Building Trust: Awards, Applause & the Occasional Ego Trip

[00:00:18] Well hello everyone, I hope you heard the introduction music there because I didn't but I am sure that it was as good as it usually is. I am Andrew coming to you from the United Kingdom. Andrew Andrew Hello Andrew and yes I heard the music just fine so I don't know what your problem is. I am your other host Scott. Today I am coming to you from the city of Indianapolis.

[00:00:44] Andrew Andrew Well very good to see you and listeners if you're not already familiar. This is the Tea and Timbits podcast global perspectives on business development to help you prosper. And this month we are continuing our theme, which is Scott remind me. Scott Scott Building Trust Andy we're going to build trust. Andrew Andrew Andrew Excellent.. A good way to build trust is know what you're going to be talking about. Andrew Andrew It's true.

[00:01:11] Andrew Andrew While I figure out what it is that we're going to be talking about this week, which I do believe is to do with rewards and recognition. Scott, could you tell us a story while I compose myself and figure out why I can't. Andrew Andrew I would love to do that Andy just take as much time as you need. I am here in Indianapolis because I'm at a trade show. It is trade show season. It's been a busy, busy schedule of different events. And it was wonderful to see you.

[00:01:39] Andrew Andrew Andrew At Abbey Road Studios The other day in London. That was a real special treat. And hey Indianapolis is just as special. I am. So I wanted to share a story about the value, like unlocking value at events basically. And, and there was sort of a different way that the same effort came to light.

[00:02:14] Andrew Andrew Andrew So I had connected with a few people ahead of time to just sort of see who you know that knows somebody and I think I might have told the story before.

[00:02:30] Andrew Andrew Andrew But here in Indianapolis quite specifically. It was, I was able to leverage some of the other partnerships and alliances and, and relationships that I had with other vendors and practitioners.

[00:02:52] Andrew Andrew Andrew And, and generally just good people that I knew were also going to be at the event. So doing what you can to help elevate and expose other folks to the audience is a really good way of amplifying your own, your own presence, your own message. Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew And making sure that there's just a few more ambassadors for your brand involved in the conversation.

[00:03:22] Andrew Andrew Andrew So I don't usually come to these things on my own. I usually, you know, bring at least one other person. Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew But by having a couple of other people, such as yourself, such as other colleagues of mine here in Indianapolis, to, to just have whatever conversations serve their interest is fantastic. Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew And, and then there's still an affinity and association and a recognition that they're part of your network.

[00:03:52] Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew And so here it's it's it's been delightful to see that that happens because then people come over and say, oh yeah, I was talking to John and he told me about you guys. Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew I just want to introduce myself or thought I would come over and, and, and just, just get to know you a little bit more. and it sort of disarms the conversation you're not trying to make this awkward um uh sort of

[00:04:17] introduction in the in the moment and so being able to to very genuinely establish that kind of network and relationship um and then you know wouldn't wouldn't you know it we ended up having a lovely dinner last night with um one of those contacts of of a contact um and we had a great time and who knows where that's going to go in the long run but even that person has now just become

[00:04:44] a little bit closer to um an appreciation and understanding of of what we what we're doing i find a lot of people in these trade shows they expect you pop up a booth people walk by they drop off their business cards they sign contracts the next week and foolish but there's a lot of people who just can't quite figure out how to make it work and there's all these little gimmicks that happen at trade shows um but i think this is no gimmick at all i think this is a very good way the reality of

[00:05:14] why people go to trade shows really is that networking is building that network getting to understand people face to face and understanding you know the relevance of being there because ultimately if you're a trade show you are along with you know maybe a hundred other people maybe a thousand other people doing pretty much the same thing in the same area so distinguishing between

[00:05:37] each other and um allowing the buyers the opportunity to make an informed decision if you build those relationships and those relationships are built on trust and they're built on that face-to-face interaction then it makes a huge difference whether you are more capable or not than the other if people can feel that they can relate to you and they can trust you that holds an awful lot of weight yeah it's a very good point it ties right into the theme

[00:06:05] in a way it does so today's theme is also about building trust as we've talked about and um the award and recognition side of things is i mean it's something that we can come at from multiple ways so when we first introduced this topic i was looking at it from the perspective of actually internal awards and recognition for team members and for staff and then i realized as i was

