What do you think is the most critical component of any successful business?
If we had to guess, we’d say a sales mission statement probably wasn’t going to be your first answer. But that might change.
A sales mission statement communicates the purpose and values of the sales department and guides decision-making and strategy development.
A well-written one provides clarity and focus to your sales team. It aligns their efforts with your company’s overall goals and objectives.
So how do you craft the perfect sales mission statement?
Join us as we provide a step-by-step guide that will help you communicate your vision and purpose, inspire your team, and thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.
What is a sales mission statement?
A sales mission statement defines the purpose, values, and goals of a business’s sales department.
It communicates the organization’s vision for its sales team while establishing a decision-making and strategy development framework.
A well-crafted statement needs to be concise, clear, and inspiring, outlining the company’s overall objectives and the specific role of the sales team in achieving them.
It should provide guidance and direction for the sales team, aligning their efforts with the broader goals and values of the organization.
The perfect sales mission statement can be a powerful tool to motivate and inspire your sales team, ensuring they remain focused and driven.
Why do you need a sales operations mission statement?
Your business probably has a mission statement already, so the idea of individual team mission statements may seem redundant, but in practice, they have several benefits.
At the core of every successful sales team is a solid sales operations mission statement.
It provides clarity, focus, and direction, guiding decision-making and inspiring the team to work toward a common goal.
It sets expectations and improves communication, promoting collaboration and accountability within your business.
Let’s dig a bit deeper into how it impacts your sales team:
1. It creates identity
By defining the values and purpose of the group, a mission statement can help differentiate the team from others in the organization and create a distinct identity.
Team members will feel a stronger sense of camaraderie and unity when they identify as a single entity. It creates a positive team culture, leading to higher job satisfaction and better performance.
A mission statement can also help you establish a unique selling proposition for the sales team.
Communicating the team’s values and purpose, a mission statement can help create a unique brand identity that sets the team apart from competitors.
This can help position the sales team as experts in their field and create a stronger connection with customers.
2. It develops purpose
With a concrete mission statement in front of them, your team will have an objective in their daily work—a purpose.
Having a sense of purpose means engaging more fully in your team’s goals and investing deeply in all tasks, no matter their value or outcome.
A great sales operation mission statement can motivate your team to engage, leading to higher productivity and better results.
Ideally, this will improve the overall culture of your sales team, from which you’ll see positive results for years to come.
3. It improves performance
With identity and purpose in order, performance improvement is sure to follow.
When team members understand the purpose of their work and feel unified under an identity, they’ll perform more effectively and cohesively.
They’ll be able to see the goal line in the mission statement and work towards reaching it.
What are the qualities of a good mission statement?
A solid mission statement can transform your sales team, but what exactly should be in it?
As a critical tool for setting direction and establishing a shared understanding of the organization’s or team’s purpose, a good statement should be convincing, attainable, and exceptional.
1. Convincing
Getting the best from your team means putting together a mission statement that is compelling and persuasive.
It should inspire and motivate team members, customers, partners — anyone who reads it.
Craft it in a way that resonates and convinces your team that their work is important and worth supporting.
A convincing mission statement can help build trust and credibility with stakeholders by clearly articulating what the organization or team stands for and what it hopes to achieve.
This can attract customers, investors, and talented employees with the same values and vision.
2. Attainable
A successful mission statement should be inspiring and motivating, but it should also be realistic and achievable.
The goals and objectives outlined should be challenging but within reach.
Setting attainable goals helps build momentum and confidence.
When team members see progress toward achieving the goals outlined in the mission statement, they’re more likely to stay motivated and engaged.
Team members may become discouraged and lose motivation if the goals are too lofty or unrealistic.
By setting challenging but attainable goals, your team can focus its attention on initiatives that are more likely to succeed.
3. Exceptional
Rare, better than average, superior.
Whichever words you choose to use, you want your team to feel as though they’re part of something special.
You want a mission statement that reflects their unique talents and drives them forward to achieve exceptional things.
The difference between vision statements and mission statements
Vision and mission statements are both critical components of an organization’s strategic planning process, but they serve different purposes and focus on different aspects of a business’s endeavors.
