2. Keep it simple, but let them make it personal

Bluewolf's marketing strategy has been to focus its "pack" (the company's internal moniker for employees) on certain key words that best express its go-to-market philosophy. One you'll hear often is "customer-obsessed," which refers both to the culture that the company seeks to nurture in its workforce ad to the Salesforce ecosystem solutions and services that it happens to sell to its clients, Sklar said.

But the company stops short of requiring "robotic" parroting of scripts. "You want to let their personal stories comes across," she said. "That's why you hired them, that's what good sales people do."

3. Relate your mission to the customer

Robert Laurenzo, executive vice president of sales for Computer Design and Integration (CDI), a data center integration services firm in Teterboro, N.J., is also leery of prescribing exactly what to say. "I'm personally not a big proponent of the big 'elevator pitch', " he said. "How much can you tell them about what your company does in a short period of time?"

CDI's focus is on helping its sales team understand how to tailor its mantra — "using technology to solve complex business challenges" — based on who is sitting on the other side of a meeting table. It has developed specific messaging based on the role of the prospect, and the team prepares extensively ahead of time.

"I find that our customers don't care what our mission statement is, they would rather know that we know their mission statement and have ideas about how to help them deliver on it," Laurenzo said.