Can you tell me simply what your company stands for? It’s a question that a lot of people have trouble answering. Your company exists for a purpose, and that purpose is not to make money or produce a specific product. It has a broader problem it’s trying to solve, or at least it should if you want to have long term success. What I find with a number of the clients I work with is that they can’t simply state that mission. They’ve always got a convoluted, detail-oriented, mixed-message explanation that would vary if you talked to different decision makers in the same company. Quite frankly, if you fall in to that category of people, that’s hurting your brand.
The simple statement of your company’s purpose is known as a mission statement. It is the mission that your company has set on with its product and service offerings. It’s an affirmative statement of the problem your company is out to solve. For example, Visceral Concepts’ mission statement is, very simply, “We will help small businesses stand out in the crowd, causing them to grow.” That’s it. No fluff, just simple.
To many, that seems a little oversimplified. To us, that’s the core of what we do. We do it through marketing, branding, IT support, and personnel training. We want to allow small businesses the ability to express just how different they are among their competition. We want them to be seen as something more than just another one of their type. I could go into the reasons we feel that way and what we hope to accomplish as we live out our mission, but that’s our mission.
Your company needs to have a similar understanding of its mission. Without that understanding, your company is hurting its brand. It can’t be identified properly. This blog fits directly in to our mission because if I can make your company aware of its lack of mission statement, I can effectively help you correct that, and you will begin to stand out. The core of our ability to live out our mission begins with your company’s mission.
When we help our clients identify their mission statement, we can begin to help them express their personality as a business. Now, that’s a lot of personification for an entity, but you have to understand that’s what we do.
So, let me share with you a little about a mission statement, because I think that will help. Part of the process of working with a new client is for me to find out their mission statement. A number of times, I get a generic statement of intention. That’s not a mission statement. A statement of intention usually goes something along the lines of “We’re a small energized team that works to create great value to our clients.” That’s a real statement of intention from one of my recent clients. The problem is that this statement could be literally applied to any business. It’s so dramatically vague that it doesn’t define why they exist.
That’s it. No fluff, just simple.
A mission statement is much more specific. How do you intend to deliver that value? In what area of business do you want to deliver that value? We know you’re an energized team. That’s a buzz phrase. That doesn’t identify who you are. A mission statement breaks in to simplistic pieces. Who are you? (We are Visceral Concepts) What do you want to do? (We want to cause small businesses to stand out.) Why do you want to do it? (We believe it will help them grow.) Three. Simple. Pieces.
If your mission statement sounds like the example statement of intention above, you need to strongly consider what problem your company is trying to solve and what will happen if you solve it. That’s the gold you’re looking for.
Now, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do. I’m going to re-release our incredibly popular eBook, The Green Tie Effect. Get it by entering your email address below. Download it, read it, and follow the action steps contained within to create your mission statement the right way so you can begin to develop your brand properly and allow your company to express itself properly.