Let’s look at vision statements first.
These communicate the long-term aspirations and future state of an organization.
It is a broad and inspirational statement that paints a picture of a company’s ideal future.
A vision statement typically focuses on an organization’s ultimate goal or purpose and provides a guiding direction for its strategy and decision-making.
A mission statement communicates the organization’s purpose, values, and strategy.
It defines its immediate objective, explains what it does, and outlines the values that guide its decisions and actions.
It typically focuses on the present and defines an organization’s primary activities.
Both are vital for an organization’s strategic planning.
It’s like saying you want to go to California on vacation (vision statement) and then planning the itinerary (mission statement).
How to write a sales team mission statement
Writing a sales team mission statement is a critical step in defining the objective and direction of your organization, but it’s not easy to boil down an entire mission and team to a few sentences.
The following is a step-by-step guide to writing a mission statement for your sales team that’s perfect for your business:
1. Define your sales team’s purpose
Start by identifying the primary focus of your sales team.
What is its ultimate goal? Is it to generate revenue, acquire new customers, retain existing customers, or something else?
2. Find the answers to essential questions
What values guide your sales team’s actions and decisions?
Is your team focused on customer satisfaction, integrity, teamwork, or innovation?
Try to determine what your team does, why they do it, who they do it for, and what they hope to accomplish.
3. Start putting it together
Now you can start crafting a statement that unites these ideas. Have fun and get creative.
4. Make it pop
Once you have a few lines down, start playing with different words to make your mission statement stand out.
Avoid big and obscure words while embracing down-to-earth language that sells a picture of your team and what you do.
5. Get it out there
Once your mission statement looks good and satisfies all your needs, design a dedicated page on your website specifically for it and ensure it’s easy to find.
Make sure to include it in social media profiles, job postings, and press releases.
6. Review and refine
Once it’s out there, take the time every so often to review it and ensure it accurately reflects your sales team’s purpose, values, and target audience.
Refine the statement as needed to ensure it is clear, straightforward, and impactful.
Sales mission statement examples
Sometimes, seeing an example of what you’re trying to do can make all the difference.
Let’s look at some sales team mission statement examples that you can use for inspiration:
American Express
“Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.”
Credit card company American Express keeps it short and simple, focusing on its customers and the services provided.
Patagonia
“Build the best product, provide the best service and constantly improve everything we do. Examine our practices openly and honestly, learn from our mistakes and meet our commitments. Protect our home planet. Be just, equitable and antiracist as a company and in our community. Do it our way.”
Outdoor brand Patagonia’s core values statement is much longer than the norm, but they provide digestible phrases highlighting their core values.
Starbucks
“In everything we do, we are always dedicated to Our Mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
Coffee giant Starbucks breaks its mission statement down into a simple goal that perfectly encapsulates the experience of a cup of coffee.
The use of words like nurture evokes the sensation of drinking a hot coffee, reminding the reader of the core product.
YouTube
“Our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world. We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories.”
Video platform YouTube continues the tradition of inspirational language that focuses on the product as a driving community force.
Users watch videos on YouTube, and this is echoed in the use of words like “listen,” “share,” and “voice.”
There are countless mission statements out there; think of companies you admire and look at theirs for ideas.
Look at companies within your industry, but be careful not to copy — you want to create a unique mission statement for sales, not blend in with everything else out there.
Create your sales mission statement like a pro
Creating a sales department mission statement is critical in guiding your sales team toward a common goal that unites them as a team.
By following these pointers, you can create a mission statement reflecting your team’s purpose, values, and ambitions.
Remember that a well-crafted mission statement can motivate your sales team, helping them to attain greater success and surpass expectations.
With a solid sales mission statement under your belt, you can further unite your team with robust tools that allow them to work more effectively and creatively.
With PandaDoc for Sales, your team can create drag-and-drop documents and then share them with others in a matter of seconds.
Review and edit documents quickly, all in real-time, and keep your workflows moving.
PandaDoc can’t write your sales mission statement for you, but it will save you the time you need to crack on and craft one in no time.
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