2016 Microsoft Australia Partner Awards (MAPA) – 10 really good reasons why you should enter!
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The submission tool for this year’s MAPA Awards is officially open! I hope you have commenced crafting your submissions with the help of your wider team. If you have previously downloaded the MAPA 2016 Guidelines Document, we have updated it over the weekend so please ensure you are working off the latest version.
If you are yet to start and in need of some inspiration, perhaps you should listen to this writing webinar recorded last month. Communications Consultant Lisa Lintern gives some great tips on how to grab the judges’ attention with an award winning entry.
But if you are grappling with a serious case of writer’s block, perhaps even contemplating giving the awards a miss altogether, allow me to use the next 500 words to convince you to change your mind.
Because if you ask me, there are 10 incredibly good reasons why you should enter this year’s MAPA Awards:
Remind yourself and your people what’s great about your business: Sometimes in the busyness of day-to-day operations it’s easy to forget your ‘reason for being’. Writing a submission for MAPA is a great way to reflect on why your business and your people are so amazing, and why you should perhaps sing their praises out loud more often.
It can bring you closer to your customers and clients. Asking a customer to share their story as part of your submission can build deep and lasting relationships. What better way of showing your customers that their success means your success?
It helps to unearth some great messages and unique selling points. The time you invest in writing your submission can further refine and improve your regular marketing material.
It can be a great way to validate your strategy. Finding and sharing the stories that bring your strategy to life is a powerful way to illustrate your success, and more importantly, the success of your customers and clients.
It raises your profile with the Microsoft Australia Leadership team. Submissions are judged and read by key leaders within the Microsoft Australia team. Even if your entry doesn’t win, it could lead to conversations with key stakeholders who could help open doors to other opportunities.
It’s a fantastic opportunity for players of all size. Big, small, metropolitan, regional – anyone who tells their story in the most convincing way has an excellent chance at winning.
The new Winning Together category presents a fantastic opportunity to show how you have collaborated with another partner with mutual benefits for everyone. What a great way of bringing to life the power and potential of the Microsoft Partner Network.
The kudos that comes with winning. Winning an award strengthens your reputation and profile on so many fronts – with your employees, with your customers, with Microsoft and the partner ecosystem, and within the overall industry. What an amazing way to step into the spotlight.
It brings teams together. I always recommend to Partners that they work on their submission as a team. Collectively reviewing the year-that-was empowers your employees to voice their pride in their achievements.
It’s actually not that hard. If you know your business well – what you stand for and what you aim to be – writing a submission for this year’s MAPA Awards should be an energising and positive experience.
As Phil Goldie said in his blog post here, entering an award like MAPA is: "an invaluable exercise with benefits that extend well beyond the day you press the submit button on the Award submission tool." So what are you waiting for? Get writing! And don’t forget to refer to the really helpful information you can find at these links:
Microsoft Australia Partner Awards
Watch the "How to write a Killer Award Submission"
GUEST BLOG POST: Writing a killer submission for MAPA and WPC Partner awards
Good luck and I am looking forward to reading your submissions.