For almost a decade, Midwest Machinery Saint Louis and Marrs Logistics have been holding an annual chili cook-off.

This year’s event was held on October 26 and had 12 contestants. Among them, sales engineers, project managers, inside sales, marketing, customer service, and our logistics team committed to preparing their best chili in an attempt to win a trophy and a prize.

The days that preceded the event were full of expectation. Michelle May, the Marrs Operations Manager, is well-known in the office for being “almost unbeatable”, and motivating our team to try to beat her was the central theme of our internal campaign.

Our goal was to have the highest number of people registering as contestants, and we knew that the best way of engaging our sales team was through setting up a challenge. Bring a challenge to our team and they will meet and exceed your expectations. Therefore, we came up with the headline “so you think you can beat her.”

The results were amazing. The entire sales team signed-up for the event, and they were determined to win.

After rating all the 12 recipes on different categories such as color, texture, visual, smell and taste, Jeff Henderson, our sales manager, won the prize for the best chili in our company, for his own surprise (which he will never admit!).

Second place was taken by another sales engineer, this time Eric Eyler.

Michelle May got third place, and then she revealed: “I put way too much beer this time!”

Michelle, now we know your secret ingredient and why you keep being a winner!

“Cheers” to another successful event!