Sales

How to Create a Sales Mission Statement

If your company doesn’t have a clear and strategic Mission Statement, you have an identity crisis on your hands. Without these statements, your business doesn’t have a clear direction or core values to help guide it into the future.

It may seem like some marketing exercise, but in reality organizations with clear Mission and Vision statements that align with a strategic plan outperform those without, according to a study by Bain and Company. These core statements can help define not only the future of your company, but also the future of your sales team – including who you hire, how fast you grow sales, and more. Without defining your mission (and vision too), you’re missing out on important opportunities to build a strong corporate identity and culture.

Create an Identity

Many companies have a difficult time differentiating between a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement. Both are vital, but they outline different aspects of your business – the present and the future.

A Mission Statement is usually a more straightforward and simple explanation of what your organization (or sales organization in your case) does right now, how it does it, and who it’s target customers are. This purpose-driven statement offers a simpler, shorter-term definition of your company, focused on current and practical terms. Your employees should all be able to quickly and easily memorize the mission, and will probably use it to explain to friends and family what they do at work each day.

In contrast, a Vision Statement is more complex, and focuses on the long-term and aspirational goals of your company. Your company’s Vision Statement should:

  • Clearly define the future of your organization, and what the business hopes to accomplish in broad terms in the coming 5 to 10 years.
  • Create an aspirational goal for employees to work towards collectively, aligning the company overall to common ideals.
  • Offer inspiration for employees, centered around the values and beliefs that form the foundation of the business.

The Sales Mission

In addition to your whole company having a clear Mission Statement, your sales team should also carve out their own goals within the company. This goes beyond what many businesses will do, but creating a sales mission can affect positive change. It aligns and brings the team together, making them passionate about who you are and where your team wants to go. It will also help you in recruiting sales reps that are a good culture fit, creating team camaraderie and even helping your team re-focus on important goals.

We’ve spent time seriously thinking about the mission statement for our sales team and I thought I would share what we came up with. The InsightSquared Sales Team Mission Statement is:

“The InsightSquared Sales Team is a group of smart, self-motivated, goal-oriented and highly skilled sales professionals who work harder than others, hold themselves accountable, put the team ahead of themselves. Our philosophy is “Do your job!” to achieve your goal. We embrace coaching, we thrive on feedback, and we strive for excellence. We think. We act. We win.”

I think this statement is incredibly powerful for our team. It tells you not just who we are, but who we’d like to be as we continue to grow. Each time we hire a new rep, these are the qualities we’re looking for – someone who is goal-oriented, smart and hard-working.  I will also share our Sales Vision Statement with you in a future blog post.

Incorporate Strategy

If you write your own company’s Sales Mission Statement, post it on your website, and then forget about it – you may as well have just skipped the whole process. This Mission is useless unless you act on it. You must incorporate your Mission (and Vision) into your overall sales strategy and day-to-day goals. When we work at InsightSquared, we’re always thinking about how we can continue to improve and live up to the goals we’ve set for ourselves.

 

Think your sales team is ready to create a Sales Mission Statement? Consider all of these important factors as you write your own unique statement – set goals, define your purpose, and align it all with your larger sales strategy. With the right sales mission, you can motivate your team and help them build sales success.