Will you love our new SMA categories this year?

Awards categories are just like Marmite - but there will always be something new and exciting to enter with the SMAs, writes Sara Yirrell

Sara Yirrell
@yirrelli
22 January 2019

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As the saying goes, you can please some of the people some of the time, but never all the people all of the time.

Never is that statement more true when it comes to awards, where new categories often spark a Marmite-esque love or hate reaction.

Every year with the Sales and Marketing Awards, CRN undertakes analysis of which categories were well entered, and which perhaps lacked a response, and those categories are removed and replaced immediately.

More often than not, when a category disappears there is always one disappointed company, but a category with just one entry would not be run anyway so it ends up being a false economy.

Keeping awards fresh and new is a constant challenge, but as ever, there are new categories to be entered this year, including awards where the winner is picked purely from industry nominations.

All three sub categories - Reseller, Vendor and Distributor - this year, have a ‘Manager of the Year' category. All that needs to be submitted is the name of the person, and around 150 words as to why they deserve to win the award. That is it.

Then the person with the most nominations will win - it is simple as that. No judging panel. Just an award given on the volume of entries for each person.

Has a manager gone out of their way to help you, or driven some incredible results over the past year? Then they deserve to win an award and the only way to ensure that is to nominate them.

Two other new awards are in the Vendor and Distributor categories - Best Apprenticeship and/or graduate Scheme - for several years CRN has had this category in the reseller sub-division, but there is so much great work going on in both vendors and distributors, that they deserve a chance to shout about their success in this field too.

The deadline for these awards may well be weeks away yet, but now is the time to start thinking about and planning an entry. Time really does fly and March 29 will be here before you know it.

To find out more about the awards and the categories up for grabs this year, visit the dedicated awards page here, or read more on the editorial awards hub here.

CRN is looking to get a greater understanding of the sales and marketing needs of the channel. Please complete our survey here to help us shape what will be an exciting new development in 2019.