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British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards (BESMA)

If you need to improve your organisation's sales performance, there is nothing you can do that is as powerful as nominating them for the BESMA award. Organised by The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management, The British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards (BESMA) represents the UK's highest level of recognition for outstanding sales achievement BESMA.

Key Dates

12th November 2012: Nominations to reach ISMM
26th November 2012: Shortlisted finalists announced
7th December 2012: Judging day at Beaumont House, Windsor
28th February 2013: Awards Ceremony, Lancaster London

5 good reasons to nominate

Recognises and rewards top achievers and the use of best sales practice, providing aspiration for all sales team members
Enables employers to show sales teams the value they place on them, thus boosting team morale and increasing motivation
Provides independent validation of your sales and marketing talent and achievements to help you gain competitive advantage
Acknowledges the vital role played by sales personnel throughout the business world and raises the status of professional selling
Enhances career development within your organisation by using BESMA as a career path.

IT'S FREE TO NOMINATE!

"The ISMM does a fantastic job of promoting and rewarding proven excellence in sales and marketing"
Dr Laurence Williams - Ashridge Business School

"An excellent event. It was great to see the sales profession receiving recognition on a national scale."
KPMG

Call June Kelly on 01582 840001 or email jkelly@ismm.co.uk for further information.

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Judging Day

Date:	Friday 7th December 2012
Venue:	Beaumont House, Windsor

Beaumont Estate_img1

Most people are slightly nervous on judging day, but it is universally acknowledged as an incredibly positive experience, where the nominees focus solely on the positive aspects of their performance, presenting their case for an award to a small group of judges selected from both the academic and commercial sales elite.

All entries will be considered and marked by a judging panel and finalists will be selected in each category. The standard number of finalists is six in each category but on some occasions, where a large number of entries has been received or the scoring is very close, this number may be increased.

Each shortlisted finalist will be invited to the Judging Day taking place on 7th December 2012 at Beaumont House, Windsor and will have a 30 minute interview based on the nomination form. In the Sales Professional categories, there will be role-play involved. This is your chance to stand out from the crowd! Please note that if you are not available to attend on 7th December 2012, your entry will not be considered.

The ISMM will contact finalists with full details regarding the judging day and be happy to answer any questions.

Key Dates:

12th November 2012: Nominations to reach ISMM
26th November 2012: Shortlisted finalists announced
7th December 2012: Judging day at Beaumont House, Windsor
28th February 2013: Awards Ceremony, Lancaster London

"The friendliness and professionalism of the judges made the day very positive anyway. Certainly feel inspired by the whole process. Also a true sense that my management appreciate and value my efforts, I feel very proud to be recognised in this way. Just by reaching the finalist stage of such a prestigious award can only be beneficial for the future. The preparation and execution placed me out of my comfort zone which inspired me to hone my skills."
Brakes

BESMA 2012 Judges

	CHAIR OF JUDGES: Paul Sloane, CEO, Destination Innovation Paul Sloane is an entertaining, thought provoking, motivational speaker and a recognised expert on sales, innovation, lateral thinking and leadership. He is the author of 20 books on lateral puzzles, creativity, innovation and leadership. Over 2 million copies of his books have been sold. He was described in the Independent as the 'King of Lateral Thinking Puzzles'. He is an expert facilitator and course leader. He gives after-dinner talks and keynote addresses. His talks offer a unique blend of puzzling challenges, humour and hard-hitting business messages. His workshops provide practical techniques to improve leadership and innovation. Clients include AA, ARM, Bayer, BT, DWP, EADS, GSK, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Reckitt Benckiser, Shell and Skandia. Paul took a first in Engineering at Cambridge. He joined IBM where he came top of Sales School. He was part of the team that launched the IBM PC in the UK. He went on to be MD of the database leaders, Ashton-Tate. He became VP International for MathSoft Inc. and CEO of Monactive Ltd.

	Lynda Marston, Vice President of UK Marketing & Sales Operations, Miller Heiman As Miller Heiman's Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations in the UK, Lynda Marston is skilled at implementing marketing strategies that closely align to sales channel objectives. She is closely involved in the positioning and management of Miller Heiman's global presence. Lynda joined Miller Heiman in 2000; bringing with her an impressive 16 years of experience in operations and business management. Lynda is responsible for the operational management of Miller Heiman, including marketing, human resources, lead process management, and the European CSO Summit event series.

	Chris Garrett, Broker Partnership Manager, Allianz Insurance PLC Chris Garrett has worked in 9 cities for 6 different organisations, the vast majority of that time in B2B sales. He joined his current employers (Allianz Insurance PLC) as a senior salesman, later becoming a Key Account Manager - looking after some of the Company's largest Accounts. From there he moved to head up a £240M Distribution Channel.

