As noted salesman and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar put it: “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
In your efforts to keep spirits high, something as simple as an inspirational sales quote is sometimes all a sales rep needs to refocus their energy.
Whether you want to inspire your team to improve key performance metrics or overcome the fear of rejection and make crucial sales calls, positive quotes for the day are here to help.
In this article, we’ll share the best motivational quotes on topics including sales and business, as well as inspirational quotes you can use to help your team improve performance and close deals.
Motivational sales quotes
The best quotes about sales when it comes to motivating a sales team touch on the tactics behind sales success, the importance of customer satisfaction and how you perceive your audience.
“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey
“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash
5. “90 percent of selling is conviction and 10 percent is persuasion.” – Shiv Khera“You have to drop your sales mentality and start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.” – Jill Konrath
6. “I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation.” – Bo Bennett
7. “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin
8. “Companies should be selling ideas more than benefits. Sell Ideas. Not stuff.” – Aaron Ross
9. “Make a customer, not a sale.” – Katherine Barchetti
10. “In sales, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.” – Bo Bennett
11. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
12. “A-B-C. Always Be Closing.” – Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross
13. “You’re only as good as your last sale, so you put your all into something and just hope that from that you can get your next job.” –Josh Peck
15. “Honest and transparent content is the best sales tool in the world. Period.” – Marcus Sheridan
16. “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.” – William Clement Stone
17. “The sales compensation plan is Batman, the sales contest is Robin.” – Mark Roberge
18. “To me, job titles don’t matter. Everyone is in sales. It’s the only way we stay in business.” – Harvey Mackay
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Motivational business quotes
Finding it hard at work to keep going? Sale quotes that relate to your situation can help. Here are some inspirational quotes about work, some positive quotes for work scenarios, funny sales quotes with inspirational messages and quotes to excite you and your team.
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.” – Thomas Edison
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Christopher McDougall
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
6. “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
7. “Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser
8. “80% of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen
9. “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” – Wayne Gretzky
10. “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn
11. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin
12. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
13. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
15. “Focus on being productive instead of being busy.” – Tim Ferriss
16. “We’re not here to take part, we’re here to take over.” – Conor McGregor
17. “By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” – Robert Frost
18. “Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.” – Warren Buffett
19. “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln
20. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs
21. “Success looks a lot like failure up until the moment you break through the finish line.” – Dan Waldschmidt
22. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
24. “Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.” – Brian Tracy
25. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller
26. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg
27. “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes
28. “Be so good, they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin
General motivational quotes
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” – Og Mandino
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
“Become the person who would attract the results you seek.” – Jim Cathcart
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Some men see things as they are and ask why … I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” – Robert Kennedy
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
“If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be human, you’d be a game show host.” – Gabriel Heather
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert Schuller
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Success is the culmination of failures, mistakes, false starts, confusion, and the determination to keep going anyway.” – Nick Gleason
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
27. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden
28. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
29. “Today is always the most productive day of your week.” – Mark Hunter
Short motivation quotes to cut to the chase
Sometimes less is more. Here are five short motivational sales enablement quotes for workmates and reports.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there” – Theodore Roosevelt
“It hurt because it mattered.” – John Green
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
“Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.” – Anne Lamott
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson
Motivational quotes for every day of the week
Professionals in most fields have challenging weeks and sales is no exception. Starting each day with some fresh inspiration can help your team to stay positive and keep performing well.
Save the table of positive quotes for the day below for seven easily accessible motivation boosts throughout the week.
Monday motivational quote for work | “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, |
Tuesday motivational quote for work | “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. |
Wednesday motivational quote for work | “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali |
Thursday motivational quote for work | “You may not control all the events that |
Friday motivational quote for work | “It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak, and another to hear.” – Henry David Thoreau |
Saturday motivational quote for work | “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” – Dolly Parton |
Sunday motivational quote for work | “Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.” – Amelia Earhart |
If you find some quotes resonate with you and your team while others miss the mark, consider creating a personalized quote calendar for the week or month, or “business quote of the day” reminder in your diary. For more sales motivation tips read our article.
10 inspirational sales quotes from Zig Ziglar, the king of sales quotes
No collection of motivational sales quotes would be complete without contributions from Zig Ziglar. The top-performing salesman devoted a big part of his career to sales training and has inspired generations of sales professionals.
We opened the article with an old favorite quote from Ziglar. Here are 10 more of our top sales motivational quotes of the day and thoughts from this sales legend.
“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
“For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”
“Every choice you make has an end result.”
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
“It’s easier to explain price once than to apologize for quality forever.”
“Remember that failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”
“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.”
“If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”
“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”
7 inspirational quotes for sales teams
“Keep yourself positive, cheerful and goal-oriented. Sales success is 80% attitude and 20% aptitude.” – Brian Tracy
“The questions you ask are more important that the things you could ever say.” – Thomas Freese
“Growth and comfort do not coexist.” – Ginni Rometty
“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
“Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.” – Ava DuVernay
“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.” – Les Brown
Final thoughts
Sometimes a good sales rep just needs a little motivation throughout the sales process. A great sales manager will develop an effective sales strategy that includes encouraging sales team members to trust their skills and break out of their comfort zones.
Sharing success quotes and quotes about sales in regular emails can help your team start every new day on a positive note and ultimately become better sales performers. Whether you need motivational car sales quotes, home services quotes, retail quotes or even B2B inspirational quotes, most are universal, but you can customize them as you see fit!
