Your Industry  

Top 10 tips when writing award entries

Let’s face it, there are a lot of awards up for grabs in our industry.

While some are arguably more worthwhile than others, I can honestly say hand on heart that I have never been involved with any awards event that is not completely genuine.

I’ve sat in many rooms arguing the pros and cons of a certain firm or individual with a range of respected and knowledgeable peers, and it is generally always an interesting learning curve as well as being pretty good fun.

Article continues after advert

Writing a successful award entry can be time-consuming. You need to write a compelling story that brings your business to life whilst also providing hard evidence of your success – but once you get the hang of it future entries will become much quicker to write.

Success in a well-regarded award can bring many benefits. As well as raising your profile it can add credibility, generate new business and help with retention and recruitment.

What is great about awards in the financial services industry, especially for advisers, is that the entry process for awards across the industry typically varies from one to the next. Some are based upon votes, some require a written entry about the business, and some involve a face-to-face interview while others need case studies. Some may need all of the above.

Those who go on to win awards on the night may enjoy basking in a bit of glory, making the most of their success and hopefully doing a little bit of PR to generate some publicity. While the runners up and other nominated firms will be kicking their heels and thinking about what they can do better next time.

Or perhaps just criticising a competitor who has won, to put it politely.

You cannot please everyone all of the time of course and audiences will rarely always agree with the judge’s choices. However, if they had been in the room when the decisions were taken and understood how the judging panel reached those conclusions, the outcomes can often become much more acceptable.

I have read more than a thousand award entries over the last decade; some of them were good and some were very good. Unfortunately though, many have been and continue to be pretty awful.

Here are a few general tips across the industry (along with some pet hates) that I know I share with several other regular award judges on how to go about writing a winning entry.

1. Take it seriously

Read the criteria carefully and write a relevant entry. Each award will have its own entry criteria, which will often vary for each individual award. Take a bit of time to read it and revert back to it when checking the entry to make sure you’ve understand the entry process and have covered what the judges will be asked to look for.