What you say would be true if the award was from a valid organization say RSA. The problem is the award is from one of the award mill organizations. All you have to do is submit yourself with a nice fat check and low and behold ..you win People who make enterprise IT decisions are fully aware of this. Give that, these so called awards are actually a red flag.... So actually deter sales. If Bill does not know this at this stage of the game then , and there's no nice way to say it, just plain stupid.