[00:06:34] thinking about it that actually you probably meant like award ceremonies and business awards yes yes oh well isn't that an interesting contrast because in many ways those two things fit together and they're both very important in an organization and in an industry but they're both very different and need to be tackled in very different way uh what what was your perspective when when you were thinking about this particular topic scott yeah well i i was definitely thinking of those sort of like

[00:07:01] business awards and those awards ceremonies um type of type of context for and i'll and i have a confession here before we get right it right into it is that um it's always been something that i sort of feel should be unnecessary um and and it's a it's a a lot of the times quite frankly it's a bit of a racket it's a pay-to-play situation you have to apply to these things you have to invest in the award

[00:07:30] submission um you have very little control over the actual uh understanding or the you have very little capability of understanding the the um the um the the the the actual rubric for how you know these things are evaluated yes um you know and and unless you're one of the you know big brands that you know has

[00:07:57] the the reach and the results and the and the budgets to to make this work it's a it's a difficult game to play um and so kind of kind of why bother but i've changed my tune on on that um more more in the last couple years to be to be honest

[00:08:19] um um because i've discovered that it it it makes um i i don't want to oversell it either like it it's a notable impact um some folks that that i have talked to have said oh i i noticed you guys got that you know ai innovator award

[00:08:43] um yeah i you know and i'm like oh well that's a good point um and it and and it's not anything that's going to shift the the the balance of a decision on its own or lead to you know this flood of of inbound sales activity but it absolutely helps build trust in those pipeline conversations yeah and

[00:09:13] both perspectives are valid in that building trust element so even if it is a racket even if it is a case that you know unless you basically buy your award you don't get an award if you have done that and you have received said award you have shown the market that you are willing to invest in yourself and in from putting yourself up against other companies in the same niche so you

[00:09:42] know whether the reward is holding true value because it was independently organized there was a real judges and there was real criteria that it was uh assessed upon or it is just who paid the most money to be part of it and who knows the most people on the judging panel doesn't really matter too much if the outcome is you know your bronze award for you know agency in north america it means something to

[00:10:10] the people who are looking at who do i choose in all these thousands of companies and when they turn up at a trade show for example and they're looking at your booth and they go oh that company's actually won several awards in an area that is relevant to us then they will pay a bit more attention and have that trust if it's them followed up by like the scenario that you said in your story with the you know the personal interaction and networking and so on and the personal trust then all of it comes together

[00:10:38] as you say in isolation maybe it doesn't work but combined with all of the other things uh it's it's a solid door opener that does create a very a very impactful and beneficial trust element with

[00:10:56] potential and prospective customers i believe and i've also we've talked about we're going to end up talking over each other for a minute now amplifying other other people um along the way here um and i think that um if you can if you can also look

[00:11:20] at opportunities to have your clients awarded um that that's a that's a good way to cut this idea and this strategy um also i completely agree i think the most important thing is being clear on the evidence and um um the uh the judging criteria around these things you know what is it that you you know yeah you may be

[00:11:44] the best ai agency in north america let's say based on what against what against whom you know well those things i think are very important you know they're high level stuff you don't need to go too much into detail but having that second layer under we won an award this is what the awards judge does on and this is what we have been classed as the leading organization within i think is important a lot of

[00:12:11] companies forget that bit they go oh we won the gold prize in this um award ceremony and that's it you know and there's no other detail to it and uh and i think people look at those as a bit fishy and i think it's very important to uh to do these things in the right way i'm also a fan of uh hosting um these award ceremonies as well i think putting them together can be very valuable as you said for

[00:12:35] your customers and uh you know people within the industry and peers can also be very valuable way of of building network and trust yeah i i was i like that idea as well sort of you know it doesn't really mean that you have to go seek um some recognition of this of this nature that is um you know a a big

[00:13:02] you know broadly established you know um marketing association of north america kind of a kind of a recognition um i love the idea of also you know creating your own you know your own recognition your own ways to um uh recognize the contributions that you know individuals within your your client ecosystem um have been able to find success and lean into um some of the results that they've been able to achieve

