Purpose

This exercise is ideal for sales staff in a particular organisation. Rather than telling staff what to do, the aim is to get them to come up with the general goal of their department and its role. The idea is that if they formulate a goal for their department, they are more committed to follow it than if a manager tells them. They can also understand the goal better since they make it themselves.

Objective

Define a mission statement for your department that can be framed and placed on a wall where everyone can see it every day.

What You Need

• A series of blank flipchart papers. You will need one per each pair.
• A copy of “Sales Mission Statement Handout” provided below for each delegate.

Setup

• Divide the delegates to pairs. If you have an odd number of delegates, use a group of 3.
• Distribute one flipchart to each group.
• Distribute a copy of “Sales Mission Statement Handout” to each delegate.
• Explain that their objective is to create a mission statement for their department. By the end of the exercise they must capture this in the flipchart. This flipchart would then be placed on a prominent wall in their department where everyone can see it every day. An example for the statement is shown above in the image. Delegates are free to include anything they want on their flipcharts including drawings.
• Ask the groups to consider the areas mentioned in “Sales Mission Statement Handout” while thinking about the statements.
• Allocate 15 minutes for this exercise.
• Bring everyone back together and ask them to share their statements.
• You can use the following two general options for this exercise:
  • Make it competitive. To make the exercise more interesting, you can create a bit of competition. For example you can say only three flipcharts will be placed on the wall. At the end of the exercise, all groups vote to select the best three flipcharts.
  • Make it collaborative. To make sure that all ideas are used and everyone is aware of them, you can go through a two stage exercise. In the first stage, groups define and capture the mission statements in their flipcharts. In the second stage, groups work together to create one final mission statement using all the important ideas from all the flipcharts. The discussions will help them to focus on what matters the most as not all ideas can be squeezed into one flipchart. This forces the delegates to be selective, accurate and use smaller number of words to elegantly capture the essence of their goals. This will make the goals more memorable and also helps to bind the group as they all work towards the creation of one common mission statement.
• Follow with a discussion.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

Activity: 15 min creating statements + 20 to 30 min second stage discussions = 35 to 45 minutes

Group Feedback: 2 minutes

Discussion

What do you think of your mission statements in comparison with those of others? Were you surprised about the statements of other groups? Did they think that priorities where different from yours? How would the mission statement help you next time when you are interacting with a customer? Is it important to have a departmental goal on sales? What made you to select the final statements?

Sales Mission Statement Handout

• What do you want your customers to think of you?
• What do you want your customer to tell their friends about you?
• How can you stand out from the competition and be remembered?
• How can you help each other to serve customers?
• How can your department help the company to achieve its goals and get close to its overall mission?
• What do you need to do to achieve your mission statement?
• How can you connect with your customers on a personal level to maximise their loyalty?
• What do you need to do so that your customers select your products and services over those of others?
• What do you want your customers to think when they hear about your brand?