Over the 5 years Learning Pool has been trading we’ve entered a few – won some & lost some – but is it worth the time & effort that it takes?

Like most things in life, the answer is probably “it depends”...which I know isn’t a great deal of help to you if you’re reading this blog to find out.  The thing is that awards cover a huge spectrum.  At one end are the “straightforward” awards – for example, the Deloitte Fast 50 technology awards.  It costs nothing to enter, you don’t have to write an essay or deliver a presentation, you don’t have to be a Deloitte customer, it’s up to you if you want to buy a few more places at the Awards dinner but there’s no pressure.  All you have to do is make your published financial information available and a calculation is performed of your revenue growth over a defined period of time.  The 50 companies with the highest growth are then ranked with the winner being the company whose revenue has grown by the biggest percentage.  It’s black & white and the numbers don’t lie.  We like this one & have been the Rising Star winners in Ireland for the past two years.

At the other end of the spectrum are the much less clear & transparent “industry” awards such as those run by e-Learning Age magazine.  I don’t know this is the case but from our perspective winning appears to be all about who you know in the industry and how much money you’ve spent with the magazine in sponsorship and advertising – as I say – only my own opinion from Learning Pool’s experience.  We’ve entered twice and although shortlisted each time have won nothing.  The winners are judged behind closed doors by a panel of industry “experts” – most of whom have their own e-learning companies and are therefore in direct competition with many of the entrants.  A more cynical person may conclude that everyone who enters gets shortlisted so as they’ll fork out for a very expensive table at the Awards dinner.  I shouldn’t scoff so – at least our last experience of this farce served to remind us that Learning Pool’s industry is very much the public sector and not e-learning.

Somewhere in the mix lies the business “competitions” – usually for seedcorn monies aimed at new or fast growing start-ups.  These require a detailed business plan, a significant time commitment and a number of presentations over a period of time.  The one & only time Learning Pool entered the Intertrade Ireland seedcorn competition (in 2008) we did well and won the Northern Ireland heat (we’re very proud of our trophy and that’s it in the photograph).  We were pipped to the post by resellers of 3D printers...I’ll say no more but c’est la vie.  This competition is definitely worthwhile for new start-ups, we learned a lot in the process and I would recommend it for any Irish companies thinking about entering.

In the future Learning Pool will continue to enter the Deloitte Fast 50 but we’ll probably be a bit more discerning about other awards and only enter in partnership with our customers to showcase their projects and achievements.

In summary, I don’t know whether entering awards is worth it or not – and I’ll be interested to hear your views on this.  Awards dinners are a fun night out for your team, especially if you win, but weigh up how much time and energy entering will take up and think about whether or not you would be better off, certainly as a start-up business, investing that resource into making sales.

I’m sitting here this Saturday afternoon wondering why we are struggling so hard to find good business development resource to join our Learning Pool dream team?  Sam Barbee is Learning Pool’s Head of Sales.  That’s him in the photo.  He hails originally from Orange County in California but like so many of his countrymen, he fell under the spell of an Irish colleen and now lives in Derry in the sunny NW of Ireland – California’s loss but Learning Pool’s gain as Sam is a 100% excellent Head of Sales.  He’s easy going but hard working, straight talking but fair.  He makes his targets and doesn’t destroy any of his colleagues getting there.  He’s honest & trustworthy and he’s never let me down.  You can check out what he says about working at Learning Pool here http://www.learningpool.com/jobcasts/

Learning Pool is a company that’s really going places.  Nearly 5 years old we’ve won the Deloitte Rising Star in both 2009 & 2010 (this award really counts as it’s all about achieving your numbers and has nothing to do with how much you’ve spent that year on sponsorship or advertising like many other awards).  Our fantastic team has grown to just over 50 people, all of us focused on success, providing customer delight, building a fabulous business and having a lot of fun on the way through.

Sam and I have been interviewing prospective business development executives now for about 9 months.  We must have interviewed 50 people in person and telephone interviewed a whole lot more.  We haven’t found anyone yet that we’ve wanted to bring into our team.  Admittedly we’re quite fussy.  Over the years at Learning Pool we’ve learned that it really is better to have a hole than an asshole when it comes to building your team.  Bringing the wrong people in satisfies a short term need but the long term fallout is painful to repair and recover from.  We’re in a fortunate position where we have a very engaged customer base and an active online community that’s taken a lot of time and hard work to build.  Our team has very personal relationships with our public sector customers and we want to protect those to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.

So what are we looking for:

·         Someone who’s confident but not arrogant, persistent but not pushy, a person who believes in themselves & their own ability and who is motivated to get up early in the morning & go out & get ‘em

·         A completer finisher who demonstrates the necessary attention to detail but never takes their eye off the big picture

·         People who love working in sales and the challenges that brings; we want a career sales exec who has a successful track record – not someone that wants to be in sales while they wait for something “better” to come along

·         Someone who cares about their colleagues, their customers and the company – not someone that tramples on the post on their way out

·         Someone that understands the UK public sector and its unique challenges – or is prepared to learn

·         A person that thinks and has ideas

·         Someone who isn’t afraid to discuss money with customers or be responsible for delivering a target

·         A person who really wants to be part of something great and who isn’t fazed by having the world as their oyster – at Learning Pool we talk a lot about being at Opportunity Central.

So – if you’re interested or know someone else that might be – there’s a job spec at this link here http://www.learningpool.com/files/2010/10/business-development-exec-Oct2010.pdf

Comments welcome as always.