On Friday 26th October, we spent the evening at Grosvenor House in London celebrating being finalists at the BESMA awards. Our teams successfully made it to the finalist stage of two categories; Customer Service Team of the year and Sales Team of the year (under 50). Huge congratulations to two of our Telephone Account Managers, Neringa and Debra who made it to finalist stage in the Rising Star category.
Here is our overall experience of the BESMA’s from being nominated to attending the awards evening.
The Process
There were a few steps to get us to the finalist stage. Initially back in August, a written awards piece was submitted to the ISM listing details of why we should win the category in question. This included stats and client feedback as evidence. After we submitted two company entries, and two of our staff entered their personal submissions, we found out that they were all successful and were invited to a judging day. This took place in London in September and each team/individual had a 20 minute slot to present to their panel of judges, giving reasons on the entry criteria and why we should win.
“Going above and beyond for my clients is what I do and what I love, being recognised at this level was a real honour. The whole experience was brilliant. The judges and the ISM members made us feel very welcome on arrival at the judging day. Everyone looked very professional and ready to show the best of their business. The tension in the room was high; you were able to sense it! Myself, Debs and Tina were shaking. I learnt a lot about myself while preparing my presentation. I realised the key to my success in sales was about finding the way I can benefit my clients and add value to their business and I cannot wait to build even stronger relationships with our clients. I was lucky to have my presentation slot early in the morning and the minute I left the judging room I felt a massive relief! It was my first presentation in such a professional environment and I know I can only do better next time.” – Neringa Valutkeviciute
The Awards Night
“The award night was fabulous! Firstly, it was nice to see all the judges and all the finalists that we met on the judging day again. Secondly, I was grateful to spend the night with my team. We all have worked so hard and even if we didn’t win in any categories that still didn’t ruin our positivity and we all had a wonderful night.” - Neringa Valutkeviciute
Even though we didn’t win, we had a great night and enjoyed the host Jack Dee, the fantastic food and entertainment. A huge well done to the hard work of the SortRefer team for making it so far and making finalist in a non-industry award, it’s a huge accomplishment to have been made finalist for not just team-specific awards but some of our amazing team members individually being shortlisted.