Public recognition will act to spur people on
I am honoured to be appointed chairman of the 29th Distinguished Salesperson Award programme, one of the largest annual projects of the Sales and Marketing Executives Club of the Hong Kong Management Association.
The objective of our programme is to give recognition to outstanding salespeople for their distinguished achievements in salesmanship and to promote the image of sales and marketing as a prestigious profession.
Our theme for the programme this year is Victory Results from Quality Salesmanship.
Sales and marketing is an important function in all profit-making enterprises. It is vital to the success and survival of a business.
With the rapid advancement in technology and electronic communication, today's sales and marketing personnel are faced with grave competition and challenges from all fronts.
To be a successful salesperson, one has to be sensitive to the trend of the market and the changing needs of the customer.
He/she has to possess good and up-to-date product knowledge, sophisticated sales techniques, excellent presentation and communication skills, dedication and perseverance and the like.
These and other attributes are the components of quality salesmanship and are the keys to the success of individuals and enterprises.
This year, we have reduced the number of nominees from five to three from each company to encourage them to send their 'top of the top' to the competition.
We have received 78 nominations from 35 companies representing a wide range of industries. Among them, six were new participants, including Pearl and Dean, Federal Express and Ericcson.
The performance of the nominees were all outstanding and the competition was keen. Due to the high quality of the contestants, a total of 67 out of the 78 nominees passed all the criteria for the awards.
I take this opportunity to convey my warmest congratulations to the awardees and wish them a prosperous future. I am sure this public recognition will spur them on to a higher level of competence and professionalism in their careers.
My special thanks goes to our guest of honour, James Tien, chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and a Legislative Councillor, for officiating at our award presentation ceremony.
I am also grateful to the esteemed panel of judges for their valuable time and strenuous efforts in selecting the awardees from the group of top-quality contestants. Believe me, it is not an easy task.
I would also like to thank members of the organising committee for their hard work and devotion.
On behalf of the organising committee, I would like to express our deep appreciation to the Hongkong Bank for sponsoring the DSA programme for the third consecutive year, Raymond Tsang for his expert advice and counsel to the nominees on presentation skills, and last, but not least, all of you who are here with us tonight for supporting our programme and participating in our function. Thank you.
SYLVIA CHAN, Chairman, 29th DSA Organising Committee.