	Gary Akehurst, ISMM Chair of Examiners Gary runs a marketing and sales business. He has previous management consulting experience with Deloitte and Price Waterhouse and at various universities, specialising in marketing, sales management, and service businesses recovery. He is now emeritus professor of marketing of Aberystwyth University and visiting professor at various universities. Gary is founding Editor of The Service Industries Journal, the first services management academic journal in the world, founded in 1981.

	Beth Rogers, Principal Lecturer, Portsmouth Business School Beth Rogers is author of "Rethinking Sales Management" and runs the sales education programmes at Portsmouth Business School, including their flagship MA Sales Management. She was chair of the UK National Sales Board (2005-2009) which was responsible for launching National Occupational Standards for sales. She is an advisor to the committee of the Global Sales Science Institute. Before joining Portsmouth Business School, Beth was Group Business Development Manager with an international IT company.

	Martin Hutchins, Managing Director, Cambridge Professional Academy Martin Hutchins is Managing Director, founder and Principle Lecturer at Cambridge Professional Academy, the UK's leading ISMM qualifications provider. With a career spanning over 20 years in senior sales & marketing he revels in the ups and downs of running a business and seeks to energise, inspire and motivate everybody he works with. Martin is also regularly asked to speak at various conferences and events on a wide range of subjects including online strategy, sales, motivation and financial management skills.

	Jeremy Strang, Market Research Manager, DHL Express UK Jeremy Strang is the Market Research Manager at DHL Express UK. He has worked at Volvo Car UK and Experian since starting his career in 1997. Since joining DHL in 2005, Jeremy's expertise has been gained through a number of sales-supporting roles such as managing the SME Sales Channel and working on projects such as the Customer Onboarding process. The latter was the basis for Jeremy's BESMA submission for 'Best Use of Sales Automation' which Jeremy won in 2007. This year is the 3rd in a row that Jeremy has joined our judging panels.

	Gary Garnett, Managing Director, The Readiness Company (TRC) Gary Garnett is Managing Director of The Readiness Company (TRC) which has provided Sales Excellence consultancy to Microsoft for 10 years. He was instrumental in designing and launching Microsoft's first Sales Academy, which is now endorsed by the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM). Gary has vast experience in L&D, Executive Coaching and Sales Enablement programs and as well as being a Fellow of the ISMM, has also completed the education necessary to become a member of the Certified Institute of Professional Development (CIPD). TRC works with many of Microsoft's partners to develop Sales Excellence programmes and benchmark best practice.

	Andrew Car, Head of Training, Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) Andrew's sales career began in the 1989 working as a recruitment consultant. After leaving this role he worked in both a sales and a training capacity with franchised business centres with responsibility for creating and implementing staff and sales plans throughout the South of England. In 1997 Andrew became Training Manager for Select Appointments Plc, a multi-national recruitment group. Since early 2001 he has been Head of Training for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, a professional body responsible for raising standards in the recruitment sector. Andrew works with a select client base to design and deliver a range of learning solutions in either sales, interviewing and/or management.

	Karen Dunn, Head of Retail Learning, E.ON Karen is a Learning and Development professional specialising in Retail having worked previously in Hospitality, Telecoms, Financial Services and presently Energy. Karen has been at for E.ON for almost 3 years and during that time set up the Global Marketing, Sales & Service Academy for the Group based in Europe, and most recently headed up the Retail Learning & Development Division which means she is responsible for the L&D strategy and implementation for over 10,500 people from Senior Leaders to front line. Karen is a huge advocate of the ISMM and has driven internal accreditation for E.ON's Sales Programmes, which have been running for 3 years.

	Roger Evans, Head of Sales, RBS Group, Mentor Services Roger has enjoyed an extremely successful career in the sales environment working in a number of diverse business areas including Financial Planning and Mortgages where having managed a peripatetic national sales team, he went on to set up a new sales team in the Intermediary Mortgage market before heading up the Direct Telephony proposition with 500 staff. He is currently Head of Sales for a business to business sales team providing Employment Law & HR services, Health & Safety and Environmental support and consultancy.

	Mike Farrell, Head of Protection Sales, LV Mike Farrell joined leading insurer LV in November 2010 as Head of Protection Sales. He heads up a highly professional and experienced sales team that incorporates both field based Business Development Managers and Telephone Account Managers. The team have performened exceptionally well over the last 12 months in a challenging marketplace and have experienced significant market growth. They have also won a number of industry recognised awards. He brings with him a wealth of experience from over 24 years in the intermediated market place (namely Fidelity, Swiss Life and Royal Liver). In the past Mike hasenjoyed the success associated with leading his team to clinching the 'Team of the Year' title at the prestigious British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Management Awards , along with members of his team being both runners up and winners of Sales Professional of the year.He is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management. He was also one of the pioneers of the award-winning online-only proposition 'Progress'

	Ellis Salsby, Managing Director, Ellis Salsby Ltd Ellis has been managing one of the UK’s leading event management and Hotel booking agencies for the last 22 years, specialising in offering a proactive outsourced conference placement and meetings logistics solution for corporate and not for profit organisations. Ellis is also chair of the Academy at the HBAA and is passionate about improving training and development within the meeting and events industry and manages a portfolio of Sales and management development programmes for the association.

