out about some imminent awards which match your activities very well and you have submitted what you believe is a really strong contender of an entry. There’s been a whole load of time and energy gone into your submission and now you’ve just sent it through to the awards organiser be judged…
Many of our clients speak of the terrible feeling of things being ‘out of their hands’, a situation made worse by the fact that, in writing the entry, you’ve reminded yourself of just how great your business is and how many wonderful things you do over and above the norm. What if the judges don’t see exactly how unique your actions are within your industry, what if they don’t know how competitive your market is or, worse still, what if they don’t really understand what your business is all about?
Well, at The Awards People we know how frustrating it can be to wait patiently whilst your activities are judged. On the flip side though, we also know the very tough job which the judges have, working through the huge variety of entries and rating them against the award criteria, as well as against the other entrants. We were recently lucky enough to get a small insight into the process from the judges’ perspective and – being the very kind folks we are at TAP – we decided it might be useful to share. Here are a few little gems we hope will assist:
Firstly, study the bullet points in the Entry Guidelines very carefully. The judges will have a series of questions to ask themselves when processing the information which has been provided, and these questions will match the guidelines very closely e.g. is there evidence of the business making progress towards achieving their aims and objectives?
It may be possible for the judges to score your entry against all the criteria solely using the answers you provide within the entry form, however, it is worth remembering that, in many cases, they may be able to score entries more highly if they have additional information to look through – e.g. future plans, testimonials etc. Of course, this may not always be possible but certainly worth bearing in mind.
Finally – think evidence! Whether you are stating that you have met your business objectives or simply stating that your company is unique, the most important thing is that you offer evidence to support your claims. It’s not that the judges won’t believe you (after all, they’re generally good sorts) but it is very difficult for them to analyse the degree to which you have been successful without hard, unarguable facts.
There was one statement we heard which, for us, summed up much of what we preach to our own clients – it is essential that you balance evidence of a successful business with creating an engaging story. Your particular story is unique to you and will bring to life the reasons behind your achievements and your success and it’s what we at The Awards People like to (gently) extract from our clients at the very early stages of putting together any kind of award entry.
