WINNER
The winner takes it all
Michael Day,
who is a multi award winner himself, shares some secrets on how to best present your awards entry.
T
he property industry has several different awards up for grabs every year, some agents love them, others never enter. Are you one of
the latter? Well give it a go – winning an award can give your business an unbeatable edge in your area, growing your business and the value of that business. Michael Day, a multi award winner with
his own business Integra Property Services and a judge on several property and finance awards schemes, also works with estate agency clients to develop their businesses. Between them, these clients have won 75 major industry awards in the last three years, so how is it done? Michael reviews the process of entering awards and the benefits a ‘win’ can bring.
IN IT TO WIN IT
You’ll never win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket and you’ll never win an award unless you are prepared to enter. There are awards that get presented based on third party nominations but the majority require an entry to be submitted. I occasionally hear agents ‘rubbish’ their competitor’s success by saying rather grandly that, “We didn’t enter.” I always think, “No, and you didn’t win either!” Others say, “It’s always seems to be the same agents that win.” Yes, because they understand the value for their business and keep entering!
16 AUGUST 2012 PROPERTYdrum • WHY BOTHER?
I believe there are five key reasons for entering awards.
• •
• •
To win. This has to be the overriding aim, you should make your entry as compelling as possible.
To benchmark oneself against the best in the industry and learn from the experience. This sounds like something that those that don’t win say, but entering awards should be seen as an opportunity to improve.
To provide great PR and business generation. Why go to all that effort and then fail to maximise the marketing benefi ts?
To create an esprit de corps with your staff and help gain and retain the best people. Staff like recognition and want to work for the best. Award winners fi nd it easier to recruit and retain staff.
To frustrate and, dare I say, annoy the competition. Not the most ‘sporting’ reason but we live in a competitive world!
WHICH AWARDS TO ENTER?
Awards come in many forms. There are local business awards that may be non- industry specific and industry awards that select the best in geographic regions and then nationally. These usually have separate sales and lettings criteria and there are
category awards like marketing, websites, customer service etc. Most awards require an entry fee but
there are others that are free to enter, including The Negotiator Awards, which are open for entry right now – you can download the entry information and form at
http://thenegotiator.co.uk/enter2012. The cost of entry may be a factor to
consider. Most awards have sponsors and you may wish to align your business with a sponsor’s brand values and therefore benefit from association. I suggest that you enter the awards where
you feel you have a reasonable chance of success. I have one multi award winning client who enters lettings awards one year and sales awards the next so that their entries are fresh. It can be difficult entering the same award successfully year on year as the business may not, in 12 months, have anything new to say.
RESOURCES Don’t under estimate the amount of time it can take to produce a good award entry. You need to carefully plan what you will say, how you present it, and the time and resources to get the entry produced. Many businesses leave entering awards until the last minute and end up producing a rushed and weak entry.
PLANNING, TIME AND
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