Sales can be tough work. Salespeople constantly put what they’re selling (and maybe even themselves) up for rejection, then deal with the daily challenges of staying motivated and balancing lots of demands on their time. That’s where motivational sales quotes can come in handy.
Although it’s rewarding, sales can feel like a marathon—and it requires just as much training, technique, and mental toughness. Sharing the right inspirational sales quotes can go a long way in keeping your team’s energy up and encouraging them to do their best every day.
We’ve gathered 100 of the best motivational quotes for your sales team to help you ignite your sales team’s performance, productivity, and purpose.
Whether you’re helping your team overcome the fear of failure or just starting Monday off on a positive note, motivation is critical.
It can be easy to get lost in the repetitive tasks involved in sales, like cold calling, email prospecting, and drawing up proposals. And with the possibility of rejection with every new lead, sales can even be emotionally draining.
But when your salespeople know why they’re doing what they’re doing, are sold on the product themselves, and stay motivated throughout the selling process, they can unlock even better sales performance.
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1. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” — Zig Ziglar
2. “Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.” — Norman Ralph Augustine
3. “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” — Mike Adenuga
4. “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”— Henry Ford
5. “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” — Ginni Rometty
6. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” — Maya Angelou
7. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
8. “Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.” — Abraham Lincoln
9. “There is always room at the top.”— Daniel Webster
10. “Be so good, they can’t ignore you.” — Steve Martin
11. “When people give me all these great compliments, I thank them, but still go back to my room and practice.” — B.B. King
12. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” — Theodore Roosevelt
13. “I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen Covey
14. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” — Beverly Sills
15. “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” — Arnold H. Glasow
16. “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”— Aristotle
17. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison
Sales prospecting quotes
18. “Stop selling. Start helping.” — Matt White
19. “The customer doesn’t care about features, rather they care about solving their problems.” — Trish Bertuzzi
20. “Sellers who listen to buyers carefully and then give them the missing ingredients—those are the ones who stand out.” — Deb Calvert
21. “Before LinkedIn and other social networks in the sales world, ABC stood for ‘Always Be Closing.’ Now it means ‘Always Be Connecting.’” — Jill Rowley
22. “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” — Esteé Lauder
23. “No matter how many customers you have, each is an individual. The day you start thinking of them as this amorphous ‘collection’ and stop thinking of them as people is the day you start going out of business.” — Dharmesh Shah
24. “All business is personal. Make your friends before you need them.” — Robert L. Johnson
25. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson
26. “There is no easy button in sales. Prospecting is hard, emotionally draining work, but it is the price you have to pay to earn a high income.” — Jeb Blount
27. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” — Ann Landers
28. “Every email is an opportunity to test a different benefit or angle.” — Heather R Morgan
29. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” — Bruce Lee
30. “The best salespeople wonder what it would be like to be in the other person’s shoes. They know they can’t play that game unless they continually strive to train themselves in how we as human beings communicate.” — Bob Phibbs
31. “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.” — Jocko Willink
32. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain
33. “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin
Sales quotes about closing
34. “Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.” — Jeffrey Gitomer
35. “Don’t celebrate closing a sale; celebrate opening a relationship.” — Patricia Fripp
36. “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.” — Zig Ziglar
37. “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.” — William Clement Stone
38. “You can’t turn a no to a yes without a maybe in between.” — Francis Underwood
39. “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” — Zig Ziglar
40. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein
41. “Pitches grow stagnant when you start to doubt.” — Mykola Tymkiv
42. “You earn the right to tell your story, when you start with theirs.” — Matt Heinz
43. “Always deliver more than expected.” — Larry Page
44. “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.” — Bob Burg
45. “In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” –Dr. Chet Karrass
46. “You don’t need a big close, as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customers when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout the presentation, and watch your results improve.” — Harvey MacKay
47. “People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.” — Robert Keith Leavitt
48. “Be personal. Be relevant. Be specific.” — Seth Godin
49. “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” — Bob Hooey
50. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” — Bobby Unser
51. “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” — Zig Ziglar
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52. “One of the very worst uses of time is to do something well that needs not to be done at all.” — Brian Tracy
53. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.” — Zig Ziglar
54. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
55. “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” — Stephen R. Covey
56. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn
57. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process, is its own reward.” — Amelia Earhart
58. “Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tonnes.” — Jim Rohn
59. “Never confuse activity with accomplishment.” — Lori Richardson
60. “All great achievements require time.” — Maya Angelou
61. “Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they are making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that is the difference.” — Lou Holtz
62. “The most unprofitable item ever manufactured is an excuse.” — John Mason
63. “You either suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” — Jim Rohn
64. “The hours ordinary people waste, extraordinary people leverage.” — Robin Sharma
65. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” — Jim Ryun
Sales quotes about rejection
66. “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
67. “I never lose. I either win or learn.” — Nelson Mandela
68. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” — David Brinkley
69. “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life.” — Jean Luc Picard
70. “Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had. We need to live the best that’s in us.” — Angela Bassett
71. “Success looks a lot like failure until the moment you break through the finish line.” — Dan Waldschmidt
72. “Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” — Wilma Rudolph
73. “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” — Erica Jong
74. “I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.” — Barbara Smith
75. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates
76. “Rejection is one of life’s most painful experiences, especially if you are used to being successful. It doesn’t have to be debilitating. Underneath rejection’s disappointment, there are lessons and growth awaiting us if we have the courage and humility to uncover them.” — Ron Carucci
Sales leadership quotes
77. “Don’t try to do everything by yourself, but try to connect with people and resources. Having that discipline and perseverance is really important.” — Chieu Cao
78. “The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” — Simon Sinek
79. “Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.” — Austin Kleon
80. “Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.” — Albert Einstein
81. “One way to encourage people to perform better is to let them take the lead in setting their own goals, rather than dictating the terms and manner of their development.” — Jonathan Farrington
82. “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” — Stephen R. Covey
83. “Taking initiative pays off. It is hard to visualize someone as a leader if she is always waiting to be told what to do.” — Sheryl Sandberg
84. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford
85. “It’s easier to manage by metrics (e.g., ‘How come you only did 15 demos this week?’) than to lead the whole person. Great sales leaders think of themselves not as a manager, but as a coach. A coach who develops each salesperson to their full potential.” — Kevin Kruse
86. “Practice is just as valuable as a sale. The sale will make you a living; the skill will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn
87. “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” — Alexandra K. Trenfor
88. “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” — Helen Keller
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89. “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” — Mark Twain
90. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm
91. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” — Sheryl Sandberg
92. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a really long time.” — Steve Jobs
93. “Confidence is 10 percent hard work and 90 percent delusion.” — Tina Fey
94. “Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.” — Christopher Morley
95. “Customers are like teeth. Ignore them and they’ll go away.” — Jerry Flanagan
96. “My sales objective is to get my prospects to look at my products the same way I look at bacon.” — Kurt Mortensen
97. “The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.” — John Madden
98. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
99. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar
100. “The difference between ‘try’ and ‘triumph’ is just a little ‘umph.’” — Marvin Philips
How can I motivate my sales team?
Besides sharing inspirational sales quotes, there are lots of other ways you can motivate your sales team. Check out a few of the most effective ideas for motivating a sales team:
Develop an effective sales strategy: Sales success often comes down to using the right strategy for nourishing leads. Creating a data-driven sales strategy helps you optimize your sales approach and win more sales. Plus it shows your team that you’re serious about helping them achieve their best, which can inspire them in turn.
Keep open communication: As a sales manager, your job is to ensure everyone on your team is performing at their best. That means maintaining open communication about strengths and weaknesses, wins and losses, and what each sales rep is thinking. Having regular check-ins with your team can make them feel heard, address their concerns, and keep them motivated to reach their goals.
Provide your team with expert guidance: Whether your sales rep is a newbie or a sales veteran, having some extra guidance at each step of the sales process can never hurt. Outlining the next best action for each stage of the pipeline takes some of the pressure off and helps reps focus on their most important work.
Use the right sales tools: Make your team’s lives easier by providing them with tools to improve their productivity and solve common sales challenges like remembering to follow up with leads. Look for customer relationship management (CRM), data enrichment, prospecting, email automation, and sales forecasting tools to help them get more done in their day.
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These motivational sales quotes can be just the thing to inspire personal growth, provide fresh ideas, motivate higher productivity, and embolden your sales team.
