SMA 2023 - Distributor Criteria

Best Marketing Campaign (not event)

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any company that falls under the distribution category, whether a volume player or value-added specialist working in particular vertical markets. The award is not limited to a certain size of company, so if you have thousands of customers or a few hundred, your entry will be given the same treatment. The period covered by the awards runs from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023, so please bear in mind when writing entries and referring to particular campaigns. It can cover a social media/viral campaign or a more ‘traditionally' executed campaign.

What was the campaign and when did it run? How did it work? Please describe the campaign itself, what mediums you used to run it on (ie social media/online/print etc) and its title.
Why are you entering this particular campaign? What makes it stand out?
Which vendor partner/s 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 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 or go viral?
REQUIREMENT: Please provide a customer (reseller) 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 Company to Work For

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any company that falls under the distribution category, whether a volume player or value-added specialist working in particular vertical markets. The company must pride itself on being a great place to work both in terms of results/growth, employee satisfaction/motivation, mental health, DE&I, CSR, environmental credentials, and general company culture.

This award is not limited to a certain size of company, so if you have thousands of customers or a few hundred, your entry will be given the same treatment. The period covered by the awards runs from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023, so please bear in mind when talking about particular incentives offered to employees. Images can also be used if required.

Why is your company such a great place to work and what makes it stand out from the competition?
How do you keep your teams motivated and happy?
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 team morale? Give examples.
How does your company empower staff to do their jobs better? Give examples.
How are you addressing DE&I (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) issues in your company? Are there any particular diversity and inclusion campaigns you are running in your company? Please share details.
Can you give examples of CSR or environmental activities? 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

Most Innovative Recruitment Scheme/Initiative - New for 2023

Criteria

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?
Describe any particular success stories - ie: A recruit 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 Partner Event

Criteria

Who can enter? This award is open to any company that falls under the distribution category, whether a volume player or value-added specialist working in particular vertical markets. The award is not limited to a certain size of company, so if you have thousands of customers or a few hundred, your entry will be given the same treatment. 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 did it run? How did you get 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 (vendors) was it in conjunction with?
Who was it aimed at? Ie - was it a specific sector, or open to all your customers?
How successful was the event? How many came along/attended remotely? 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

Best Channel Finance Support Team/Initiative - NEW for 2023

Criteria

In difficult times and in good times, the finance team have to make split second decisions that can mean the difference between a customer winning or losing a contract, or even surviving as a business. New finance initiatives can make a real difference. In short, finance is the lifeblood of the channel, and distribution is at the heart of that.

Please provide a brief background to your finance support team. This can include skill sets, levels of experience and a bit about their characters. Introduce them to the judges - make it personal. Why do they deserve to win this award?
If you are entering a particular finance-related initiative - tell us about it. Why is it special? How has it helped your customers? What results has it generated for your own business? Has it helped recruit new customers?
Share any particular team/initiative successes or achievements with the judges to make it stand out.
Have there been any examples where the finance support team has gone above and beyond to help out a customer? Please elaborate.
REQUIREMENT: Include a testimonial - either colleague or customer-related (or both) within the entry itself

Best Warehouse Team - NEW for 2023

Criteria

The team in the warehouse is often the engine that keeps a distribution business running, working tirelessly to ensure orders are fulfilled at the back end. Quite often they are the unsung heroes of distribution.

Please provide a brief background to the team you are entering including their levels of experience and any specialist skill sets. Why do they deserve to win this award?
Describe the characters in your warehouse team and what makes them so special. Introduce them to the judges - make it personal. Also, any little quirks/personalities of the team would be interesting to hear about.
Share any particular team successes or achievements with the judges. How do they contribute to the smooth running of the business. Feel free to use colleague testimonials.
Have there been any examples where the warehouse team has gone above and beyond to ensure an order is fulfilled? Or do they do this every day? Please elaborate.
REQUIREMENT: Include a testimonial - either colleague or customer-related (or both) 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 team within the company; 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, and deserves special recognition.

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 to some extent. Please do make sure these are personal entries as it is an emotive category. The timeframe this covers is Jan 2022 - Jan 2023.