An acquaintance who runs a new business agency recently posted something on LinkedIn in response to various people talking about their Cannes Lions wins. He said: “Awards are valuable if they are hard to win.”
It’s a simple statement, but one that’s worth considering… especially if you plan to pepper your cold channel creds decks with pages and pages of the various awards you’ve been nominated for or won over the years.
As new business development experts, we’re often asked if it’s worth including all the awards any single agency has in their trophy cabinet. The troubling fact though, is that EVERY agency appears to have LOTS of awards, which begs the questions: ‘just how valuable can awards be if EVERYONE has them?’.
It’s also worth considering if your list of awards proves you’re awesome or just lets people know that you booked a table of ten, were one of the bar sponsors and paid a premium to have your logo on the cloakroom tickets.
I’ve been part of a team running an awards event and am ashamed to say that the awards themselves were the least important part of the process (indeed they were almost an inconvenience to the lucrative proceedings).
There are - of course - some very prestigious awards but there are also some very sceptical decision-makers out there, so be sparse with over-your-own-shoulder back-slapping . Also think about downplaying accolades; rather than having two pages of THINGS WE’VE WON THAT PROVES WE’RE BRILLIANT in your deck, just drop the odd logo alongside a testimonial or to accompany your Contact Us details. If you treat being a winner as commonplace, it says more about you than the largest collection of awards (from 2015) ever could.