English (US)
Português (BR)
Čeština
Deutsch
Eesti
Español (España)
Español (América Latina)
Français
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
Japanese (日本語)
Korean (한국어)
Latviešu valoda
Nederlands
Norsk
Polski
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
Chinese (繁體中文)
Log in

102 sales motivational quotes to inspire your sales team

sales motivational quotes
Topics
Motivational sales quotes
Motivational business quotes
General motivational quotes
Motivational quotes for every day of the week
10 inspirational sales quotes from Zig Ziglar, the king of sales quotes
7 inspirational quotes for sales teams
Final thoughts

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, there’s a positive quote 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

  1. “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey

  2. “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh

  3. “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

"​​Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win." - Jeffrey Gitomer


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

"You don't compete on price. You compete on relationships" - Patricia Fripp


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

Want to Learn How to Influence Your Prospect’s Buying Decisions?

Get inside the head of your customers and take advantage of consumer psychology with this Psychological Selling Guide.


Motivational business quotes

  1. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

  2. “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.” – Thomas Edison

  3. “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

  4. “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers

"For a leader, getting results is more important than getting credit." - Bob Burg


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

“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers

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

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone


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

  1. “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi

  2. “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

  3. “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” – Og Mandino

  4. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

  5. “Become the person who would attract the results you seek.” – Jim Cathcart

  6. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

  7. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra

  8. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden

  9. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

  10. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill

  11. “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins

  12. “Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

  13. “Some men see things as they are and ask why … I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” – Robert Kennedy

  14. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

  15. “If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be human, you’d be a game show host.” – Gabriel Heather

  16. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

  17. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert Schuller

  18. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

  19. “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

  20. “Success is the culmination of failures, mistakes, false starts, confusion, and the determination to keep going anyway.” – Nick Gleason

  21. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson

  22. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

  23. “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

  24. “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

  25. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley


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


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 below for seven easily accessible motivation boosts throughout the week.

Monday motivational quote for work

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tuesday motivational quote for work

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail.
Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey

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
happen to you, but you can decide not
to be reduced by them.”– Maya Angelou

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. Print and display it on your desk or set reminders in a calendar so that quotes appear as mobile notifications each morning.


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 sakes motivational quotes and thoughts from this sales legend.

  1. “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.”

  2. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

  3. “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”

  4. “Every choice you make has an end result.”

  5. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

  6. “It’s easier to explain price once than to apologize for quality forever.”

  7. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”

  8. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.”

  9. “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

  10. “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

  1. “Keep yourself positive, cheerful and goal-oriented. Sales success is 80% attitude and 20% aptitude.” – Brian Tracy

  2. “The questions you ask are more important that the things you could ever say.” – Thomas Freese

  3. “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” – Ginni Rometty

  4. “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

  5. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman

  6. “Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.” – Ava DuVernay

  7. “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.

Get organized with your free sales pipeline excel template

Want to simplify the way you manage sales? Download this free sales pipeline template and test it out now.

Driving business growth