[00:13:31] some of the efforts that they've been able to put forward at the end of the day um you know uh um most people do do appreciate being recognized for their for their efforts um beyond just taking their their paycheck home and being able to um even in a even in a in a in a private moment provide uh

[00:13:55] uh um a a more tangible award or recognition um for you know individuals on your team or within your client ecosystem has has tremendous has tremendous value as well it definitely does and that's where i'd like to go now is to the part of the awards and recognition discussion which relates to individuals within a team and organization because in my experience and you mentioned it just there as well

[00:14:23] is that having that as a routine as something that people can aspire to something can work to people can work towards and they can achieve i think is very inspiring i think particularly in the area that we're working within which is within sales and business development it's an additionally valuable tool uh within a sales team especially at the junior levels having that level of competition and being the you know

[00:14:53] the best sales person of the month type thing it feels a bit cheesy and it's kind of fallen out of favor in the in more recent years but i actually think bringing these things in it it does work it does create that sense of um you know competition and drive and if you've got the right people on your team then they will aspire to achieve that and it does help to keep people focused on the motivations so long

[00:15:19] as the criteria for achieving is very very clearly marked it's not just number of phone calls made number of visits made it's about actual results it's about actual combination of prospecting and all of the key things that need to take place uh about progressing um you know customers through the pipeline and so on uh if you have those elements clearly marked then actually it drives very good behavior within an organization

[00:15:49] and does help very much to change the behavior change the way people sell and and also markedly improve results and i think it's a shame that it's been kind of fizzled out as being something cheesy from the 90s man everything was cheesy in the 90s it's all good um i well okay so i do i do think

[00:16:13] like i absolutely agree with with you um and it you know goes a long way to you know make sure that people feel um you know recognized for the contributions that they're that they're making um and having good you know um confident teams is is tremendously valuable and and helps you work well and that will drive results

[00:16:36] i i do though i think the theme of of what we were trying to talk about this month and and and use this as a way to build trust for um your brand and towards you know your um success in a in a sales opportunity um want to bring it back to the idea of making sure that this is something that can help bolster

[00:17:02] um the credibility of your your message and the value of your of your offering um and and so however you do it and whatever one of these sort of ideas or tactics feels um you know natural to you there is a requirement i think to publicize um the the achievement or the the yes the um yeah the award

[00:17:28] it's itself if you just kind of if it's a quiet recognition you've made a person feel good and they might do a better job or continue to do a good job and that will that will work but i think generally speaking i'm also advocating to make sure that if you're going to fold this into your strategy um you you promote it um in a healthy way and i and i i think you can do a little bit of a self-celebration

[00:17:54] over the top kind of kind of a thing um you know um but it done done tastefully having a a page or a blog post or a simple badge you know uh uh you know left left somewhere noticeable without shoving it in your face is um is is a necessary part of making sure that this strategy is going to help you build

[00:18:18] trust and um and and improve the um productivity of your of your business development efforts yeah as usual completely agree and i think the um i think the key ultimately you know when you get these business awards into your organization especially um at the corporate level the key is obviously to uh use the awards as a i suppose as a support or a corroboration of a relevant

[00:18:47] commercial claim rather than just putting it as a as a badge on on a presentation or on the website and leaving it for the customer to figure out themselves the relevance of that i think giving them a little bit of a help as i said earlier about having a an explanation about what went into getting those awards is is quite important and the criteria for them uh and it's the same with the individuals on the team if it's very clearly marked as you know salesperson of the month meant the person who supported

[00:19:17] the customers helped the customer achieve their goals better whatever it may be something that's relevant i think can be really valuable to be shared but if it's just an internal metrics then it can be a bit weird if you go to the customer and go yeah i i made the most profit last month and customers going well hang on a second can we reduce our prices then thank you very much scott it's been an interesting discussion as always i like it i think we've got

[00:19:47] carried away with these subjects and i think we can talk for hours about them and uh you usually usually we we do often offline uh continue these conversations but today unfortunately i have to go and you have to go so uh we will bring this one to a close and uh if you're a listener but and do want to get involved further in the conversation then please do get in touch with us go to t and

[00:20:11] timbits.com where you can find out many ways to get in touch and also to listen back to old episodes which can be very valuable because they're all excellent scott thank you very much thanks andy thanks everybody