The Distinguished Salesperson Award Programme (DSA Programme), now in its 55th year in the territory, is an international project intended to bring public recognition to outstanding sales personnel.

The Programme, originally launched in the United States in 1950, is organized annually in Hong Kong under the sponsorship of the Sales and Marketing Executives Club of The Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA), in conjunction with Sales and Marketing Executives International of New York (SMEI). The Programme and its awards are now being recognized worldwide by sales professionals as the standard of excellence in selling.

The Distinguished Salesperson Award (DSA) is judged independently by a group of high-standing professionals spanning different fields.

The Programme's objectives are:

1. To give due recognition to successful salespersons for their achievements;
2. To help improve the quality of salesmanship; and
3. To build up the image of selling and marketing as a prestigious profession.

The Programme benefits companies in the following aspects:

1. Adds dignity and strength to individual companies' programmes of developing professional salesmanship;
2. Strengthens the company’s reputation within the industry and in the community at large;
3. Effectively supplements a company's incentive scheme; and
4. Provides a high-profile, positive image for the company and its product or service via
   coverage in the major Chinese and English language press.

The Programme offers support to salespersons:

1. Gains recognition from peers in the sales profession and the business community to their sales efforts;
2. Addresses the salesperson's need for a sense of importance, fulfillment, and social recognition;
3. Provides a valuable experience-sharing occasion;
4. Motivates salespersons to keep up their outstanding sales efforts;
5. Fun, exciting and enriching; and
6. The winners will be allowed to use the award logo on their stationery, promotional literature and in advertising.

THE OUTSTANDING YOUNG SALESPERSON AWARD

The Outstanding Young Salesperson Award (OYSA) was first introduced in 1985 (The International Youth Year). As part of the Distinguished Salesperson Award Programme, OYSA gives recognition to the most promising young salespersons. It represents the organizer's effort to give encouragement to up and coming potential young salespersons aged 25 or below.

What is more important, OYSA is organized with the belief that young people of this generation, better educated and informed, will influence our society in a very significant way and they deserve unfaltering attention.

There are two categories for the Awards:

• Distinguished Salesperson Award
• Outstanding Young Salesperson Award

Winners of the Distinguished Salesperson Award and the Outstanding Young Salesperson Award will enjoy the following benefits and recognitions:

• HKMA Associate Membership status. The membership fee for the first year will be waived; and
• Membership at the HKMA Sales and Marketing Executives Club. The membership fee for the first year will be waived.