Is your award entry irresistible?

I recently attended an excellent training day led by Shine. The similarities in our industries are clear, whether bidding for high-value commercial contracts worth millions or even billions of pounds  or aiming to win high-level industry awards, the passion we put into making sure our clients win is palpable.

During the day I was inspired by a discussion around ‘the seduction of sales’. The theory being that no matter what we are selling, be that our product, our services, or even ourselves via our CV, we need to ‘seduce’ the reader/judge/panel/decision-maker into choosing our bid, or in our case, our award entry.

This struck me for two key reasons.

1. Because I am quite bored of reading advice that your award entry should be ‘compelling’ – in this highly competitive world where everyone is striving to be the best, I wonder if ‘compelling’ is no longer enough. Your award entry needs to be irresistible.
2. Because too often I believe businesses and people are ‘seduced’ into entering awards that just won’t work for them in delivering either success or value. There should be a strategy behind your awards initiatives if you really want to create sustainable success.

Now I’m a true advocate of putting values at the front of any pitch. And I believe that a values-led approach, backed up by undeniable data and substantial evidence, will allow you to deliver your award entry or presentation with the passion you need to truly ‘seduce’ your audience into choosing your pitch.

So I was delighted to find that my takeaways for the day met with my own intuitions on how best to approach a winning pitch. And I came away proud of the passion that we put into every brand story we tell, every awards journey we make, and every positive awards result we are behind.
If you’re thinking about whether your brand story could be picked by a panel of judges ask yourself this; if I was the judge of this award, would I find this entry truly irresistible?

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