Awards & Honours Strategist Rachel Hargrave shares how to write an award entry judges will score, from choosing an award worth entering to what to do if you’re not shortlisted.
Most of the founders I speak to believe awards are for someone else: bigger, older, more polished businesses with a PR team and a trophy cabinet. In my experience, that belief costs more than any entry fee ever would.
Photo: Rachel Hargrave, Awards & Honours Strategist
Over more than fifteen years of helping business owners win awards, including at King's Awards for Enterprise level, I've learned that judges rarely reward the most impressive business. They reward the entry that is clearest, most specific and best evidenced. That is a skill you can learn, and here is where I'd start.
1. Choose the right award, not the biggest one
Start with where your business is now and what you want recognition to do for you: win customers, attract staff, build credibility with investors. Then look for awards that fit your stage and sector. Check who the judges are, what the criteria say and who has won before. Be wary of anything where nobody seems to be judged at all, where everyone is a finalist, or where the real money is in tickets, tables and trophies rather than entry. A credible award will tell you exactly how it scores entries.
2. Answer the question that was actually asked
This is the most common reason good businesses lose. Judges score each answer against the criteria, so an impressive story that sidesteps the question earns very little. Read the question twice, write down what it is really asking for, and make sure your answer does exactly that before you add anything else.
3. Swap adjectives for evidence
"Innovative", "passionate" and "customer-focused" tell a judge nothing. Numbers, names and before-and-after moments tell them everything. How many customers? How much growth? What changed because of what you did? A single customer quote or a measurable result does more than a paragraph of claims.
4. Tell a story a judge will remember
Judges read a lot of entries. The ones that stand out have a clear shape: the problem, what you did about it and what happened next. Open with the moment that shows who you are, rather than a company history, and keep that thread running through every answer.
5. Keep a brag sheet all year
Most founders only think about awards when a deadline is a fortnight away, and by then the evidence is hard to find. Keep a simple running list of wins, results, customer feedback and milestones as they happen. When an entry opens, half the work is already done.
6. Give yourself time, and get a second pair of eyes
Start early, respect the word limit and ask someone who doesn't know your business to read the entry. If they can't explain back to you what makes you different, a judge won't be able to either.
7. Win or lose, ask for feedback
Not being shortlisted is information, not a verdict. Ask for judges' feedback where it's offered, and use it. Some of the businesses I work with win on their second or third attempt because we’ve tweaked entries and learned what the judges were looking for.
The real prize
An award is more than a trophy. It is third-party proof that your business is credible, and it gives you something to say on your website, to customers and to anyone deciding whether to work with you. You don't need to be extraordinary to earn it. You need to be clear, specific and prepared.
If you’d like to put this into practice, I’ve created a free companion workbook with the templates and trackers I use with my own clients.
These tips come from my first book, Enter to Win: Award-Winning Strategies for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, which takes you step by step through choosing the right awards, writing entries judges remember and turning one win into many.
