For salespeople, rejection is nothing new – but facing rejection repeatedly can discourage even the sunniest of individuals. After all, for every deal that you close successfully, there will be countless unopened and unanswered emails or messages.
But here’s the deal – failure really is the first step to success. The key is to never give up, never look back and always keep moving forward. After all, think to the most inspirational sales leader you know of, dig a little deeper into their history and you’ll see how many rejections they’ve encountered over the course of their career.
And so, the next time you’re feeling dejected and disillusioned – especially with the world what it is nowadays – read through our list of 101 sales motivation quotes. Remember, reading through the words of people who’ve been where you are is one of the best ways to climb out of your slump.
Sales Motivation Quotes – There’s One For Everyone
1 – “Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.” – Thomas J. Watson Jr
2 – “Don’t sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do.” – Ben Feldman
3 – “Don’t sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do.” – Ben Feldman
4 – “Today is always the most productive day of your week.” – Mark Hunter
5 – “Treat objections as requests for further information.” – Brian Tracy
6 – “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
7 – “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine
8 – “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
9 – “Don’t be afraid to change the model.” – Reed Hastings
10 – “Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.” – Siva Devaki
11 – “You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” – Andy Warhol
12 – “Establishing trust is better than any sales technique.” – Mike Puglia
13 – “I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.” – Gustav Mahler
14 – “Do you feel good in your role? If yes, that’s the perfect time for you to experiment with something new, to get out of your comfort zone.” – Pierre Nanterme
15 – “Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
16 – “True productivity comes from allowing yourself to make mistakes. Do so, and you’ll succeed more often than any ten perfectionists.” – Laura Stack
17 – “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” – Seth Godin
18 – “Numbers alone won’t fix anything. But they will help you identify where the problem is.” – Steli Efti
19 – “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs
20 – “Buyers do business with you, not with your company and not with your technology.” – Joanne Black
21 – “The customer doesn’t care about features – they care about solving their problems.” – Trish Bertuzzi
22 – “Selling through social channels is the closest thing to being a fly on the wall in your customers, prospects and competitors’ world.” – Jim Keenan
23 – “May the Force be with you’ is charming but it’s not important. What’s important is that you become the Force – for yourself and perhaps for other people.” – Harrison Ford
24 – “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
25 – “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
26 – “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
27 – “Customers don’t care at all whether you close the deal or not. They care about improving their business.” – Aaron Ross
28 – “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
29 – “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” – Richard Branson
30 – “A Goal Is A Dream With A Deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
31 – “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden
32 – “Sales is the most important aspect of a company, which in turn is about how well you treat your customer and stay ahead of your customer’s requirements.” – Mark Cuban
33 – “Some men see things as they are and ask why … I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” – Robert Kennedy
34 – “Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life.” – Alan Simpson
35 – “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James
36 – “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg
37 – “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” – Estée Lauder
Read: A Sales Call Example And The Surprising Result
38 – “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110% all the time.” – Don Zimmer
39 – “Great things are done by a series of small things done together.” – Vincent van Gogh
40 – “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
41 – “Value the relationship more than the quota.” – Jeff Gitomer
42 – “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
43 – “Develop and attitude of gratitude. say ‘thank you’ to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.” – Brian Tracy
44 – “Practice is just as valuable as a sale. The sale will make you a living; the skill will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn
45 – “If your sales have tanked, maybe the issue is not your lack of sales skills, but you are rushing the knowing and trusting aspects of the buying process.” – Leanne Hoagland-Smith
46 – “Sales is an outcome, not a goal. It’s a function of doing numerous things right, starting from the moment you target a potential prospect until you finalize the deal.” – Jill Konrath
47 – “To be seen as a credible and trusted advisor, every touch you have with a customer should provide added value.” – Sharon Gillenwater
48 – “Selling is essentially a transference of feelings.” – Zig Ziglar
49 – “Failure is a great teacher and, if you are open to it, every mistake has a lesson to offer.” – Oprah Winfrey
50 – “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney
51 – “Ninety percent of selling is conviction and 10 percent is persuasion.” – Shiv Khera
52 – “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
53 – “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
54 – “True nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway
55 – “The best salespeople know that their expertise can become their enemy in selling.” – Mike Bosworth
56 – “Sellers who listen to buyers carefully and then give them the missing ingredients – those are the ones who stand out.” – Deb Calvert
57 – “Before LinkedIn and other social networks, in the sales world, ABC stood for Always Be Closing. Now it means Always Be Connecting.” – Jill Rowley
58 – “Engaging people is about meeting their needs – not yours.” – Tony Robbins
59 – “When a team takes ownership of its problem, the problem gets solved.” – Jocko Willink
60 – “A salesperson’s ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies.” – Ron Willingham
61 – “When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.” – Walter Payton
62 – “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” – David Brinkley
63 – “You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” – Andy Warhol
64 – “Start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.” – Jill Konrath
65 – “Every choice you make has an end result.” – Zig Ziglar
66 – “Ignore the naysayers. Really the only option is, head down and focus on the job.” – Chris Pine
67 – “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
68 – “Fortune favors the bold.” – Virgil
69 – “Sometimes the most influential thing we can do is listen.” – Bob Burg
70 – “Every email is an opportunity to test a different benefit or angle.” – Heather R Morgan
Read: Email Follow Up Templates And Real Examples
71 – “You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.” – Tim Cook
72 – “Talking isn’t selling and selling isn’t closing.” – Steli Efti
73 – “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert Schuller
74 – “Desperation sometimes drives innovation.” – Dara Khosrowshahi
75 – “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” – Ginni Rometty
76 – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
77 – “Poor firms ignore their competitors; average firms copy their competitors; winning firms lead their competitors.” – Philip Kotler
78 – “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
79 – “I hated every minute of training, but I thought to myself, ‘Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” – Muhammad Ali
80 – “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
81 – “Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it’s just a job, and life is too short for that.” – Tim Cook
82 – “Nobody likes to be sold to, but everyone likes to buy.” – Earl Taylor
83 – “One of the best predictors of ultimate success … isn’t natural talent or even industry expertise, but how you explain your failures and rejections.” – Daniel H. Pink,
84 – “No amount of pre-call planning is going to help close business if you aren’t able to ask for what you need in order to conduct business. It’s a classic case of working on the wrong end of the problem.” – Colleen Stanley
85 – “80% of prospects who eventually buy are originally marked as bad leads. Don’t totally count them out.” – Atri Chatterjee
86 – “Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.” – Unknown
87 – “Your expertise has tremendous value. You are offering your expertise, not asking to be hired.” – Leah Neaderthal
88 – “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
89 – “Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” – Zig Ziglar
90 – “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
91 – “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
92 – “It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp
93 – “It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” – Mark Hunter
94 – “For every sale you miss because you were too enthusiastic, you’ll miss a hundred because you weren’t enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar
95 – “Prospecting – find the man with the problem.” – Ben Friedman
96 – “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.” – Bill Cosby
97 – “Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
98 – “[Sales and marketing] have to start talking to each other. They’ve got to stop spilling each other’s beers.” – Ann Handley
99 – “I think the biggest mistake that salespeople make today is that they try to pretend they’re not salespeople.” – Irreverent Sales Girl
100 – “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
101 – “I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘How far can I push the company forward in the next 24 hours?’” – Leah Busque
Remember…
The most important thing is to never give up. No matter what obstacle you’re currently facing, there is a solution that you haven’t thought of just yet.
We certainly hope that our sales motivation quotes have inspired you to keep striving for bigger and better things!
