What's new in the 2023 SMAs?

We have tweaked a couple of categories and also added some new ones this year to keep it fresh

Every year the CRN Sales and Marketing Awards (SMAs) are reviewed and renewed, with any feedback given from judges and entrants the previous year also taken into account.

The last thing any of us want is for the awards to go stale. They are about celebrating the brilliance in our thriving industry. They are YOUR awards.

So with just over five weeks to go, here is a rundown of what is new this year to hopefully spur even more channel firms into entering.

Sales and Marketing is such a dynamic and vital area of the channel, but it also encompasses so many more parts of a business - many of them working together to achieve the end goal. That is why we have added some new categories this year - the biggest change being in the distribution section.

We are now encouraging distributors to celebrate their hardworking warehouse teams in our Best Warehouse Team category, without which, sales and marketing efforts would go unfulfilled. We are also hoping to celebrate the important role finance plays in the whole process with our new Best Channel Finance Support Team/Initiative category. Again, without which, business would not flow so freely through the channel.

All three sections: Reseller, Distributor and Vendor, can now enter a new recruitment-based category - Most Innovative Recruitment Scheme/Initiative. Formerly limited only to graduate schemes, we listened to feedback, and realised that recruitment is about so much more than graduates - it is about getting people back into work after maternity leave or long term illness, or recruiting those who have left the forces and who are looking for work. There are so many great recruitment initiatives out there, that we felt the category needed to be expanded to cover all of these and more.

Finally, with Covid loosening its grip on our events scene, we have reinstated the Best Customer Event category for resellers, and Best Partner Event for vendors and distributors. These can still be hybrid or even virtual events, but face-to-face events are definitely back in force.

Many categories have also stayed the same this year because they are so well entered, including our popular Best Company to Work For categories. The full list of categories can be found here.

The deadline for entries is Friday 31 March, and the event is taking place this year at the Leonardo Royal London Hotel in Tower Bridge on 29 June. To start your entry and read all the criteria for each category, please click here.

For top tips on entering the awards, check out this article, and also have a look at some handy advice from our 2023 judging panel here.

The very best of luck to you all.