A Rewarding Experience
Our Sales Team has an annual day where they present all matter of Sales Awards to the team. There's a breakfast session for half of the team and a lunch session for the others. It's led by the Sales Managers and Director and they selectively invite colleagues throughout the business whom they feel are critical to their successes. It's an honor to be invited and I've had the great privilege to attend the past two events. (They know me well enough to invite me to the lunch session instead of the breakfast because, well, mornings, ugh.)
I enjoy attending for several reasons. The main one is the chance to see everyone. Most of our Outbound Sales team works from home so it's a delight to catch up in person. I also like seeing who wins, of course. And, it's heartwarming to see the support and enthusiasm the team has for each other. They do a lot of celebrating of their colleagues' wins.
This year's event was pretty fancy. It was held at a nearby hotel and we had a lovely meal and almost everyone was dressed up. I even wore a skirt! It was fun to see everyone in their finery as we're a place where you could wear jeans and a t-shirt every day and not stand out. The Sales Leaders even matched their clothing by wearing black and purple. They looked sharp!
Besides the Sales Awards, our VP of Sales and Marketing does a presentation. He is a gifted storyteller. He's funny, ties his story all into the theme and engages individuals to make it feel more personal. His usual slides are boring black and white (and he mocks himself as do we about that) but he even managed color pictures in this presentation. He puts in a lot of effort to make it look effortless.
Also presenting is our CEO. He's been using this event for a few years to present his theme (different than the Sales' presentation theme) for the year. Prior year's themes have included Customer Is King, Listen and The Value Of Rest. He also does a lot of preparation to make his presentation look natural and more conversational.
One very cool set of awards is given to non-Sales folks. These are deemed the people who made the most positive impact, are the most helpful and are generally just awesome. There are just a few given out each year so it makes it a special prize.
This year, they gave one of those awards to one of the IT Team. One of our newer Help Desk Analysts got an award and it was his first invitation to the event ever so he was really surprised by it all.
He was also very humble and grateful. I sent out a department wide email when I got back to the office announcing his award and the accolades from the team immediately came tumbling in. His reply to us all: Thanks everyone, I couldn't have been able to help anyone without help from everyone here so I'd like to show my gratitude with either healthy granola snacks or doughnuts on Monday.
I'm pretty sure he got lobbied for doughnuts because, well, IT.
Such an awesome response from an awesome person. He gets an award and he ends up rewarding his team. I wish I were that good and I'm grateful to him for giving me a role model. Wouldn't it be great if we were all that role model for others?
I enjoy attending for several reasons. The main one is the chance to see everyone. Most of our Outbound Sales team works from home so it's a delight to catch up in person. I also like seeing who wins, of course. And, it's heartwarming to see the support and enthusiasm the team has for each other. They do a lot of celebrating of their colleagues' wins.
This year's event was pretty fancy. It was held at a nearby hotel and we had a lovely meal and almost everyone was dressed up. I even wore a skirt! It was fun to see everyone in their finery as we're a place where you could wear jeans and a t-shirt every day and not stand out. The Sales Leaders even matched their clothing by wearing black and purple. They looked sharp!
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| This year's Sales theme: SPIRIT. Each letter stands for something. (T for Teamwork, naturally.) Lots was said about the hapless P that had a hole and ended up being taped to the other letters. |
Also presenting is our CEO. He's been using this event for a few years to present his theme (different than the Sales' presentation theme) for the year. Prior year's themes have included Customer Is King, Listen and The Value Of Rest. He also does a lot of preparation to make his presentation look natural and more conversational.
One very cool set of awards is given to non-Sales folks. These are deemed the people who made the most positive impact, are the most helpful and are generally just awesome. There are just a few given out each year so it makes it a special prize.
This year, they gave one of those awards to one of the IT Team. One of our newer Help Desk Analysts got an award and it was his first invitation to the event ever so he was really surprised by it all.
He was also very humble and grateful. I sent out a department wide email when I got back to the office announcing his award and the accolades from the team immediately came tumbling in. His reply to us all: Thanks everyone, I couldn't have been able to help anyone without help from everyone here so I'd like to show my gratitude with either healthy granola snacks or doughnuts on Monday.
I'm pretty sure he got lobbied for doughnuts because, well, IT.
Such an awesome response from an awesome person. He gets an award and he ends up rewarding his team. I wish I were that good and I'm grateful to him for giving me a role model. Wouldn't it be great if we were all that role model for others?
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