The Making of Your Mission Statement

To start building your Mission Statement, you first need to answer three questions.1) Who is your target market?2) What does your target market want and need?3) How can you fulfill these wants and needs?The first identifies your ideal customer group or "Niche". The second is the "meat" of your mission statement. This what they want, that youre going to help them get.The third specifies the actual services that you perform, that must create a benefit fulfilling the first two questions. This is most important to remember; When you tell them what you do, say it (or write it) in words they understand fully. If you have to explain to them any part to make them understand what you have conveyed, you have already lost sight of your objective. Explain in the simplest of terms who you serve, what they need and how you can supply them with this need. Tell them what you do, not how you do it!Ask yourself; What adversity do all of your clients face that your service will help them with the most. This is your mission!If you have a pen and paper write these down. Later you can redo this, scrutinizing each word. You must write, rewrite and rewrite again. Sound familiar? When youre ready, plug the answer to these questions into this statement.

I/We provide .....
(1)..... in the necessity to fulfill ......
(2)...... by offering ......
(3)......This will be the first draft of your Mission Statement. Dont worry if your first draft seems weak, they usually do.

Part 1:Number 1 above should be easily, answered by you. If not then you need to re-think your whole marketing strategy. You must know who you are serving, before you can serve them. Another quick note here is the too well known word "Niche". Dont try to serve everybody. You need to focus your marketing strategy to one unique target. If others come along that you can serve that are outside of your target group, great! Serve them. But never lose focus of the target market.

Part 2: Do not assume that your target market values the same things you do.
More than likely in this stage, they do not.
You must know what your target customer wants and needs, not what you think they want, need or should have. If this is your approach, you will lose. You can fight to your last breath, trying to sell or market what you think they should have, but in the end they will always beat you.

Part 3. This is where I often see what I call "The Ego Statement". Business owners insist on using terms and technical talk that the normal client will never understand. If you think that youre impressing them.....wrong. You are confusing them and insulting them by making them feel inadequate. Make it clear to the reader what they will get from your service or product. What benefits will they gain from your product?

Last Minute Tip:Do not confuse marketing and mission statements with direct advertising.
I myself have used and still use "Power Words" for direct advertising, but when writing your missions statement, dont bother.

This is not a split second decision making direct advertising. For those of you that are interested, you can find a list of some of the best at http://www.MakingProfit.com/powerwords.shtml but dont use them here.

Keep working on your mission statement until it clicks. Then reread it once in awhile to make sure it still clicks. If it doesnt update and rewrite it until it does again.

About the Author

Wild Bill
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