	Louise Gulliver, Managing Director, TACK International Louise is the Managing Director of TACK International in the UK. TACK is a leading global sales training and development consultancy with operations in 45 countries, designing and delivering programmes in 25 languages. Louise is a Chartered Marketer with 15 years business to business sales, marketing and general management experience. She's an advocate of sales and marketing alignment, believing the best B2B marketers need first hand sales experience. So leading by example, she has developed and manages a number of TACK's global key accounts.

	Alun Graves FInstSMM, Managing Director, Training Investments Ltd Alun Graves FInstSMM is a specialist Consultant and Coach for Sales Professionals on an International level. His experience both professionally and personally has taken him worldwide where he has seen his unique approach impact the lives and success of many professionals throughout Europe, USA and Central and Latin America, and Australia. With over 14 years experience in sales, in areas as diverse as IT, Telecoms, recruitment, and advertising.

	Nigel Mackay, Head of Business Development at Mercuri International Qualifying with an Education degree, Nigel's career started as a teacher in Secondary school. It was not long before the thrill of sales tempted him away. After cutting teeth in very tough property market, he moved on to sell insurance, intensive care equipment, pharmaceuticals, OTC medicines and then for a change of scene, new and used cars. Nigel then joined Mercuri International, and has worked with many sales organisations helping them focus on long term sales result improvement.

	Andy Hanselman, Partner, Andy Hanselman Consulting Andy Hanselman researches, speaks about, writes about and works with high performing organisations. He helps businesses maximise their sales and marketing, their customer care and their customer relationships. With over 21 years experience advising and helping business leaders and their people improve their performance he’s written two books and is a sought after speaker on customers, competence and competitive advantage and has developed a reputation for his entertaining, innovative, inspirational and stimulating approach.

	Shaz Quereshi, Founder, SOCA Management Consultants Shaz Quereshi is founder of SOCA Management Consultants, an ISMM Recognised Centre delivering QCF Qualifications. Shaz has worked predominately in the technology and behavioural psychology sectors during his 25 year sales career. He has held Sales Director positions for blue-chip companies including Kenexa Corporation and Parity plc. He is author of the popular sales training courses and assessments at SalesTrainingOnline.com and his company also provide the SSQ (Sales Skills Questionnaire), a general knowledge sales test.

	Karen Spillane, Senior Training Consultant, BSkyB Karen is tasked with strategic thinking, having meaningful conversations and developing relationships both internally and externally to ensure effective training, learning and development interventions for all of UK retail sales routes to market including working with third parties to maximise sales opportunities and provide a great customer experience.

	David Freedman, Sales Director, Huthwaite International David is responsible for the team at Huthwaite that focuses on winning and developing global enterprise business for all market sectors. Keeping abreast of current macro and micro sales issues and working closely with our consultants and our clients, David knows what it takes to increase sales and sustain long-term, profitable relationships in today's marketplace. David uses this understanding of the sales arena to assess the achievements of organisation, team and individual alike. Huthwaite are behavioural change experts specialising in sales, negotiation and service performance improvement. We work with organisations and individuals to make sustainable changes in the behaviour and processes that lead to better business results for them and ultimately, their clients. Our skill models, which include the widely acclaimed SPIN® technique, are the result of over 30 years research into what the most effective sales professionals actually do. We are delighted to be sponsor of Sales Professional of the Year and to support those who continue to strive for excellence in sales, negotiation and service.

	Martin Bromfield, Sales Director, UK & European Clients, OneSource Martin has over 20 years B2B sales experience. He is Sales Director, UK & European Clients, at OneSource, the global business information company. Before joining OneSource, Martin ran his own sales consultancy business, and was instrumental in building the sales team at business intelligence start-up, StrategyEye, where he remains a shareholder. Prior to 2007, Martin was UK Sales Director at Forrester Research, the global technology analyst firm, and held a senior sales management role at Claritas UK, subsequently acquired by Acxiom (www.acxiom.com).

	Ian Jones, Director Group Sales, De Vere Ian has been in the hospitality & events business for over 20 years. Ian spent 7 years at Zibrant leaving as Head of Sales to join De Vere in 2007. He is Director Group Sales responsible for the team of 5 managing De Vere's relationships with HBA's third party agencies and the travel trade as well as running the MICE team of 6 which manages De Vere’s relationships with corporate and association event planners. Ian is a board director for ITM and Partner Chair of the HBAA.